The Light we Lost

 

 

Rachel Corrie, an Amazing Light

Born, April 10, 1979

Crossed over, March 16, 2003

  The Israeli Defense Forces ended her life with a CAT D-9 bulldozer, because she cared about the Palestinian people. 

Rachel’s Words in Print

When she was a ten-year-old child in Olympia Washington, Rachel 
delivered a speech at her fifth grade press conference on world hunger:

"I'm here for other children.

I'm here because I care.

    I'm here because children everywhere are suffering and because forty thousand people die each day from hunger.

I'm here because those people are mostly children.

We have got to understand that the poor are all around us and we are ignoring them.

We have got to understand that these deaths are preventable.

We have got to understand that people in the Third World countries think and care and smile and cry just like us.

We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs.

We have got to understand that they are us.  We are them.

My dream is to stop hunger by the year 2000.

My dream is to save the forty thousand people who die each day.

My dream can and will come true if we all look into the future and see the light that shines there.

If we all help and work together, it will grow and burn free with the potential of tomorrow."

Rachel Corrie

Excerpted from, Her Name Was Rachel Corrie, which is primarily from Rachel's own writings and worth reading:  http://www.rense.com/general73/name.htm

This speech, featuring 10 year old Rachel Corrie, is available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDq32EgMxb8

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Rachel Corrie was an American citizen.  She traveled to Palestine as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement in January 2003.  She went, because she cared. Her work there was primarily to be a witness to the inhumane conditions and atrocities imposed on Palestinian people by Israel.  There was also the profound hope that the presence of international citizens would help protect Palestinian people, their homes, and necessary infrastructure, just by their presence. 

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Quotes from Rachel Corrie's writing while she was in Palestine.

"We are protecting civilians. We are unarmed. We are no threat to you. Please do not shoot."

"Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with."

“We should be inspired by people... who show that human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong-even in the most difficult circumstances.” 

"I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive. It's horrifying." 

“This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore."

From: Brainy Quotes,  Good Reads,  and the article: 'Rachel Corrie’s Parents Journey to Palestine.'

 

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Learn More ~

For a deeper understanding of what she thought, you may also want to read Rachel's e-mails from Palestine,  available on the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice's web site:  http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/rachel/emails

Rachel Corrie's very moving book, Let Me Stand Alone, W.W. Norton & Company, is available on request from libraries, book stores, and on-line.  For more information please see:  http://letmestandalone.com/

Follow the Rachel Corrie Foundation on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/rcfoundation

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On March 16, 2003,  Rachel was crushed to death by the IDF.  Even though there were four eyewitnesses to this murder, Israel has absolved itself and all parties involved of any wrong doing.  

She will not be forgotten! 

From Wikimedia Commons

“This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop."  

Rachel Corrie

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Take Action!  

Boycott Caterpillar for its complicity and profiteering from the illegal occupation and Rachel Corrie's murder:  http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2014/12/caterpillar-corporate-conscientiousness.html

Check out our complete boycott list:
http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2014/12/boycott-list.html 

And our Quick Actions:
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Boycott for Peace! 

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True Democracy ~ Sample Letter to Send!

Open letter to Congress and The White House:

               International Law obliges Israel “. . . to ensure the welfare and safety of the Palestinian civilian population  . . .” ⁽¹⁾ However, Israel continues to ignore its obligations, while the world and the citizens of the US become increasingly aware and critical of Israel’s brutality.

                Orwa Hamad, a minor American Citizen of Palestinian descent, was recently shot by the IDF; who then prevented him from receiving medical aid, guarding his body until he was dead. The world is very aware of this, because it was recorded and the video is making the rounds of social media. ⁽²⁾

                I recently viewed another video, where you were asked about your inaction on Israel’s brutality.  You responded with a memorized script from AIPAC, emphasizing our special relationship with Israel. I am left wondering what that special relationship is: One rogue state to another? Two thugs on the same team? The central players in a gang profiting from the disenfranchisement of Palestinian people?
              Orwa Hamad is not an isolated case. “Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist was killed in 2003 in Gaza when she was run over and crushed by an Israeli bulldozer. In 2010, Furkan Dogan, an American of Turkish descent was killed aboard the freedom flotilla headed for Gaza. Tristan Anderson, an American activist from California suffered permanent brain damage after being shot in the forehead with a tear gas canister, in 2009 . . . More recent was the brutal beating and arrest of Palestinian-American teenager Tariq Abukhdeir, in July 2014.”  ⁽³⁾

       One would think that all of this would have a more profound effect on our special relationship with Israel. In fact, public opinion in the US is changing drastically. According to a survey by the ‘Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy,’ “Most Americans (60.7 percent) believe the United States gives "much too much" or "too much" foreign aid to Israel . . .” ⁽⁴⁾

       It’s time to let true democracy reign in the US and in Palestine and Israel as well. A democracy where there is Freedom and Equality and Justice for all. A democracy--not based on AIPAC’s money, and not on racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, subjugation, and disregard for international law—but a true democracy. Of the people, by the people, for the people. All of us. Including Palestinians. 

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(1) UN Human Rights Council, Twenty-first special session, 23 July 2014, Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council S-21/1; Ensuring respect for international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem:

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/SpecialSessions/Session21/Pages/21stSpecialSession.aspx

(2) Video tape of Orwa Hamad dying from an IDF gunshot wound, while they ensure he receives no medical care: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=776305119106151

(3) American Youth Murdered by Israeli Occupation Forces:

http://hamdeaburahma.com/2014/10/26/american-youth-murdered-by-the-israeli-occupation-forces/

(4) 6 in 10 Americans believe the US gives too much aid to Israel:  http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-gives-too-much-foreign-aid-to-israel-say-6-in-10-americans-277581291.html

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Contact US Political Leaders!

The sources won't fit into the form provided. Leave them off when copying and pasting the letter; and replace them with:  Links to citations: http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2014/11/true-democracy.html

Click on your state on the map at the link below, and all your state reps are shown, with phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and contact forms.  If the numbers are overwhelming go back to the first page and simply enter your zip code in the form (no other information is needed) only the reps for your area will appear.  http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

Contact the White House using this form:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

You might also want to search facebook for your reps’ names, and post this or similar statements in comments or directly to their pages.

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Boycott for Peace!

http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/boycott4peace

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