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By Amely Roche
June 9, 2004
Israel Insider received many angry letters, and some supportive messages, written in response to The case against Rachel Corrie by Bruce Ticker. The following article, received from the International Solidarity Movement's Media Office, is published in efforts to allow debate from all sides of the political spectrum.
The case against Rachel Corrie by Bruce Ticker, published by Israel Insider on June 1, 2004, constitutes a defamation against Rachel Corrie and against the International Solidarity Movement based on questionable standards of writing.
Any "reasonable person," willing to debate honestly, would refuse to base his/her arguments on thin suppositions when it comes to accusing someone of such a serious crime as aiding and abetting "cold-blooded murders."
Any "reasonable person" willing to conduct a serious investigation, would refuse to discard without examination eyewitness accounts written by members of the International Solidarity Movement present in Rafah until late 2003.
Any "reasonable person" willing to understand the Palestinian struggle for freedom would have come to Palestine to live among "Gaza and West Bank Arabs" and see by himself/herself the living conditions of the Palestinian nation under what Mr. Ticker accurately called "Israel's brutal occupation."
Any "reasonable person" would have considered the fact that the largest military operation in Rafah in years uncovered only 3 so-called smuggling tunnels, out of the 90 claimed by the Israeli army. No tunnel was found under the house of Dr. Samir, which was destroyed shortly after Rachel Corrie was killed, trying to protect it. Maybe, just maybe, the bulldozer driver was not aware of this possibility when he ran over, twice, an unarmed civilian, crushing her to death.
Protecting houses from demolition, removing roadblocks, delivering food under curfews are of course breaking Israeli military law in Palestine. But this law is unlawful and illegitimate: unlawful since it constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949 to which the State of Israel is a signatory. Illegitimate since it is determining the life of a whole nation without its consultation or consent and therefore violates the basic principle of democracy.
All these actions are to be considered as what Mr. Ticker called "political means at (our) disposal to address (our) concerns." Nonviolent resistance to a military occupation is a political struggle.
If Mr. Ticker was a "reasonable person," he would have checked his facts, compared and contrasted reports to challenge the mainstream opinion. In short, he would have been honest in investigating the "case against Rachel Corrie" before charging her and the International Solidarity Movement of such a serious crime as knowingly supporting terrorism. In doing so, he would have found out that the ISM is dedicated to supporting the Palestinian struggle for freedom via nonviolent means. He can even personally confirm this by working with the ISM in Palestine.
Let us hope that the lack of serious investigation revealed in this opinion article was simply unintended. Maybe, just maybe, unintended.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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