The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice

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      • Shuruq 4.5 Olympia Arab Festival 2020
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      • Birzeit University Women’s Scholarship
      • Rachel Corrie Memorial Scholarship
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    • Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
    • Protect Your Right to Boycott! Fight Back Against Anti-BDS Legislation
    • Get Involved!
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RCF and CCR Urge Denial of Immunity for Former Israeli Official in Case of U.S. Human Rights Defender Killed During 2010 Flotilla Attack

Posted on May 30, 2017

   

15,000 Pages of Documents Previously Obtained by CCR Show U.S. Blocking Efforts at Accountability

May 30, 2017, San Francisco – the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a “friend of the court” brief to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case brought by the parents of an American teenager killed by Israeli commandos. Eighteen-year-old human rights defender Furkan Doğan was shot five times, including in the face at point-blank range, when Israeli soldiers raided the Mavi Marmara in international waters in 2010. The ship was part of a six-boat flotilla that attempted to break the siege of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians suffering under Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip. In the lawsuit, Doğan’s parents are seeking accountability for the extrajudicial killing and torture of their son.

“The first responsibility of our government is to protect its citizens,” said Craig Corrie of the Rachel Corrie Foundation. “It is outrageous that our government chooses instead to protect a foreign government when it kills our citizens. It is outrageous foreign policy, domestic policy, and outrageous as a matter of law.”

Attorneys say international and U.S. law clearly provide accountability and redress for extrajudicial killing and torture by former foreign government officials. The lawsuit was filed under the Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victim Protection Act. A district court dismissed the case after the U.S. government submitted a “suggestion of immunity” for the defendant in the case, former Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, following a request to the State Department by the Israeli government.

“This case is yet another example of the U.S. government’s readiness to disregard its human rights obligations in order to protect Israel instead of protecting its own citizens,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Katherine Gallagher. “Immunity for extrajudicial killing flies in the face of U.S. obligations to punish serious human rights violations and provide victims a remedy.”

Through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation, CCR obtained more than 15,000 pages of documents demonstrating that the United States declined to conduct an independent investigation into Furkan Doğan’s death and undercut efforts at the international level for Israel to be held accountable.

CCR submitted the amicus brief with the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, which was founded by the family of 23-year-old U.S. human rights defender Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer while blocking the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza. CCR previously represented the Corrie family and four Palestinian families in a lawsuit against Caterpillar, Inc., which supplied the Israel Defense Forces with the bulldozers.

Read the amicus brief filed here or download: [Download not found]

Contact: Jen Nessel, CCR, (212) 614-6449, [email protected]

The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change. Visit www.ccrjustice.org and follow @theCCR.

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice continues the work of human rights activist and observer Rachel Corrie. The 501(c)3 nonprofit conducts and supports programs that foster connections between peoples, that build understanding, respect, and appreciation for differences, and that promote cooperation within and between local and global communities.  Through grassroots efforts, the foundation fosters the pursuit of human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice, as pre-requisites for world peace.  

Filed Under: News and Updates

RCF is hiring an Executive Director

Posted on May 19, 2017

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice is excited to announce that after nearly 15 years of work in Olympia, Gaza and around the world, we are looking for our first full-time Executive Director.

Over the past decade and a half, the Foundation has been led by Cindy and Craig Corrie whose roles have changed and expanded over the years. While the Corries will continue to play a crucial role as founders and visionaries, this moment marks a significant growth of the organization’s capacity to fulfill its mission of continuing the work that Rachel Corrie began. Cindy and Craig Corrie look forward to continuing their volunteer work with the foundation but also to spending more days with their children and grandchildren, traveling, and serving all of their communities in new and creative ways.

Please find the job announcement below in the Executive Director Packet along with the Application for Employment. For questions about the position, reach us at [email protected]on.org. Applications are due by Friday, June 30, 5 p.m. PDT.

Executive Director Packet (655 downloads)

RCF Employment Application (411 downloads)

Filed Under: News and Updates

RCF Statement on 69th Nakba Day

Posted on May 15, 2017

Monday, May 15, 2017, marks the 69th commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948. The date commemorates the the period between 1947-1949 when Palestinian villages were destroyed and more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced and transferred by Zionist armed forces. Israeli historians like Benny Morris refer to this event that was the foundation for the Israeli state as “necessary,” stating that “There was no choice but to expel that population.” Other Israeli historians like Ilan Pappe refute this necessity and call it an intentional plan of “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid.” ***

Rallies and demonstrations took place today throughout Palestine where several people were injured by Israeli forces.

