7
Street roots
Nov. 9, 2012
was one of those that cheered when he saw
the planes flying into the Twin Towers and
then he read about Rachel. Then he went
back to school and got an advanced degree
in conflict resolution and is now teaching
conflict resolution in Arab countries. If
that’s what a symbol does, moves somebody
like that, that’s a good thing.
CORRIES, fro m page 5
Department. We eventually had contact with
the Justice Department, but in 2004, we
were advised to pursue this in Israeli courts
by State Department staff. It was Colin
Powell’s chief of staff who wrote to us
saying that he could say without
equivocation that the investigation done by
the Israelis was not thorough, credible and
transparent.
Craig: And he reiterated in that letter the
suggestion that we go to court and we were
given a list of attorneys by the State
Department. But we were not thinking in
terms of a legal process. We were hoping
that there would be some diplomatic
resolution of it and some real accountability.
But it was just one lie after one lie after one
lie, changing stories from the day Rachel
was killed. So after two years when the
statute of limitations expired, we filed the
civil lawsuit in Israel, which was the only
path we could take.
One very good thing, I would say, about
our case was that it was against the
Ministry of Defense and Israel, so it wasn’t
a single solider who was singled out for
attention here. There were two people in
the bulldozer, a driver and a commander.
There was a lot of attention on the driver.
We never got to see the driver because
there was an unusual security certificate
from the Ministry of Defense to have the
identify of these people concealed because
revealing them could be a danger to them.
So it was unusual, but key military
witnesses testified behind a screen. People
from our family were not allowed to see
them. The attorneys and judge could. But
what I think about those individuals has
changed during this process because I’ve
already had some questions about the
commander because he was sitting in an
elevated position. It was his job to be a
second set of eyes, and he commanded the
driver. But the driver, one of the really
discomforting things he said in court was
that he didn’t remember what time Rachel
was killed. And he had no memory of when
that happened. It was translated from
Hebrew, but from what I heard he expressed
no remorse. And I really regret that the
state didn’t let family see these people
because it dehumanized them being behind
this screen. It would have given us a more
complete picture if we could have seen
them.
J.T.: The U.S. government was critical of
the investigation. B u t did they do anything
beyond saying the investigation had problems?
Cindy: Actually, it was then-Senator Joe
Biden who — when he was with the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee - put forward
questions about Rachel’s case and the
investigation. And his response was to list
the high-level officials in the U.S.
government who had asked their
counterparts for information, and it was an
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J.T.: Do you ever worry that Rachel’s
memory might be co-opted and used for
something she wouldn’t have supported?
Craig: I think it worried me in the first
few hours. But it just didn’t go that way. We
had contact from one person out of Egypt
somewhere that wrote some disturbing
things, and I tried to get a hold of them and
say that’s not the way Rachel wanted to be
remembered. But it never was really going
to go that way.
J.T.: A street in Tehran is named after
Rachel. What do you think about that?
Cindy: I think that these are Craig’s
words, but he said, what better place to
have somebody remembered who stands for
non-violence, for human rights, for freedoms
for all people? If she can have that impact
there to improve the situation, we don’t
have a concern about that.
P H O T O B Y R E U T E R S /A M IR C O H E N
Craig and Cindy Corrie arrive at Haifa District Court in Israel in August.
° I l was just one lie after ®ae Hie after one l!e? c h a a f lag
stories from the day Rachel was hilled« So alter two years
when the statute of lla ilta tlo a s expired^ we file d the c iv il
law suit ! h Israel^ which was the only path we coaid take/"
— CRAIG COWRIE
impressive list of people leading up to
Secretary of State Colin Powell. Then in
2008, the head of the Sate Department’s
Citizen Services wrote to us and said that
high-level officials continue to ask questions
about Rachel’s case, and their questions go
unanswered or ig n o r e d a n d d id n o t e x p e c t
the Israeli government to go further.
J.T.: The Obama administration is
criticized for being anti-Israel. Has the Obama
administration been different?
Cindy: They have been supportive. We’re
from Iowa originally, we still have family and
visit. When Obama was running, we went to
a little town in Iowa and we were in a barn
where he talked to 500 people. Craig asked
him a question about Israel-Palestine, which
seemed to surprise him a bit with this
question coming from this part of Iowa, but
Craig noted our daughter and Obama knew
the story and he answered Craig’s question
about Israel-Palestine. When the trial
started in 2010, Biden was in Israel meeting
with officials. We had a good meeting, but
the bottom line is that the U.S. government
has told us that they could not conduct an
investigation.
X X
J.T.: W hat’s it been like for you with your
daughter getting all this attention?
J i i i „
I I S
J.T.: Before this incident had the Palestine-
Israel conflict been something you paid much
attention to?
Cindy: We were like most Americans who
didn’t have a direct connection to the
Middle East and everything we knew was
based on paying some small attention to
what we saw in the media.
What we knew was the Jewish narrative
coming out of the Holocaust, and we read to
our children stories of Anne Frank, and
that’s what we knew and that’s where our
sympathies were if we had them.
Cindy: The play has been a real gift to
us. It’s all Rachel’s words. Soon after Rachel
was killed we knew how much she wanted
to get the word out about how what she was
witnessing in Gaza, so we released our
emails she had written to family and friends
a n d t h e G u a r d ia n p ic k e d t h e m u p a n d
printed them . A friend of the actor Alan
Rickman took them to a theater and said,
we need to do something with this writing.
I’m thrilled to see it’s being performed as
we speak. It’s a wonderful part for a young
woman. Internationally, it’s been translated
into many languages.
J.T.: I was hoping you could talk about the
foundation, your work with it and what yo u ’re
trying to accomplish.
Cindy: We’re based in Olympia, Wash.
We’re a non-profit. We have a small staff and
a lot of volunteers. The direction we took
was really prompted by the people in our
community. Some people started sending
money our way after she was killed and we
really didn’t know what to do with it. We had
meeting with people to find out what the
focus should be. Building connections and
maintaining connections with places like
Gaza became important to us. Both
providing scholarships, but also to educate
our community wherever we have the
opportunity to support grass roots activism
and particularly non-violent action and using
art and the written word. We just had
Olympia’s Arab Festival. We have taken
delegation after delegation to Gaza, and we
expect to do some exchanges in Gaza.
J.T.: Do you think that Rachel is becoming
a martyr or a symbol in some ways?
Cindy: It was hard for us when the word
“martyr” was used to describe her. I think
that the way people in the West think about
that and the way people in other parts of
the world think about it is different.
Craig: But when you say symbol, I think
she is for a lot of people. I think that as long
as that symbol is the right symbol, and if it’s
based on her respect for peoples’ human
rights no matter where they are and doing
that non-violently, I think that’s a good
thing.
The one that comes to my mind is a guy
who wrote to me from Cairo, and he said he
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