Another resigned white heroine who wants to dance with wolves. Most cynically, Rachel Corrie has been sucked dry, used and abused by the dissent industry who mourns her loss yet harbors the knowledge that her death has been a bonanza for editorial canon-fodder, raw material for sophisticated business models such as Adbusters, Naomi Klein and a whole series of what essentially is a core of white, affluent, leftist hipster consumerism cashing in on what they perceive as some form of authenticity.
Its a trope that is easy to fall into: a foot in the ordinary world of classic colonialism, the savior, and some shaky footing with the “other”, more objectified than ever; an extreme strain of secular Zionism, post-Zionism where the fantasy is molded and tailored to fit the reality. Here, the Arab is useful pretext to restore a rather vague and ambiguous sense of identity and open the door to a purpose in life; something, anything, to help a middle-class girl with an identity crisis. Of course, Corrie did not arise in a vacuum. This is a well-worn trail to choke off real dialog by the creation of a universe of superficial marxism which entails a crude privileging of the oppressed ( Palestinians) and the typical depiction of the rich, as egotistical Israelis. Tragic, her death was, but she put herself in danger whether fully aware of the risks or not. The reality is thousands come to israel to earn leftist street cred brownie points; israel is racist, violent and excessive. That is not in question. But in Syria and Egypt or Iran no one would put up with these dog and pony shows; crunching on bullets and not granola. Maybe its the narcissism of small differences at work…
—”This is a very saddening incident and the person who could have prevented it is the person who brought it upon themselves. The activists entered a terrorist camp. The facts show that the person who was killed was not a child or an innocent Palestinian family, but rather those who came to protest and incite against the IDF while terrorists were shooting at the soldiers,” Ziv added. —Read More:http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4274105,00.html image:http://www.levantinecenter.org/levantine-review/some-words-about-rachel-corrie-anonymous
(see link at end)…The Haifa District Court on Tuesday ruled against the family of Rachel Corrie, the American pro-Palestinian activist struck and killed by a bulldozer in Gaza.
In the verdict, Judge Oded Gershon invoked the principle of the combatant activities exception, noting that IDF forces had been attacked in the same area Corrie was killed just hours earlier….
Corrie, 23, from Olympia, Washington, died in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 16, 2003, when an IDF bulldozer struck her during a protest by pro-Palestinian group the International Solidarity Movement.
Reading a summary of his 62-page decision, the judge described Israel’s investigation into the incident as appropriate and said it had no mistakes….
—My Name Is Rachel Corrie, written by Guardian Weekend magazine editor Katharine Viner (who herself is Jewish) and actor/editor Alan Rickman, is based on Corrie’s diary and e-mail messages, and begins with the reflections of a young American woman who leads a dull and unfulfilled life. Then the entries suddenly shift in tone to sarcastic, rhetorical, and highly politicized statements.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, however, Viner denies that the play is in any way political.
“My Name Is Rachel Corrie is not a vehicle for a political message, but a portrait of one woman and her experiences – and how she’s changed by them, both in the US and in Gaza,” she says.
Yet Viner and Rickman have produced a manipulative play that attempts to delegitimize Israel under the pretense of exposure to “accessible writing.” And the audience at the Royal Court Theatre is bombarded with descriptions of alleged IDF actions devoid of context. —Read More:http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1342 image:http://artthreat.net/2007/04/zionists-censor-rachel-corrie-play-in-toronto-but-political-art-prevails-in-seattle/
Asserting that Corrie could have avoided danger, he dismissed claims that the IDF was negligent in the incident and denied the family’s suit for symbolic damages. The IDF did not violate Corrie’s right to life, he continued, asserting that she inserted herself into a dangerous situation….
Beneath this sympathy for the poor and oppressed; in Rachel’s case for Palestininans, is indeed a reactionary myth. it is something like Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment, but further back in the writings of Kipling and stories like Captains Courageous. James Cameron is an expert at this or back to Dancing with Wolves, The Help etc: young white rich people in crisis who have their vitality refilled through short-term interaction with the full-blooded life of the destitute. Marxist tourism. Like Susan Sarandon and twenty minutes at OWS. What animates this show of sympathy and vague compassion is a vampire like blood transfusion of osmosis that at the extreme, almost comically, sees a defense of fascists in Iran, the ecological fascism of a Heidegger…
…The state, he continued, was not responsible for any “damages caused” due to the combat situation but nonetheless called Corrie’s death a “regrettable accident.”
“I am hurt,” Corrie’s mother, Cindy, told reporters after the verdict was read.
Speaking outside the courtroom minutes after the verdict was released, an attorney representing the Corrie family in the case said the court endorsed the violation of Rachel’s human rights,.
