On the 7th Anniversary of the Killing of Rachel Corrie: Al Mezan Urges the International Community to Bring her Perpetrators to Justice and to Ensure Accountability

Tomorrow, Tuesday 16 March 2010, marks the seventh anniversary of  the death of American peace activist, Rachel  Corrie.
Corrie was 24 years old when she was killed by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) while trying to provide protection for the Palestinians.
Corrie  was a resident of  Washington D.
C, USA.
On 25 February 2003, she arrived in Rafah town with the international solidarity movement (ISM).
  According to field investigations conducted by Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, at approximately 4:45pm on Sunday 16 March 2003, the IOF killed Rachel Corrie  while she was trying to prevent Israeli bulldozers from demolishing Palestinian houses in the As-Salam neighborhood in Rafah town.
The Israeli soldier who was driving the bulldozers ran over  Corrie while she was alive.
She was wearing civilian clothes and fluorescent jacket to enable the IOF soldiers to see that she was a peace activist.
She was holding a megaphone to her mouth attempting to speak to the driver of a bulldozer, when he was  demolishing  Palestinian houses in that area.
  The driver continued to move forward until Rachel was completely buried under the bulldozer.
He then backed up, rolling over her a second time.
Corrie was there with seven peace activists, three of them were American and the other four were British.
They were practicing non-violent resistance, stood in front of the bulldozers in an attempt to prevent the Israelis from proceeding with their demolition orders   In the same year, approximately after one month of Corrie’s death, the IOF killed a British peace activist, Thomas Beter Horndal,22.
On 11 April 2003, an Israeli sniper shot and killed   him.
.
In 13 April 2004, the Royal Hospital in the UK announced his death.
  Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, reiterates its strong condemnation of the Israeli violations of human rights and the international humanitarian law, particularly attacking international peace activists in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt).
Many of the IOF's actions particularly during Operation Cast Lead (OCL) constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, the perpetrators of which must be brought to justice.
  Israel bears a clear obligation to bring these violations to an end, to prosecute its citizens who have perpetrated them and to ensure reparations for their victims.
    Al Mezan reiterates its call upon the international community to end the policy of silence , to take effective measures to protect  Palestinian civilians, and to bring perpetrators to justice particularly those who violated  IHL and those who killed Rachel Corrie and thousands of Palestinian civilians.
    Al Mezan doubts the ability of the Israeli courts in achieving justice in the file submitted by Corrie's family as the Israeli courts themselves have a record of breaching international law and being politically influenced.
In the light of the above, Al Mezan calls upon peace activists throughout the world to support Corrie's family to bring killers into justice.
  Ends