CONFERENZA STAMPA DEI PARENTI DI RACHEL CORRIE

["Edvino Ugolini" <edvinoug@tin.it>]

Monday, September 29, 2003
Today, Cindy and Craig Corrie, parents of Rachel Corrie, wrapped up their
first visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel, and met
with members of the press in Jerusalem.  Attached you will find:


1) Cindy and Craig Corrieās statement to the press

2) An itinerary of the 2 ø weeks spent in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories and Israel



We hope to make available within the next 12 hours the video footage from
the press conference along with a full transcript.  You will be able to
access these at <="http://www.palsolidarity.org/";>www.palsolidarity.org



For more information, call Huwaida at +972-67-473-308



In solidarity & struggle,
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT

----------------------------------

1)

Monday, September 29, 2003

Ambassador Hotel, Jerusalem



Parents of Rachel Corrie in Palestine / Israel



PRESS STATEMENT

Given by Craig & Cindy Corrie in Jerusalem



Our daughter Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah in
the Gaza Strip on March 16, 2003, while she was trying to prevent the
demolition of a Palestinian home.  Since that time, as we have grieved for
our daughter, we have also worked to learn more about this conflict about
which she cared so deeply and in which she lost her life.  To find peace
for ourselves in the aftermath of Rachelās death and for our own
understanding, it was necessary for us to come to this land and walk where
Rachel walked, and see what she saw.



We arrived in Tel Aviv on September 12 and have spent the past weeks in
Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  September 15-20, we
were in the Gaza Strip, primarily in Rafah.  There we were able to meet
with many of Rachelās friends: with those she had worked with in ISM, with
the families in whose homes she had stayed to try to offer some
international protection, with the children she had worked with in the
youth parliament, and with the community members she had met as she tried
to build connections between Rafah and her hometown of Olympia in the U.S.
In Rafah, we were able to briefly witness some of the violence of the
occupation÷the nightly machine gunfire from tanks, the fear walking to a
home in Rafah after dark, because the family we were to eat dinner with
lived on a street exposed to gunfire from Israeli watchtowers, but also the
simple and profound dignity of our host walking slowly down the center of
that same street to escort us from his home back to the relative safety of
our car.  We went to the water wells where Rachel and other activists stood
watch so municipal water workers could repair them.  We saw there in the
faces of the workers, concern for our safety and for the safety of the
children who followed us.  We saw, too, the shrapnel and bullet holes from
the Israeli firing of the night before.  We returned a second time to a
home along the border where we had lunched with a family on a previous day
to find the wall of the room where we had eaten now pushed in and debris
piled against the side of the house.  We heard how the previous night the
IDF soldiers had sent dogs into the house, followed by soldiers that
remained for five hours harassing the family.  We saw the ditch they had
dug in the front yard, destroying a garden, but proving that, indeed, there
were no tunnels.  We were able to visit the site of Rachelās death and were
threatened there by an Israeli APC and bulldozer.  We saw the high, steel,
border wall being constructed from west to east, dividing the land,
neighborhoods, and families of Rafah in half.  And we witnessed the
voracious appetite of the Israeli bulldozers, consuming ever one more block
of one communityās homes in the name of another communityās security.



We were able to visit with groups that are continuing projects in Rachelās
name: a kindergarten with its smiling children chanting a song of welcome
at the top of their lungs, and a youth cultural center with its plans for a
library and computer center still in search of funding.  We planted olive
trees and drank sweet tea with friends.  And  we learned that in her
adopted city of Rafah, as in her home town of Olympia, Rachel was always
expected just around the corner, with her bright smile, her friendly
concern, and usually a small band of children.

Then we experienced the lonely walk through Erez checkpoint where we were
nearly the only people passing through and our new friends (Rachelās
friends) were left trapped in Gaza waving goodbye to us.



We spent time in Jerusalem and the West Bank as well.  In Jerusalem we went
to a memorial at the site of a bus bombing and learned of Shiri, Rachelās
age, killed just last year.  We listened to her uncle describe Shiri with
the same love and pride that our family uses when speaking of Rachel.  We
learned that the pain does not stop at the green line.