The court’s decision, Attorney Hussein Abu Hussein noted that the verdict was so close to the state’s position that state attorneys could have authored it themselves.
Rachel’s mother Cindy said she was deeply saddened by the verdict….
Israelis are no more moral and superior than any other people,and shouldn’t be held to these ridiculous standards. China “displaced” a pair of decent sized towns to a large construction project, a dam. Quebec displaced a town for a gold mine,Osisko, yet all to little outrage. Lebanon’s treatment of Palestinians is more severe than Israel’s yet that situation is off the radar. … But somehow if the golden words spill like pearls off the tongues of the enlightened far left, there is a high moral ground, a sense of superiority, a high priest mentality.
…”From the beginning it was clear that there is a system to protect soldiers and provide them with impunity at the cost of civilians,” she told reporters outside the court. “Now we now that the protection for soldiers extends to the court.”
Saying that US diplomacy and the Israeli court system failed her family, Cindy Corrie added that there was never a credible investigation into her daughter’s death.
However, she continued, “At least we have had access to a court system, which most Palestinians are denied.”
Corrie was protesting injustice in Gaza when she was run over and killed by an IDF bulldozer, the attorney said, accusing the state and IDF of violating her human rights.
Corrie’s family filed the civil suit against the Defense Ministry in the district court seven years ago. They claim that the IDF either deliberately killed Corrie or is at least guilty of gross negligence.
Senior US officials criticised the original military investigation into the case, saying it had been neither thorough nor credible. But the judge said the inquiry had been appropriate and pinned no blame on the army.
Immediately after the trial ended in July, Corrie’s family alleged that important evidence, including several surveillance tapes from the time Corrie died, were withheld as part of a coverup over the circumstances of her death.
Among the evidence the family claims has been withheld from the civil suit are surveillance tapes that show color footage of events before and after Corrie’s death.
The color footage was used in a Channel 2 documentary, but the IDF has denied that the color footage exists, the family claims.
IDF officials did submit as evidence a black and white surveillance video with footage from immediately before and after Corrie’s death.
The family also claims there are discrepancies between a photograph of the bulldozer that they say killed Corrie taken by International Solidarity Movement activists, and a bulldozer shown on footage presented by the IDF….Read More:http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=282862
ADDENDUM:
(see link at end)…Corrie could have saved herself by moving out of the zone of danger “as any reasonable person would have done”, he said. The area was a combat zone, and the US government had warned its citizens not to go there.
International activists were intent on obstructing the actions of the Israeli military and acting as human shields “to protect terrorists”.
Corrie was killed on 16 March 2003, crushed under an Israeli military bulldozer while trying to obstruct the demolition of a Palestinian home in Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border.
The lawsuit, filed by Corrie’s parents, Cindy and Craig, of Olympia, Washington state, accused the Israeli military of either unlawfully or intentionally killing Rachel or of gross negligence. The family had claimed a symbolic $1 (63p) in damages and legal expenses.
The judge said no damages were liable, but the family’s court costs would be waived.
The family was “deeply saddened and deeply troubled” by the ruling, Cindy Corrie said at a press conference after the ruling. “I believe this was a bad day, not only for our family, but for human rights, humanity, the rule of law and also for the country of Israel.”
The state had, she said, employed a “well-heeled system” to protect its soldiers and provide them with immunity. “As a family, we’ve had to push for answers, accountability and justice.”
Rachel’s sister, Sarah Corrie Simpson, said: “I believe without doubt that my sister was seen as the driver approached her.” She hoped that the driver would one day “have the courage” to tell the truth….
…”The security forces … were compelled to carry out ‘levelling’ work against explosive devices that posed a tangible danger to life and limb, and were not in any form posing a threat to Palestinian homes. The work was done while exercising maximum caution and prudence, and without the ability to foresee harming anyone.”
According to Bill Van Esveld of Human Rights Watch, the verdict “sets a dangerous precedent in its claim that there was no liability for Corrie’s death because the Israeli forces involved were conducting a ‘combat operation’ … The idea that there can be no fault for killing civilians in a combat operation flatly contradicts Israel’s international legal obligations to spare civilians from harm during armed conflict, and to credibly investigate and punish violations by its forces.”…
…Among those giving evidence was the driver of the bulldozer, who testified anonymously from behind a screen for “security reasons”. He repeatedly insisted that the first time he saw the activist was when she was already dying. He said: “I didn’t see her before the incident. I saw people pulling the body out from under the earth.”…Read More:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/28/rachel-corrie-ruling-deeply-troubling?fb=optOut
COMMENTS
