Palestinian Gunmen Try To Kidnap Rachel Corrie's Parents

[Mycroft]

http://www.kirotv.com/news/5839083/detail.html

Quote:

Palestinian Gunmen Try To Kidnap Rachel Corrie's Parents

RAFAH, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian gunmen in Gaza Strip early Wednesday tried to kidnap the parents of an Evergreen State College student killed in 2003.

Five gunmen burst into a house and tried to kidnap Rachel Corrie's parents, Craig and Cindy. The gunmen eventually relented after being told who their targets were.

The Corries left Gaza safely after the incident.

Rachel Corrie was killed as she protested the impending demolition of a house in the southern Gaza town. She was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 as she tried to stop it from demolishing a friend's house.

The Corries have repeatedly visited that friend since.

Bwahahahaha!

Okay, serious now, I guess this lends credibility that those other Gaza kidnappings were not staged. If these guys are doing things this stupid...

Hey, never mind giving them a state, how about a slot on Comedy Central?

[Skeptic]

Palestinian Gunmen Try To Kidnap Rachel Corrie's Parents

Welcome to Palestine. Still, allow me to express some skepticism here. It truly seems too bizzare to believe. What is the reliability of your source? It doesn't seem to appear on the MSM anywhere.

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by Skeptic

Palestinian Gunmen Try To Kidnap Rachel Corrie's Parents

Welcome to Palestine. Still, allow me to express some skepticism here. It truly seems too bizzare to believe. What is the reliability of your source? It doesn't seem to appear on the MSM anywhere.

Here is an article from Reuters, but you're right this hasn't gotten a lot of play in the MSM.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04163096.htm

[webfusion]

The lead story is up in Tel Hashomer, not Rafiah.

The Rafiah border breaches and the Gaza situation will have to wait.
The Palestinians are about to discover something very unpleasant -- that Ehud Olmert needs to "earn his stripes" in order to win the coming elections, and guess who he is going to aim at?


Hint:

Armed Palestinians in the streets of Gaza --- January 2006

[Luke T.]

Follow up story, courtesy of Abdul on SC: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060105/D8EU7IS88.html

Quote:

Hundreds of angry Palestinians streamed into Egypt on Wednesday after militants with stolen bulldozers broke through a border wall, and two Egyptian troops were killed and 30 were wounded by gunfire in the rampage.

<snip>

The rampage began late Tuesday, after Palestinian intelligence arrested Alaa al-Hams, an Al Aqsa militant, on suspicion he and his followers kidnapped human rights activist Kate Burton and her parents for two days last week.

<snip>

Al-Hams' followers fired at the Palestinian security headquarters in Rafah, where he was held, briefly took over four government buildings, and then drove to the Rafah crossing, which was reopened last month after intense negotiations directed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Firing in the air, they closed the entrance gate and told waiting passengers to leave. They set up an impromptu checkpoint, turning away travelers, but left the buildings and the crossing after three hours.

The militants then stole two bulldozers in Rafah and led an impromptu parade of hundreds of jubilant residents toward a wall a few hundred yards from the border. Five militants rode in the shovel of one bulldozer, while children held onto the back of the vehicle.

"We are going to do everything we can to pressure the Authority to release our leader," said an Al Aqsa activist who gave his name as Abu Hassan.

The bulldozers smashed two holes in the towering concrete barrier at the same spot where Hamas militants had blasted through it during the border chaos that followed Israel's Gaza pullout in September. Palestinian security officials had closed the earlier hole with a patch of heavy concrete blocks, but those quickly gave way before the bulldozer Wednesday.

Irony on top of irony.

A girl protestor is killed by an Israeli bulldozer. Later, the very people on whose behalf the girl was protesting attempt to kidnap her parents. Later, a suspect is arrested for another kidnapping. Later, the suspect's followers mount bulldozers and charge through a wall and kill two people.

Another vicious circle is complete.

[Luke T.]

...

[zenith-nadir]

Originally Posted by Luke T.

Irony on top of irony.

