Northwest Suburban SUSTAIN statement on
the murder of Rachel Corrie

By now, most of you have read the attached AP article on the murder of Rachel Corrie at the hands of the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza. She was a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine. Her death came while she attempting to prevent the IOF from demolishing Palestinian homes with bulldozers that were in all likelihood D9 bulldozers manufactured by Caterpillar. Her murder fills us with anger and sorrow. We do not place her life above the life of any Palestinian that has been murdered by Israeli Occupation Forces. We celebrate her courage and willingness to risk everything to support the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. In recent weeks the IOF have threatened, arrested, beaten and shot members of the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine.

We hold the Israeli Occupation Forces guilty for her murder. We hold our elected officials guilty for accepting campaign contributions from Zionist organizations and then voting to give U.S. tax-funded aid to Israel to continue the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. We hold the corporate news media guilty for refusing to report the terror that the IOF has unleashed upon the Palestinian population.

Finally, it appears that Bush will launch a preemptive military attack on Iraq within the next 7 days. Once the attack begins, we urge everyone to participate in the Emergency Response plan that has been developed by the Chicago Coalition Against War And Racism (this can be viewed at Chicago Indymedia in the center column). On the day after the U.S. attack is launched, we are calling upon individuals and affinity groups to target the Israeli Consulate (111 E. Wacker Drive) for nonviolent direct action in memory of Rachel Corrie.
-Kevin Clark

This in from AP:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An American woman in Gaza to protest against Israeli operations was killed Sunday when she was run over by an Israeli bulldozer, witnesses and hospital officials said.

Witnesses said Rachel Corrie, 23, from Olympia, Wash., was trying to stop the bulldozer from tearing down a building in the Rafah refugee camp, witnesses said, when she was run over. She was taken to Najar hospital in Rafah, where she died, said Dr. Ali Moussa, a hospital administrator. Greg Schnabel, 28, from Chicago, said the protesters were in the house of Dr. Samir Masri. "Rachel was alone in front of the house as we were trying to get them to stop," he said. "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.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Groups of international protesters have gathered in several locations in the West Bank and Gaza during two years of Palestinian violence, setting themselves up as "human shields" to try to stop Israeli operations there. Corrie was the first member of the groups, called "International Solidarity Movement," to be killed in the conflict. Schnabel said there were eight protesters at the site, four from the United States and four from Great Britain.

"We stay with families whose house is to be demolished," he told the Associated Press by telephone from Rafah after the incident. Schnabel said Corrie was a student at Evergreen College and was to graduate this year. Israel sends tanks and bulldozers into the area almost daily, destroying buildings near the Gaza-Egypt border. According to interim peace accords, Israel controls the border area. There are almost daily clashes between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers in the area.