Eyewitness to Corrie's Murder by Tom 5:31pm Tue Mar 18 '03 An eyewitness account of Rachel Corrie's murder from ISM activist Tom in Rafah. print article Many of you will of heard varying accounts of the death of Rachel Corrie, maybe others will have heard nothing of it. Regardless, I was 10 metres away when it happened 2 days ago, and this is the way it went. We'd been monitoring and occasionally obstructing the 2 bulldozers for about 2 hours when 1 of them turned toward a house we knew to be threatened with demolition. Rachel knelt down in its way. She was 10-20 metres in front of the bulldozer, clearly visible, the only object for many metres, directly in it's view. They were in Radio contact with a tank that had a profile view of the situation. There is no way she could not have been seen by them in their elevated cabin. They knew where she was, there is no doubt. The bulldozer drove toward Rachel slowly, gathering earth in its scoop as it went. She knelt there, she did not move. The bulldozer reached her and she began to stand up, climbing onto the mound of earth. She appeared to be looking into the cockpit. The bulldozer continued to push Rachel, so she slipped down the mound of earth, turning as she went. Her faced showed she was panicking and it was clear she was in danger of being overwhelmed. All the activists were screaming at the bulldozer to stop and gesturing to the crew about Rachel's presence. We were in clear view as Rachel had been, they continued. They pushed Rachel, first beneath the scoop, then beneath the blade, then continued till her body was beneath the cockpit. They waited over her for a few seconds, before reversing. They reversed with the blade pressed down, so it scraped over her body a second time. Every second I believed they would stop but they never did. I ran for an ambulance, she was gasping and her face was covered in blood from a gash cutting her face from lip to cheek. She was showing signs of brain hemorrhaging. She died in the ambulance a few minutes later of massive internal injuries. She was a brilliant, bright and amazing person, immensely brave and committed. She is gone and I cannot believe it. The group here in Rafah has decided that we will stay here and continue to oppose human rights abuses as best we can. Please: forward this message. Boycott caterpillar Take direct action against the Caterpillar Corporation - please do not let this be without cost to them. Legally, i shouldn't ask you to do anything destructive or against the law. If you're wandering about Rachel: her writings, photos of her and statements on her death are available on the below website. More photos: go to yahoo news section, search for photos by 'rachel'. If you're wandering about the International Solidarity Movement: www.palsolidarity.org If you're wandering about the bulldozers: They're American, Caterpillar made armoured D9 Bulldozers. I estimate the blade is maybe 8 ft high, 15 ft wide and more than 9 tons. They're purchased from America using the $12billion per annum military aid package that America gives to Israel. For a report on their previous usage: go to http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/kurdi_eng.html (well worth reading - especially if you didn't believe anyone would be crazy enough to do this). If you're wandering about Rafah: in the southern Gaza strip, next to the Egyptian border. Apart from suffering in excess from the problems all over Palestine: Israeli manipulation of the water supply, economic strangulation, regular shootings and army operations, Rafah is afflicted by the building of an extra border wall. It has caused hundreds of homes to be destroyed. The house in question, that of a doctor, like dozens of others in the area is not set to be demolished because of any supposed link to militants. Only because it lies within 100 metres of the new border wall, currently in construction. Families receive no compensation from Israel, and are frequently given just a few minutes warning in the form of live ammunition being shot through the walls of their house. tom add your comments Source file

D9 by KPSS 6:52pm Tue Mar 18 '03 print comment Support D9 -best anti- terror weapon (along with daisy cutter) add your comments

Comment of Daniel Removed by Indymedia Editing Group 8:20pm Tue Mar 18 '03 print comment Comment of Daniel was removed due to it being a direct call to violence. add your comments