A girl protestor is killed by an Israeli bulldozer. Later, the very people on whose behalf the girl was protesting attempt to kidnap her parents. Later, a suspect is arrested for another kidnapping. Later, the suspect's followers mount bulldozers and charge through a wall and kill two people.

Another vicious circle is complete.

But wait there is more.

Quote:

16:04 05/01/2006

GAZA - Palestinian police on Thursday released a suspect in the kidnapping of three Britons in the Gaza Strip after gunmen went on the rampage demanding he be freed, a spokesman for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said.

A previously unknown group calling itself the Brigades of the Mujahideen-Jerusalem had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, calling it a response to Israel's declaration of a "no-go zone" in northern Gaza to halt rocket attacks.

The story now goes...

A girl protestor is killed by an Israeli bulldozer. Later, the very people on whose behalf the girl was protesting attempt to kidnap her parents. Later, a suspect is arrested for another kidnapping which was undertaken to protest Israel's attempt to stop terrorists from firing Qassams rockets at Israel. Later, the suspect's followers mount bulldozers and charge through a wall and kill two people. So the Palestinian Authority "caves" and releases the suspect.

Another vicious circle is complete.

[zenith-nadir]

Back to the topic at hand...

Quote:

Jan. 5, 2006 5:17

Several gunmen also tried to kidnap the parents of Rachel Corrie, an American woman who was killed in Rafah in 2003 when she tried to stop an IDF bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian house.

The kidnapping attempt failed and the parents were not hurt.

Human rights activists in the Gaza Strip said the Corries were visiting the Gaza Strip to express solidarity with the Palestinian people. On Tuesday, the Corries visited the offices of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

The two later left the Gaza Strip out of fear for their lives.

[Cleon]

This was sent to me by a friend of mine who is part of the Corrie family (Rachel's cousin, in fact). According to her, the information here is "basically correct" and the earlier reports that went out on the AP wire were less than accurate.

I am presenting it here so that people will at least have the opportunity to read the facts, before ignoring them and making grandiose claims about what is proved by what they think happened.

Quote:

Parents of Slain American Activist Thwart Gaza Kidnapping
Corrie Parents and Nasrallah Family Talk Kidnappers Out of Plan, American Team Returns to Jerusalem

PALO ALTO, California -- Americans Craig and Cindy Corrie cut short their visit to Gaza after they and their hosts, the family of Dr. Samir Nasrallah, talked would-be kidnappers out of a plan to hold three Americans in exchange for an arrested family member. The Corries and all delegates of the Olympia Rafah Sister City Program have now returned safely to Jerusalem.

The Corries were staying with the Nasrallah family apartment in Rafah, Gaza, with members of the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project (ORSCP) located in an apartment down the hall. On Wednesday morning before dawn, two men with a gun pounded on the door of the apartment belonging to Rochelle Gause, Will Hewitt, and Serena Becker, insisting they move for their own security. The team called Dr. Samir and the extended network that was set-up in advance, to aid in case of emergency.

Dr. Nasrallah talked to the men and asked them to come down to his apartment. He learned that they, and the others in the two vehicles outside, were members of the family of Alaa al-Hamm, who had been arrested by the Palestinian police that evening on charges of involvement in a previous kidnapping.

The Corries, staying at Dr. Nasrallah's home, met the two men in the living room where they discussed what they and the group of ORSCP participants were doing in Rafah. A neighbor also came over, a Palestinian Authority security officer, and talked with the men. After a brief conversation, they shook Craig and Cindy Corrie's hands, told them they had "great respect for our daughter and for us" and left, said Cindy Corrie.

The Corries and the ORSCP team then left Gaza without further incident in a caravan of vehicles driven by ORSCP's Palestinian participants.

The Corries had traveled to Gaza at the invitation of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, a partner in their efforts to rebuild Palestinian homes in Gaza in memory of their slain daughter, Rachel Corrie. They joined a 5-member American delegation from the Olympia Rafah Sister City Project who had been living in Gaza for the past 2 months, working with Palestinian partners to launch a project envisioned by Rachel to promote cultural understanding.

