Don't profit from injustice. The Presbyterian Church USA has been considering divesting from the Israeli occupation since 2004. Every other year, they hold a General Assembly. There they address issues related to Israel/Palestine, and they discuss their desire not to profit from human rights violations and injustice. For six years, they have asked Caterpillar to ensure that the bulldozers it sells are not used to demolish Palestinian homes or uproot Palestinian olive trees. Unfortunately, Caterpillar has not changed its practices.
Jewish Voice for
Peace welcomes the screening of the film Rachel at the
San Francisco Jewish Film
Festival. We are honored to co-sponsor the
movie together with the American Friends Service
Committee, and to hear
comments from Cindy Corrie, Rachel Corrie's mother, at the conclusion
of the film.
The movie--part of the festival's wider
series on social justice
and activism--tells the story of Rachel Corrie, a 23 year-old American
peace activist, who was fatally run over by a bulldozer that the IDF
was using to demolish houses in the Rafah Refugee Camp on March 16,
2003. This unfortunate event needs to be seen in the context of a long
list of deaths and fatal injuries committed by the Israeli army against
nonviolent demonstrators with almost complete
impunity.
The San Francisco Film Festival has caved
in to pressure to provide
an 'additional perspective' on the movie, by inviting Dr. Michael
Harris, of SF Voice for Israel, at the last minute to speak to the
audience immediately prior to the screening.
Jewish
Voice for Peace does not believe that the film needs an
'additional perspective.' The movie tells the story of an American
nonviolent activist in Gaza. If anything, we would like to hear the
seldom-heard perspective of a Palestinian in Gaza (were she or he
allowed to leave the Gaza Strip, currently under siege by Israel for
over two years.)
It's time to have a much needed
dialogue inside of the Jewish
community about the effects of the Israeli occupation. Dialogue works
both ways. We hope that the next movie or event highlighting the
positive elements of Israeli society while ignoring the cost to the
Palestinians will be preceded by our Jewish Voice for Peace
perspective.
The movie is directed
by veteran filmmaker Simone Bitton, a dual
citizen of Israel and France. The film documents the details
surrounding the death of Rachel Corrie, an American activist who was
protesting Israeli military actions in Gaza. The film Rachel includes
the viewpoints of people with a variety of opinions on the events which
led to Rachel's death. It includes interviews with Israeli army
spokeswoman Avital Leibovitch, as well as doctors, activists, soldiers,
Israeli and Palestinian civilians, and Rachel Corrie’s parents.
The
film also includes military video from the Israeli army.
The film has already played in such prestigious festivals as
the
Berlin International Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival (New York)
and will have its Israeli premiere at the Haifa International Film
Festival this October. Cindy Corrie, Rachel Corrie’s mother, will be
present at the San Francisco screening.
We
are
a diverse and democratic community of activists—with over 85,000
supporters--inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace,
justice, and human rights. Our advisory board includes some of the
world's best known Jewish thinkers and artists including Tony Kushner,
Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Adrienne Rich, and Ed
Asner.
We have called on Congress to stop US
military aid to Israel until
Israel investigates war crimes committed in Gaza, and until Israel
agrees to abide by U.S. and international law including withdrawing
settlements.
We have publicized the report by the
Israel organization Breaking
the Silence, with disturbing testimonies by Israeli soldiers about the
their use of phosphorus over civilian population, their targeting of
civilians, and their use of human shields during their Gaza
attack.
From Ezra Nawi to New Profile to the
Shministim and more, we have
provided ongoing support to Israel's nonviolent resistance, which
remains increasingly under attack.
We've challenged
AIPAC at
their annual meeting, and we continue to monitor the right-wing Israel
Lobby's unethical tactics in silencing voices of
dissent.
We have supported efforts by churches to
selectively divest from companies that profit from the Israeli
occupation.
About Cindy Corrie and the Rachel Corrie
Foundation for Peace and Justice
The
Foundation
is preparing its fist humanitarian delegation to Gaza this
September. It is also working on the Olympia-Rafah Sister Project,
preparing the largest solidarity mural in the U.S. The foundation also
awards annually the Rachel Corrie Memorial Scholarship to an Evergreen
State College student dedicated to gaining a better understanding of
the Middle East and to working locally or internationally to further
Middle East peace.
In the words of Rabbi Brian Walt,
Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights-North
America:
In
my position as Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights-North
America, I have worked with Cindy and Craig, Rachel Corrie’s
parents.
They are extraordinary human beings who generously support
the work of
Rabbis for Human Rights and other Israeli human rights and peace
groups. They have visited with Rabbi Arik Ascherman, the Executive
Director of RHR in Israel, and others in the RHR office in Jerusalem
and have consistently supported our work. I have been moved
in my
conversations with them, by their integrity and their deep commitment
to a just peace. If I were in their situation, I
would imagine that
the temptation to hate those who killed my daughter would be
hard to
resist. Despite their daughter’s tragic death, the Corries have never
spoken in a hateful way towards Israel or Jews. On
the contrary, they
are deeply committed to peace and to the security of all people in the
conflict, Israelis and
Palestinians.
Rachel Corrie was a 23 year-old
American
peace activist, who was fatally run over by a bulldozer that the IDF
was using to demolish houses in the Rafah Refugee Camp on March 16,
2003.
The Israeli human rights group Btselem
acknowledged that
she did not participate in hostilities when killed (1). She joined a
growing list of nonviolent international peace activists killed or
critically injured by the IDF, including:
Tom
Hurndall, fatally shot in the head in April 2003 in Rafah, as
he was trying to shelter children from Israeli army gunfire; and Brian
Avery, shot in the face from an Israeli tank in Jenin in April 2003
(2).
More recently, Tristan Anderson, who was
critically injured in March
2009 in the West Bank village of Ni'lin, when he was participating in a
nonviolent demonstration and was hit in the head by a high-velocity
tear-gas canister fired by an Israeli policeman. The canister fractured
his skull, and injured the front lobe of his brain. Tristan has
undergone multiple surgeries and remains in a
coma.
In most of these cases—including the Corrie
death—the impartiality
and professionalism of the Israeli investigation were deemed "highly
questionable" by Human Rights Watch (3).
These
internationals
join a longer list of almost 2,200 "Palestinians who did not take part
in the hostilities and were killed by Israeli security forces" from
2000 until the outbreak of the attack on Gaza
(4).
Want to read more about the movie and the festival?