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Hutton Gibson with Holocaust denier Fredrick
Tben, head of the Adelaide
Institute, at the 2003 International Conference on Authentic History,
Real News and the First Amendment
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| Report: Palestinians bulldoze border fence, try to kidnap Corrie parents |
| By israelinsider staff and partners January 4, 2006 |
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| Palestinian millitants from Al Aqsa Martyrs' brigades, drive a digger through a concrete wall on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in the town of Rafah, Wednesday Jan. 4, 2006. Palestinian militants, angry at the jailing of their leader by the Palestinian police, stole two diggers and rammed through a wall near the border with Egypt, hours after they blocked the official border crossing and took over government buildings. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) |
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| Palestinian militants, angry at the jailing of their leader by the Palestinian police for kidnapping a British aid worker and her parents, stole two bulldozers Wednesday and rammed through a wall near the border with Egypt, hours after they blocked the official border crossing at Rafah and took over government buildings. |
Kidnap gang threatened parents of peace 'martyr'
By Harry de Quetteville
(Filed: 05/01/2006)
The anarchy in Gaza took a farcical turn yesterday when it emerged that Palestinian gangs had almost kidnapped the parents of Rachel Corrie.
The American peace activist was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer at the age of 23 as she tried to stop houses in Rafah being demolished in 2003.
She is regarded as a martyr of the Palestinian cause and her exploits were immortalised in the play My Name is Rachel Corrie, performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London.
Her parents, Craig and Cindie, were at the home of a friend in Rafah when it was stormed on Tuesday night by gunmen seeking to take them hostage. They were freed when their host, a local pharmacist called Samir Nasrallah, explained who they were.
Mr Nasrallah said the gunmen wanted to kidnap the couple as bargaining chips to secure the release of a militia leader, Alaa al-Hams, arrested on suspicion of ordering the kidnap of the British human rights activist Kate Burton and her parents last week.
The incident underscored the breakdown of law and order in Gaza, where 19 foreigners have been abducted in recent months by gunmen affiliated to the Fatah movement.
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Two Palestinians opted not to kidnap the US couple Craig and Cindy Corrie
from the Rafah refugee camp Wednesday, upon learning that their daughter Rachel
was killed in 2003 as she tried to stop an IDF bulldozer from razing the home of
pharmacist Samir Nasrallah.
Nasrallah, who was hosting the Corries in his home, told The Jerusalem
Post by telephone that the two men, one of whom had a gun, knocked on his
door Wednesday morning and asked if he had internationals in his home.
"I said, 'yes,' but that this is the father and mother of Rachel Corrie,"
he said. At no time during the exchange was he frightened, nor was he even sure
that the gun was loaded, Nasrallah said.
The men came in the house and he sent his wife to wake up the Corries. The
couple had arrived the day before for an overnight visit, and were still
sleeping.
Craig Corrie told the Post he was still wearing his pajamas when he
walked into the living room and saw the men talking with Nasrallah.
The gun "had a big clip" and the man had it "pointed at the
ground between his legs while they were talking," said Craig. They were
introduced and shook hands.
"They were saying that they felt we would be safer at their house and we
said we felt safe where we are," said Craig.
Since he doesn't know Arabic, portions of the conversation were translated
for him.
"We declined," he said adding that, "there was never a threat
made against us and the gun was never pointed at anyone." He said that when
he entered the room and saw the man with the gun, he feared it might be a
kidnapping attempt, but that the situation was never described to him that way
by his host. Corrie added that the media accounts made it sound much more
dramatic than it felt during the incident.
A US activist, Serena Becker, 25, described a similar incident to the Post.
She said some men knocked on the door of the apartment where she was staying
on Tuesday night, wanting her and the few activists with her to come with them.
They left only after the activists appealed for help to the Nasrallah family and
to Palestinian security forces.
Becker, who had been in Rafah working with the Olympia-Rafah sister city
project, said she decided it was best for her safety and for the Palestinians
she was helping to leave Rafah for Israel on Wednesday.
