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Middle East Online
Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:57 EST

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Rachel Corrie, clearly visible before being run over by a US-supplied Israeli Caterpillar – twice

Family of US activist killed by Israeli bulldozer in Gaza wants Israel to be held to account.
Tel Aviv – The family of US activist Rachel Corrie, run over by an Israeli bulldozer during a demonstration in Gaza in 2003, will sue Tel Aviv over her death, their lawyer said on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old killed at the height of the 2000 Palestinian intifada, or uprising, became an symbol of foreign support for the Palestinian cause and the subject of a 2005 play based on her emails and diary.
"The state should take responsibility for the death of Rachel Corrie. We believe her killing was done intentionally or at least out of negligence and wrongdoing," Hussein Abu Hussein, the family’s lawyer, said.
The family will be travelling to Israel for the trial, which will start March 10, Abu Hussein said.
Israel has allowed four activists who witnessed the incident to return to testify. The Palestinian doctor who pronounced Corrie dead has been summoned by the court but has not yet been given a permit to leave Gaza, he added.
Activists who witnessed Corrie’s death said she and others were acting as human shields to prevent a house demolition in the Gaza border town of Rafah for more than two hours and were clearly visible to the bulldozer driver.
"The whole time she was wearing a fluorescent jacket, as were her friends, and she had a megaphone," Abu Hussein said.
The Israeli military closed its own investigation into the matter in 2003 without taking any disciplinary action, saying the bulldozer crew could not see Corrie because she was behind a mound of rubble.

Comment: We refer you to exhibit A, the above photo.

"The death of Ms. Corrie was not caused as a result of a direct action by the bulldozer or by its running her over, but by the falling of earth and building materials that was pushed by the bulldozer," it said at the time.
The army went on to accuse Corrie and other activists from the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) of "illegal and irresponsible behaviour" contributing to her death.
According to an account published two days after her death by activist Tom Dale, who witnessed the incident, Corrie was clearly visible in an open area.
"They pushed Rachel, first beneath the scoop, then beneath the blade, then continued till her body was beneath the cockpit," he wrote.
"They waited over her for a few seconds, before reversing. They reversed with the blade pressed down, so it scraped over her body a second time. Every second I believed they would stop but they never did."

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/203676-Family-of-Rachel-Corrie-to-sue-Israel-for-her-murder

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by National Farmers Union (Canada)

.Global Research, July 14, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VISA REQUIREMENT FOR MEXICANS A PERVERSE OUTCOME OF NAFTA

SASKATOON, Sask.—Canadians need to understand the context of today’s announcement that Mexican citizens will require visas to visit Canada. We also need to understand the root cause of the rising number of Mexican refugees coming to Canada.

Food products—staples such as corn and beans—are flooding into Mexico. Since the 1995 implementation of NAFTA, US corn exports to Mexico have quadrupled. These products are flowing south at prices below Mexican farmers’ cost of production, and below the cost of production in the US. Subsidies enable farmers to produce below cost. NAFTA dictates that Mexico must allow this food in. The NAFTA timetable required that on January 1, 2008, Mexico remove its final restrictions on the imports of staple food products—opening its border completely to imports of corn and beans.

Mexican farmers have been devastated by low prices for corn and other crops. Farm families have been forced off their land, and forced to relocate to large cities and border-town maquilidoras. NAFTA’s body-blow to Mexico’s farm sector has meant a rapid rise in the number of Mexicans who are landless, unemployed, poor, and desperate.

This growing number of desperately poor Mexican citizens has created social unrest and instability and, in some cases, a pool of people willing to work for the drug cartels. Expanding drug cartel violence, the attendant corruption of some police and justice officials, a growing sense of lawlessness, declining safety, and declining economic prospects have driven many Mexican families to flee their homes—some have come to Canada to try to obtain refugee status.

“A huge portion of Mexican citizens rely on farming to support their families. Our trade policies—ostensibly aimed at finding ‘markets’ for our grains and meat—have devastated market prices for those Mexican farmers. Bankrupted farmers have been forced from rural areas and into cities. Those cities are increasingly lawless and dangerous—poverty and desperation has fueled the rise of organized crime. Many Mexicans are now trying to escape. Some are coming here. We need to connect the dots. Many of the Mexicans coming to Canada are refugees from NAFTA,” said NFU International Coordinator Martha Robbins.

Robbins added: “There is irony here. As we are forcing open Mexican borders to our products, we are closing our borders to a significant portion of the Mexican people. We are working to block the flow of people which is, to a significant extent, a result of our work to speed the flow of goods.”

The NFU believes that the effects of NAFTA on farmers in Mexico are unjust and massively damaging. This latest move by the Canadian government to require visas is just the most recent immorality flowing from the so-called trade agreement. The NFU strongly opposes the policy requiring Mexican citizens to have a visa to visit our country.

For More Information:

Martha Robbins, NFU International Coordinator: (416) 656-6708

Darrin Qualman, Director of Research: (306) 652-9465

Global Research Articles by National Farmers Union (Canada)

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