{"id":7213,"date":"2010-09-13T00:00:02","date_gmt":"2010-09-12T22:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=7213"},"modified":"2010-09-09T18:17:50","modified_gmt":"2010-09-09T16:17:50","slug":"during-war-there-are-no-civilians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2010\/09\/during-war-there-are-no-civilians\/","title":{"rendered":"During War There Are No Civilians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting in on the Rachel Corrie trial alarmingly reveals an open Israeli policy of indiscrimination towards civilians. <\/em><\/p>\n

“During war there are no civilians,” that\u2019s what \u201cYossi,\u201d an Israeli military (IDF) training unit leader simply stated during a round of questioning on day two of the Rachel Corrie trials, held in Haifa\u2019s District Court earlier this week. \u201cWhen you write a [protocol] manual, that manual is for war,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

For the human rights activists and friends and family of Rachel Corrie sitting in the courtroom, this open admission of an Israeli policy of indiscrimination towards civilians — Palestinian or foreign — created an audible gasp.<\/p>\n

Yet, put into context, this policy comes as no surprise. The Israeli military\u2019s track record of insouciance towards the killings of Palestinians, from the 1948 massacre of Deir Yassin in Jerusalem to the 2008-2009 attacks on Gaza that killed upwards of 1400 men, women and children, has illustrated that not only is this an entrenched operational framework but rarely has it been challenged until recently.<\/p>\n

Rachel Corrie, the young American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death by a Caterpillar D9-R bulldozer, as she and other members of the nonviolent International Solidarity Movement attempted to protect a Palestinian home from imminent demolition on March 16, 2003 in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Corrie has since become a symbol of Palestinian solidarity as her family continues to fight for justice in her name.<\/p>\n

Her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, filed a civil lawsuit against the State of Israel for Rachel\u2019s unlawful killing — what they allege was an intentional act — and this round of testimonies called by the State\u2019s defense team follows the Corries\u2019 witness testimonies last March. The Corries\u2019 lawsuit charges the State with recklessness and a failure to take appropriate measures to protect human life, actions that violate both Israeli and international laws.<\/p>\n

Witnesses insisted that the bulldozer driver couldn\u2019t see Rachel Corrie from his perch. The State attorneys called three witnesses to the stand on Sunday and Monday to prove that the killing was unintentional and took place in an area designated as a \u201cclosed military zone.\u201d\u00a0 Falling under the definition of an Act of War, their argument sought to absolve the soldiers of liability under Israeli law.<\/p>\n

The Rachel Corrie trials focus on one incident, one moment, one death, one family\u2019s grief. However it\u2019s important to include the context within which the Israeli military operated on that day in March of 2003 in order to properly understand the gravity of the trial and the reverberations seven and a half years later.<\/p>\n

Yossi, the military training leader, described the area where Corrie was killed as an \u201cactive war zone.\u201d The State\u2019s defense argues the same. Yet what was happening in Rafah that was so important to Corrie that she confronted a 4-meter high armored bulldozer in the first place?<\/p>\n

According to statistics from Human Rights Watch<\/a>, Israel had been expanding its so-called \u201cbuffer zone\u201d at the southern Gaza border after the breakout of the second Palestinian intifada in late 2000. \u201cBy late 2002,\u201d reports HRW, \u201cafter the destruction of several hundred houses in Rafah, the IDF began building an eight meter high metal wall along the border.\u201d<\/p>\n

The area that Israel designates as its buffer zone has since enveloped nearly 35% of agricultural land, according to an August 2010 report<\/a> published by the United Nation\u2019s Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). OCHA says that this policy has affected 113,000 Palestinians inside the Gaza strip over the last ten years as their farms, homes, and villages were intentionally erased from the map.<\/p>\n

Rachel Corrie\u2019s nonviolent action — standing in front of the bulldozer in direct confrontation to this project — cost her her life.<\/p>\n

The home Rachel Corrie died trying to protect was razed, along with hundreds of others. The Gaza Strip remains a sealed ghetto. And countless Palestinian families have not seen justice waged in their favor after the deaths of their loved ones.<\/p>\n

In 2005, an arrest warrant was issued against Major General Doron Almog — a senior soldier in charge of Israel\u2019s Southern Command — by a British court related to the destruction of 59 homes in Rafah in
\n2002 under his authority. He was warned before boarding a flight to the UK that he could be arrested upon arrival, and canceled his trip.<\/p>\n

Related to the Rachel Corrie case, Maj. Almog gave a direct order to the team of internal investigators to cut the investigations short, according to Israeli army documents<\/a> obtained by Israeli daily Haaretz<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This indicates that the impunity of Israeli soldiers and policy-makers can — and will — be challenged in a court of law. And when the trials continue next month, the Corries will be back in the courtroom in anticipation of a long-sought justice for their daughter.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 aljazeera.net<\/a><\/p>\n

J<\/span>oin the BDS-Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions<\/span><\/em> <\/strong>campaign to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation, the apartheid wall, and its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people: DON’T BUY<\/strong><\/span> products whose BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong><\/span>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel. DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sitting in on the Rachel Corrie trial alarmingly reveals an open Israeli policy of indiscrimination towards civilians.<\/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-7213","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\/7213","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=7213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}