MAN SAYS ACTIVIST WAS BRAVE IN GAZA
MADISONIAN KNEW WOMAN SLAIN BY ISRAELI BULLDOZER
Samara Kalk Derby, The Capital Times, March 17, 2003
Rachel Corrie had put herself between the bulldozer and Palestinians' homes many times. Sunday, the bulldozer won.
The 23-year-old activist, a college student from Olympia, Wash., was killed by an Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer during a house demolition in Rafah, next to Egypt, in southern Gaza.
Ben Granby, a Madison native who spent three months in Gaza City last year, met Corrie two weeks ago when he went back to Gaza to visit friends.
While he had only spent time with Corrie while she "was under fire," he called her "very daring, very brave, very strong-minded and very committed." She was also kind, he said, and spent her days working with schoolchildren.
Granby, who recently spent five weeks living in Iraq, went to visit Gaza two weeks ago before returning to Madison. It was then that he went to Rafah, and spent some time with the International Solidarity Movement. Corrie was one of eight members of that group in Rafah, protesting the Israeli government's bulldozing of Palestinian homes.
Group members spend the night in various homes protecting Palestinian families who are in danger of being bulldozed. "It happens without warning," said Granby, a West High and UW-Madison graduate.
The Israeli government maintains that it tears down the homes of Palestinians suspected in Islamic militant activity, and argues that such operations deter suicide bombings and other attacks on Israel.
Granby and Corrie camped out together one recent night in a Rafah home. Israeli Defense Forces were bulldozing a mosque that night and there was heavy gunfire all around, said Granby, noting that most bulldozings take place during the day.
Corrie wanted to go out with a light and a bullhorn and stand in front of the mosque and yell at the bulldozers, but Granby said he was able to talk her out of it.
"It was nighttime and I was afraid of being shot by one or both sides," he said.
Granby first heard of Corrie's death, which has become international news, Sunday via e-mail.
"She had much more courage than I could ever imagine. She wouldn't flinch at all and they were shooting right next to us. I was pretty surprised by that," he said.
Granby said he does not believe Corrie intended to die to make a point or draw attention to the situation in Rafah. "From what I understand it was more that she slipped and couldn't get up. She fell and the bulldozer didn't stop at all."
The massive bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian homes are twice, maybe three times as big as a regular bulldozer, Granby said.
In this particular section of Rafah, Israeli Defense Forces have been carving away at the homes flanking an Israeli settlement, he said.
"They've demolished over 600 homes there so far. Just in this area alone. There is no warning and there is no compensation. They just come in and families have to flee for their lives, grabbing what they can," Granby said.
The United States had protested when the Israeli government was clearing larger areas in Rafah, so the Israeli Defense Forces have scaled back to about one house a day, Granby said.
"That's why it's never in the news anymore. … Rafah needs attention. The world has completely forgotten it," he said.
Part of Granby's motivation in going to Rafah was to take video footage for a sister city project he and others are working to set up between Madison and Rafah.
"It would be the first-ever sister city project with a Middle Eastern country," he said. He plans to make a presentation and have an initial fund-raiser early next month.
An International Solidarity Movement activist who was with Corrie when she was killed told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Corrie, wearing a bright jacket, climbed onto the bulldozer shovel-plow and began shouting at the driver.
"There's no way he didn't see her, since she was practically looking into the cabin. At one stage, he turned around toward the building. The bulldozer kept moving, and she slipped and fell off the plow. But the bulldozer kept moving," he said.
Granby called news of Corrie's death shocking, adding grimly, "I think it is all going to be overshadowed very soon. It's about to get a lot worse."
CAPTION(S):
ASSOCIATED PRESS
American Rachel Corrie shouts with a bullhorn Sunday at an Israeli bulldozer operator as the machine tears down the home of a Palestinian in Rafah. It has not been confirmed that the bulldozer in the picture is the one that ran Corrie down. Madison resident Ben Granby camped out with Corrie in Rafah and witnessed bulldozing two weeks ago.
Photos of Rachel Corrie and Ben Granby.
Cite this article
"MAN SAYS ACTIVIST WAS BRAVE IN GAZA MADISONIAN KNEW WOMAN SLAIN BY ISRAELI BULLDOZER.(LOCAL/STATE)." The Capital Times. Capital Newspapers. 2003. Retrieved November 15, 2009 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-98873641.html
COPYRIGHT 2003 Capital Newspapers