Corrie, the 23-year-old American student, was killed nearly three years ago as she faced down an Israeli Caterpillar D9 bulldozer that threatened the Narallah familys duplex home in Gaza. Construction is underway to rebuild the Nasrallah family home, funded by Americans from across the United States and people throughout the world in a grass roots initiative of the Rebuilding Alliance that seeks to bring the Occupation to an end through constructive resistance.

We were extremely happy to visit with both Nasrallah families, spend two nights in their homes, and make plans to work with the people of Rafah, said Craig Corrie, Rachels father. What we are taking back is the kindness and consideration of Palestinians and also Israelis in watching out for us, our safety and comfort, in friendship. We look forward to expanding the rebuilding efforts and continuing the cross-cultural projects in Rafah that are so important to us.

Rachel Corrie lived with the Nasrallah family in their 2-family home and the Nasrallahs witnessed her killing on March 16, 2003 by an Israeli Army bulldozer. Dr. Samir Nasrallah, a pharmacist at the largest clinic in Rafah, was one of the first to reach her. The family remained in their home despite the demolition of all 2,200 surrounding homes in their Rafah neighborhood, until it too was destroyed. In May, 2004 their rental apartment, also, was destroyed when the Israeli militarys Operation Rainbow razed 117 homes in the Brazil neighborhood of Rafah.

My extended family and I welcomed the Corries and Rachels friends and made sure they were never in harms way, said Dr. Samir Nasrallah. We are honored to work together to build what Rachel most cared for: peace, friendship, and belief in freedom here and throughout the world.

The two-family Nasrallah home is the first home in the Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza, sponsored by Gaza Community Mental Health Programme in partnership with the American nonprofit, The Rebuilding Alliance. Cindy Corrie is a member of the board of directors of the Rebuilding Alliance and Craig is an honorary board member. Their brief stay in Gaza included a meeting with Dr. Eyad El Sarraj, Chair of GCMHP, and site visits to plan the next home in the rebuilding campaign.

We are thankful that the Corries, Rachels friends from the Olympia Rafah Sister City Project, the Nasrallah family, and their many friends, neighbors, and supporters are all safe and we sincerely appreciate their resilience and quick thinking, said Donna Baranski-Walker, executive director of the Rebuilding Alliance. Rebuilding will continue on schedule, as an important way to lend support to Palestinian families as they rebuild their homes and schools despite Israels continuing Occupation and the violence and uncertainty around them.

Quote:

From The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 4, 2006

News reports stating that the parents of slain American human rights activist Rachel Corrie were the intended targets of an attempted kidnapping Wednesday in Gaza are incorrect. According to Craig and Cindy Corrie, contrary to news reports, the Corries were never threatened with kidnapping, nor did gunmen burst into the house where the Corries were staying.

In the early morning of January 4, two Palestinian men visited three American members of the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project (ORSCP) in the home where they were staying in Rafah, a city on Gazas border with Egypt. The two men reportedly wanted to hold the three foreigners in exchange for the release of a family member who was arrested by Palestinian security forces for an earlier kidnapping. The Corries were staying in a nearby home and helped to talk the men out of going through with the plan.

Cindy and Craig Corrie, who are close friends with the ORSCP participants, were visiting Rafah after attending a Palestinian conference on nonviolence held last week in Bethlehem.

The Corries were visiting the Nasrallah family in Rafah. The Nasrallahs had lived in the house that Rachel died defending. Rachel was killed when she was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in front of the Nasrallahs home in Rafah on March 16, 2003. Rachel, who grew up in Olympia, Washington, envisioned a sister city project between Olympia and Rafah to promote cultural understanding. Five people from Olympia, friends of Rachel, arrived two months ago in Rafah to work toward that goal. Three of them Rochelle Gause, Will Hewitt and Serena Becker were in the apartment when the men arrived at 1:30 a.m.. One of the two men was carrying a weapon. The men arrived in two cars with other passengers who remained inside the vehicles.

