Little has changed in Gaza since peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed beneath an Israeli bulldozer 15 years ago

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 American peace activist Rachel Corrie tries to stop an Israeli bulldozer from destroying Palestinian homes on March 16, 2003, in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. (Getty Images)
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Updated 10 May 2018
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Little has changed in Gaza since peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed beneath an Israeli bulldozer 15 years ago

  • Renewed violence in the Gaza Strip after the 15-year anniversary of Corrie's death has left at least 42 Palestinians dead and hundreds injured in the hands of Israeli forces
  • The first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza lasted from 1987 until 1991 and was followed by a second period of intensified violence from September 2000 to February 2005. 

LONDON: Palestinian homes were being demolished in waves when Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American peace activist, arrived in Rafah, Gaza, at the height of the second intifada in January 2003. 

Her mother, Cindy, recalled how affected Corrie was by the suffering she saw, pouring out her experiences in long journal entries and emails home that have since been published, turned into plays and quoted in documentaries. 

“Every time Palestinians did anything, the Israeli military would use it as an excuse to raze another row of houses — they just kept taking down row after row,” Cindy said. 

Three months later, Corrie stepped into the path of an Israeli military bulldozer, hoping the “international white person privilege” she had observed in Gaza would be enough to protect the Nasrallah family home, one of the few still standing in the area. 

Witness accounts detail the horrific scene that unfolded as the giant Caterpillar D9R bulldozer plowed over the slight figure clad in an orange fluorescent jacket before reversing back over her body and pulling away. Corrie died a short while later, her lungs crushed, ribs fractured and vital organs ruptured. 

Weeks after the 15-year anniversary of her death on March 16, 2003, renewed violence in the Gaza Strip is a reminder that little here has changed.

At least 42 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured by Israeli forces during demonstrations as thousands of Gazans demand the right to return to lands they were driven from by Israeli settlements.

The first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza lasted from 1987 until 1991 and was followed by a second period of intensified violence from September 2000 to February 2005. 

The current protests — scheduled to run for six weeks — are due to end on May 15, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) this month when 750,000 Palestinians lost their homes on the day Israel was created in 1948. 

Reports of mounting casualties, including the killing of children and non-violent protesters, have revived international indignation, but for those living under occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, the violence appears endless. In her emails, Corrie described the “chronic, insidious genocide” she was witnessing. “I’m questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop.” 

Tracing their daughter’s footsteps in Gaza after her death, the Corries visited the Nasrallah home. Their daughter had often stayed over, curled up on the floor with the children in their parents’ room at the back, far from the bullets Israeli soldiers sometimes sprayed at the walls from tanks passing at night.

She made her first call home from the house, trying to appear calm as the sounds of nearby shelling echoed down the line to her parents in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Her voice was trembling … I don’t think we said anything after we got off the phone that evening,” her mother recalled.

By then, little was left of the once-large neighborhood in southern Gaza, near the war-torn Egyptian border. “All the homes had already been destroyed by the Israeli military … they would go past and just fire the guns into the houses, trying to get people to move out,” her father, Craig Corrie, told Arab News. 

The Israeli military had been steadily demolishing houses to widen the “buffer zone” between Gaza and Egypt, ostensibly for security purposes. 

A Human Rights Watch report from 2004 said that almost 16,000 people, more than 10 percent of Rafah’s population, lost their homes in this way, making many refugees for a second or third time.

The day she died, Corrie received a call at 2 p.m. from a fellow activist telling her the Nasrallah house was about to be flattened. She had formed a close bond with many Palestinians in the community through her work with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which protests against the occupation using non-violent methods, including sit-ins at homes, wells and other sites earmarked for demolition. Leaping into a taxi, she raced to the site.

Just before 5 p.m., one of the bulldozers started rumbling toward a wall near the house and Corrie positioned herself in front of it. Before, the bulldozers had always stopped short of hitting the ISM activists, but this time the massive machine carried on, despite screams and waves from onlookers.

Different versions of the circumstances surrounding Corrie’s death emerged in the aftermath as the Israeli military sought to distance itself, later claiming a wall had collapsed and crushed her. Giving testimony from behind a screen in court, the driver of the bulldozer said he was unable to see Corrie from the cabin. Witnesses who worked alongside the activist said there is “no doubt” he knew where she was. 

Days after the incident, Tom Dale, a British activist who was nearby when she died, told the ISM: “The bulldozer continued to push Rachel, so she slipped down the mound of earth, turning as she went. Her face showed she was panicking and it was clear she was in danger of being overwhelmed.”