Ongoing Nakba

The Israeli state has never taken responsibility for this foundational illegal and ethically outrageous act. Today, 6.6 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants are denied their Right of Return, a fundamental principle of international human rights and humanitarian law. Furthermore, the Nakba did not end 69 years ago, but continued in episodic waves. Israeli practices during the 1967 War produced the forcible displacement of 130,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Today, the displacement of Palestinians operates through consistent attacks and pressures targeting communities like Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Naqab (Negev) and Palestinian residents of the West Bank. The precarious position of Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East puts them at greater risk for multiple displacement in countries like Syria.

Hunger Strikes

Today, Nakba Day, is also the 29th day of a mass hunger strike waged by more than 1,000 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails. The hunger strikers are facing serious health conditions. Their strike demands basic human rights and decent treatment in Israeli jails. They also demand end to the illegal policy and practice of administrative detention through which Palestinian prisoners are held indefinitely in captivity without charge or trial. Israel has imprisoned an estimated one million Palestinians since 1948.

Return is the Foundation for Peace and Justice

No matter their location, Palestinians face pressures of discrimination, expulsion and violence by the Israeli state. The majority of Palestinians are themselves displaced or are descendants of displaced persons. Thus, on the 69th Nakba Day, we continue to affirm in the strongest manner possible the legal, moral and political necessity of implementing the Right of Return according to UNGA 194 for every Palestinian refugee and without stipulation. The status quo has further entrenched the ongoing Nakba and the violation of all people in Palestine. The international community’s deep entanglement in creating and maintaining this status quo is especially notable in 2017, when we will also mark the 100-year-anniversary of the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the 50-year-anniversary of the 1967 Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ending ongoing displacement and implementing the right of return are the building blocks to addressing the daily and structural inequalities that exist and achieving justice.

*** Join us to hear Ilan Pappé speak about “Prospects for Peace in Israel-Palestine” at Town Hall in Seattle on May 22nd, sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia.

Nakba Day Roundup

“Return is Possible” infographic by Visualizing Palestine

“The Nakba in the Words of Palestinians” on Palestine Square blog by the Institute for Palestine Studies

“Palestinians take to the streets for Nakba Day” on Al Jazeera English

“Nakba Day attests to the power of our grandparents stories” by Amjad Iraqi on +972

“When I Failed to Say Farewell to You…” by Ibtisam Azem on Jadaliyya

“Focus On: Palestinian Refugees” on Al-Shabaka

“BDS: Upholding our Rights, Resisting the Ongoing Nakba” by the Palestinian Boycott National Committee

“Thousands of Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day in West Bank, Gaza” on Ma’an News Agency

Filed Under: News and Updates

41st Land Day, a Day of Action in Palestine

Posted on March 30, 2017

Image from Land Day 1976 via “The Palestinian Revolution” website.

What is Land Day?
From the lands of Wadi ‘Ara near Haifa, to Madma village by Nablus, to Bethlehem, to Umm al-Hieran in the Naqab, to Sakhnin and Deir Hanna, Palestinians commemorated Land Day today across Palestine with demonstrations, marches and by planting olive and fruit trees, as has been done on March 30th for the past 41 years. Land Day is typically met with violent Israeli repression. This year, Israeli forces injured dozens at the Madma village protest.
On the first Land Day of 1976, Palestinian citizens of Israel led protests and marches in communities of the northern Galilee to the southern Naqab (Negev). The actions were organized in response to Israeli state plans to expropriate over 2,000 hectares of land belonging to Palestinian villages in the Galilee. Israeli police forces fired on the crowds killing six and injuring around a hundred. Since then, Land Day has become one of the most important days on the Palestinian calendar.
Why does Land Day matter?
Land Day began as a direct confrontation of blatant Israeli policies and practices of displacement and colonization. March 30, 1976 constituted an unprecedented show of popular refusal to accept Israeli policies implemented by force. 1976 became one of the most important early moments of resistance led by Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, and thus created a bridge across Israeli-imposed regimes of rule that separated Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and Israel. Palestinian citizens of Israel are those who were not displaced or were internally displaced in 1948 and lived under Israeli military rule until 1967.
The annual commemoration has played an important role in Palestinian community mobilization across Palestine. By emphasizing the land and its importance, the day of action reinforces principled opposition to ethnic-based rule and dispossession.
This year, Land Day comes after the Israeli state began in January 2017 to fulfill its promise to evict the Palestinian residents of  Umm al-Hieran in the Naqab. The government intends to establish a Jewish-only settlement on the land of the Palestinian village. Additionally, and emboldened by a Trump administration, Israeli legislators proposed settlement expansion and land annexation in the West Bank. Palestinians continue to organize and resist these new developments on decades-old practices.
Grassroots activism and Palestinian rootedness is much of what Land Day has come to represent.
Media Roundup
Ma’an News: Dozens injured as Palestinians across West Bank, Gaza and Israel commemorate Land Day
Adalah: Israeli authorities persist in discriminatory land, housing policies against Arab-Palestinian citizens
Al Jazeera: Israel’s relentless land grab continues
+972: The tragic resilience of Israel’s unrecognized Arab villages; Thousands of Palestinians march to commemorate Land Day
The New Arab: Occupied: Land before honour on Palestine Land Day
MEMO: Palestinians commemorate Land Day in Gaza

