Witness to Occupation: Iraq and Palestine

FEATURING: Toufic Haddad

Activist from Ramallah, West Bank and coeditor of

Between the Lines

Khury Petersen-Smith

Campus Anti-War Network

Visited Iraq in January with United for Peace and

Justice, Global Exchange and Occupation Watch

Ayham Dahi

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

On the resistance in Iraq

WHEN: Thursday, March 18, 6:30pm

WHERE: United Teachers Los Angeles Building, 3303

Wilshire Blvd, just west of Wilshire and Vermont

SPONSORED BY (list in formation): American-Arab

Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) Los Angeles/Orange

County, Free Palestine Alliance, International

Socialist Organization, LA US Labor Against War, San

Gabriel Valley Neighbors for Peace and Justice,

Students for Justice in Palestine (UCLA)

WHY: Prepare for the March 20 International Day of

Action against Occupation (www.answerla.org) with a

discussion of the current state of the U.S. occupation

of Iraq, the links between Iraq and Palestine in the

U.S.'s plans for a "new Middle East", and the

resistance in Iraq and elsewhere.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: 213-309-2713

if ever there was a need for a "new" middle East it's now. Hopefully, WHOEVER is our next president will continue the neccessary and long overdue process of dragging this bunch, kicking and screaming, into the modern world.

It truly is amazing how backwards the Islamic/Arab world is.

I wish I could look into your hardened eyes,

who drove that tractor as young Rachel dies

Is there love in your tractor, of fifty-two tons

is hope and desire in your tanks or your guns

If she could be with us, Rachel Corrie would say ...

Umm ... If you see a bulldozer, get out of the way?

Comments

But dozer rhymes so easily with hoser and poser.

Posted by: Brian J. at July 29, 2003 at 05:07 AM

Is there love in your tractor, O cruel Farmer Brown?

Do you feel no pity as you cut your hay down?

Is the IDF silo filled with wheat, or hate?

Did you leave your compassion by the chicken coop gate?

And what of Mrs. Brown cooling her pies

On the windowsill as hope for Gaza dies?

Is the 52 tons of your husbands fell tractor

A weight that your cold Israeli heart can factor?

Posted by: Joe G at July 29, 2003 at 05:41 AM

Ohhhhh, Jimmie crack corn, and I don't care,

Rachel's gone to God knows where,

If you see a dozer you best bewaaarrrreee,

And get the hell outta the way.

Posted by: JohnO at July 29, 2003 at 06:01 AM

And now the end is near

Because I face a big bulldozer

That guy who's got the keys

He doesn't stop 'cause he's a hoser....

Posted by: Mark from Monroe at July 29, 2003 at 06:22 AM

Haiku for Rachel

"Dont you know dozers

Make mere humans flat and dead?

Not like in cartoons."

Posted by: E.A. at July 29, 2003 at 06:37 AM

"If Rachel Corrie could be with us she'd say, 'Shit, damn, Hell that hurts!! Ouch, ouch, ouch. Jeebus damn that hurts.'

Posted by: JorgXMcKie at July 29, 2003 at 06:51 AM

Once upon a pile of rubble, in a self important bubble,

A gal named Rachel boldly stood for Palestines cause.

When the Jews, they came acrashing. Several buildings they were smashing,

And terrorist tunnels they were trashing, even though theyd surely pause.

Im an American, she thought, and I know theyll surely pause.

Im sure they will, just because.

So she stood there, bravely battened, never guessing shed be flattened?

Posted by: Ken Begg at July 29, 2003 at 07:43 AM

101 Uses For A Squished Hippie Chick

1. Flight deck wheel chocks for US aircraft carrier

2. Handy swifter for cleaning that hard-to-reach area under the refridgerator coils

3. Environmentally-friendly roofing material

4. Gym decorations for Evergreen State U. spring prom (theme: 'Enchantment Under The Treads')

5. Four-man toboggan at Zionist ski resort

6. Glue on some casters and voila! a dandy garage creeper crawler

Posted by: iowahawk at July 29, 2003 at 09:43 AM

There was a terror-lover called Corrie

who made a grave mistake for which she was sorry

She said "While in hell I burn,

the lesson I've learned

Is that its much more quick and painless with a lorry."

Posted by: Bob Brown at July 29, 2003 at 11:16 AM

Hippies splatter mighty fine,

When you hit 'em with a D9-

I didn't mean her any harm,

She just didn't hear the reversing alarm.

Now I'm felling mighty sorry,

For running my dozer over Rachael Corrie,

Remorse I'm feeling to the max,

"Cause I've gotta clean her outa my tracks.

Posted by: Habib Bickford at July 29, 2003 at 11:46 AM

1. If you're looking into a bulldozer driver's eyes, you're standing too close.

2. It's "died" not "dies." Yes, it doesn't rhyme that way, but tough luck. "Dies" is just wrong.

3. If there'd been love, hope and despair in the tractor (bulldozer), it would have been even heavier, but not up to 52 tons. That's a Jenin-style number. A very quick google quotes Rachel's friends as saying the dozer weighed nine to 10 tons. Enough.

Posted by: Joanne Jacobs at July 29, 2003 at 12:02 PM

Bit like getting close and personal with Phillip Adams.

If Fat Boy gets the horn, does he have to charter a Kato crane?

(The crane driver would have to be paid danger money, and have a high quality blindfold and excellent earmuffs.)