The Israeli government later described it as a “regrettable incident” and promised a “thorough, credible, and transparent investigation.” In 2015, after years of trials, the Corries’ case came to a close when a judge in Israel’s Supreme Court upheld an earlier ruling absolving the Israeli state and army from responsibility. Nobody was ever convicted for her death.

Corrie had educated herself about Palestine in the aftermath of 9/11 and “very deliberately” made the decision to go to Gaza. “She said she was going to see what it was like to be on the other end of US foreign policy. I think she really wanted to go and learn about how to be in solidarity with people that are struggling,” her father said. 

At first, it was difficult for the ISM volunteers to gain the trust of the local community, but Corrie immersed herself in Gazan life, eating and sleeping in family homes, and embracing Palestinian customs and culture. “She loved them and they loved her,” recalls Abdul Raouf Rarbakh, who was in charge of a children’s organization in Rafah at the time.

On the day she died, Corrie had been playing football with local youths but had been “very sad,” he said. “She was killed on the same day that a Palestinian was killed. We organized a funeral for her with the Palestinian martyr.”

The Corries have often been asked to explain why the death of “a blonde American girl” has dwarfed the loss of Palestinian lives in the media. “I think Rachel would have agreed ... but if the death of a blonde American makes us pay attention to all those others then we’re OK with that,” her father said. “I would hope she would be, too.” 

Several other foreign civilians were killed by Israeli forces in the months after Corrie’s death, including another ISM volunteer, 21-year-old Tom Hurndall, who was shot in the head on April 5 while rescuing two Palestinian girls from gunfire. The following month, James Miller, a 35-year-old Briton, was shot in the neck while filming an HBO documentary along the Egyptian border.

Yet it is Corrie who has since become an icon of solidarity for Palestinians in Gaza.

“She will always be part of the history of that place,” her father said. “Here we are, 15 years later, and her story still resonates.”

Watching the latest round of protests, the Corries feel “an absolute responsibility” toward the people of Gaza as they try to rouse the world to action through the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. “People only pay attention when they see particular violence, but the occupation is always violent,” Craig said.

Today, the Nasrallah house is long gone and the land it stood on has become a barren border zone. Entry is restricted to landowners and the families who lived here have become refugees.

Iyad Abu Louly, who remembers Corrie as one of the “prominent personalities” among the ISM volunteers, now heads up the Rachel Corrie Human Rights Center, which documents violations committed by the occupation against Palestinians. 

It is the same goal that Corrie had when she went to Gaza.

“Her memory will remain immortal in the hearts of the Palestinian people,” he said.

Decoder

What is the Nakba?

It is the exodus of more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war.


Residents of Israeli settlement ‘Trump Heights’ welcome Donald’s return to US presidency

Updated 56 min 46 sec ago
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Residents of Israeli settlement ‘Trump Heights’ welcome Donald’s return to US presidency

  • During his first term, Donald Trump became the first and only foreign leader to recognize Israel’s control of the Golan Heights
  • Trump’s election has inspired hope in the community that it will attract more members and also more funding for security improvements

