Somerville Divestment Project

Like Cindy Sheehan, Rachel Corrie's parents, Cindy and Craig, are on a quest for justice from our government and from Israel for the murder of their child. Rachel was crushed by a armoured Caterpillar bulldozer as she non-violently resisted the demolition of the home of 2 young couples (2 brothers and their wives) and their 5 children. Why did Congress refuse to investigate the willful, brutal murder of this young American girl by Israeli forces? Somerville's Mike Capuano is among those that did not support opening an investigation. The Corries are now touring talking about their daughter, Palestine and their suit against the Israeli government and Caterpillar.

Rachel Corrie was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). They are young idealists, mainly European and American, who offer themselves as human shields. They stand between the Israeli bulldozers and their targets, the Palestinians' homes that the IDF wants to flatten.

Demolishing civilian homes is an atrocious act of violence that violates Articles 12 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Articles 33, 53, and 54 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

On 16 March 2003, Rachel and her friends from the ISM were defending a group of homes in Rafah. She died while shielding the home of Dr Samir Nasser Allah, his wife and 3 children from the bulldozers.

The IDF produced a field report that stated that "Corrie was not run over by an engineering vehicle", and, for good measure, that she was "hidden from view of the vehicle's operator". The IDF report goes on to assert that Rachel "was struck by dirt and a slab of concrete, resulting in her death". However, when the military police later carried out a criminal investigation, they concluded that she was not "hit by a bulldozer" or struck by a slab of concrete but had stumbled on building waste.

The Israeli pathologist Dr Yehudah Hiss noted that Rachel appeared to have been run over by a bulldozer, and found the cause of death to be "pressure to the chest". Rachel's shoulder blades had been crushed, her spine broken in five places and six ribs broken. Her face was apparently slashed by the blade.

Sometime this year, Israeli military released the video of the killing of Rachel Corrie. An audio of the bulldozer driver reporting his actions to an officer located elsewhere was also released. The driver refers to Rachel as the "object": "I hit the object" - "It is seriously injured" - "It is dead".

For an eyewitness description of her death read Tom Dale's account

The first couple of photos were taken 1-2 hrs before Rachel's death in the afternoon of the 16th. Text are excerpts from Rachel's last emails to her family from Rafah, Gaza Strip, written in the last month of her 23 year old life.