Corrie said he and his wife had been warned that it could be dangerous, but
had proceeded with their trip anyway. It is the couple's second visit to the
region since their daughter's death and their second dramatic incident in Rafah.
During their first visit to the Nasrallahs' in September 2003, an IDF bulldozer
pulled up to the home looking to destroy it. That house, which Rachel tried to
protect, was later destroyed. It is being rebuilt with funds raised by the
grassroots US group, The Rebuilding Alliance.
The Corries arrived in the region on December 27 to attend an international
conference on non-violence in Bethlehem and plan to leave January 10. They were
in Gaza at the invitation of the Gaza Community Mental Health program.
In Rafah, they also met with Palestinians to talk about intercultural
programs between Rafah and their home town of Olympia, Washington. The
discussions were held in a building in Rafah dedicated in Rachel's name to
helping youth.
Craig said it was also important for him and his wife to visit Nasrallah,
whose family they have become close to.
They left Rafah following the morning's visit. "The people said, 'We
want you here and we love you, but come back when it's safer."
An IDF investigation into their daughter's death ruled that it was an
accident, but members of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement
for whom Rachel, 23, was volunteering at the time of her death claimed that the
IDF bulldozer driver saw Corrie and drove over her as she and a small group of
ISM activists tried to stop him from razing a home.
The IDF, however, said that Corrie died from injuries sustained by debris
that fell on top of her as a result of the bulldozer's movements, rather than
from direct contact with the bulldozer itself.
In a media release, the IDF stated there was "no way to find fault with
the soldiers involved." The Corries dispute this ruling.
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Updated Wed. Jan. 4 2006 2:18 PM ET
A
Palestinian millitant from Al Aqsa Martyrs' brigades
stands
next to a bulldozer before breaking through a concrete wall
on
the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt
in
the town of Rafah on Wednesday. (AP / Khalil Hamra)
Associated Press
RAFAH, Gaza Strip
-- Hundreds of Palestinians crossed into Egypt on Wednesday after militants,
angry at the jailing of their leader, stole two bulldozers and smashed through
the wall separating Gaza and Egypt.
The militants rammed the wall hours after they blocked the official border
crossing and took over government buildings.
As many as 300 Palestinians crossed into Egypt after the wall was smashed, an
Egyptian security official said. Brig. Adel Fawzi, director of criminal
investigation for North Sinai, said border police were unable to stop the
intruders because they had no orders to shoot.
Thousands of Egyptian Interior Ministry troops headed to the border. An
Egyptian armored vehicle was set on fire and at least three Palestinians were
reported injured, one seriously when an Egyptian troop carrier crushed him
against a wall, witnesses said.
The militants belong to the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party. They rammed the massive wall as a
show of force against the Palestinian Authority.
The militants' rampage through the southern Gaza town of Rafah underscored
the growing lawlessness in Palestinian towns, especially in Gaza. Abbas, who has
condemned the chaos, has been unable to impose order, and his failure to keep
the gunmen in check is expected to harm Fatah's prospects in Jan. 25
parliamentary elections.
Fatah-affiliated vigilantes demanding government jobs or the release of
imprisoned friends have been responsible for much of the anarchy, particularly
since Israel's pullout from Gaza in September.
The tightly run Islamic militant group Hamas, whose followers have rarely
been involved in vigilante violence, is expected to do well in the vote against
the corruption-tainted Fatah. Hamas, which opposes the existence of Israel, has
killed hundreds of Israelis in attacks.
The latest rampage began Tuesday, when Palestinian intelligence arrested Al
Aqsa militant Alaa al-Hams on suspicion he and his followers kidnapped British
human rights activist Kate Burton and her parents for two days last week. The
Burtons were among 19 foreigners abducted by Fatah gunmen in Gaza in recent
months. All have been freed unharmed.
Al-Hams followers then fired at the Palestinian security headquarters in the
southern town of Rafah where he was held. Police and gunmen fired in the air,
but there were no injuries.
