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Boston support group for the International Solidarity Movement

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The closest eye witness account on the murder of Rachel Corrie

I received the message below yesterday from Tom Dale, an 18 year old English
student with whom I have spent time on both my visits to Palestine.

Many of you will of heard varying accounts of the death of Rachel Corrie,
maybe others will have heard nothing of it. Regardless, I was 10 metres
away when it happened 2 days ago, and this is the way it went.

We'd been monitoring and occasionally obstructing the 2 bulldozers for about
2 hours when 1 of them turned toward a house we knew to be threatened with
demolition. Rachel knelt down in its way. She was 10-20 metres in front of
the bulldozer, clearly visible, the only object for many metres, directly in
it's view. They were in Radio contact with a tank that had a profile view
of the situation. There is no way she could not have been seen by them in
their elevated cabin. They knew where she was, there is no doubt.

The bulldozer drove toward Rachel slowly, gathering earth in its scoop as it
went. She knelt there, she did not move. The bulldozer reached her and she
began to stand up, climbing onto the mound of earth. She appeared to be
looking into the cockpit. The bulldozer continued to push Rachel, so she
slipped down the mound of earth, turning as she went. Her faced showed she
was panicking and it was clear she was in danger of being overwhelmed. All
the activists were screaming at the bulldozer to stop and gesturing to the
crew about Rachel's presence. We were in clear view as Rachel had been,
they continued. They pushed Rachel, first beneath the scoop, then beneath
the blade, then continued till her body was beneath the cockpit. They
waited over her for a few seconds, before reversing. They reversed with the
blade pressed down, so it scraped over her body a second time. Every second
I believed they would stop but they never did.

I ran for an ambulance, she was gasping and her face was covered in blood
from a gash cutting her face from lip to cheek. She was showing signs of
brain hemorrhaging. She died in the ambulance a few minutes later of
massive internal injuries. She was a brilliant, bright and amazing person,
immensely brave and committed. She is gone and I cannot believe it.

The group here in Rafah has decided that we will stay here and continue to
oppose human rights abuses as best we can. I want to add that more than 10
palestinians have died in the Gaza strip since Rachel.

If you're wandering about Rachel: her writings, photos of her and statements
on her death are available on the below website. More photos: go to yahoo
news section, search for photos by 'rachel'.

If you're wandering about the International Solidarity Movement:
www.palsolidarity.org 

 If you're wandering about Rafah: in the southern Gaza strip, next to the
Egyptian border. Apart from suffering in excess from the problems all over
Palestine: Israeli manipulation of the water supply, economic strangulation,
regular shootings and army operations, Rafah is afflicted by the building of
an extra border wall. It has caused hundreds of homes to be destroyed. The
house in question, that of a doctor, like dozens of others in the area is
not set to be demolished because of any supposed link to militants. Only
because it lies within 100 metres of the new border wall, currently in
construction. Families receive no compensation from Israel, and are
frequently given just a few minutes warning in the form of live ammunition
being shot through the walls of their house