Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September/October 2005, pages 46-47

The Mideast in the Midwest

Corrie/Nasrallah U.S. Tour Comes Home to Des Moines, Iowa

By Michael Gillespie

THE CORRIES AND THE NASRALLAHS, two families from countries and cultures half a world apart, are forever bound together by an extraordinary act of courage and a brutal war crime.

On March 16, 2003, 23-year-old college student Rachel Corrie and seven other International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists volunteering in the Gaza Strip went to the two-family home of pharmacist Samir Nasrallah and his brother, Khaled, in Rafah to try to stop Israeli troops from demolishing it. The effort cost Corrie her life when an Israeli bulldozer operator drove his 50-ton armored Caterpillar bulldozer over her.

“Our families are linked now,” Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father, told an audience of more than 200 Iowans, mostly Christians and Muslims, who crowded into the gymnasium of the Des Moines Islamic Center on a warm and humid evening in late June.

“When she was killed, Rachel was standing outside the home of this family,” said Corrie, indicating Khaled, Samah, and Sama Nasrallah. “Now we’re traveling with this wonderful family, trying to raise money and raise awareness for the people in Rafah.”

The Corrie/Nasrallah U.S. speaking tour found its way to Iowa on June 28, after seven events in California, one in Oregon, three in Washington state, five in Michigan, and two in Wisconsin. Though it was by all accounts a demanding schedule that tested the mettle of the two families, they rose to the occasion again and again.

Their immediate goal was to raise enough money to rebuild the Nasrallah home, which Rachel Corrie died protecting and which a deceptively named Israel Defense Forces (IDF) demolition crew finally destroyed in January 2004.

Khaled Nasrallah is an accountant for Palestinian Airlines. His wife, Samah, is working toward her teaching certificate. Their toddler daughter, Sama, accompanied them on the tour, as did Craig and Rachel’s mother, Cindy Corrie. As Craig held Sama in his arms while her father took his turn at the microphone, it was clear that the two families have become close.

“I feel compelled to put a roof over little Sama’s head. I don’t know how we expect children to live in what is really a state of siege,” Craig Corrie told this reporter. “I can’t do anything about Rachel, but I can do something to help little Sama.”

The State of Israel has demolished thousands of Palestinians’ homes in the territories its forces have occupied illegally for nearly four decades. Few of the destroyed homes have had any connection to terrorism. Like the Nasrallahs’, the vast majority of homes were in locations judged inconvenient in the context of Israeli leaders’ plans for the expansion or purported security of the Zionist state.

At the time Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by the U.S.-made Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer, she was wearing a bright orange fluorescent safety vest and using an amplified “bull-horn” in an attempt to block the bulldozer’s path. Such low-risk tactics had been used successfully many times before, and the eight ISM volunteers had no reason to expect tragedy on the morning of March 16 when they matched their courage, determination, and idealism against two IDF bulldozers and a tank.

In its attempt to quell the al-Aqsa intifada, the IDF had never dared kill an “international” involved in an organized protest—fearing bad publicity, condemnation by human rights organizations, and damage to relations with governments of the countries from which the ISM volunteers and other “internationals” hail. The ISM activists had no way of knowing that the IDF’s policy toward “internationals” had changed, or that Rachel Corrie would be the first of several the IDF would target with lethal force within a period of several weeks.

The demolition prevention action had been in progress for about two hours when, according to several eye witnesses whose testimony is corroborated by photographs of the murder, the IDF soldier intentionally drove his bulldozer over Corrie, reversed, then, without raising the huge machine’s blade, drove over her again.

When her colleagues dug her out of the sand and debris with their bare hands, Corrie was still alive and able to speak a few words. But she was mortally injured, her lungs and shoulder blades crushed, her back broken in five places, her face lacerated. Despite their best efforts, Palestinian doctors at the local hospital to which she was taken were unable to save Corrie’s life.

The Corrie/Nasrallah tour was organized and sponsored by the Rebuilding Alliance, a grassroots human rights action group and non-profit organization which rebuilds homes destroyed by the IDF in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.

According to executive director Donna Baranski-Walker, it is not possible to rebuild the Nasrallah home on the original site because Israelis shoot at anyone who ventures into the area. Consequently, the Nasrallah brothers were forced to find a new location in Gaza for their home. The site for the new home has been purchased and, local conditions permitting, construction is scheduled to begin in August, with completion of the home expected in November.

“It was a remarkable tour,” said Baranski-Walker. “The Nasrallah family has a Web log from Gaza, and Gaza Community Health has a film crew that’s been working with us. We’ll be doing our best to bring this forward to all the people who helped raise money for this home.”

The Des Moines event was a homecoming of sorts for the Corrie family, which has strong ties to Iowa. Craig Corrie lived in Des Moines during his high school years and both he and Cindy are graduates of Drake University in Des Moines. Doris Corrie, Rachel’s grandmother, lives in Des Moines, and three of Rachel’s aunts and an uncle live and work in Iowa.

The Corrie family has adopted Rachel’s cause with a determination that has made an impression from Washington state—where the Corries now live and where Rachel attended Evergreen College—to Washington, DC. Members of the Corrie family have visited the office of every member of the U.S. Congress, many of them more than once, as part of their effort to persuade their government to press for a thorough, credible, transparent investigation of Rachel’s death.

This past March, on the second anniversary of their daughter’s death—their previous efforts having produced no evidence of the Israeli government’s willingness to conduct a credible and ­substantive investigation into Rachel’s death—Craig and Cindy Corrie sued the Caterpillar Corporation. Their lawsuit, filed in a U.S. district court in Washington state, accused the Peoria, Illinois-headquartered industrial machinery giant of Geneva Conventions war crimes. At the same time, in a Haifa court, they filed a wrongful death suit against the State of Israel.

An April e-mail alert sent to a Jewish student organization at American University in Washington, DC suggests that the family’s effectiveness is a matter of some concern to Israel-firsters. The e-mail characterized Rachel Corrie as “a disturbed American woman...who killed herself by jumping in front of a moving bulldozer in the Gaza Strip near Israel.” The e-mail’s author advised Zionist student leaders: “Be warned, there are several dozen women traveling the country full time, claiming to be Rachel’s Aunt. There may be several of her Aunts on your campus.”

In late June, Cindy Corrie told her Des Moines audience that the grassroots American presence represented by the Rebuilding Alliance in Gaza is particularly important in light of the uncertainties surrounding the disengagement process.

“We need to say to Palestinians, ”˜We know what has happened to you. We understand about the homes that were destroyed,’” Corrie said. She concluded her message to the Nasrallahs and their fellow Gazans by saying, “Regardless of what happens within the next couple of months, we will stand with you until you have a truly viable life in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Michael Gillespie, a free-lance writer based in Ames, Iowa, is a peace and justice advocate with a keen interest in interfaith dialogue.