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May
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May
14, 2003
A Mother's Day Talk
The Daughter
I Can't Hear From
By CINDY CORRIE
Remarks delivered at Sylvester Park,
Olympia, Washington, May 11, 2003
To all moms here, happy Mothers' Day. This is
a day some of us wait for in order to have a little reward for
all the time we have spent in our lives reminding and making
sure that all of the family birthdays, Fathers' Day, and important
days in our families' lives are properly acknowledged. We deserve
this day! We have earned it!
I have had lovely Mothers' Days in my
life. When my children were younger, I had to remain in bed until
they could serve me breakfast there-French toast (sometimes a
little crispier than usual) and orange juice-always lovingly,
sometimes messily, most often safely prepared. There were gifts--
handmade cards, poems, drawings, and coupon books. The latter
promised hours of house cleanings, meals to be prepared on one
of my busier days, and sometimes an unlimited number of hugs.
I think I always collected on the hugs. I probably didn't redeem
all of the other coupons offered; but I knew on those  mothers'
days that my childrens' hearts and minds were filled with finding
creative, tangible (and inexpensive) ways to say "I love
you, Mom." I am not sure that even now they completely,
consciously understand that their greatest gift to me has always
been simply in their being.
This Mothers' Day, of course, is a unique
one for me. As my kids grew into adulthood and as we spread out
across the country, on Mothers' Day I could count on a phone
call from each of them-three kid calls in one day. ( For AT&T
and Sprint, Mothers'Day is winning the lottery.) This year, I
hear from Chris and Sarah by phone and in person. Not from Rachel,
who on March 16 was killed by a bulldozer in the Gaza Strip,
while trying to protect a Palestinian home from demolition. Rachel
is, though, powerfully with me-in the same way, I am sure, that
other mothers have their lost children powerfully with them on
this day.
The possibility of Mothers' Day 2003
having more than the usual significance was sparked for me before
Rachel died-a week before, when I was in Washington DC with other
women gathered to challenge the pending war with Iraq. I spent
a day in workshops and came across mothers planning to take Mothers
Day back to its roots in this country, to Julia Ward Howe and
her Declaration calling for a Mothers Day of Peace, and her model
of challenging injustice and violence wherever it might be.
There have been, since Rachel's death,
others who have urged me to consider the power of mothers. On
a radio call-in show out of Washington DC-the only call-in we
have done-- I was nervous but quickly heartened when two of the
first calls came from mothers of Evergreen students who had learned
of Rachel through their children. Then came one from a kind man
who told me that I was talking to the wrong people in Washington
DC-that instead of trying to communicate with the President,
I needed to get in touch with Laura and Barbara Bush-with the
mothers of the world. I told the gentleman that I have a great
deal of confidence in mothers. And I do. I am bonded to mothers.
I feel something deep in our core, something that happens when
a child comes into our lives that keeps us grounded in our awareness
of the sanctity of that being and by transference keeps us grounded
in our awareness of the sanctity of all human beings. I believe
that the policies of this country and the money that follows
them in the world, should reflect values that most mothers here
hold--the sanctity of each life, the equal value of each human
being, and a commitment to justice applied equally through adherence
to law.
My attention, of course, has been drawn to injustices in the
U.S./ Israeli/ Palestinian conflict. I meant today to talk with
you about other mothers-brave Palestinian and Israeli mothers--
but I have just learned of things that concern me greatly and
that I must share with you. The International Solidarity Movement,
the group with which Rachel worked, "was founded to provide
the Palestinian people with a resource, international protection
and a voice with which to resist nonviolently, an overwhelming
military occupation force. In the last couple days the Israeli
military has increased pressure on foreigners in the West Bank
and particularly in the Gaza Strip and appears to be specifically
targeting the ISM. Two British members, Nick and Alice, were
held at a checkpoint for twenty-eight hours, with no arrest and
no charges and are now being held at a settlement apparently
for deportation. I believe Alice, is the woman who comforted
Rachel as she was dying. Alice is Jewish and has cousins in Israel
whom she fears for when she hears of a suicide bombing.