ORSCP members had been asked by their Palestinian Rafah sister city counterparts not to travel without Palestinian escorts. Kidnappings have increased in Gaza in the run-up to the January 25 elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the first PLC elections that Palestinians in Gaza have been able to plan since 1996 due to the Israeli occupation. The three Americans in the apartment remained inside when the two men knocked on their door at 1:30 am, and called Dr. Nasrallah to tell him what was happening.

Dr. Nasrallah came and talked to the men and invited them to come down to his apartment. He learned that they, and the others in the two vehicles outside, were members of the family of Alaa al-Hamm, who had been arrested by the Palestinian police that evening on charges of involvement in previous kidnapping.

The Corries, who were staying at Dr. Nasrallah's home, got up and met the two men in the living room where they all drank tea together and discussed what they and the group of ORSCP participants were doing in Rafah. A neighbor, a Palestinian Authority security officer, also came over and joined the group. After a brief conversation with the security officer, the two men shook Craig and Cindy Corrie's hands, and, according to Cindy Corrie, told the Corries that they had "great respect for our daughter and for us" and then left..

Over the next few hours, ORSCP members from Olympia met with their Rafah partners to discuss the situation. "We weren't just concerned for our own safety," the ORSCP group said. "We were also concerned about being a burden on the people here who have put so much work into this project."

"There is a feeling that things will be calmer after the election," Cindy Corrie said. "People in the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project say they plan on continuing their work in Rafah and will organize more people return to Rafah. We plan to visit again as well."

Palestinian authority vehicles and cars driven by ORSCP's Palestinian participants escorted the Corries and the five Olympia participants to Erez Checkpoint without incident Wednesday morning. "All the Palestinians that we worked with were going out of their way to make sure we all remained safe," Serena Becker said. "We heard today and yesterday how embarrassed they were that these kinds of things were going on."

"We will continue to support the Palestinian struggle for freedom and human rights, the ORSCP participants said in a group statement. "The Israeli occupation has led to the militarization of a portion of Palestinian society and the continued Israeli occupation undermines the ability of Palestinians to have a free society."

Cindy Corrie pointed to the upcoming Palestinian Legislative Council elections as a positive sign. "We need to pay attention to these positive things when they happen," she said.

[Jocko]

Originally Posted by Cleon

This was sent to me by a friend of mine who is part of the Corrie family (Rachel's cousin, in fact). According to her, the information here is "basically correct" and the earlier reports that went out on the AP wire were less than accurate.

I am presenting it here so that people will at least have the opportunity to read the facts, before ignoring them and making grandiose claims about what is proved by what they think happened.

Sure, who needs a variety of credible reports from EYEWITNESSES when you have a biased source with the same last name as the subjects of the story, right? Seems to me the author wrote from Palo Alto, not Gaza, regardless of the family name. Hearsay at its finest, propaganda at its worst.

Cleon, you making a real effort to force others to define you by what mailing lists you're on. First ANSWER, now this. Are you on a first-name basis with Cindy Sheehan too?

[zenith-nadir]

Originally Posted by Cleon

I am presenting it here so that people will at least have the opportunity to read the facts, before ignoring them and making grandiose claims about what is proved by what they think happened.

I liked these parts of your post:

Quote:

In the early morning of January 4, two Palestinian men visited three American members of the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project (ORSCP) in the home where they were staying in Rafah, a city on Gazas border with Egypt. The two men reportedly wanted to hold the three foreigners in exchange for the release of a family member who was arrested by Palestinian security forces for an earlier kidnapping.

So "visited" is a ORSCP euphemism for attempted kidnapping since the two men wanted to hold the three foreigners - members of ORSCP - in exchange for the release of a family member.

[Dr Adequate]

Originally Posted by Jocko

Sure, who needs a variety of credible reports from EYEWITNESSES...

Me. And the only eyewitnesses would be the terrorists, the Corries, and the Nasrallah household. The article Cleon posted quotes the Corries and Dr Nasrallah. These are eyewitnesses. The other stuff quoted on this thread does not contain any eyewitness testimony.

So like you I prefer reports based on eyewitness accounts; and unlike you I can recognise them when I see them.