In the West Bank we witnessed the strategy of separation taking physical
form in the web of fences, walls, identification cards, and checkpoints
that separate not only Palestinians from Israelis, but Palestinians from
Palestinians, farmers from their fields, children from their classrooms,
workers from their jobs, the sick from their healthcare, the elderly from
the grandchildren, municipalities from their water supplies, and
ultimately, a people from their land.  We saw dunams of crumpled aluminum,
the jagged and torn remains of the once thriving marketplace of Nazlat Isa,
a stark reminder of the occupationās devastating effect on the economy of
both peoples.  We also witnessed the horror on a womanās face as she
watched her relativeās home demolished in East Jerusalem.



And on the eve of this Jewish new year we celebrated Rosh Hashanah with
Israeli friends in their Synagogue and home.  We shared their bread, beets,
and pomegranates, their stories of the last year and their hopes for the
new one.  And we shared their music: the songs of so many centuries of
suffering and courage, but also, through it all, joy.



As our trip nears its end, we are struck by the terrible tragedy of the
occupation: the irony of a people who have suffered so much, now causing
suffering in so many others, the massive effort in manpower and expense
demanded in maintaining the occupation, the desperate and horrifying
strategy of suicide bombings used to violently oppose the occupation, the
fear both of Palestinians sleeping in their homes in Rafah and Israelis
riding on their buses in Jerusalem.  And always the pain that we all share
so deeply.



And so, as we depart, we can only echo our daughter when she wrote to her
mother ćThis has to stop.  I think it is a good idea for us all to drop
everything and devote our lives to making this stop.  I donāt think itās an
extremist thing to do anymore.  I still really want to dance around to Pat
Benetar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers.  But I also
want this to stop.ä

-------------------------------------------------------

2)

CORRIE ITINERARY PALESTINE / ISRAEL

September 12 - September 30, 2003





FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12



- Arrive at 5:00pm
- Meeting with US Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer

- Dinner with Adam Keller, Gush Shalom 
- Overnight in Tel Aviv Hotel



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13



(Tel Aviv to Jerusalem)

- Interview / meeting with Palestinian filmmaker

- Meet with members of the Families Forum: Mr. Rami Elhanan, Mrs. Tamara
Rabinowitz and Mr. Jona Bargur



SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14



- Visit Beit Sahour ö where Rachel first went for ISM training.



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15

(Travel to Erez ö Gaza)
- Met by ISM volunteers and accompanied to Rafah

- Quick tour of area right around the office that Rachel saw everyday.
Visit the restaurant where she ate, the cigarette shop she went to, and the
internet cafe she used.

- Travel down to Al-Barazel refugee camp to see the border line that
separates Rafah or Palestine from Egypt and and the separation wall along
the border where Rachel stayed in houses.

- Visit Dr. Samir's house in Hay Elsalam area 30 meters from the border,
which Rachel was protecting when she was killed; visit and have lunch with
the family; go around the house from the border side to see the site with
doctor Samir who was one of the two Palestinian eyewitnesses. Meet with the
other eyewitness who is a woman living next to doctor Samir's house.
- Visit Al-Najar hospital where Rachel was taken. Meet with the doctors and
nurses who took care of Rachel and with Dr.Ali Musa, director of the
hospital, who will read out and explain the official report describing the
causes of Rachel's death.
- Meet more of Rachel's friends at the ISM office
- Dinner with ISM Rafah people and friends.
- Overnight in Rafah

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
NOTE: 6-month anniversary of Rachelās killing

- Breakfast with ISM Rafah
- Visit with Mansour family, who Rachel stayed with in Al-Barazeel area
along the border
- Visit with Abu Hisham family, who Rachel stayed with in Salaheldeen area
along the border, the night before she was killed.  Have lunch with the
family in their house.
- Visit with Abu Ahmed family, who Rachel stayed with in El-Salam area
along the border
- Visit with Abu Jameel family, who Rachel stayed with in Salaheldeen area
along the border and have dinner with the family in their home
- Overnight in Rafah

