The family of American peace activist
Rachel Corrie has had a letter
hand-delivered to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon by Rep. Adam Smith. The letter asks for an independent investigation into her death. Corrie was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer while attempting to halt the demolition of the house of a Palestinian doctor in March of 2003, just as the Iraq war was launched. Seven
eyewitnesses have signed sworn affidavits insisting Corrie was murdered.
American peace activist Rachel Corrie
The Corrie case is a fascinating study of the power of the Israeli lobby to place the public image of Israel above the interests of ordinary Americans. Politicians from both sides of the aisle have rushed to do nothing, or even, in the case of
Rep. Tom Lantos D-CA, to pass pro-Israel resolutions in response. To date, no FBI investigation has ever been launched into the alleged murder, which would ordinarily have been standard procedure.
Rachel Corrie herself has been smeared and hysterically demonized by pro-Likud shills both inside the United States and in Israel. To date few Congressman have signed on to the Rachel Corrie resolution demanding an investigation.
The Bush administration itself, in thrall to the neocons and some combination of co-opted and cowed by the Likud government, has done nothing.
If the allegations of the eyewitnesses are true, it is extremely disturbing to realize that alone among nations, the state of Israel evidently reserves the right to murder American citizens at will and the United States government is impotent to hold it to account. That a non-violent American peace activist could be killed so brutally, and her family subsequently abandoned by her own government when they ask for an investigation, to the point that today they must beg for help from the government that may be complicit in covering up the murder of their daughter is, in my opinion, a national disgrace.
Rachel Corrie. As a child she hoped to become the first female president of the United States
Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have made any indication that they intend to ever place the interests of these American citizens above those of the government of Israel. Nor do we have any evidence that they would do anything to protect any other American citizen from arbitrary murder by the government of Israel.
As you watch the Democrats line up to vote for the nomination of the man selected by George W. Bush to head the Department of Justice, Alberto Gonzales, I ask that you keep in mind the ongoing quest for justice of the family of Rachel Corrie.