[Jocko]

Originally Posted by Dr Adequate

So like you I prefer reports based on eyewitness accounts; and unlike you I can recognise them when I see them.

Granted, eyewitness was the wrong term. I should have said "people in the same hemisphere." The point remains, however.

[rikzilla]

Originally Posted by Dr Adequate

Me. And the only eyewitnesses would be the terrorists, the Corries, and the Nasrallah household. The article Cleon posted quotes the Corries and Dr Nasrallah. These are eyewitnesses. The other stuff quoted on this thread does not contain any eyewitness testimony.

So like you I prefer reports based on eyewitness accounts; and unlike you I can recognise them when I see them.

When a report characterizes armed men barging uninvited onto private property in order to commit a kidnapping as "visiting" then I seriously must reconsider the veracity in light of such obvious bias; if not the sanity; of the author. The Corrie's obviously talked their would-be captors out of the crime by holding up their gold-plated "useful idiot" credentials. One need not wonder too long what would have happened to any other innocent westerner "visited" by these thugs.

The bottom line is that a criminal act was attempted; and the Corries have drunk enough of the moon-bat brand koolaid to excuse it and even abet the thugs by calling them "visitors". Talk about spin...
-z

[CBL4]

You are debating semantics. The terrorists wanted to kidnap westerners. They decided not to the Corries because they found out these particular westerners were people who helped their cause. The terrorist/would-be-kidnappers are evil. The Corries were damn lucky to get through the experience physically, if not mentally, unharmed. Death was a distinct possibility.

IMO, the Corries are idiots if they do not realize this. They also now know first hand that they and their daughter are at best apologists for kidnapper/terrorist.

CBL

[zenith-nadir]

Rachel Corrie's death was senseless. But she did burn a mock American flag infront of a bunch of Palestinian kids.



People at JREF may lothe me but I would never ever in a million years teach children that burning flags - mockup or not - was acceptable behaviour.

[ysabella]

I live in Olympia, where Rachel Corrie grew up and so on. So anything related to her always gets coverage here.

Here's the story as covered by The Olympian. According to this, it wasn't the Corries who talked the gunmen out of taking them, but a Palestinian hosting them - Samir Nasrallah, the guy whose house Rachel was intending to defend when she was killed. He explained who they were, and the gunmen left.

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by Cleon

This was sent to me by a friend of mine who is part of the Corrie family (Rachel's cousin, in fact).

You do continue to amaze me.

Originally Posted by Cleon

According to her, the information here is "basically correct" and the earlier reports that went out on the AP wire were less than accurate.

And the facts presented here "basically confirm" the facts of the OP. Take away the spin words that down-play the event, and it's all the same.

Originally Posted by Cleon

I am presenting it here so that people will at least have the opportunity to read the facts, before ignoring them and making grandiose claims about what is proved by what they think happened.

What is proved is that it's dangerous to be a non-Palestinian in Gaza right now, and it's damned near anarchy there.

[CBL4]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mycroft
What is proved is that it's dangerous to be a non-Palestinian in Gaza right now, and it's damned near anarchy there.

I do not see why you included the word "non-Palestinian." The extremists are as likely to kill each other as foreigners.

CBL

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by CBL4

I do not see why you included the word "non-Palestinian." The extremists are as likely to kill each other as foreigners.

CBL

Do you think so? I haven't seen any news reports like that. It seems when gunmen storm an office, there is no actual shooting.

I understand crime is still a huge danger to the Palestinians.

[CBL4]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mycroft
Do you think so? I haven't seen any news reports like that. It seems when gunmen storm an office, there is no actual shooting.

I understand crime is still a huge danger to the Palestinians.

I admit I have been to busy to read much more than the headlines. I have heard tales of violence - political and otherwise. Given the number of guns and the nature of the extremists in Gaza, I expect a civil war to begin this year. I cannot imagine Hamas, Fatah or any of the other terrorist organization acccepting a peaceful power sharing democracy. I hope I am wrong but terrorists are evil people so hoping for goodness from them is a foolish bet. ("Evil" refers to the terrorists and their active supporters not the Palestinian people as a whole.)

CBL