ISM Reports: Still No Justice For Rachel Corrie

1)
 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/157721_ourplace23.html

Published on Friday, January 23, 2004 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Still No Justice for Rachel Corrie
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.

Wendy Smith of Seattle is an activist with the Seattle
Palestine Solidarity Committee

©1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
==========================
2) TAKE ACTION:

Shaming Olympia, Washington and Washington State for
inaction over Rachel Corrie's murder!

PMWATCH - January 23, 2004 -- Below is an IMPORTANT
op-ed that we must ALL, to honor the memories of
Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, do whatever we can to
follow up with more action.

Here are suggestions:

(1) Write a letter to the editor to the Seattle-PI,
expressing your support of what Wendy Smith wrote and
your disgust/outrage/anger over the silence and
inaction of Washington State’s senators and Rachel
Corrie's representatives. We have all seen how low the
pro-Occupation, Israel-first propagandists can sink to
tarnish the reputation of the International Solidarity
Movement, and rest assured that they will inundate the
PI with the crassest slurs. Let’s deluge them with
praise for the op-ed.

(2) Write and CALL the offices of the representatives
to Rachel Corrie's home (Olympia, Washington) and the
US senators from Washington State, and demand that
they exert their energies to press Israel to go after
Rachel Corrie's killer. If you have to choose, choose
the representatives, since they are the most sensitive
to their constituencies. You can call over the
weekend and leave a voice mail.

Here is contact information:

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:  editpage@seattlepi.com

Representative Brian Baird (D-WA 3rd)
Web Site:  http://www.house.gov/baird
E-mail:
 http://www.congress.org/congressorg/mail/?id=615&type=CO&state=WA
Phone: (360) 695-6292
Fax: (360) 695-6197

Representative Adam Smith (D-WA 9th)
Web Site: www.house.gov/adamsmith
E-mail:
 http://www.congress.org/congressorg/mail/?id=621&type=CO&state=WA

Main District Office:
Phone: (253) 593-6600
Fax: (253) 593-6776

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)

 http://www.congress.org/congressorg/webreturn/?url=http://murray.senate.gov
E-mail: Contact Via 'Web Form.'

Main District Office:
Phone: (206) 553-5545
Fax: (206) 553-0891

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

 http://www.congress.org/congressorg/webreturn/?url=http://cantwell.senate.gov
Web Site:  http://cantwell.senate.gov
E-mail:
 http://www.congress.org/congressorg/mail/?id=11025&type=CO&state=WA

Main District Office:
Phone: (206) 220-6400
Fax: (206) 220-6404

You can send a quick note to the Seattle PI by
clicking on:
 http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/mediocrity/displayCall.asp?essayID=222

The publication of the op-ed was partly instigated by
YOUR many letters to the Seattle papers (the PI and
the Times) in answer to our January 15 action call on
the death of Tom Hurndall. We've come this far --
let's continue to push.

The January 15 action call can be found at:
See:
 http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/mediocrity/displayCall.asp?essayID=217

And don't forget to bcc us at:
 pmw-letters@yahoogroups.com

Palestine Media Watch
 http://www.pmwatch.org
(610) 993 - 0608


INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
www.palsolidarity.org