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Peace Under
Fire - Israel, Palestine and the International
Solidarity Movement
Edited by Josie
Sandercock, Radhika Sainath, Marissa McLaughlin,
Hussein Khalili, Nicholas Blincoe, Huwaida
Arraf, and Ghassan Andoni
Foreward by Edward Said
The last
two years have been the most brutal in the
entire thirty-six year history of Israel’s
military occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip; indeed the most violent since
the creation of Israel itself. The International
Solidarity Movement (ISM) was founded as
a peaceful resistance to that violence.
Its highly visible actions, which have included
breaking the sieges in Ramallah and Bethlehem,
as well as saving countless lives, have
shone a spotlight on Israel’s occupation.
Outlawed in Israel and nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize, the ISM has threatened
the governing coalition with fears that
Israeli opinion might at last be turning
against them.
In showing
what risks Palestinians take, ISM volunteers
have also tragically been targeted. The
deaths of Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall,
as well as the shootings of Kate Edwards,
Caoimhe Butterley and Brian Avery, have
never been fully explained, covered up in
the US and UK and brushed aside in Israel—an
unfortunate consequence of Israel’s
“war on terror.”
Collecting
previously published news articles on the
movement, giving accounts drawn from web-logs
and diaries as they happened, and including
last writings of the murdered American Rachel
Corrie and contributions from the Hurndall
family, Peace Under Fire reveals
the real horror of life under occupation
and describes the first signs of a new wave
of international solidarity.
From the
Foreward by Edward Said
What Rachel
Corrie's work in Gaza recognized was the
gravity and the density of the living history
of the Palestinian people as a national
community, and not merely as a collection
of deprived refugees. That is what she was
in solidarity with. And we need to remember
that that kind of solidarity is no longer
confined to a small number of intrepid souls
here and there, but is recognized the world
over.
About the
Editors
Nicholas Blincoe,
Hussein Khalili, Marissa McLaughlin, Radhika
Sainath, Josie Sandercock, Huwaida Arraf,
and Ghassan Andoni are all members of the
International Solidarity Movement. Novelists,
human rights activists and academics, they
divide time between various countries of
residence and Palestine.
Reviews
"...this
is the story of the "internationals":
the outstanding, mostly young people who
go to the Occupied Territories and Gaza
to bear witness and defend Palestinian families
from the might of the Israeli military,
especially the bulldozers that demolish
their homes. The story of the heroism of
Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall and their
murder by the Israelis, in acts of terrorism
as explicit as any suicide bombing, is painful
to read, but necessary."
- John Pilger, journalist and filmmaker,
director of Palestine
is Still the Issue
Related Links
Interview
with Radhika Sainath, by Stefan Christoff
on CKUT, July 25, 2004
The
International Solidarity Movement's website
Rachel
Corrie's Memorial Website
Tom
Hurndall's Memorial Website
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