Remembering Rachel Corrie

You may have heard of Rachel Corrie, she was a 23 year old American university student who went to Gaza in 2003 with the International Solidarity Movement. Like Christian Peacemaker Teams, the ISM works to protect Palestinian victims of Israeli army and settler abuses, often by using their bodies as human shields and standing between the soldiers and the people they want to hurt.

One of the tactics used by the IDF is the destruction of Palestinian homes. Some are destroyed because their occupants are believed to be linked with armed groups, others simply because they have no building permit or to make way for settlements. Rachel Corrie was protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes and would actually stand in front of homes about to be knocked down by bulldozers. One day, a bulldozer driver drover over her as she was blocking the house of a Palestinian doctor and his family. She was crushed to death and died on the spot.

This short clip shows interviews with her parents and ISM activists as well as emails she wrote from Gaza describing the inhuman suffering of the Palestinians she was witnessing. The video ends with an amazing clip of a speech she gave- when she was in grade 5- about the importance of working to end world hunger and the need to identify with the poor.

Rachel was not a Christian. She and her family from what I read were Jewish atheists. I do not know if she put her faith in Jesus and found the Truth before she died, I certainly hope so, or that in her final moments God revealed it to her and she accepted. She was a person whose whole life seems to have revolved around helping others from an extremely early age. Many people live decades and waste their lives looking after themselves and worrying about their comfort and security. Even many Christians are guilty of this. Her short life on earth only lasted 23 years but was a blessing to others. May we show the same kind of courage and commitment in our witness to following Jesus and being witnesses to the Gospel.

PS there are some comments left by viewers, some of which are disgustingly antisemitic. I am surprised and disappointed that Youtube does not delete them. Neither Jews or Israelis as a people are to blame for the atrocities their government commits. And we must not forget that Israelis suffer from violence too from the side of Palestinian armed groups. There are far more Palestinian victims but each life is precious in God's eyes.

Demolition of Palestinian houses and other economic infrastructure (including, incredibly enough, olive trees) is sheer boneheadedness on the part of Israel. I can certainly understand their frustration at Palestinian terrorism, but conducting attacks against civilian infrastructure amounts to collective punishment and strengthens the radicals' hand.

It is tragic that she was killed when she jumped in front of the bulldozer. Unfortunately the driver was unable to see her and could not stop the vehicle until she was hit. However, she was not the saint you seem to think she was. She gave her life for Hamas, not justice.


Rachel Corrie died defending terrorism. The Israelis were using a bulldozer to knock down houses on the edge of the Gaza Strip that had tunnels underneath them that were being used to import weapons and explosives that were to be used against Israeli citizens. Name one country in the world that would have tolerated that.


Does this look like a peaceful person to you?

We agree here. Palestinian terrorism is evil and unjustified, but so are such actions. This helps ensure that the cycle of violence goes on.

Had the driver not been destroying Palestinian's homes, he would have not killed her- assuming it was an "accident". During "Operation Defensive Shield" there were cases when Palestinian civilians were killed in their homes by bulldozers.

Originally Posted by Al Bundy

Rachel Corrie died defending terrorism. The Israelis were using a bulldozer to knock down houses on the edge of the Gaza Strip that had tunnels underneath them that were being used to import weapons and explosives that were to be used against Israeli citizens. Name one country in the world that would have tolerated that.

Palestinian homes have been destroyed for all sorts of reasons- as collective punishment, because they were built without permits that Israel refused to grant, to make way for settlements.
Perhaps some tunnels may have been used to smuggle weapons, although the owner of the house that Rachel stopped from being destroyed denied that. They have also been used to smuggle in food and medicines, things that Palestinians in Gaza have very little access to due to the Israeli blockade.
One more point- Israel is not supposed to tolerate Palestinians getting arms from other militants to fight them. How are Palestinians supposed to feel about Israel getting $3 billion a year from the American government? Should these routes of delivery also be attacked?

Originally Posted by Al Bundy

Does this look like a peaceful person to you?

No it doesn't and I don't support burning flags of any country. Given the fact though that the US is one of the main supporters of Israeli repression of the Palestinian, the outrage is understandable. I have never burnt an American or Israeli or Canadian flag and never will. I would also never burn a Russian or Cuban or Iranian flag. Such actions show contempt for an entire nation of people and I believe are wrong.

However the fact that she did this does not invalidate her bravery and commitment to defending people whose entire lives are made a living hell because of continuous bombardment and a blockade that deprives them of most basic human needs and forces them to live on handouts.

Those “homes” you keep referring to were fronts for the import of weapons to be used to commit mass murder.

I think we can all agree that both Arabs and Jews would be better off if they just accepted that each has a right to live in peace. They could both prosper if they simply worked together. Unfortunately politicians far away from the conflict benefit from the current state of affairs.

I wonder how good this solidarity movement is at fighting Hamas' terrorism of PALESTIANS who oppose them?

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For centuries, the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors - between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of the incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it. - John Galt

Hippie peace activists constantly drone on about all the "injustices" of the world, but seem to believe that such injustices won't effect themselves when placed in perilous situations such as these. Did she honestly expect the driver to yield her protest and turn the other way? These people are so far removed from reality that I feel sorry for them.

Wow, I read the article. All I can say about Hamas after reading that is "these bastards". Terrorist attacks against Israelis are horrific, but to treat their own people like this shows a complete moral bankruptcy.

I don't know if the ISM condemns Hamas terrorism. They should. To my knowledge though they do not support attacks against civilians or give them weapons.