Voice of Palestine, Canada will be interviewing Craig and I this coming Tuesday, March 31, 2009, from 8 to 9 pm (PDT). Craig and I have just returned from Gaza as part of the CodePink delegation, and we will talk with Voice of Palestine about the dire situation in Gaza, the CodePink humanitarian mision and  about the sixth anniversary of Rachel ‘s death.

Voice of Palestine broadcasts weekly on Vancouver Cooperative Radio (CFRO) 102.7 FM in Vancouver, Canada. People outside of Vancouver can listen to the show live on the Internet.

On March 16 Craig and I were interviewed on Democracy Now about our recent trip to Gaza, the situation there and about Rachel. You can watch the interviews in two-parts here via these Youtube videos, or visit the Democracy Now website. An excerpt from the interview is below.

 

Read an excerpt here: [Read more…]

A Statement from the Family of Rachel Corrie on March 16, 2009

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. [Read more…]

The parents of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American killed by an Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer in Gaza six years ago, will arrive here Thursday to join Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Alice Walker and 58 other Americans, Canadians and Europeans on a historic aid delegation to Gaza this week.

WHEN: March 5 (delegates arrive) to March 12, 2009
WHERE: Cairo, Egypt; crossing into Gaza at Rafah border
Press conference: 3 p.m. March 5, lobby of Arabesque Hotel, 6th floor. 11 Ramsis St., Abdel Mounim Riad Square, Cairo, Egypt

There will be a press conference at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Arabesque Hotel in downtown Cairo to announce the purpose and itinerary of the delegation, the first of its size and kind to attempt to enter Gaza since July 2007. [Read more…]

ORIGINALLY IN THE SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER:

Like many others, I enter the New Year with shock and horror at the attacks in Gaza. The cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, fragile from the start, was shattered last fall. Some say it was broken when fighters in Gaza fired rockets into Israeli towns the morning of Nov. 5; others say it was the evening before, when the Israeli military entered Central Gaza and commandeered a family’s home to stop Palestinian men allegedly digging a tunnel. Israeli air strikes killed six Palestinians that night. [Read more…]