Rachel Corrie - Activities in The Palestinian Territories

Activities in The Palestinian Territories

After flying to Israel on January 22, 2003, and staying overnight in East Jerusalem, Corrie underwent a two-day training course at the ISM's West Bank headquarters before heading to Rafah to participate in ISM demonstrations. During her training, Corrie studied direct action tactics, which included basic rules for avoiding harm. A later article on the Corrie incident summarized these as: "Wear fluorescent jackets. Don't run. Don't frighten the army. Try to communicate by megaphone. Make your presence known." On January 27, 2003, Corrie and William Hewitt (also from Olympia), traveled to the Erez checkpoint and entered the Gaza Strip.

While in Rafah, Corrie acted as a human shield in an attempt to impede house demolitions carried out by the IDF using armored bulldozers. Demolitions were a common tactic employed at that time in Rafah, for military purposes according to the IDF, or as collective punishment according to human rights groups. According to B'Tselem, approximately 1,700 homes were demolished resulting in 17,000 people becoming homeless between 2000 and 2004. Corrie was a member of a group of about eight activists from outside of the Palestinian territories who tried to prevent the demolitions by acting as human shields.

On Corrie's first night there, she and two other ISM members set up camp inside Block J, "a densely populated neighborhood along the Pink Line and frequent target of gunfire from an Israeli watchtower". By situating themselves visibly between the Palestinian residents and the Israeli snipers manning the watchtowers they hoped to discourage shooting by displaying banners stating that they were "internationals". However, Israeli soldiers fired bullets over their tent and at the ground a few feet away. Deciding that their presence was provoking the Israeli soldiers rather than deterring them, 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 confrontations were not entirely safe for the activists: a British participant was wounded by shrapnel while entering an olive grove to retrieve the body of a young Palestinian man killed by an Israeli sniper's bullet, and an Irish peace activist named Jenny was nearly run down by a 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 young activists might be spies. Corrie worked hard to overcome this suspicion, learning a few words of Arabic, and participating in a mock trial denouncing the "crimes of the Bush Administration". With time, the ISM members were taken into Palestinian family homes, and provided with meals and beds. Even so, in the days before Corrie's death, a letter gained wide circulation in Rafah, casting suspicion again on the ISM members. "Who are they? Why are they here? Who asked them to come here?" it asked. The letter made the activists feel preoccupied and frustrated, and on the morning of Corrie's death they planned ways to counteract its 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."

On March 14, 2003, during an interview with the Middle East Broadcasting network, Corrie said:

I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive.... Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with.