Friday, approximately twenty military
vehicles surrounded the ISM media office, seized ISM computers
and video equipment, pillaged files and photos, broke equipment
and damaged office space. Three females in the office (one from
Human Rights Watch, a Palestinian volunteer, and an American
volunteer) were taken away. The Palestinian has been released.
The internationals are apparently still being held-most likely
for deportation. It is reported that these incidents are part
of an overall plan to remove ISM from the West Bank and Gaza.
The Associated Press states, "Under Israel's new rules,
foreigners entering Gaza must sign a document in which they agree
not to enter military areas along the Israeli-Egyptian border
and 'other areas of combat' and in which they absolve Israel
of all responsibility in the case of their injury or death."
While the new regulations appear aimed at the ISM, the Associated
Press states, "the regulations appear also to give the military
considerable discretion in keeping away other foreign nationals--journalists,
aid workers, and those trying to monitor the fighting between
the Israelis and Palestinians." Amnesty International has
issued a statement saying it is concerned that "one aim
of these new and drastic restrictions is to prevent outside monitoring
and scrutiny of the conduct of the Israeli army." Our family
does not know what reason the Israeli military is using for its
actions against ISM. We do know that they said our daughter was
in the Occupied Territories illegally. When we questioned our
own State Department about this, they said they knew of absolutely
no law that Rachel broke.
I want to point out that the "the
areas of combat" that the Israeli military speaks of are
the residential streets of Gaza and the West Bank- on land that
belongs to the Palestinian people.
I want to point out that it is to these
densely populated neighborhoods that the tanks and bulldozers
come to carry out their military operations--operations that
include destroying homes, greenhouses, olive tree orchards, and
wells. These are the neighborhoods over which American made and
financed Apache helicopters fly and where the snipers in the
Israeli watchtowers that surround the area direct their ammunition.
I want to point out that this past week,
19 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed by the Israeli
military. The dead include five children, an old man, and a handicapped
male. Thirteen of these deaths occurred in Gaza City's al-Shojaeya
neighborhood where additionally forty Palestinians were wounded.
Access to ambulances and medical staff was obstructed. Walls
of some homes were destroyed. One thirty-six year old and his
family were forced out of their house, ordered to take off their
clothes and were then used as human shields to protect the Israeli
soldiers from Palestinian resistance men confronting the forces.
This use of civilians as human shields is illegal under international
law.
This week, in other Palestinian areas,
other children were killed and injured when Israeli forces opened
fire damaging houses and hitting a hospital and school. One child
was killed when forces opened fire on stone throwers.
A British journalist, James Miller, making
an HBO documentary on the lives of Palestinian children in Rafah,
was killed by Israeli forces though he and others had come out
of a house waving a white flag and wearing vests marked "TV."
Eighteen houses were destroyed in Rafah this week, leaving more
than 100 more Palestinian civilians homeless. According to the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Regugees,
since the beginning of the current strife in 2000, 12,737 Palestinians
have seen their homes demolished. A great many demolitions have
occurred near Gaza's border with Egypt where Israel is building
what they call a security fence.
On May 2 Israeli military with heavy
vehicles and bulldozers moved into a Gazan village and razed
fifteen pieces of Palestinian land planted with wheat, onions,
wild figs, and olives. Iron-roofed rooms and irrigation networks
were also destroyed.
These occurrences of the past week are
not unique. They happen day after day in Palestine.
I do not need to point out, because you
all know, that there are suicide bombings in Israel. These are
horrible, indiscriminate, illegal acts of violence. Though there
is no balance of power between the Israeli and Palestinian people,
the fear is very real on both sides. The violence, however, inside
Israel is a direct result of the 36 year occupation of Palestine
and of the ongoing abuse of Palestinian human rights. There are
no home demolitions in Israel, no gardens and orchards destroyed
there, no wells and cisterns damaged and water taken away, no
land taken away to create settlements, roads, and apartheid walls.
