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The Canada Palestine Association will host social justice activist Brian Avery, and Craig Corrie and Cindy Corrie, parents of fallen activist Rachel Corrie, to mark the International Day (Year) of Solidarity with the Palestinian people on December 2nd.
The event will “commemorate Palestinian steadfastness”, with speeches from US activist Brian Avery and Craig and Cindy Corrie, parents of the late Rachel Corrie. The Palestinian film “Resistance Recipes” will also be screened at the event for its Vancouver premiere. The event is scheduled to start at 7 p.m at the SFU Downtown Harbor Centre, Labatt Hall.
American Brian Avery was shot at by Israeli Defense Force soldiers in 2003 while volunteering for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in the West Bank town Jenin. International rights group Human Rights Watch had deemed the shooting, which caused permanent disfigurement, “unprovoked and did not occur in the context of any apparent hostilities”. Avery will share his experiences in the West Bank at the event.
In 2005, Avery spoke of his experience in an interview, saying, “We weren’t two blocks from our apartment when an Israeli convoy of two vehicles, a tank and an armored personnel carrier, drove up the street from the direction that we were walking from. And so as we heard them coming closer, we stepped off to the side of the road to let them pass by, which was again, you know, a very, very typical situation for us to encounter the soldiers, even during the curfew, and for them just to pass on by … And so we stood to the side of the road, we put our hands out to show we didn’t have any weapons and weren’t, you know, threatening them in any way.”
“And I was wearing a fluorescent vest to, you know, try to make ourselves as visible as possible. And once they drove within about 30 meters of where we were standing, they opened fire with their machine guns and continued shooting for a very long time, probably shooting about, you know, 30 rounds of ammunition, which is quite a lot when you see them in action. And I was struck in the face with one of the bullets and, you know, was knocked to the ground immediately”.
The Late Rachel Corrie, an American student and member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was killed by an IDF armored bulldozer in Rafah in 2003. Her parents filed a lawsuit against the State of Israel, charging that a credible investigation was not conducted and that she was either killed intentionally or by reckless action; the couple symbolically sued Israel for one US dollar. An Israeli court had rejected the lawsuit in August 2012. The ruling was met with harsh criticism, and was appealed against in May 2014.