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17

- Breakfast with ISM Rafah
- Visit Childrenās Parliament with whom Rachel was very active.
- Visit the Rachel Corrie Nursery School in Al-barazeel Refugee Camp and
have lunch with them.
- Meet with Eng. Ashraf Ghneem from the water municipality and Fatimah
Elkhateeb, the representative of the General Union of Palestinian Women in
Rafah.
- Go to the ambulance base and meet with the nursing staff who first tended
to Rachel on the site. - Visit Rachel Corrie Health and Cultural Center in
Rafah
- Overnight in Rafah

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18



(Rafah to Gaza City)

- Meet with the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP)

                          Meeting with Dr. Eyad El Sarraj, Board of Directors

                           Visit Women Empowerment Center

                          Meet with civil leaders

- Meet with representatives from the Palestinian Non-governmental
Organizations Network (PNGO)

- Meet with Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human
Rights (PCHR)

- Press conference

(Return to Rafah)

- Dinner with Fatima Khateeb (GUPW)



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

- Breakfast with ISM Rafah
- Plant olive trees in Rafah with the Palestine Childrenās Welfare Fund.
One tree was planted in the centre of Rafah, in Al Awda Square; one was
planted in Al Jawzat Square, in the east of Rafah; and the third was
planted across from the ISM office

- Visit water wells near Tel-elSultan area and the family who Rachel stayed
with

- Visit Palestinian Youth Parliament

- Return to Abu Hisham home, where had lunch on second day in Rafah.  Home
was raided the night before.



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20



(Rafah to Erez to Jerusalem)

- Meet with Gila Svirsky of the Israeli Coalition of Women for a Just Peace

- Overnight in Jerusalem



SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21



- Visit Beit Arabia in Jerusalem with the Israeli Committee Against Home
Demolitions. Beit Arabia (Arabiaās Home) is the home of Salim and Arabia
Shawamreh, demolished four times already by the Israeli occupation forces.
Beit Arabia is being built as a peace center and was dedicated to the
memory of Rachel and  Nuha Makadma Sweidan, a pregnant Palestinian woman
killed in Gaza in March 2003 when an Israeli bulldozer demolished her home
on top of her.

- Overnight in Jerusalem



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22



- Go with Rabbis for Human Rights and the Israeli Committee Against Home
Demolitions to Israeli military court for the sentencing of Abu-Faiz
Shamasne for daring to rebuild his home "illegally.ä

- Afternoon with Rabbi Arik Ascherman visiting Bedouin cave dwellers in
Hebron region and meeting with Israeli families who have been victims of
terror

- Overnight in Jerusalem



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23



- Unplanned witnessing of home demolition in Jerusalem - Ras Al Amoud

- Visit construction of Wall & visit with Palestinian olive farmers in
Jayyous - Qalqilya region

- Visit village of Nazlit Isa in Tulkarem region.

- Stay overnight in Nazlit Isa.



WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24



- Visit Akabe kindergarten (near Tubas) in the West Bank ö with the
Rebuilding Homes Campaign
This village has been used as military training ground since 1967.  For
over 34 years villagers have been subjected to serving as live targets for
Israeli Army.  In June 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruled to remove largest
military camp from the village.  Two military camps remain.

- Overnight in Jerusalem



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25


(Jerusalem to Ramallah)
- Breakfast with ISM in Ramallah
- Meeting with President Arafat to receive condolences

- Reception at MIFTAH with NGO representatives
- Meet with Palestinian artist who painted picture of Rachel
(Return to Jerusalem)
- Meet with Palestinian (refugee inside Israel) who wrote a song for Rachel

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 



- Tour of Jerusalem with Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions

- Evening: Rosh HaShana services and dinner

            

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 



Tour the Old City of Jerusalem



SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28



- Wadi Humous:  Home-rebuilding Camp with Jerusalem Center for Social and
Economic Rights and Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions.  Joining
Israeli, Palestinian, and international activists, homeowners, and the
Compassionate Listening Group from the US

- Meet with Yitzhak Frankenthal of the Bereaved Parents Forum



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29



- Morning Press conference at a Jerusalem Hotel

- Meeting with Israeli officials

(Travel to Tel Aviv)

- Debriefing with Consulate

- Evening meeting with Israeli peace activists

- Overnight in home of Israeli peace activist on kibbutz



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30



Depart Tel Aviv to London

Meet with family of Tom Hurndall, shot in the head by Israeli sniper on
April 11, 2003