Report back from 7th Rachel Corrie Banner Project Demo

A half dozen anti-apartheid activists showed up at San Francisco's shopping mecca Union Square on this chilly day to raise awareness of Americans and others about apartheid Israel and Rachel Corrie, the 23-year old peace activist from Olympia, Washington, who was bulldozed to death by an Israeli soldier while she was trying to defend another Palestinian home from being illegally demolished.

Under the shadow of the huge Christmas tree and the huge Jewish candleabra (the Menorah?) we handed out literature about Israel's Apartheid Wall, companies that should be boycotted for supporting apartheid Israel, and facts about the racist ideology of Zionism.

We also sang a revised version of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and it went like this:

"O little town of Bethlehem
how still we see thee lie,
under Israeli curfew
as Palestinian children die.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
the everlasting light,
the hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight."

An excellent documentary is now available through http://www.ameu.org about the murders of the peace activists from the International Solidarity Movement, American Rachel Corrie and British citizen Tom Hurndall, as well as British film-maker James Miller- all of whom were targetted by the Israeli army and killed within a few weeks of each other. After watching this incredible film, there can be little doubt that Zionist Israel is a killing machine which often spares no one who stands in its way of a maintaining a racist, Jewish state as opposed to a true democracy with equal rights for all.

The footage is brutal to watch. Besides the especially grotesque footage of Tom Hurdall seconds after he was shot, and later in the hospital when it is quite apparent that he is a gruesome corpse, but hooked to a "life" machine, there is the footage of a poor little Palestinian schoolgirl who was just sitting at her desk in class when an Israeli soldier sent a bullet indiscriminately through the school walls and into her brain. Although she recovered from a three week coma, the sad, traumatic discovery that she is blinded is caught on film and the little girl is overcome with wrenching emotions as well as her family and viewers of the film when realizing how her life has been irrevocably changed forever through no fault of her own.

Footage of the mourners at Rachel Corrie's funeral is also included, where the Israeli army came zooming out of nowhere in bulldozers and tanks, harassing them, circling them and firing teargas at them. Does this sound like the Israeli government was regretful of what they told the press was a "tragic accident"?

Interviews of both eyewitnesses to the crimes and the Israeli authorities reveals the lies of the latter, since the video footage caught on tape completely supports the eyewitnesses testimonies.

This fascinating, extremely moving video is called "Dispatches: The Killing Zone" and is available through http://www.ameu.org for $10 for the first copy and $5 for subsequent copies.

We say no more US aid to apartheid Israel now! And justice for Rachel Corrie, Tom Hurndall and James Miller!