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Rachel Corrie Biography & Facts

Rachel Aliene Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American activist and diarist. She was a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and was active throughout the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. In 2003, Corrie was in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military was demolishing Palestinian houses at the height of the Second Intifada. While protesting the demolitions as they were being carried out, she was crushed to death and killed by an Israeli armored bulldozer. Corrie was born in Washington, the United States in 1979. After graduating from Capital High School, Corrie went on to attend The Evergreen State College. She took a year off from her studies to work as a volunteer in the Washington State Conservation Corps, where she spent three years making weekly visits to mental patients. While at Evergreen State College she became a "committed peace activist" arranging peace events through a local group called "Olympians for Peace and Solidarity". She later joined the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) organisation in order to protest the policies of the Israeli army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She had gone to Gaza as part of her college's senior-year independent-study proposal to connect Olympia and Rafah with each other as sister cities. While in Rafah on 16 March 2003, she joined other ISM activists in efforts to prevent Israel's demolition of Palestinian property, where she was crushed to death and killed by an Israeli bulldozer. Physicians present and fellow ISM activists claimed that Corrie was deliberately driven over, while the Israeli army claimed that it was an accident because the bulldozer operator did not see her. Following the incident, the Israeli military investigated itself and found that Corrie's death was the result of an accident due to the cab's alleged limited visibility. The ruling attracted criticism from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, and Yesh Din. HRW stated that the ruling represented a pattern of impunity for Israeli forces. In 2005, Corrie's parents filed a civil lawsuit, charging the Israeli state with not conducting a full and credible investigation into the case and therefore holding responsibility for her death. They contended that she had either been intentionally killed or that the Israeli soldiers on scene had acted with reckless neglect. They sued for a symbolic US$1 in damages. However, an Israeli court rejected their suit in August 2012 and upheld the results of the military's investigation, ruling that the Israeli government was not responsible for Corrie's death, again attracting criticism from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and various activists. An appeal against this ruling was heard on May 21, 2014, but was ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court of Israel on February 14, 2015. Early life Corrie was born on April 10, 1979, and raised in Olympia, Washington, United States. She was the youngest of three children of Craig Corrie, an insurance executive, and Cindy Corrie. Cindy describes their family as "average Americans—politically liberal, economically conservative, middle class". After graduating from Capital High School, Corrie went on to attend The Evergreen State College, also in Olympia, where she took a number of arts courses. She took a year off from her studies to work as a volunteer in the Washington State Conservation Corps. According to the ISM, she spent three years making weekly visits to mental patients. While at Evergreen State College she became a "committed peace activist" arranging peace events through a local pro-ISM group called "Olympians for Peace and Solidarity". She later joined the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) organisation in order to protest the policies of the Israeli army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In her senior year, she "proposed an independent-study program in which she would travel to Gaza, join the ISM team, and initiate a 'sister city' project between Olympia and Rafah". Before leaving, she also organized a pen-pal program between children in Olympia and Rafah. Activities in the Palestinian territories In the Gaza Strip While in Rafah, Corrie stood in front of armored bulldozers, in an alleged attempt to impede house demolitions which were being carried out. These military operations were criticized as "collective punishment" by some human rights groups. Israel authorities said that demolitions were necessary because "Palestinian gunmen used the structures as cover to shoot at their troops patrolling in the area, or to conceal arms-smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border." Corrie was a member of a group of about eight activists from outside of the Palestinian territories who tried to prevent the Israeli army's activities by acting as human shields. On Corrie's first night there, she and two other ISM members set up camp inside Block J, which the ISM described as "a densely populated neighborhood along the Pink Line and frequent target of gunfire from an Israeli watchtower". By situating themselves visibly between the Palestinians and the Israeli snipers manning the watchtowers they hoped to discourage shooting by displaying banners stating that they were "internationals". When Israeli soldiers fired warning shots, Corrie and her colleagues dismantled their tent and left the area. Qishta, a Palestinian who worked as an interpreter, noted: "Late January and February was a very crazy time. There were house demolitions taking place all over the border strip and the activists had no time to do anything else." Qishta also stated of the ISM activists: "They were not only brave; they were crazy." The safety of the protestors was frequently jeopardized by these confrontations— a British participant was wounded by shrapnel while retrieving the body of a Palestinian man killed by a sniper, and an Irish ISM activist had a close encounter with an armored bulldozer. Palestinian militants expressed concern that the "internationals" staying in tents between the Israeli watchtowers and the residential neighborhoods would get caught in crossfire, while other residents were concerned that the activists might be spies. To overcome this suspicion Corrie learned a few words of Arabic and participated in a mock trial denouncing the "crimes of the Bush Administration". While the ISM members were eventually provided with food and housing, a letter was circulated in Rafah that cast suspicion on them. "Who are they? Why are they here? Who asked them to come here?" On the morning of Corrie's death they planned to counteract the letter's effects. According to one of them, "We all had a feeling that our role was too passive. We talked about how to engage the Israeli military." Water-well protecting efforts According to a January 2003 article by Gordon Murray, a fellow ISM activist, in the last month of her life Corrie "spent a lot of time at the Canada Well helping protect Rafah .... Discover the Rachel Corrie popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Rachel Corrie books.