As mentioned in a previous post, I'll be occasionally posting writings from Will's chapbook, "This is the Life", along with the letters that Rachel Corrie sent home from Rafah.  There has been a fair bit of discussion on Olyblog about Rachel, the ISM, and the Israel/Palestine conflict in the last couple years, and I've decided it is unproductive to discuss the ISM without directly posting the writings of ISM activists.

The wells that Will mentions in the second piece here are the same (at least I'm pretty sure) as those written about by Rachel. 

Will's writings carry a "copyleft", which gives explicit permission to reproduce providing that doing so is not to make a profit.  Much of this writing can be found on this blog, where I've been slowly posting it for Will.       -Phil

BRAZIL 

After refugees were displaced to Rafah in 1948, several foreign governments aided with the construction of housing for refugees. One neighborhood of Rafah is called Brazil because the Brazilian government helped to build it.

Monsoor carries the metal brazier upstairs, walking backwards, cigarette burning down to filter in his mouth. He takes two legs, I take one. Logs burn between us, spilling the occasional coal on the tile stairs.

“Monsoor, I’m impressed!” I say.

Sponsored by: The Center for Community Based Learning and Action and the Peoples Legal Defense Fund

WHERE: The Olympia Center - 222 Columbia St NW in downtown Olympia

WHAT: This will be a moderated conversation for the whole community on what happened at the port and why. Various groups will be represented and willing to answer questions. The goal is to achieve some closure on the events around the protests and to move into the future, not divided, but as a community.

Hope to see you all there.

As a result of recent speculations on Olyblog about the work of Rachel and other ISMer's in Palestine, I've decided to post writings both from Rachel as well as from Will Hewitt, who was in Rafah at the same time. 

This first letter from Rachel mentions Israeli "towers", as well as bulldozed wells.  There were, at the time (I am uncertain as to whether the towers were removed during the "withdrawal" -which really only referred to the settlements- from Gaza), actual guard/sniper towers on the ends of most of the major streets in Rafah.  These towers were very dangerous as soldiers often shot randomly into the busy streets of Rafah, frequently killing or injuring pedestrians and school children. Tom Hurndall, a UK national and ISM activist, was killed by a bullet from one of these towers not long after Rachel's death.

As well, destruction of basic Palestinian infrastructure is a common tactic for the Israeli military, a tactic often used for collective punishment of Palestinians.  Wells are a common target, and Rachel and other ISMer's have spent a good deal of time camping at Palestinian wells to protect them from the IDF.

Rachel's letters from Palestine are available on the internet and are not copyrighted.  You may download them in booklet form here.

Hi friends and family, and others,

From AlterNet:

Last week in our nation's capital, the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) held a climate change conference focused on solutions to the problem of human-induced climate change. And in Paris the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is sharing the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, held a press conference to discuss to discuss "the importance of lifestyle choices" in combating global warming.

Notably, all food at the NCSE conference was vegan, and there were table-top brochures with quotes from the U.N. report on the meat industry, discussed more below. And the IPCC head, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri declared, as the AFP sums it up, "Don't eat meat, ride a bike, and be a frugal shopper."

When people are overwhelmed by the idea of changing a lifestyle, or even a single habit, defensiveness and even denial can be the result. How would you help a friend learn to change the habits that are so ingrained in our culture...meat consumption, driving personal vehicles, consumerism...in a way that would seem less overwhelming and be less likely to produce a defensive response?

My take:

Or is it?

This picture is from a blogger that goes by the name Lionheart. You can read his blog here. In his blog, he claims he was inside with the ISM in Palestine. He provides some rather interesting pictures of "peaceful" ISM members.  Most here will likely know this, but ISM is the group R. Corrie was a member of, or supporter,  however you want to characterize her paticipation with ISM.  Out of courtesy to the R. Corrie fans, on the bottom of part 3 there is the much publicized photo of Corrie's face after she died. 

So did he really get on the inside? Is this a darker side to ISM? The Israelis have claimed all along that ISM is a front for terrorism, and terroristic acts against them and their country.  Perhaps this is some evidence of that.

So is Lionheart a liar? Is this BS?  I'm sure this isn't the first time ISMers and their supporters have seen his blog.  Maybe they can provide proof Lionheart is FOS.  I sure couldn't find that.  There is mention he may be a Nazi, but elsewhere he pretty much shoots holes in that theory.

is that in two mid-west US states they've already outsourced their drive-thru services overseas. Does this mean that the NSA will be listening everytime someone orders from their car? It seems to match the criteria for foreign-to-domestic communications they have so gleefully coveted, ilegally without warrants...

Can you imagine applying to the FISA court for a warrant to listen to the McDonalds drive-thru? LOL!

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — McDonald's (MCD) wants to outsource your neighborhood drive-thru. The world's largest fast-food chain said Thursday that it is looking into using remote call centers to take customer orders in an effort to improve service at its drive-thrus. Company officials said the idea, being tested at a small number of restaurants in the Pacific Northwest, is aimed at reducing the number of mistakes. full story:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2005-03-10-mcd_x.htm