[news] Israeli Troops Fire on Rachel Corrie Memorial Service

[Gordon Flett]

For Photos of the the incident go to:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0319-02.htm

Published on Wednesday, March 19, 2003 by the Guardian/UK
Activist's Memorial Service Disrupted
by Chris McGreal in Jerusalem

Israeli forces fired teargas and stun grenades yesterday in an attempt
to break up a memorial service for Rachel Corrie, the American peace
activist killed by an army bulldozer in Gaza on Sunday.

Witnesses including several dozen foreigners and Palestinian supporters
say Israeli armoured vehicles tried to disperse the gathering at the
spot in Rafah refugee camp where Ms Corrie was crushed to death.

The 23 year-old activist with the International Solidarity Movement
(ISM) was trying to prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes by the
Israelis when she was hit by the bulldozer.

Joe Smith, a young activist from Kansas City, said about 100 people were
gathered to lay carnations and erect a small memorial when the first
armoured personnel carrier appeared.

"They started firing teargas and blowing smoke, then they fired sound
grenades. After a while it got hectic so we sat down. Then the tank came
over and shot in the air," he said. "It scared a lot of Palestinians,
especially the shooting made a lot of them run and the teargas freaked
people out. But most of us stayed."

Another witness said the army failed to break up the service.

"People were laying carnations at the spot where Rachel was killed when
a tank came and fired teargas right on them. Then a core group of the
peace activists took an ISM cloth banner to the fence and pinned it up.

"The tank chased after them trying to stop them with teargas but the
wind was against the army," she said.

Tensions rose further when a convoy of vehicles, including the bulldozer
that killed Ms Corrie, passed the area.

"I don't think it was deliberate but it was pretty insensitive," said Mr
Smith.

"I think they had been destroying some buildings elsewhere and had to
pass by to get back to their base."

The army said it was investigating the incident.

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

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If there is no struggle, there is not progress. Those who profess to
favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are those who want crops
without plowing the ground; they want rain without thunder and
lightening
. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical
one, or it may be both. But, it must be a struggle. Power concedes
nothing without demand; it never has and it never will.

-Frederick Douglas, 1857