Filed Under: News and Updates

A message from Cindy & Craig Corrie

Posted on March 16, 2017

Painting by Malak Mattar; read more about her painting at We Are Not Numbers. 
March 16th, marks the 14th anniversary of the day our daughter Rachel stood in Gaza with other international activists and challenged the Israeli military’s illegal confiscation of Palestinian land and the demolition of Palestinian homes. Rachel’s life was stolen that day, but her spirit was not. As these anniversaries approach, there are sometimes tensions as we struggle to find the best way to remember, and to explain why we do so. But in a moment of illumination, we are reminded that each March 16th is for us another opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to Gaza. It is a place that overflows with suffering, yet is filled with so much more.  Rachel wrote to us about the people.  “…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. I wish you could meet these people.  Maybe, hopefully, someday you will.”
During the past fourteen years, we have been blessed with our connections to Palestinians in Gaza, in the West Bank, and elsewhere in the world. We have built relationships with them and with Palestinian and Jewish Israelis who reflect the strength and dignity Rachel recognized, and with open hearts and minds steadfastly pursue justice.
Here in the U.S., it is easy to be distracted by our new political challenges. But with colleagues in our hometown of Olympia and beyond, we are articulating our vision for a “great” country and world. In the words of the song from the Civil Rights Movement, we are keeping “our eyes on the prize.” We know you are doing the same. One part of that vision is freedom for Gaza.
At the Rachel Corrie Foundation, commitment is a core value. Today, as we remember and recommit, we are counting on you to join us in building community with Gaza. You, your organization, and your community can make so much difference for people there.
  • Use our new Gaza Resource Page to learn and share. With your suggestions, help this resource to grow.
  • Support Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish who is in Israeli court this month seeking accountability for the deaths of his three daughters and niece during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2009. Dr. Abuelaish’s civil lawsuit, pending since 2010, seeks an apology and compensation that will benefit the Daughters for Life Foundation, which awards scholarships to women throughout the Middle East. Dr. Abuelaish has asked legal analysts, journalists, scholars, and activists to attend the trial and to raise public awareness.  Watch for reports, and voice your support through social media. For information, press inquiries, or to attend the trial, contact [email protected] +1 (416) 567-6604. To learn more about the family’s story, see the March/April 2016 Washington Report.
  • Explore compelling stories from young Gazan writers and artists who, through mentorships, have seen their work published. Visit our colleague’s project We Are Not Numbers and empower these Gaza young people by sharing their voices.
  • During Women’s History Month and through Rachel’s birthday April 10th, please DONATE to build community with Gaza and to sustain the Rachel Corrie Foundation’s growing number of Gaza projects. Lend your support to grassroots activism, shared resistance and empowerment across borders – from Olympia to Gaza – through arts, sport, and education!
Thank you for remembering with us today and for keeping Rachel’s spirit and commitment alive through your actions for Gaza.
Sincerely,
Cindy and Craig
March 16, 2017

Filed Under: Cindy and Craig's Blog

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The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice
203 East Fourth Ave., Suite 402
Olympia, WA 98501

Phone: 360-754-3998
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MENU
  • RACHEL CORRIE
    • Rachel’s Emails from Palestine
    • Rachel’s Words in Print
    • Rachel Corrie Memorial Archive
    • The Rachel Corrie Court Trial
  • ABOUT RCF
    • Mission & Guiding Principles
    • Board of Directors & Staff
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Internship & Volunteer Opportunities
    • Contact Us
  • PROJECTS
    • A Tale of Two Cities: Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project
    • Gaza Projects
      • RCF Gaza Resource Page
      • Rachel Corrie Gaza Sport Initiative
      • Palestinian Cultural Palace – Youth Performances
    • Olympia Arab Festival
      • Shuruq 4.5 Olympia Arab Festival 2020
    • Peace Works
    • RCF Educational Scholarships
      • Birzeit University Women’s Scholarship
      • Rachel Corrie Memorial Scholarship
  • BDS
    • Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
    • Protect Your Right to Boycott! Fight Back Against Anti-BDS Legislation
    • Get Involved!
  • EVENTS
  • WAYS TO GIVE