Posted by: Habib Bickford at July 29, 2003 at 12:36 PM

ode to rachel, an earth-loving leftie who paid the ultimate price: being squashed by a large, noisy piece of agricultural machinery while protesting in a muddy field.

a fiat or a fergie?

a john deere or a case?

allis-chalmers, david brown

euclid or kobase?

new holland, caterpillar

kubota or a ford?

minneapolis-moline,

belarus or lagord?

haybaler, crusher, backhoe,

grader or bobcat?

it doesnt really matter now

the poor young girl is flat

she have been misguided

with sadly misplaced zeal

but no-one deserves to be martyred

beneath a dozer wheel.

Posted by: pooh at July 29, 2003 at 01:08 PM

If she was alive today she might say "Get me the F@#$ out of this box!!!".

Posted by: Jake D at July 29, 2003 at 01:42 PM

Pro-Palestinian protest "peace" dingbat,

Gets in the road and gets squashed flat,

We're supposed to weep and wail,

Cause she was scooped up in a pail,

Sorry for nothing, flat-earth hippie,

I'm inclined to yell out yippie,

Your ideas ain't worth tuppence,

And you got your come-uppance.

Posted by: Habib Bickford at July 29, 2003 at 01:50 PM

And now here's the news at seven:

"Our little Rachel's gone to heaven,

Not to the other place and so she didn't

need no shoes.

She wasn't all that bad

Although it made Israelis mad,

For them Palis weren't doin' nothin'

'cept a-killin' of some Jews."

Posted by: Alex Bensky at July 29, 2003 at 02:31 PM

Rachel Corrie's dead and gone,

but the propaganda lingers on.

When media fools are full of bliss,

They spin her into a Heroine, and make me want to piss.

.... sung to the tune of Papa Hyden ....

Posted by: Adriane at July 29, 2003 at 02:46 PM

T'was an 'activist' of confused mind

who had a bad run-in with a CAT D9

All medical help was nay-sayed

"She doesn't need any first aid!

"As a propoganda tool she'll do fine."

Posted by: pappy at July 30, 2003 at 03:40 AM

well, in the interest of bad taste:

if i had the wit or skill

of a famous old composer

i'd pen a paen to the kill

wrought by that bulldozer

oh sing, oh muse, of that bitter face

we saw burning up a flag

contrast the angel some would place

on that slippery pile of slag

oh behemoth of oil and steel

that flattened young miss corrie

cold hearted beast; but do you feel

you dug in the wrong quarry?

there're those who'll claim i'm cruel,

'tis true; but i haven't lionized her

nor cast the blame on sharon's tool

and cry they've zionized her

her death was sad, her life too brief

she did deserve much better

but have her 'friends' shown equal grief

for those in uday's shredder?

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at July 30, 2003 at 06:02 AM

It's easy to play on the guitar. Every note is B-flat.

Posted by: Laurence Simon at July 30, 2003 at 12:49 PM

Here's my version, with apologies to Edwin Arlington Robinson.

Posted by: John Tabin at July 30, 2003 at 04:20 PM

Oh hilarious, hey i've got one:

Hey is that a plane?

Seppos falling to their death

pour another wine....

You pathetic pieces of shit.

Posted by: sphincter at July 30, 2003 at 04:28 PM

"Pour another wine?"

Posted by: Angus Jung at July 30, 2003 at 04:42 PM

Dear Mr Sphincter

It is polite to excuse yourself after passing wind.

You are excused. Carry on.

Posted by: Razor at July 30, 2003 at 05:45 PM

Thanks raze, at least I refrained from following through.

Angus, pour another wine has 5 syllables, so good haiku closure material. I know it isn't very literary, but I just thought I'd evoke an image, of someone drinking to the artistry of 11/9... revelling in murder, as the pieces of shit on this page are doing.

Murder kids, it isn't really that funny....

Posted by: sphincter at July 30, 2003 at 06:31 PM

murder? not at all. her death was an accident, caused in part by her hubris, in part by the bulldozer operator.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at July 30, 2003 at 10:05 PM

oh, hey, and thanks for expanding my vocabulary; i had to google 'seppos' to figure out what the hell you were talking about. geesh, we call the brits limeys (and i can't even think of a derogatory term for australians...except maybe olivia newton john) and we're septic tanks? must be cause we take all the world's shit...;)

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at July 31, 2003 at 12:05 AM

To the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic"

Rachel Corrie went to Palestine

to free the Arab mob,

burning flags and sleeping round

and acting like a yob.

She sought to save the pimps and punks

and generate a sob,

but a D-9 ended that.

[chorus]

Rachel Corrie got run over,

Rachel Corrie got run over,

Rachel Corrie got run over,

a D-9 ended that.

She climbed atop a mound of dirt

to stop the dreaded foe.

Her heart was full of hubris

her enemy named Moe.

The D-9 was large and loud

and so she turned to go

but a D-9 ended that.

[chorus]

Now Rachel lies flattened

beneath the Army tread.

Her pimps and pushers honor her

repeating what she said.

But nothing makes up for the fact

that she's really, really dead.

A D-9 ended that.

[chorus]

Posted by: Chuck at July 31, 2003 at 12:30 AM

In honor of Rachel Corrie, all bulldozers should from now on be known as "Corrie Crushers".

Posted by: Frank J. at July 31, 2003 at 12:40 AM

"The Centre for Political Song exists to promote and foster an awareness of all forms of political song; an appreciation of the role of political song in the social, political and cultural life of communities; and to facilitate research in all relevant areas of study. The Centre itself will remain free from any political bias in its collecting and organisational policies."

shall we send them this thread and see if it they add it to their archives?

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at July 31, 2003 at 12:55 AM

Haiku time:

Ashes to Ashes

Rachel did hear that morning

After dozer stopped