Posted on 01/26/2004 4:49:51 AM PST by PeaceCorpsGuy
Still No Justice for Rachel Corrie - Smith --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, January 23 2004 @ 12:57 PM EST
"It is an insult to the human heart to have to force government officials to do their jobs properly while digesting the fact your child has been brutally killed .."
By WENDY SMITH
Tom Hurndall, a 22-year-old British peace activist, died last week in a London hospital. He was shot in the head by Israeli sniper fire nine months ago while shepherding Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip out of the line of fire. He had been in a coma since his injury. Hours before Hurndall died, the soldier who shot him was charged with aggravated assault. The charge is now likely to be revised to manslaughter or murder; British police are participating in an official investigation of his death.
Rachel Corrie from Olympia was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Rafah refugee camp about a month before Hurndall was shot there. Like Hurndall, Corrie was a volunteer with the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement to End the Occupation of Palestine (ISM). Like Hurndall, she was killed by an identifiable Israeli soldier. As in Hurndall's case, the Israeli government initially released a report on Corrie's killing, stating that nobody connected with the Israeli military was culpable and that further investigation was not required.
So, why has Hurndall's killer been charged when nothing has happened to Corrie's killer?
According to the Hurndall family, the only reason the soldier who shot him has been charged is because of pressure applied by the family. Hurndall's father is an attorney. He went to Rafah shortly after the shooting and compiled an extensive dossier of eyewitness affidavits, forensics reports, photographs and other relevant information. This dossier was put before the British foreign secretary in a way that made it very difficult to ignore. Ultimately, the British government went to bat for Hurndall, an unarmed British civilian killed by an Israeli soldier under the impression that he could shoot with impunity.
Indeed, the soldier had good reason to believe this. More than 2,000 unarmed Palestinian civilians, many of them children, have been killed in the occupied territories since the current intifada began in September 2000. Only 10 Israeli soldiers have been indicted and none has been convicted. A culture of impunity permeates the Israeli military, which is well known for its non-investigations of itself. For this reason, the Hurndall family would like to see the investigation of his death extend all the way up the chain of command.
Corrie's parents are not lawyers. In addition, they were told by members of the Washington state congressional delegation and State Department officials that if they quietly played along, justice for their daughter would ultimately be achieved. So far, all that has emerged is a non-credible Israeli military report claiming that 1) Corrie was not run over by a bulldozer and 2) even if she had been, the driver could not have seen her. These statements are contradicted respectively by the autopsy report and multiple eyewitness reports.
It is an insult to the human heart to have to force government officials to do their jobs properly while digesting the fact your child has been brutally killed.
Somehow the Hurndall family was able to take the necessary steps in the timeframe required. Believing what their congressman, senators and State Department officials told them, the Corries have been left to swallow lies.
Is this the best our members of Congress can do for a citizen killed abroad? Plenty of them made pretty speeches but real action is a question of political will.
About the author: Wendy Smith of Seattle is an activist with the Seattle Palestine Solidarity Committee.
Source: The Seattle PI
Joined: 22 Jan 2002
ShareReactor Supervisor
Location: Slovenia
Interests: Music
Do you deny that this is you?
Like the American woman and her 5-month-old infant blown up on a bus? Like the pregnant American blown up while eating pizza? Like the American students blown up in the university cafeteria? When have you ever posted about them? I'll bet you can't even name them.
From Slovenia??? Posting Muslim Propoganda??? No, it's you.
BTW I Googled "bluester" AND "muslim". Try as you might, you can't hide from your own words.
BS. You mourn only for Rachel Corrie. You couldn't even tell me the names of the others I mentioned. You wouldn't even know where to go to look up those names.
You DO NOT mourn murdered dead Jews.
But, I will mourn my daughter.
I DO NOT mourn for all.
When this article was posted by PeaceCorpsGuy, the source indicated the article was from the Seattle Post Intelligencer, but the link he established for that source took you to the Palestine Chronicle.
The moderator has changed the source to indicate the article is from the Seattle PI via the Palestine Chronicle, except the underlying link STILL takes you directly to the Palestine Chronicle at: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040123125718784.
In fact, the article did appear in both places. It was in Friday's Seattle Post Intelligencer as a Guest Commentary. The CORRECT link to the Seattle PI is: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/157721_ourplace23.html?searchpagefrom=1&searchdiff=4
If PeaceCorpsGuy really read this in the Seattle PI, why didn't the link indicate that path ??
Unless, we hear differently from him -- I believe he had an agenda to send us to the Palestine Chronicle.
No matter where it originates, I don't mind him posting the article for discussion -- but, we need some truth in advertising here, honest disclosure.
And I am.
But, I thought we had moved on to a more generic discussion, instead of Rachel Corrie's specific activities and death.
Perhaps my example was lame, and taken out of the context I intended.
Nonetheless, while I regret all unnatural death, whether criminal, accidental or in warfare, I do not mourn all who die.
Maybe its just a matter of semantics - but, there is a differentiation to me.
She was accessory to the murder of any person killed with weapons smuggled out of the tunnels she was protecting.
I don't think the other piece of trash (as you call him) are in the same boat. Their cases are entirely different. From all that I have read, the Israeli soldier that shot the young man, knew that he was shooting at an unarmed civilian and the children mentioned were actually children not seventeen year old rock throwers.
If anybody has any info to the contrary, I would like to see it.
I didn't realize that was a pre-requisite. I can name only three or four people who died on 9/11 and this is only because they got a fair amount of publicity.
I doubt the average person could name anybody who has been killed in Israel but this does not mean they don't feel bad for it.
I can't name anybody that has been killed by a Palestinian either. I don't think this makes me a bad person.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.