RAMAT TRUMP, Golan Heights: Israeli residents of “Trump Heights” are welcoming the election of their namesake, hoping Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency will breathe new life into this tiny, remote settlement in the central Golan Heights.
During his first term, Trump became the first and only foreign leader to recognize Israel’s control of the Golan, which it seized from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel thanked him by rebranding this outpost after him.
But a large-scale influx of new residents never materialized after that 2019 ceremony, and just a couple dozen families live in Trump Heights, or “Ramat Trump” in Hebrew. Job opportunities are limited, and Israel’s more than yearlong war against Hezbollah militants in nearby Lebanon has added to the sense of isolation.
Trump’s election has inspired hope in the community that it will attract more members and also more funding for security improvements.
“Maybe it can raise more awareness and maybe some support to help here and help our kids here,” said Yarden Freimann, Trump Heights’ community manager.
Ori Kallner, head of the Golan’s regional council, showed off dozens of plots of land, replete with new asphalt roads, lampposts and utility lines, that residents have prepared for future housing developments.
“President Trump’s return to the White House definitely puts the town in the headlines,” he said.
Hanging on while war rages nearby
Kallner stood next to a metal statue of an eagle and a menorah, symbolizing the United States and Israel, as Israeli warplanes flew overhead. Two explosions from rockets fired from Lebanon punched the hills nearby, and just across the border in Lebanon, plumes of smoke rose into the air from Israeli airstrikes.
An enormous sign with the settlement’s name in Hebrew and English gleamed in the sun, while two large sunbaked metal flags of Israel and the United States were faded almost beyond recognition.
Surrounded by ashen ruins of villages fled by Syrians in the 1967 war, the town is perched above the Hula Valley, where Israel has amassed tanks, artillery and troops for its fight in Lebanon. Most towns in the valley have been evacuated. Trump Heights sends its kids to a makeshift daycare in a nearby settlement after the government shuttered all schools in the region in the wake of the Oct. 1 invasion of Lebanon.
“We find ourselves hanging by our fingernails to be in our own community, not be evacuated, and on the other hand, we cannot work, we cannot send our kids to any kind of an education system,” said Freimann.
Trump Heights is only about 12 kilometers from Lebanon and Syria. Alerts for incoming fire gives residents about 30 seconds’ head start to get to a bomb shelter.
Trump broke with other leaders on the Golan Heights
Israel annexed the Golan, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel, in 1981 in a move that is not internationally recognized.
That changed in March 2019 when Trump, without notice, tweeted that the US would “fully recognize” Israel’s control of the territory. His announcement drew widespread condemnation from the international community, which considers the Golan to be occupied Syrian territory and Israel’s settlements to be illegal. The Biden administration left the decision intact, but the US remains the lone country to recognize the Israeli annexation.
Kallner said he hopes Trump will now persuade European countries to recognize Israeli sovereignty there.
According to Israeli figures, the Golan is home to about 50,000 people — roughly half of them Jewish Israelis and the other half Arab Druze, many of whom still consider themselves Syrians under occupation.
Israel has encouraged and promoted settlements in the Golan, and the Druze residents operate farms and a tourism and restaurant sector popular with Israelis. But the area has struggled to develop because of its remoteness, several hours from Israel’s economic center in Tel Aviv.
That economic hardship has only worsened during the war as the hospitality sector cratered. On July 28, a rocket killed 12 Druze children on a soccer field in the city of Majdal Shams, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) away. Israel invaded Lebanon months later.
In June 2019, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led an inauguration ceremony for Trump Heights. The US ambassador at the time, David Friedman, noted that the ceremony came days after Trump’s birthday and said: “I can’t think of a more appropriate and a more beautiful birthday present.”
As president, Trump was close with Netanyahu
The Golan recognition was among a series of diplomatic gifts that Trump delivered to Israel during his first term. They included recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the American embassy to the contested city, and a series of diplomatic agreements with Arab countries known as the Abraham Accords.
He has vowed to bring peace to the tumultuous region during his second term, but has not said how.
Netanyahu enjoyed a close relationship with Trump during his first term but ran afoul of the former president when he congratulated Joe Biden on his 2020 victory. The Israeli prime minister announced Tuesday that he was one of the first foreign leaders to call the president-elect and congratulate him on his victory. An official in his office, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal communications, said aides were upbeat and giddy.
“Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback!” the Israeli leader said in a statement. “Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America.”
At Trump Heights, Kallner was optimistic too: “The Golan community is strong and resilient, and people that want to come and live here are from the same material. I believe we will overcome these challenging times and won’t stop growing.”


US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms

Updated 08 November 2024
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US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms

  • US has given Israel until Nov. 13 to improve humanitarian situation in Gaza
  • The letter calls for a minimum of 350 trucks per day to be allowed into Gaza

WASHINGTON: Israel has informed the United States that it will open an additional crossing for aid into Gaza, the State Department said Thursday, as a US-imposed deadline looms next week.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have given Israel until November 13 to improve the humanitarian situation in the war-besieged Gaza Strip or risk the withholding of some military assistance from the United States, Israel’s biggest supporter.
They made the demands in a letter before Tuesday’s election of President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to give freer rein to Israel.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Israel, after recently reopening the Erez crossing, has informed the United States that they “hope to open an additional new crossing at Kissufim” in “the next few days.”
“We have continued to press them, and we have seen them, including in the past few days since the election, take additional steps,” Miller told reporters.
He stopped short of saying how the United States would assess Israel’s compliance with the aid demands.
In the letter, Blinken and Austin had urged Israel to “consistently” let aid through four major crossings and to open a fifth crossing.
Kissufim, near a kibbutz across from southern Gaza that was attacked in the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault that sparked the war, has mostly been in disuse except by the military since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
The letter called for a minimum of 350 trucks per day to be allowed into Gaza. Miller said 229 trucks entered on Tuesday.
Outgoing President Joe Biden has repeatedly pressed Israel to improve humanitarian aid and protect civilians, while mostly stopping short of using leverage such as cutting off weapons.
Miller said Blinken hoped to keep using the rest of his term to press for an end to the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.


