Rachel Corrie, an American college student in Gaza to protest Israeli military and security operations, was killed when run over by a bulldozer while trying to stop Israeli troops from demolishing a Palestinian home.
The 23-year-old from Olympia, Washington, was a member of International Solidarity Movement and was the first nonviolent western protester to die in the occupied territories.
We thank all who continue to remember Rachel and who, on this sixth anniversary of her stand in Gaza, renew their own commitments to human rights, justice and peace in the Middle East. The tributes and actions in her memory are a source of inspiration to us and to others.
Friday, March 13th, we learned of the tragic injury to American activist Tristan Anderson. Tristan was shot in the head with a tear-gas canister in Ni’lin Village in the West Bank when Israeli forces attacked a demonstration opposing the construction of the annexation wall through the village's land. On the same day, a Ni’lin resident was, also, shot in the leg with live ammunition. Four residents of Ni’lin have been killed in the past eight months as villagers and their supporters have courageously demonstrated against the Apartheid Wall deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice—a wall that will ultimately absorb one-quarter of the village's remaining land. Those who have died are a ten-year-old child Ahmed Mousa, shot in the forehead with live ammunition on July 29, 2008; Yousef Amira (17) shot with rubber-coated steel bullets on July 30, 2008; Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22) and Mohammed Khawaje (20), both shot and killed with live ammunition on December 8, 2008. On this anniversary, Rachel would want us all to hold Tristan Anderson and his family and these Palestinians and their families in our thoughts and prayers, and we ask everyone to do so. We are writing this message from Cairo where we returned after a visit to Gaza with the Code Pink Delegation from the United States. Fifty-eight women and men successfully passed through Rafah Crossing on Saturday, March 7th to challenge the border closures and siege and to celebrate International Women's Day with the strong and courageous women of Gaza. Rachel would be very happy that our spirited delegation made this journey. North to south throughout the Strip, we witnessed the sweeping destruction of neighborhoods, municipal buildings, police stations, mosques, and schools –casualties of the Israeli military assaults in December and January. When we asked about the personal impact of the attacks on those we met, we heard repeatedly of the loss of mothers, fathers, children, cousins, and friends. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reports 1434 Palestinian dead and over 5000 injured, among them 288 children and 121 women.
We walked through the farming village of Khoza in the South where fifty homes were destroyed during the land invasion. A young boy scrambled through a hole in the rubble to show us the basement he and his family crouched in as a bulldozer crushed their house upon them. We heard of Rafiya who lead the frightened women and children of this neighborhood away from threatening Israeli military bulldozers, only to be struck down and killed by an Israeli soldier's sniper fire as she walked in the street carrying her white flag.
Repeatedly, we were told by Palestinians, and by the internationals on the ground supporting them, that there is no ceasefire. Indeed, bomb blasts from the border area punctuated our conversations as we arrived and departed Gaza. On our last night, we sat by a fire in the moonlight in the remains of a friend's farmyard and listened to him tell of how the Israeli military destroyed his home in 2004, and of how this second home was shattered on February 6th. This time, it was Israeli rockets from Apache helicopters that struck the house, A stand of wheat remained and rustled soothingly in the breeze as we talked, but our attention shifted quickly when F-16s streaked high across the night sky. and our friend explained that if the planes tipped to the side, they would strike. Everywhere, the psychological costs of the recent and ongoing attacks for all Gazans, but especially for the children, were sadly apparent. It is not only those who suffer the greatest losses that carry the scars of all that has happened. It is those, too, who witnessed from their school bodies flying in the air when police cadets were bombed across the street and those who felt and heard the terrifying blasts of missiles falling near their own homes. It is the children who each day must walk past the unexplainable and inhumane destruction that has occurred.
In Rachel's case, though a thorough, credible and transparent investigation was promised by the Israeli Government, after six years, the position of the U.S. Government remains that such an investigation has not taken place. In March 2008, Michele Bernier-Toff, Managing Director of the Office of Overseas Citizen Services at the Department of State wrote, “We have consistently requested that the Government of Israel conduct a full and transparent investigation into Rachel's death. Our requests have gone unanswered or ignored.” Now, the attacks on all the people of Gaza and the recent one on Tristan Anderson in Ni'lin cry out for investigation and accountability. We call on President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, and members of Congress to act with fortitude and courage to ensure that the atrocities that have occurred are addressed by the Israeli Government and through relevant international and U.S. law. We ask them to act immediately and persistently to stop the impunity enjoyed by the Israeli military, not to encourage it.
Despite the pain, we have once again felt privileged to enter briefly into the lives of Rachel's Palestinian friends in Gaza. We are moved by their resilience and heartened by their song, dance, and laughter amidst the tears. Rachel wrote in 2003, “I am nevertheless amazed at their strength in being able to defend such a large degree of their humanity--laughter, generosity, family time—against the incredible horror occurring in their lives.....I am also discovering a degree of strength and of the basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances...I think the word is dignity.” On this sixth anniversary of Rachel's killing, we echo her sentiments.
Sincerely, Cindy and Craig Corrie On behalf of our family
A leader, mentor, and friend passes away, 1947 - 2007
David Cline passed away early September 15, 2007. Most of you know that David was a giant in the Veteran’s anti-war and Peace movements. A national coordinator and long time member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War as well as former President of Veterans For Peace, David was a crucial part of the explosion in VFP’s growth and led us in our planning and actions as we have resisted the invasion and occupation of Iraq. David was a giant among people who motivated all of us to action by modeling leadership and providing inspiration.
