Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: L'america dimentica i suoi eroi, quelli che combattono per la pace

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0521-01.htm
Saving Private Lynch, Forgetting Rachel Corrie 
by Naomi Klein
 
 
Jessica Lynch and Rachel Corrie could have passed for sisters. Two
all-American blondes, two destinies forever changed in a Middle East
war zone. Private Jessica Lynch, the soldier, was born in Palestine,
West Virginia. Rachel Corrie, the activist, died in Israeli-occupied
Palestine.
Corrie was four years older than 19-year old Lynch. Her body was
crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza seven days before Lynch was
taken into Iraqi custody on March 23. Before she went to Iraq, Lynch
organized a pen pal program with a local kindergarten. Before Corrie
left for Gaza, she organized a pen pal program between kids in her
hometown of Olympia, Washington, and children in Rafah.
Lynch went to Iraq as a soldier loyal to her government. In the words
of West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, "she approached the prospect
of combat with determination rather than fear."
Corrie went to Gaza to oppose the actions of her government. As a U.S.
citizen, she believed she had a special responsibility to defend
Palestinians against U.S.-built weapons, purchased with U.S. aid to
Israel. In letters home, she vividly described how fresh water was
being diverted from Gaza to Israeli settlements, how death was more
normal than life. "This is what we pay for here," she wrote.
Unlike Lynch, Corrie did not go to Gaza to engage in combat ­- she
went to try to thwart it. Along with her fellow members of the
International Solidarity Movement (ISM), she believed that the Israeli
military's incursions could be slowed by the presence of highly
visible "internationals." The killing of Palestinian civilians may
have become commonplace, the thinking went, but Israel doesn't want
the diplomatic or media scandals that would come if it killed a U.S.
college student.
In a way, Corrie was harnessing the very thing that she disliked most
about her country - the belief that American lives are worth more than
any others ­ and trying to use it to save a few Palestinian homes from
demolition.
Believing her fluorescent orange jacket would serve as armor, that her
bullhorn could repel bullets, Corrie stood in front of bulldozers,
slept beside water wells, and escorted children to school. If suicide
bombers turn their bodies into weapons of death, Corrie turned hers
into the opposite: a weapon of life, a "human shield."
When that Israeli bulldozer driver looked at Corrie's orange jacket
and pressed the accelerator, her strategy failed. It turns out that
the lives of some U.S. citizens ­ even beautiful, young, white women -
are valued more than others. And nothing demonstrates this more
starkly than the opposing responses to Rachel Corrie and Private
Jessica Lynch.
When the Pentagon announced Lynch's successful rescue, she became an
overnight hero, complete with "America loves Jessica" fridge magnets,
stickers, t-shirts, mugs, country songs, and an NBC made-for-TV movie.
According to White House spokesman Ari Fleisher, President George W.
Bush was "full of joy for Jessica Lynch." Lynch's rescue, we were
told, was a testament to a core American value: as Senator Rockefeller
put it in a speech to the Senate, "We take care of our people."
Do they? Corrie's death, which made the papers for two days and then
virtually disappeared, has met with almost total official silence,
despite the fact that eye-witnesses claim it was a deliberate act.
President Bush has said nothing about a U.S. citizen killed by a U.S.
made bulldozer bought with U.S. tax dollars. A U.S. congressional
resolution demanding an independent inquiry into Corrie's death has
been buried in committee, leaving the Israeli military's investigation
­ which conveniently cleared itself of any wrong doing as the only
official probe.
The ISM says that this non-response has sent a clear, and dangerous,
signal. According to Olivia Jackson, a 25-year-old British citizen
still in Rafah, "after Rachel was killed, [the Israeli military]
waited for the response from the American government and the response
was pathetic. They have realized that they can get away with it and it
has encouraged them to keep on going."
First there was Brian Avery, a 24-year-old citizen shot in the face on
April 5. Then Tom Hurndall, a British ISM activist shot in the head
and left brain dead on April 11. Next was James Miller, the British
cameraman shot dead while wearing a vest that said "TV." In all of
these cases, eye-witnesses say the shooters were Israeli soldiers.
There is something else that Jessica Lynch and Rachel Corrie have in
common: both of their stories have been distorted by a military for
its own purposes. According to the official story, Lynch was captured
in a bloody gun battle, mistreated by sadistic Iraqi doctors, then
rescued in another storm of bullets by heroic Navy SEALs. In the past
weeks, another version has emerged. The doctors that treated Lynch
found no evidence of battle wounds, and donated their own blood to
save her life. Most embarrassing of all, witnesses have told the BBC
that those daring Navy SEALs already knew there were no Iraqi fighters
left in the area when they stormed the hospital.
But while Lynch's story has been distorted to make its protagonists
appear more heroic, Corrie's story has been posthumously twisted to
make her, and her fellow ISM activists, appear sinister.
For months, the Israeli military had been looking for an excuse to get
rid of the ISM "troublemakers." It found it in Asif Mohammed Hanif and
Omar Khan Sharif , the two British suicide bombers. It turns out that
they had attended a memorial to Rachel Corrie in Rafah, a fact the
Israeli military has seized on to link the ISM to terrorism. Members
of ISM point out that the memorial was open to the public, and that
they knew nothing of the British visitors' intentions. As an
organization, the ISM is explicitly opposed to the targeting of
civilians, whether by Israeli bulldozers or Palestinian bombers.
Furthermore, many ISMers believe that their work may reduce terrorist
incidents by demonstrating that there are ways to resist occupation
other than the nihilistic revenge offered by suicide bombing.
No matter. In the past two weeks, half a dozen ISM activists have been
arrested, several deported, and the organization's offices have been
raided. The crack down is now spreading to all "internationals,"
meaning there are fewer and fewer people in the occupied territories
to either witness the ongoing abuses or assist the victims. On Monday,
the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East Peace
Process told the Security Council that dozens of UN aid workers had
been prevented from getting in and out of Gaza, calling it a violation
of "Israel's international humanitarian law obligations."
On June 5 there will be an international day of action for Palestinian
rights. One of the key demands is for the UN to send an international
monitoring force into the occupied territories. Until that happens,
many are determined to continue Corrie's work, despite the risks. Over
forty students at her former college, Evergreen State in Olympia, have
already signed up to go to Gaza with the ISM this summer.
So who is a hero? During the attack on Iraq, some of Corrie¹s friends
emailed her picture to MSNBC asking that it be included on the
station's "wall of heroes," along with Jessica Lynch. The network
didn't comply, but Corrie is being honored in other ways. Her family
has received more than 10,000 letters of support, communities across
the country have organized powerful memorials, and children all over
the occupied territories are being named Rachel.
It's not a made-for-TV kind of tribute, but perhaps that's for the
best.

soldiers.
Balle :)
-Stefano