[Biggest
Islamic
web site in the
U.S.]
P.O. Box 356, Kingsville, MD 21087.
Phone: 410-435-5000.
Disclaimer: Views expressed are not necessarily
shared by editorial committee.
Responses (positive or negative) up to 250 words are welcome.
Names will be withheld on request.
--------------------------------------------
Please write to
Imam Jamil al-Amin.
His
"address."
Jamil al-Amin #11014651
Georgia State Prison
100 Georgia Hwy 147
Reidsville, GA 30499-9701
---------------------------------------------------------
Write to outstanding
Egyptian-origin
Political
Prison Ahmed 'Abdel Sattar.
Famous translator of
Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman.
His "address:"
Ahmed Abdel Sattar #53506-054
Metropolitan Correctional Center
150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007
--------------------------------------------------------------------
RACHEL CORRIE's
MOTHER SPEAKS
Sweet Rose of America who was Crushed by
Israeli
bulldozer
[From New Trend correspondent Ms. Carolyn in
Florida.]
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 Refugees,
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.
Mary-Lou Leiser Smith
Coordinator, Coalition for Peace with Justice
Chapel Hill, NC
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2003-06-01 Sun 09:25ct