{"id":55689,"date":"2015-03-23T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T12:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=55689"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:56","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:56","slug":"statement-from-the-family-of-rachel-corrie-on-the-twelfth-anniversary-of-her-murder-by-israelis-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/statement-from-the-family-of-rachel-corrie-on-the-twelfth-anniversary-of-her-murder-by-israelis-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement from the Family of Rachel Corrie on the Twelfth Anniversary of Her Murder by Israelis in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 16, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, the twelfth anniversary of our daughter and sister Rachel\u2019s stand and death in Gaza, we find ourselves back where our journey for accountability in her case began \u2013 in Washington DC. \u00a0We have come for meetings at the Department of State and in Congress and, also, to join our colleagues in pursuit of a just peace in Israel\/Palestine at the national meeting of Jewish Voice for Peace.<\/p>\n

Rachel was crushed to death March 16, 2003 by an Israeli military, US-funded, Caterpillar D9R bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza, while nonviolently protesting the impending demolition of the home of a Palestinian family. \u00a0This was one of thousands of homes eventually destroyed in Gaza in clearing demolitions, described in the 2004 Human Rights Watch Report, Razing Rafah.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of State reported that on March 17, 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised President Bush that the Israeli Government would undertake a \u201cthorough, credible, and transparent\u201d investigation into Rachel\u2019s killing and report the results to the United States. \u00a0On March 19, 2003, in a U.S. Department of State press briefing, Richard Boucher said in reference to Rachel, \u201cWhen we have the death of an American citizen, we want to see it fully investigated. \u00a0That is one of our key responsibilities overseas, is to look after the welfare of American citizens and to find out what happened in situations like these.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through tenures of both the Bush and Obama administrations, high level Department of State officials have continued to call for Israeli investigation in Rachel\u2019s case. \u00a0During our twelve year journey for accountability, we met with Lawrence B. Wilkerson (Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell), William Burns (then Under Secretary of State) and Antony Blinken (then Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to Vice President Biden) \u2013 all who have acknowledged lack of an adequate response from the Israeli Government in Rachel\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

In a letter to our family in 2008, Michelle Bernier-Toth, U.S. Department of State\u2019s Managing Director of Overseas Citizens Services, wrote, \u201cWe have consistently requested that the Government of Israel conduct a full and transparent investigation into Rachel\u2019s death. Our requests have gone unanswered or ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March 2005, at the suggestion of the Department of State and to preserve our legal options, our family initiated a civil lawsuit against the State of Israel and Ministry of Defense. \u00a0After a lengthy Israeli court process, \u00a0in February of this year, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that said Rachel was killed in a \u201cwar activity\u201d for which the state bears no liability under Israeli law. \u00a0In response, Human Rights Watch wrote,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ruling flies in the face of the laws of armed conflict\u2026The ruling grants immunity in civil law to Israeli forces for harming civilians based merely on the determination that the forces were engaged in \u2018wartime activity,\u2019 without assessing whether that activity violated the laws of armed conflict, which require parties to the conflict at all times to take all feasible precautions to spare civilian life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our family\u2019s legal options in Israel are nearly exhausted, but our search for justice for Rachel goes forward. \u00a0Back in Washington DC, we have come full circle. \u00a0We ask again that U.S. officials address their responsibility to U.S. citizens and to all civilians whose lives are impacted and cut short by military actions supported with U.S. taxpayer funding. \u00a0We ask that they determine what to do when a promise from a key ally\u2019s head of state to our own goes unfulfilled. March 16, 2003, was the very worst day of our lives. \u00a0Our family deserves a clear and truthful explanation for how what happened to Rachel that day could occur, and to know there is some consequence to those responsible. \u00a0Rachel deserves this.<\/p>\n

She wrote, \u201cThis has to stop.\u00a0 I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s an extremist thing to do anymore.\u00a0 I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers.\u00a0 But I also want this to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The failure of the Israeli court system to hold its soldiers, officers, and government accountable does not represent a failure on our part. Rachel, herself, went to Rafah looking for justice \u2013 a forward looking justice in which all people in the region would enjoy the freedoms, rights, opportunities, and obligations that we each demand for ourselves. \u00a0The facts uncovered in our legal effort in Israel, and the clear evidence of the Israeli court\u2019s complicity in the occupation revealed in the outcome, lay important legal groundwork for the future. \u00a0As we look back at Selma fifty years ago and Ferguson today, we realize that our own civil rights struggle is not won in a single march or court case. \u00a0It is ongoing. \u00a0As our family continues our journey for justice, we thank \u00a0those across the U.S., the world, and in Palestine and Israel who travel with us. \u00a0Together, we will find justice for Rachel \u2013 both the justice she deserves and the justice for which she stood.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 rachelcorriefoundation.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel was crushed to death March 16, 2003 by an Israeli military, US-funded, Caterpillar D9R bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza, while nonviolently protesting the impending demolition of the home of a Palestinian family. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}