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CounterPunch
March 17,
2003
Rest in Peace, Rachel Corrie
By RAMZY BAROUD
It is the responsibility of the High Contracting
Parties to ensure Israel's respect of the Fourth Geneva Convention
of 1949, Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in the
Time of War.
Part IV, Section I, Article 142 of the
Convention states that "representatives of religious organizations,
relief societies, or any other organizations assisting the protected
persons, shall receive from these Powers, for themselves or their
duly accredited agents, all facilities for visiting the protected
persons, for distributing relief supplies and material from any
source, intended for educational, recreational or religious purposes,
or for assisting them in organizing their leisure time within
the places of internment."
It's disheartening to see how international
law is being abused by those whose selectively in interpreting
the law the governs our world has rendered it "irrelevant"
a long time ago.
The above references to the Fourth Geneva
Convention, which remains the most important frame of reference
to the conduct of war, mostly dealing with the responsibility
of an occupying power, is of no concern to the United States,
apparently, for the most upfront violator of such a law is the
state of Israel.
Israel has violated a long list of UN
Resolutions, whether Security Council or General Assembly. Even
the repeated American veto throughout the years were hardly enough
to safe Israel from its duty before international law. In fact,
Israel's legitimacy as a member of the international community
was never obtained in the first place, since the state of Israel
was a conditional member, whose membership was conditioned on
the implementation of UN Resolution 181 and 194, both are nowhere
near being fulfilled.
Of course, the everyday practices of
the Israeli army and government are good enough reminders of
the failure of the so-called international community to uphold
its own principals, and good enough indications of the continuing
violations of international law. But today, was a louder reminder
that will most likely catch the attention of many.
Today, Sunday, March 16, Rachel Corrie,
a sweet, 23 year old American activist, was run over by an Israeli
army bulldozer, and then buried by the debris, in the refugee
camp of Rafah, to the south of Gaza City.
Rachel, from the town of Olympia, in
Washington State, stood before Israeli bulldozers, as they tore
down a building that belongs to a "protected person"
because no one else, but Rachel and a few of her comrades dared
to challenge the Israeli army. There is a bittersweet irony in
her tragic death. Rachel should not have been in Palestine, she
should have been at home, studying for her exams. The United
Nations should have been blocking Israeli bulldozers, since they
were the institution designated to provide protection to the
refugees. Rachel's death does not only reflect the depth of her
humanity, but it also reflects the tremendous failure of the
United Nations, or perhaps their indifference, to this crucial
task.
I don't think that Rachel was thinking
of Geneva Conventions or had a particular UN resolution in mind
when she laid down before the Israeli bulldozer, and before the
Israeli driver buried her under the sand and then ran over her,
despite the pleas of people to stop. But I can imagine the rage
that went through the young woman's head as she decided to use
her body to stand between the army bulldozer and the Palestinian
refugees.
"Rachel was alone in front of the
house as we were trying to get them to stop," Greg Schnabel,
28, from Chicago told the Associated Press. "She waved for
bulldozer to stop and waved. She fell down and the bulldozer
kept going. We yelled 'stop, stop', and the bulldozer didn't
stop at all. It had completely run over her and then it reversed
and ran back over her," he said.
I recall my interview with Um Jamal
Al-Shalabi, of Jenin, as she narrated her own story with the
bulldozers that also refused to stop and demolished the house
over her paralyzed son, Jamal. "We have a schedule to keep,"
Um Jamal was told by the bulldozer driver, who along with his
colleague demolished entire neighborhoods, and on many occasions,
did so while people were still inside.
Although tragic, nothing is out of the
ordinary as far as Israeli conduct in the occupied territories
is concerned. Just recently an Israeli sniper in Jenin shot and
killed Ian Hook, a United Nations coordinator who was dispatched
to help the refugees put their lives back together after the
historic invasion of the camp in April of 2002. Israel claimed
that it appeared as if Hook had a gun in his hand, not a cell
phone. But they failed to explain why they left the British worker
to bleed to death, as his Palestinian colleagues tried to save
his life. I wonder how Israel plans to explain to media the death
of Rachel, did her frail body pose a threat to the safety of
the Israeli army? Or was it just another "honest mistake"?
While well over 200,000 American and
nearly 50,000 British soldiers are ready to invade Iraq, regardless
of how such an invasion is interpreted under international law,
people like us, students, mothers and fathers from all over the
world are flooding the Occupied Territories to provide some sort
of protection to the Palestinian people. Like Rachel, their bodies
are their only ammunition before the mammoth Israeli Merchava
tanks and D-9 bulldozers. They're angry, like many of us, because
of this untold hypocrisy of the United States government, and
the failure of the "High Contracting Parties," to live
up the law they drafted and to the resolutions for which they
voted.
A great deal is told about the brutality
of any army that doesn't mind running over a young woman for
simply protesting the demolishing of a house in Rafah or a paralyzed
man in Jenin. But also stories of courage are told, not only
by the Palestinian people, but also by those amazing individuals
who literary sacrifice their lives to stand by another people,
forgotten by the international community and deemed irrelevant
when laws are implemented.
I am sorry, Rachel, that you had to die
such a death; your screams on al-Jazeera broke my heart, as they
broke the hearts of many. But it's not the bulldozer driver,
a war criminal under every law, that I am angry at, but the US
government that supplied Israel with the weapons and political
cover to kill you and thousands of other innocents.
Today, Rachel our blood is united; you
stood and fell defending what is just and honorable. Maybe we
will not be able to give you the honor and gratitude that you
deserve, but Rachel, I promise you, that every Palestinian, but
every human being of conscience is paying tribute to you. Rest
in peace.
Ramzy Baroud
is the editor-in-chief of PalestineChronicle.com and the editor
of the anthology "Searching
Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion 2002."
50 percent of the editor's royalties will go directly to assist
in the relief efforts in Jenin. He can be reached at:
ramzy5@aol.com
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