More eyewitness testimony by Joe 8:50pm Tue Mar 18 '03 print comment Eyewitness testimony from Joe, who saw Rachel Corrie's murder: From Joe: I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I've never had someone close to me die before, let alone be brutally murdered right in front of my eyes. I don't even know how to react. I went through stages of dumbfounded shock and serious crying fits. I had no chance to be alone at all, I was either surrounded by Palestinians or on the phone with media. Now we're preparing for a serious influx of people from the West Bank and Israel, as well as some people from abroad, possibly including her family. The stress is really getting to me. I couldn't sleep for the 2 hours I was allowed because my body won't relax. My heart is racing and shake a lot, and even have trouble breathing. My jaw is the worst though. It won't losen to save my life, and it hurts like hell, especially when I chew (when i get time to grab a falafel sandwhich). I've never experienced physical stress and tension like this. We thought this might happen eventually. We often spoke in the abstract that eventually one of us would get killed, but we always figured they'd shoot us, or it'd be an "accident", like in a house that is misiled or a stray bullet gets an unlucky activist. I never dreamed it'd be like this, the intentional crushing of a human being. I do believe it was intentional. I saw it, and I know he saw her, I know he did, and I know he knew she was still under the bulldozer when it backed up without raising its blade. I don't know if he wanted to kill her, or if he was just focused on doing his work and didn't care if he killed her or not, I don't know which is scarrier. I don't feel like telling the whole detailed story right now. I promise that for the record I will tell it in detail, but give me a few days. I just want to quickly dispell a few myths you may have heard in the media. She did not "trip and fall" in front of the bulldozer. She sat down in front of it, well in advance, wearing one of the orange flouro jackets I got in Amsterdam. (by the way, I took the pictures you may have seen of her, standing with the megaphone in front of the bulldozer, and the ones of her freinds helping her). He clearly saw her, and continued to drive until she was forced onto the top of the dirt he was pushing, elevating her so much that she was at eye level with the bulldozer's cab, he could see right into her eyes. He continued forward, pulling her underneath the dirt, and out of his vision. He continued forward, crushing her underneath the weight of the blade. He continued forward, until she was well underneath the bulldozer. It was then quite clear that she was nowhere but underneath him, but he proceded to back up, without lifting the blade, crushing her again. I beleive that it was the combination of these two crushings that caused her death. She was defending the house of a physician. We've all stayed in the house, we know that there are no weapons of any kind there. Just a middle aged doctor and his lovely family. They want to demolish it because it happens to lie near the boarder, and they're systematically demolishing all the houses near the boarder. It has nothing to do with retaliatory or preventative operations. They were not searching for tunnels or bombs either. We know what this looks like, they do it alot. It involves armored drills and bomb dogs and shooting at the ground, none of which was present here. Its just a further example of the Israeli military's blatent lies. There was never any gunfire from any Palestinians, the only gunfire came from the tank, when it shot at the ground a few times in order to scare us. But even this was extremely minimal. The Palestinian that was killed was in a totally seperate area of Rafah, and was killed by blanket fire into the area, not in a gun battle. It is quite unfortunate that his death probably wouldn't even be reported anywhere if it weren't for Rachel. The Palestinians have been incredible. They are quite used to this, as thousands of their people have died. Indeed I now know how every Palestinian family feels, as many of them have lost multiple freinds and family to this occupation. Their support has been invaluable however, they've gone to full lengths to give her a proper demonstration and ceremony, like they give every other Shahid (martyr). They've made a nice poster of her as well, which will be posted in all of the places she has been, and there's ganna be a big march and demonstration this afternoon. We're planning actions for the comming days as well. We're planning to occupy the murder sight, and line the whole area with flowers, and erect a nice visible memorial as well. I don't know what this means for us now. It could go one of two ways. It could make us more effective, because now they know that we are not going to move, and that we will risk our safety to oppose them. Thus they will be forced to be more careful, and withdraw sooner. Or, it could mean that they know longer care, and will willfully kill and injur us without hesitation. This would render us useless as human sheilds, and our work would be impossible. So we'll have to see. I know we'll be much more careful, and have long talks about tactics, and with what people are still comfortable. I have a lot of thinking and considering to do. But we're not leaving, that's for sure. We're dedicated to staying here, especially with the Iraq war and risk of full invasion of Gaza. If any of you heard anything else and have questions, I'd gladly respond to them. I also encourage you to contact your local media, and tell them that you know someone who was there and saw it, and who is still there and willing to give a full interview. Feel free to give them my name and phone number: Joseph Smith, 092-67-628-507. Please spread the word, its all we can do now. I'm sure you'll keep me in your thoughts, I need all the energy I can get as I deal with this trauma. My close freinds and family have been wonderful, and havn't freaked out on me like I thought they would. But I share their concern. Ok, I must go the press conference. Below is an article by my professor from Evergeen, its a fabulous analysis of Sharon's occupation and his attacks on innocent civilians. much love and desparity electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.sh... add your comments

bus rider by goldberg 8:32pm Wed Mar 19 '03 print comment ..i guess he never rides israeli busses add your comments