David was my boss, mentor, friend and I loved him. He recruited me into VFP by simply being the person he was, a veteran working for peace. There are few people outside of my family whose death means such a loss to me personally. There are few in our nation whose loss means so much to our movement.
A quote David loved so much guided his thoughts and actions. He carried it in his wallet so that he could whip it out to motivate us at any time. Of course he also had it memorized.
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." Frederick Douglass
David Cline we Salute You.
Letter from Executive Director, Michael T. McPhearson
Bronze Star with V Device; Purple Heart with two oak leaf clusters; Combat Infantryman Badge; New York State Conspicuous Service Cross; and other medals. Veterans for Peace; Vietnam Veterans Against the War; Jersey City Vietnam Veterans Memorial Committee; Military Order of the Purple Heart; 25th Infantry Division Association; Veterans of Foreign Wars; featured in the documentary “Sir! No Sir!”
He fought alongside you, then
He fought to honor you.
He fought that others like you not suffer your fate.
He has joined you in death but his memory, like yours, lives on.
In memory of Dave, I am linking the four-part series Spearpoint that described the Veterans and Survivors March for Peace and Justice, from Mobile, AL to New Orleans, conducted in March 2006. Dave was the person who put that idea in our heads.
It's great to see such a crowd and so many groups represented. I especially want to thank Veterans for Peace. Dave Cline was a great leader and will be badly missed. We should all go out and do as much as he did with his admirable life.
Going through this Touching Tribute Diary Anti-war Vet Dave Cline Is Dead by lao hong han, that was posted last night, 9-15-07, and thankfully still sits in the recommend list, you will find some great reply's, from those who knew Dave and those who didn't, along with some links I have borrowed and placed here.
Adding to them a few pics, links to what Dave was passionately a part of, since his service in 'Nam, with hopefully giving all an idea of what this Man was all about.
The sponsoring organizations are the three metro area chapters of Veterans For Peace (New York City, Tappan Zee, and Northern New Jersey), the Clarence Fitch Chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Actvities have been endorsed by Black Veterans for Social Justice, Veterans for Common Sense, Citizen Soldier, New York City Labor Against War, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and Gold Star Families For Peace.
That Dave was a member of. t's a moderated board so not sure if just anyone can read the posts, but there are a number of them there written by those who knew him best.
Much will be written, in the coming weeks, about Dave. Why, because in his quite way, except when leading cadence calls at Peace Rallies, or giving passionant speaches, Dave's dedication touched many in and out of the Veteran Communities Ranks. His name and memory, in history of true Patriots and Veterans, will be added to those who have passed on before him, for not only his dedication to this country but also his hard work and advocacy of the people of the country he and us invaded and served in, Vietnam, recognizing, as many of us did, how unjustified that conflict was. He gave back much to those we almost destroyed, and especially those who are still suffering from our sins, of the past, in this our present.
And his early veteran activism in VVAW calling for peace and an end to that conflict built and sold on lies
Just one of the many VVAW actions taken back then, when they liberated 'Lady Liberty'
And hung the U.S. Flag in the 'Distress' position from her crown, a message of the way many felt of the wrongs we had done, at that time, and the legacy of those wrongs live on, never resolved nor understood. Dec 26th 1970
David was also the long time President of Veterans For Peace right up till recently which told me, as I haven't seen him in awhile, that the health problems he suffered from, many from his service in Vietnam, were catching up to him.
David was the
VFP STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
We, having dutifully served our nation, do hereby affirm our greater responsibility to serve the cause of world peace. To this end we will work, with others
(a) Toward increasing public awareness of the costs of war. (b) To restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations (c) To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons (d) To seek justice for veterans and victims of war (e) To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.
To achieve these goals, members of Veterans For Peace pledge to use non-violent means and to maintain an organization that is both democratic and open with the understanding that all members are trusted to act in the best interests of the group for the larger purpose of world peace.
We urge all people who share this vision to join us.
He lived it and tried, as the rest of us do, to stand strong to those words!
Dave also gave back much to the people we once fought, especially the kids who even today are still being born, and living with, that which we condemned them to, the effects of defoliante contamiation, Agent Orange, and a few other colors of Weapons Of Mass Destruction! American veterans delegation (l-r) David Cline, Ralph Steele, Joan Duffy, Frank Corcoran, Dan Shea behind Mrs. Vietnam 2005, Doan Thi Kim Hong, performing songs for Agent Orange affected children at hospice near Cu Chi.
Rita Martinson - Soldier We Love You - Sir No Sir - Trailer
And if you haven't seen 'Sir! No Sir!' Dave is one of the Vets interviewed in that important documentary.
Peace Has No Borders ~ David Cline
There isn't anything written at The VVAW Site as yet, but I'm sure there will be in the next couple of days as well as in their next publication of The Veteran, of which will be posted online.
Both those sites will be carrying Tributes by those who knew Dave very well, I'm sure!
You can find a very touching tribute at fellow Veteran Stan Goffs site Dave Cline…
Dave was former President of Veterans For Peace, founding leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and a founder of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign.
Rachel Corrie, an American college student in Gaza to protest Israeli military and security operations, was killed when run over by a bulldozer while trying to stop Israeli troops from demolishing a Palestinian home.
