Yes, yesterday marked the 12th anniversary of that fateful day when Rachel Corrie stood defiantly in front of an AMERICAN BOUGHT AND PAID FOR Israeli armored Caterpillar Corporation bulldozer as it was attempting to demolish a home in Rafah, occupied Gaza Strip.... Everyone knows the story by now where she slipped and fell under the bulldozer as it moved forward and then proceeded to drop its front end bucket and backed up PURPOSELY over Rachel's body, crushing her underneath... Rachel died a short time later....To this date, the family of Rachel Corrie has had NO justice from the criminally psychotic Israelis for their murder of Rachel.... It has also been appalling to watch as the US State Department has obediently followed their Jewish masters and has washed its hands of this incident.... It has also been appalling that the Jew spew media has absolutely done their part in avoiding the story of Rachel Corrie all together....Sickening and pathetic is an understatement!Now, I want to present the following report that comes from the Aletho News online service at www.alethonews.wordpress.com, where the family of Rachel Corrie released a statement just yesterday on the 12th anniversary of Rachel's murder... I have that report right here for everyone to read for themselves, and I do have my own thoughts and comments to follow:
Statement from the family of Rachel Corrie on the 12th anniversary of Rachel’s stand in Gaza
The Corrie Family | March 16, 2015
Today, the twelfth anniversary of our daughter and sister Rachel’s stand and death in Gaza, we find ourselves back where our journey for accountability in her case began – in Washington DC. We have come for meetings at the Department of State and in Congress and, also, to join our colleagues in pursuit of a just peace in Israel/Palestine at the national meeting of Jewish Voice for Peace.Rachel was crushed to death March 16, 2003, by an Israeli military, US-funded, Caterpillar D9R bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza, while nonviolently protesting the impending demolition of the home of a Palestinian family. This was one of thousands of homes eventually destroyed in Gaza in clearing demolitions, described in the 2004 Human Rights Watch Report, Razing Rafah.The U.S. Department of State reported that on March 17, 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised President Bush that the Israeli Government would undertake a “thorough, credible, and transparent” investigation into Rachel’s killing and report the results to the United States. On March 19, 2003, in a U.S. Department of State press briefing, Richard Boucher said in reference to Rachel, “When we have the death of an American citizen, we want to see it fully investigated. That is one of our key responsibilities overseas, is to look after the welfare of American citizens and to find out what happened in situations like these.”Through tenures of both the Bush and Obama administrations, high level Department of State officials have continued to call for Israeli investigation in Rachel’s case. During our twelve year journey for accountability, we met with Lawrence B. Wilkerson (Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell), William Burns (then Under Secretary of State) and Antony Blinken (then Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to Vice President Biden) – all who have acknowledged lack of an adequate response from the Israeli Government in Rachel’s case.In a letter to our family in 2008, Michelle Bernier-Toth, U.S. Department of State’s Managing Director of Overseas Citizens Services, wrote, “We have consistently requested that the Government of Israel conduct a full and transparent investigation into Rachel’s death. Our requests have gone unanswered or ignored.”In March 2005, at the suggestion of the Department of State and to preserve our legal options, our family initiated a civil lawsuit against the State of Israel and Ministry of Defense. After a lengthy Israeli court process, in February of this year, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that said Rachel was killed in a “war activity” for which the state bears no liability under Israeli law. In response, Human Rights Watch wrote,“The ruling flies in the face of the laws of armed conflict…The ruling grants immunity in civil law to Israeli forces for harming civilians based merely on the determination that the forces were engaged in ‘wartime activity,’ without assessing whether that activity violated the laws of armed conflict, which require parties to the conflict at all times to take all feasible precautions to spare civilian life.”Our family’s legal options in Israel are nearly exhausted, but our search for justice for Rachel goes forward. Back in Washington DC, we have come full circle. We ask again that U.S. officials address their responsibility to U.S. citizens and to all civilians whose lives are impacted and cut short by military actions supported with U.S. taxpayer funding. We ask that they determine what to do when a promise from a key ally’s head of state to our own goes unfulfilled. March 16, 2003, was the very worst day of our lives. Our family deserves a clear and truthful explanation for how what happened to Rachel that day could occur, and to know there is some consequence to those responsible. Rachel deserves this.She wrote, “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. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop.”The failure of the Israeli court system to hold its soldiers, officers, and government accountable does not represent a failure on our part. Rachel, herself, went to Rafah looking for justice – a forward looking justice in which all people in the region would enjoy the freedoms, rights, opportunities, and obligations that we each demand for ourselves. The facts uncovered in our legal effort in Israel, and the clear evidence of the Israeli court’s complicity in the occupation revealed in the outcome, lay important legal groundwork for the future. As we look back at Selma fifty years ago and Ferguson today, we realize that our own civil rights struggle is not won in a single march or court case. It is ongoing. As our family continues our journey for justice, we thank those across the U.S., the world, and in Palestine and Israel who travel with us. Together, we will find justice for Rachel – both the justice she deserves and the justice for which she stood.NTS Notes: Again, the stand by the US government on Rachel's death is truly pathetic and shows again how they are totally under the control of these Israeli murderers and scoundrels...The fact is that the Israelis have as expected dismissed all wrong doing in regards to their murder of Rachel... Their official stance is that Rachel was in a "war zone" (Admission that Israel is out to destroy Gaza?), and therefore she was a "casualty" of that war! In doing so, the family of Rachel will never ever see true justice and these murderous psychopaths have gotten away with their foul deed....I again hope that the day comes when all of Palestine is finally free of Israeli tyranny... When that day comes, I and others will want to see the Palestinian people pay homage to Rachel in the form of either a holiday or a day of remembrance for her stand against evil.... That day is not coming soon enough...More to comeNTS