Yesterday the Star Tribune ran an article (from the Associated Press) on the civil trial currently going on around the death of pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie in 2003. The article highlighted some important points that often go unmentioned when this issue is discussed, so I wanted to share those points with you. This is the letter I sent to the Star Tribune in response to their article.
I’d like to thank the author of Thursday’s article, “Parents of slain US activist hear testimony of Israeli bulldozer driver who crushed her,” for highlighting several crucial points that too often get ignored.
As the article noted, the International Solidarity Movement’s activists “often position themselves in hotspots between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.”
Furthermore, as the article highlights, “thousands of foreign activists like Corrie recklessly choose to risk their lives in a conflict zone where they could be harmed by soldiers who themselves often feel under assault.”
There’s only so much we can ask of soldiers in battle. My heart breaks for Ms. Corrie’s parents. But isn’t there a point where people who purposely, consciously place themselves in the middle of a war zone, and actively interfere in the midst of a violent conflict, must be held at least a little responsible for their own well-being?
Palestinian terrorists have certainly never stopped their acts of violence because there are civilians present. If you stand in the middle of a military battle, and essentially say “you can’t get here, I’m a civilian, and I’m going to stand here until my side wins,” sooner or later, someone is going to get hurt.
This is certainly tragic, but a 23-year old adult should know better. We cannot ask other 19- and 20-year old soldiers, who are themselves under attack, to both do their jobs, and babysit every American who decides the middle of a war zone is the best place to go on vacation.
NOTE: Click here for more information on the International Solidarity Movement and their activities, courtesy of the Anti-Defamation League.
[Image: Cartography Associates ]
Yes, know that you have to the right and/or ability to do a lot of things in this world. But know just as well that your choices come with consequences. It SHOULD be a world of peace, and streets SHOULD be safe at 2 a.m. Until those things ARE true, we must make choices based on reality.
Michael – Thank you!
I couldn’t have said it better than that!
Yes, it would be really nice if we all lived in a perfect world of no dangers. But until then, we must have some responsibility for our own actions. I know that if I stand in the middle of a highway at rush hour, I might get run over. A war zone is not much safer. And it’s what being an adult is all about to be expected to know that, and behave accordingly.
~Jenna
The same applies to Schwerner and Goodman, IMO. Seeking danger is not heroic, it is narcissism.
David – are you kidding me? Did you just actually write that lynched civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner “sought danger”? I am shocked and offended. Do you have any understanding of history or politics?
I’m not a civil rights movement scholar, but a quick Wikipedia check shows that utter ignorance of your comment.
“The lynching of the three young men occurred shortly after midnight on June 21, 1964, when they went to investigate the burning of a church that supported civil rights activity. James Chaney was a local Freedom Movement activist in Meridian, Michael Schwerner was a CORE organizer from New York, and Andrew Goodman, also from New York, was a Freedom Summer volunteer. The three men had just finished week-long training on the campus of Western College for Women (now part of Miami University), in Oxford, Ohio, regarding strategies on how to register blacks to vote.
After getting a haircut from a black barber in Meridian, the three men headed to Longdale, Mississippi, 50 miles away in Neshoba County, in order to inspect the ruins of Mount Zion United Methodist Church. The church, a meeting place for civil rights groups, had been burned just five days earlier.
Aware that their station wagon’s license number had been given to members of the notorious White Citizens’ Council and Ku Klux Klan, before leaving Meridian they informed other Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) workers of their plans and set check-in times in accordance with standard security procedures. Late that afternoon, Neshoba County deputy Cecil Price — himself a member of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan — stopped the blue Ford carrying the trio. He arrested Chaney for allegedly driving 35 miles per hour over the speed limit. He also booked Goodman and Schwerner, “for investigation.”
Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney were all denied telephone calls during their time at the jail. COFO workers made attempts to find the three men, but when they called the Neshoba County jail, the secretary followed her instructions to lie and told the workers the three young men were not there. During the hours they were held incommunicado in jail, Price notified his Klan associates who assembled and planned how to kill the three civil rights workers.
While awaiting their release, the men were given a dinner of spoonbread, green peas, potatoes and salad. When the Klan ambush was set up on the road back to Meridian, Chaney was fined $20, and the three men were ordered to leave the county. Price followed them to the edge of town, and then pulled them over with his police siren. He held them until the Klan murder squad arrived. They were taken to an isolated spot where James Chaney was beaten and all three were shot to death. Their car was driven into Bogue Chitto swamp and set on fire, and their bodies were buried in an earthen dam. In June 2000, the autopsy report that had been previously withheld from the 1967 trial was released. The report stated Chaney had a left arm broken in one place, a right arm broken in two places, “a marked disruption” of the left elbow joint and may also have suffered trauma to the groin area. A pathologist who examined the bodies at the families’ request following their autopsies noted Chaney also had a broken jaw and a crushed right shoulder which were not mentioned in the autopsy report. As the autopsy photographs and X-Rays had been destroyed, the injuries could not be confirmed.”
(See – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_civil_rights_workers_murders)
Yes David. These unbelievably brave civil rights workers (two of whom were Jewish) working to register blacks to vote, and to combat racism in the south through peaceful activism were “seeking danger.”
And all female victims of rape “ask for it” too, right?
David,
Let me spell it out for you, in case Leora’s answer is too subtle for you or maybe for others who have trouble grasping crucial distinctions.
Yes, there are some parallels between the situations of Schwerner and Goodman and that of Rachel Corrie. Yes, all these activists travelled someplace to be active in a cause they believed in. Yes, all could be expected to foresee _some_ danger. That’s where the similarities end.
Corrie came to a foreign war-zone. Schwerner and Goodman went to another place in their own country, a place rife with tension and unrest, certainly, but definitely in peacetime.
Corrie was killed accidentally. The most that could be said about the soldier driving the bulldozer is that he might not have been quite careful enough; that’s why it’s a civil trial. Corrie bears some immediate responsibility for the accident, too — a bulldozer can’t exactly sneak up on you, and she must have been able to move away.
Schwerner and Goodman, in contrast, were hunted down and murdered. They were also stalked and caged by a policeman — someone from whom they had every right to expect the protection of the law (after all, most policemen were not Klansmen). Instead, there were savagely beaten and murdered.
The circumstances of death matter. The intentions of those who caused death are crucial.
Maybe some people think that exploring the surface similarities of these situations shows an open mind. But let’s also remember the crucial differences. And let’s weigh these accordingly. Let’s keep our minds open, but not so open that our brains fall out.