Rachel Aliene Corrie (April
10, 1979 – March 16, 2003)
was an American peace activist and
member of International Solidarity Movement (ISM) from Olympia, Washington, who was crushed to death
by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored
bulldozer in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
She had come to Gaza during the
height of the second Palestinian intifada as
part of her senior-year college assignment to connect her home town with Rafah
in a sister citiesproject. While
there she had engaged with other ISM activists in efforts to non-violently
prevent the Israeli army's demolition of the homes of Palestinian people.
Less than two months after her
arrival, on
March 16, 2003, Corrie was killed after a three-hour confrontation between two
bulldozers and eight ISM activists. Wearing
a bright orange fluorescent jacket and, until shortly before her death, using a
megaphone, she was killed while standing in the path of a bulldozer that she
believed was about to demolish the house of local pharmacist Samir Nasralla's
family whom she had befriended. She
was run over twice by the bulldozer resulting in a fractured skull, shattered
ribs and punctured lungs.
The exact nature of her death and
the culpability of the bulldozer operator are disputed, with eyewitnesses
saying that the Israeli soldier operating the bulldozer deliberately ran over
Corrie, and the Israeli government saying that it was an accident since the
bulldozer operator ( WHO ?) could not see her.
In 2005 Corrie's parents filed a
civil lawsuit against the state of Israel. The lawsuit charged Israel with not
conducting a full and credible investigation into the case and with
responsibility for her death, contending
that she had either been intentionally killed or that the soldiers had acted
with reckless neglect. They
sued for a symbolic one U.S. dollar in damages to make the point that their
case was about justice for their daughter and the Palestinian cause she had
been defending.
In August 2012, an Israeli court
rejected their suit and
upheld the results of Israel's 2003 military investigation, ruling that the Israeli
government was not responsible for Corrie's death. The
ruling, the Israeli justice system, and the investigation it exonerated have
been criticized.
Rachel Corrie's life has been
memorialized in several tributes, including the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie and the
cantata The Skies are Weeping. Her collected writings
were published in 2008 under the title Let Me Stand Alone, opening "a window on
the maturation of a young woman seeking to make the world a better place". The Rachel
Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice has been established to
continue her work.
Self-Censorship, Zionist
Intimidation
& Repression Depression
By Peter Chamberlin
MortysCabin.net
10-21-7
When I submitted my last article
for publication, I discovered a censorship problem that I had never encountered
before. The article that I submitted to a site that used AOL email, kept
bouncing back, citing a reference within it for a "permanent failure"
message. The cited URL
was for a document that debunked
anti-Semitic disinformation. The bounced mail notice claimed that the censoring
was for:
"generating substantial complaints from AOL members. AOL blocks
emails that contain domains that may have been previously used to send
unsolicited email or inappropriate content...These blocks mainly target
clickable links, but may also block non-clickable domains."
I could not understand why
this material was banned. As I began to research the site, I came across this
information on "GeoCities" on the Anti-Defamation League site:
"GeoCities...refuses
to host hate sites...GeoCities, a subsidiary of Yahoo! Inc., prohibits
providing material that is grossly offensive to the online community, including
blatant expressions of bigotry, prejudice, racism, hatred or excessive
profanity." | HERE
So, it was not the site, it
was the content, even though it was anti-anti-Semitic.
I also learned that the ADL
is at the forefront of the movement to regulate information on the Internet
which they deem offensive. They have developed a "hate filter," which
they market to Internet providers, originally under the guise of censoring
content for children.
"The ADL filter bans
sites that preach anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia and other forms of
bigotry." | HERE
Since the ADL is one of the
primary lobbyists for Israeli causes, I was left with the probability that the
information was banned because of complaints that the material offended the
pro-Israel lobby, because it did not reflect their position on this topic.
Did
AOL adopt this stance in this instance because of direct or indirect pressure
from members of the lobby, or was the decision made by higher authorities for
them? According to researcher Wayne Madson:
"America On Line is the most egregious in stifling Internet
freedom. A former AOL employee noted how AOL and other Internet Service
Providers cooperate with the Bush administration in censoring email. The
Patriot Act gave federal agencies the power to review information to the packet
level and AOL was directed by agencies like the FBI to do more than sniff the
subject line. The AOL term of service (TOS) has gradually been expanded to
grant AOL virtually universal power regarding information. Many AOL users are
likely unaware of the elastic clause, which says they will be bound by the
current TOS and any TOS revisions which AOL may elect at any time in the
future. Essentially, AOL users once agreed to allow the censorship and
non-delivery of their email." |
I believe that AOL is censoring
material due to fear of government intimidation and the possibility that
pro-Israel lobby pressure will come down on them. I believe that the ADL list
of banned sites and pages figures prominently in government plans to censor
debate on American/Israeli foreign policy. The lobby's ability to dominate
debate within the government on sensitive topics is being reflected more and
more in stifled popular debate on the Internet.