On Wednesday morning, some 40 masked gunmen took over the central election
office in Rafah, the local branch of the Palestinian parliament, a court and
another government building. Gunmen were seen on rooftops, inside the buildings
and posted at the main doors. Most workers fled.
A truckload of gunmen then drove to the nearby Rafah border crossing with
Egypt, Gaza's main gate to the world.
Firing in the air, they closed the entrance gate to the crossing compound and
told waiting passengers to leave. They also set up an impromptu checkpoint at
the access road to the crossing, turning away travelers.
They left the buildings and the crossing after three hours.
But hours later, with al-Hams still in jail, the militants stole two
bulldozers in Rafah and headed for the massive wall, which keeps Palestinians
out of the Philadelphi corridor next to a smaller wall that marks the official
border with Egypt.
"We are going to do everything we can to pressure the authority to
release our leader," said an Al Aqsa leader who gave his name as Abu Hassan.
The bulldozers smashed two holes at the same spot where Hamas militants
blasted through the towering concrete barrier during the border chaos following
Israel's Gaza pullout. Palestinian security officials had closed the earlier
hole with heavy concrete blocks, but those quickly gave way before the
bulldozer.
Hundreds of Palestinians swarmed into the border corridor.
"Many people walked through. The Palestinian police can't stop
them," said Fawzi Shaheen, a 26-year-old Rafah resident who ran toward the
border.
The Rafah crossing was handed to Palestinian control, under European
supervision, as part of a U.S.-brokered deal with Israel last month. Since then,
the crossing was forced to shut down several times during attacks by gunmen.
Israel threatened to close the Rafah crossing in coordination with European
observers if the breach is not repaired, according to a Defense Ministry
complaint sent to the United States and the Palestinians, the ministry said. In
the message, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz expressed grave concern over the
development.
Salima Abu Maghaseeb, 42, said she was angry over the disruption of her plans
to travel to Egypt with her daughter for her daughter's wedding this week.
"I don't know why the Palestinian Authority is allowing them to do
this," said Abu Maghaseeb, who had her documents checked at the impromptu
roadblock. "Those people should use their guns ... to protect people and
not to come and terrify us. God only knows what the future holds for Gaza."
A spokesman for the European observers, Julio de la Guardia, said the
disruptions outside the crossing were an internal Palestinian matter.
"Our functioning at the border crossing has not been disturbed," he
said.
In other chaos, Palestinian gunmen burst into a Rafah house early Wednesday
and tried to kidnap the parents of Rachel Corrie, an American who was killed in
2003 as she protested the impending demolition of a house in the southern Gaza
town, according to a witness.
The five gunmen appeared to be affiliated with the ruling Fatah movement,
according to Samir Nasrallah, the Corries' host, but it was not clear if they
were from the same group that blockaded the border. The gunmen eventually
relented after being told who their targets were, he said.
Corrie, of Olympia, Wash., was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer as
she tried to stop it from demolishing Nasrallah's house. Her parents, Craig and
Cindy, have repeatedly visited Nasrallah since their daughter's death. They left
Gaza safely after the attempted kidnapping, Nasrallah said.
Also, Israeli opposition lawmakers demanded authorities quickly finish an
investigation into new bribery allegations against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
and announce the results before Israel's March 28 elections.
Accusations of corruption against Sharon first surfaced before the 2003
election. The scandal erupted again late Tuesday when Channel 10 TV reported
that police had evidence that Sharon's family received $3 million in bribes from
an Austrian businessman who owns a casino in the West Bank town of Jericho.
"Either this cloud of suspicion will evaporate or it will lead to an
indictment, but one of the two has to happen and, therefore, I have talked to
the attorney general. He has to decide before the election," Labor lawmaker
Ofir Pines-Paz told Israel Radio.
The Justice Ministry declined to comment. Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld
declined to say whether the probe could be completed in the coming months.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert dismissed the allegations Wednesday as "not
serious."
Police have investigated several cases involving Sharon and his sons, Omri
and Gilad, but the prime minister has not been charged. Omri Sharon resigned
from parliament Tuesday after being convicted of violating campaign funding
laws.
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