[lbo-talk] revolting piece about Rachel Corrie

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Mar 8 13:22:10 PST 2004


Jerusalem Post - March 1, 2004

<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1078113575924&p=1006953079865>http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1078113575924&p=1006953079865

A 'tribute' to Rachel Corrie Ruhama Shattan

March 16 is the first anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death. I want to thank Corrie for the explosives that flow freely from Egypt to Gaza, via the smuggling tunnels under the Gaza homes that she died defending.

Perhaps it was these explosives that in the year since her martyrdom ö oops, death ö have been strapped around suicide bombers to blow up city buses and restaurants in Israeli cities, particularly in Jerusalem, killing men, women, and schoolchildren (two of them classmates of my daughter and her friend in the February 22, 2004 bombing), and leaving hundreds more widows, orphans, and bereaved parents.

On the first anniversary of her death, I want to thank Rachel Corrie for showing Palestinian children how to despise America as she snarled, burned an American flag, and led them in chanting slogans, and as she gave "evidence" at a Young Palestinian Parliament mock trial finding President Bush guilty of crimes against humanity.

Perhaps her help in fanning the flames of violent anti-American sentiment led to the October 2003 bombing of the Fulbright delegation to Gaza to interview scholarship candidates, killing three. There will be no new crop of Palestinian Fulbright scholars this fall.

ON THE first anniversary of her death, I wanted to thank Rachel Corrie for providing her organization, the Palestinian-sponsored International Solidarity Movement, with the opportunity to release a manipulated photo sequence "showing" an Israeli military bulldozer deliberately crushing her. (I would also like to thank AP and The Christian Science Monitor for taking up the baton and immortalizing this cynical ISM stunt.)

On the first anniversary of her death, I want to thank Rachel Corrie for showing the way to all those who seek peace in the Middle East. Unfortunately, Corrie's peace, as anyone familiar with the PLO, Fatah, Hamas, and Hizbullah organizations that she defended with her life knows ö or as anyone familiar with the weekly rants of the Friday preachers in the Palestinian mosques is aware ö means not peaceful coexistence but the elimination of the State of Israel, and death to those they call "the usurping Jews, the sons of apes and pigs."

Thank you, Rachel Corrie, of Evergreen State University, where the profs wear khakis and keffiyehs at graduation ceremonies, for showing us what peace really means.

The writer is a translator, editor, and writer who has lived in Israel since 1976.

----

US Embassy accuses J'Post of publishing ''hateful incitement'' March 06, 2004 By Warrick Page for IMEMC

The US Embassy condemned the Jerusalem Post in a letter to the editor on Wednesday, saying an editorial written about the first anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death, was "nothing less than a hateful incitement".

The editorial, written by Ruhama Shattan, "thanks" Ms Corrie - a US peace activist killed in Rafah on March 16 last year - for "defending" the arms-smuggling tunnels in Gaza and "for showing Palestinian children how to despise America".

The response from the US Embassy, written by Paul Patin, said, "The author's disgusting abuse of the anniversary of the death of this American citizen is inexcusable".

Ms Corrie came to the country to volunteer with activist group the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in March 2003 and was crushed by a bulldozer while trying to prevent a housing demolition in Rafah refugee camp, Gaza Strip.

According to Ms Shattan, Ms Corrie "perhaps" helped fan the flames "of violent anti-American sentiment led to the October 2003 bombing of the Fulbright delegation to Gaza".

"Corrie's peace . . . means not peaceful coexistence," Ms Shattan wrote, "but the elimination of the State of Israel, and death to those they call "the usurping Jews, the sons of apes and pigs'."

Ms Shattan concluded Ms Corrie was a willing martyr and that her activism worked under the auspicious of terrorist networks - if not to assist them knowingly - albeit indirectly.

Ms Shattan also "thanked" Ms Corrie for "providing" ISM with the "opportunity to release a manipulated photo sequence `showing' an Israeli military bulldozer deliberately crushing her" and included the Associated Press and Christian Science Monitor for "taking up the baton and immortalising this cynical ISM stunt".

Mr Patin said, "The article reflects a level of discourse unbefitting any serious newspaper" and the US Embassy was "disappointed" they had chosen to publish the article.

ISM has requested space in the Jerusalem Post to respond to the allegations and did not rule out the possibility of legal action should their request be denied.



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