US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms

Children stare at the destruction following an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November
Updated 08 November 2024
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US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms

  • The US has given Israel until November 13 to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza
  • Letter calls for a minimum of 350 trucks per day to be allowed into Gaza

WASHINGTON: Israel has informed the United States that it will open an additional crossing for aid into Gaza, the State Department said Thursday, as a US-imposed deadline looms next week.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have given Israel until November 13 to improve the humanitarian situation in the war-besieged Gaza Strip or risk the withholding of some military assistance from the United States, Israel’s biggest supporter.
They made the demands in a letter before Tuesday’s election of President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to give freer rein to Israel.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Israel, after recently reopening the Erez crossing, has informed the United States that they “hope to open an additional new crossing at Kissufim” in “the next few days.”
“We have continued to press them, and we have seen them, including in the past few days since the election, take additional steps,” Miller told reporters.
He stopped short of saying how the United States would assess Israel’s compliance with the aid demands.
In the letter, Blinken and Austin had urged Israel to “consistently” let aid through four major crossings and to open a fifth crossing.
Kissufim, near a kibbutz across from southern Gaza that was attacked in the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault that sparked the war, has mostly been in disuse except by the military since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
The letter called for a minimum of 350 trucks per day to be allowed into Gaza. Miller said 229 trucks entered on Tuesday.
Outgoing President Joe Biden has repeatedly pressed Israel to improve humanitarian aid and protect civilians, while mostly stopping short of using leverage such as cutting off weapons.
Miller said Blinken hoped to keep using the rest of his term to press for an end to the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.


France mulling new sanctions on Israeli settlers, minister says in West Bank

Updated 07 November 2024
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France mulling new sanctions on Israeli settlers, minister says in West Bank

  • “France has been a driving force to establish the first sanction regime at the European level,” Barrot said
  • Barrot renewed France’s commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

RAMALLAH: France is mulling new sanctions on those enabling the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, regarded as illegal under international law, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on a visit to the territory on Thursday.
“France has been a driving force to establish the first sanction regime at the European level targeting individuals or entities, either actors or accomplices of settlement activities,” Barrot said after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah.
“This regime has been activated two times already and we’re working on a third batch of sanctions targeting these activities that again are illegal with respect to international law.”
Barrot renewed France’s commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned settlement activities “threaten the political perspective that can ensure durable peace for Israel and Palestine.”
Before meeting Abbas, Barrot visited the adjacent town of Al-Bireh, where Israeli settlers set fire to 20 cars on Monday, damaging a nearby building.
After speaking with residents and local officials at the scene, Barrot noted that the attack took place in a part of the West Bank where the Palestinians were supposed to enjoy both civil and security control under the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.
“These attacks from extremist and violent settlers are not only completely inexcusable, not only contrary to international law, but they weaken the perspective of a two-state solution,” Barrot said.
Ramallah and Al-Bireh governor Laila Ghannam expressed outrage that settler attacks were “taking place in full view and hearing of the entire silent international community.”
“Perhaps today, with the visit of the French foreign minister, there will be a spotlight here,” she told AFP.
Speaking in Jerusalem earlier Thursday, Barrot said he saw prospects for ending Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon after Donald Trump’s re-election, citing the Republican’s “wish to see the end of the Middle East’s endless wars” as well as recent “tactical successes” for Israel.


Moroccan population grows to 36.8 million in 2024

The Moroccan population grew by 2.98 million since the last census in 2014. (AFP)
Updated 07 November 2024
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Moroccan population grows to 36.8 million in 2024

RABAT: The Moroccan population grew to 36.82 million by September 2024, according to the preliminary results of a national census, the spokesman for the government said on Thursday.
Compared with the most recent census in 2014, the Moroccan population grew by 2.98 million or 8.8 percent, spokesman Mustapha Baitas told reporters.
The number of households grew to 9.27 million by September 2024, up 26.8 percent compared to 2014, while the number of foreigners living in the country increased to 148,152, up 71.8 percent, he said.