We in America see the horror of the suicide
bombings. We seem to see much less the ongoing, violence against
the Palestinian people. Our blindness is an enormous contributing
factor to this problem. We need to remember that as we have watched
the deaths of some of the 773 Israelis who have died since September
2000, that there have also been 2298 Palestinian deaths. In this
booklet now dedicated to Rachel-are the names and some of faces
of the children who have died since September 2000-- Israeli,
Palestinian. We need to remember them all.
The news of the past couple days has
left me no choice but to come to you with the hope that some
of you will be moved to action this Mothers' Day. I urge you
to take your voices to members of Congress, to the White House,
to the State Department, to the Israeli Embassy. Tell them that
the International Solidarity Movement and other international
human rights activists in Palestine need their support. Tell
them that, of course, the Israeli military does not want these
activists watching and interfering as it commits one human rights
violation after another. Tell them that the United States, which
funds the out-of-control military activity in Palestine, should
insist that international human rights observers be in the area
but that until they do, it is imperative to support the non-violent
activists who are there now. Tell them that the timid response
from the U.S. and British governments to Rachel's death and that
of journalist James Miller, and to the shootings of Brian Avery
and Tom Hurndall gives Israel the green light to establish these
new, harsh tactics to further intimidate the non-violent activists.
It has been pointed out to me that the response to date by the
U.S. and British governments to these incidents is sending a
chilling message to human rights activists round the world. Our
government must take a much stronger stand.
There have been times when I have been
quiet because I felt there were others who knew more. There are
some who would like to quiet me now and who would like to quiet
the power of Rachel's message, too. I am no longer intimidated
by experts and critics and certainly not by the name-callers.
After all, my daughter stood in front of a bulldozer in order
to protect the Palestinian home of a family with three young
children. I believe that I can speak out and that I have a responsibility
as a mother to speak out and to demand that the experts, the
policymakers, Congress, and the White House reflect our values-our
beliefs in the sanctity of each life, in the equality of each
human being, and in justice and the rule of law.
I want to close with a few short excerpts
from a few of the letters we have received from around the world::
From the Director Emeritus of a Jewish
Studies Program at a major U.S. University where these words
were spoken at a Memorium for Rachel: "Our Jewish Scripture
says in Deuteronomy, Chapter 16, verse 20) "Justice, justice
you shall pursue." The obverse of this biblical injunction
is "Injustice, injustice you shall oppose!" And Rachel
Corrie opposed injustice. For that we will honor her. For that
we will remember her. But more importantly, for her sacrifice,
for her premature death to have the greatest meaning, we must,
as best we can, continue the struggle she so ardently undertook.
May her example, and her life be a blessing to us all and may
her dream of a better world come about speedily and in our time."
From a woman in Israel who wrote to her
friend here in Olympia, "We need all our young people, ours
and theirs."
From a woman in New York state: "My
grandparents fled the pogroms of Russia a hundred years ago and
spent decades working for the creation of a Jewish homeland.
I'm certain that if they were alive, they would weep for all
that is happening there now, as I do."
From a group of thirty-five in North
Carolina: "We mourn Rachel's death, as we mourn the death
of every Palestinian and Israeli man, woman, and child. We are
a group of Jews who believe that the Occupation of the West Bank
and Gaza is unjust, immoral, and completely contradictory to
the best interests not only of the Palestinian people but of
Israel and the Jewish people. We work to help people, both Jewish
and non-Jewish, to find their voice, to speak up and speak out,
to understand that criticism of the Israeli government and its
inhumane policies is not only important, but absolutely critical
to our future."
And from a Muslim in the Middle East:
" I write to you as a parent myself and also as a Muslim
who believes passionately in the freedom and dignity of every
individual on our earth. It seems to me that we too carelessly
forget or disbelieve our shared identity across all times and
cultures, when in fact we are one human family desperately in
need of peacemakers."
Cindy Corrie
can be reached at: corrie@counterpunch.org.
Today's
Features
Saul
Landau
Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves
Michael
Neumann
Has Islam Failed? Not by Western
Standards
Uri
Avnery
My Meeting with Arafat
Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing
Jacob
Levich
Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas
William
Lind
The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory
The
Black Commentator
Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes
Stew Albert
Asylum
Hammond
Guthrie
An Illogical Reign
Website
of the Day
Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence
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