This phenomenon of
self-censorship is showing up at Verizon
and AT&T, as well.
"Verizon and AT&T
followed the same pattern of censorship based on claims that they are blocking
certain material in order to protect their reputations under 'terms of
service'...Net access can be terminated for any behavior that AT&T or
Verizon believes might harm its 'name or reputation,' or even the reputation of
its business partners..."
"Google" the words
"AOL censorship" and you will find page after page of references to
banned topics - "youth filters" blocking certain liberal and antiwar
sites (including Democratic National Committee, Truthout and Prison Planet );
AOL messaging services blocking comments referencing Anti-Israel sites and info
related to the attack on the USS Liberty; pro-Palestinian sites like
MiddleEast.org being blocked.
Political correctness, concerning
issues relating to Israel and especially to Zionism, is being forced upon the
Internet under the guise of combating "hate speech," through the
tactic of intimidation, based on fear of economic reprisals against network
suppliers. This tactic creates an atmosphere of fear, through an anticipated
lobby response, that oftentimes works as well as direct threats. This is the
pro-Israel lobby's real power to wield through its wealthy donors, the promise
of economic rewards for those who support Israel and punishment for those who
oppose the Zionist plans.
This is the power that Walt and
Mearsheimer document for us in The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. Their
power to suppress and control public debate allows the lobby to dominate
"free speech" among the American people and our government. The
lobby's power is a measure of the loss of the people's power. They can only be
effective in their pressuring (lobbying) of government to comply with their
demands, if the American majority is ineffective. Their money and power has
harnessed our own political power for Israel's gain. This lobby (like all
lobbies) is directly undermining democracy by substituting someone else's will
(the will of Israel) for that of the American majority.
This power to dominate the public
debate on their issues is not matched by that of any other "lobby."
This power of indirect intimidation, which is called "pre-emptive
self-censorship" by Richard Silverstein, extends far beyond their
attempted domination of the Internet, to any public forum where they are likely
to be discussed.
"A number of non-Jewish
organisations have denied supposedly controversial speakers or organisations
the right to speak or perform due to the anticipated reaction of the local
Jewish community...in the case of the postponed New York performance of 'My
Name is Rachel Corrie,' a cancelled Chicago appearance of Stephen Walt and John
Mearsheimer, a cancelled concert by Marcel Khalife in San Diego, and a
cancelled speech by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Minneapolis, the hosts nixed the
appearances before there was any protest. And they cancelled because of an
anticipated response from the Jewish community which they had no reason to know
might ever happen... the Israel lobby has so conditioned American organisations
to its wrath that the latter won't even touch certain speakers for fear of
stirring it once again..."
This power to suppress the public
discussion of our strategic relationship with Israel, extends deeply into the
very "news" that we rely on to make decisions in our
democratic-republic. The following example demonstrates the power of the lobby
to control what we are allowed to know through our corporate media -
"In 2003, 23 year old US
College Student Rachel Corrie was run over by a Israeli government bulldozer
while trying to protest the systematic bulldozing of the homes of unarmed
Palestinians in Rafal in the Gaza Strip...All five TV networks did NOT report
this story when it happened; all five networks have not yet revealed the name
of the Israeli soldier who murdered Rachel Corrie. Contrast with the wall to
wall coverage of the reported murder of Daniel Pearl, a Jewish American
reporter for the Wall Street Journal..." | HERE
The Internet is the only source
for real news in America today, even though we see it slowly being whittled
away by forces that are hostile to free speech. The day is rapidly approaching
when this too will be taken away.
Voices of brave Americans like
Mearsheimer and Walt are sounding the alert for us; we ignore them at our own
peril. They have opened a line of debate in the war on terrorism that has
implications that go far beyond the war itself. Their book looks at the
demonstrated power of the lobby to stifle debate on Israeli policies in this
country and the negative impact that they have had on American foreign policy.
Now that they have boldly led the way to discussion of the formerly forbidden,
it is up to those of us who agree with them, to help expose the lobby's power
to suppress free speech, wherever we think we encounter it. Real American
patriots will join-in their efforts to prevent Israel and their Zionist
American supporters from leading us into another war to make the world safe for
Israel.
Morty, AKA,
Jim Mortellaro
www.MortysCabin.net
Morty@MortysCabin.net
or JSMortell@aol.com
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