you DESERVE to get run over? it sounds as if she was the only lunatic in the universe to have thought of this. or are others that use the same way of protest lunatics? people opposing the warsaw pact invasion in 1968, or the soviet invasion in afghanistan, by standing or sitting in front of the tanks? in this line of reasoning gandhi deserved to get run over thousands of times as well.
in any case. i only saw the pictures that frolic posted. but if, as steissd says, there was not just the bulldozerist alone, but he was commanded by someone, why on earth was he not ordered to stop? somebody must have seen where he's going even if he did not. i'd exoect they do have some communication in placi. anyway i agree that israelis purposefully killing americans would be a highly unlikely and unwise scenario, but still. when emotions run high, strangest accidents happen. people can just snap from time to time.
Littlek, I was not present there, I cannot be sure. He might have been behind the bulldozer (this is a machine 4.5 meters or 15 feet high), and he could have not seen that one of the protesters jumped under the tracks. But he had to clean the site of everyone that is not taking part in the mission (both foregners and Palestinian civilians) prior to having started.
Tomorrow I go to fulfil my reservist's duties to the Gaza Strip, and I shall see what happens there with my own eyes.
good luck steissd, hope all goes well.
Many thanks. I hope the same thing. Maybe, Palestinians will get at last tired of their own violence...
hopefully the war with iraq won't cause too much chaos in the gaza for you.
dag, sort of like the parent who tells his kid to "go play in traffic".
I live near San Francisco, the scene of many a traffic blocking protest, including the rage inducing "critical mass" bike rally on the last Friday of every month. The drivers/tourists/delivery people stuck in the ensuing traffic jam invariably have the same response. "Why do they allow this to happen? Why can't we just run over them?". Seriously. It's all a matter of perspective.
that's exactly why I think the bulldozer driver could have done it knowingly.
This is excluded. The driver is not interest to serve life term in jail. There is no death penalty in Israel, but life sentence exists. We must take into account that the perished woman was an American citizen. If it is proven that the driver acted deliberately, he surely will get life sentence without parole. People here in Israel, including judges, like Americans so much that they will not permit to any a****le to kill them deliberately. I believe that this was an accident. The next time, soldiers will take care to evacuate by force any foreigner that locates him/herself near the battle area or in its middle.
I'm sure they will, in the future.
She lived in a town 30 miles south of here and was active in peace and justice movements. Here's one of the last events she planned in this area. It shows what she was like... so hopeful, so anxious to do the right thing for others, now so very, very sad.
http://www.omjp.org/SustMove.html
There are so many things to do without entering the actual battlefield... Maybe, the people having personality of volunteer should be taught some elementary safety rules?
except, cjhsa, there is no 'parent' involved. these protests are spontanneous, based on individual decisions. naturally they do upset and annoy people, unfortunately sometimes that is the only way how to get attention. especially in hopeless matters, when you are facing a way too strong opponent (a state, coalition of states, multinational corporation...) that is the only way how to become 'visible' to them and the rest of the world. greenpeace does it for years now, they still get lots of heat for that. but they have achieved so much with this tactics in some cases (vast minority). and in my eyes it is justifiable. again, i do not know this particular case in detail and i would not go arguing in favor of the bike rallies, but as a tactics i don't think it can just be dismissed as something stupid. it just may have worked if the protest was organized better, if it wasn't just one girl, but a hundred people, i will give you that much. i will still stand by (most of) greenpeace actions, war or invasion protests,and gandhi's peaceful resistance methods of protest, based on the same logic.
besides, if nothing would have happened yesterday, would we know at all that activists' houses get demolished in palestine? it is very sad, but she just may have brought her point across this way. unfortunatelly for the last time.
saying she deserved to get run over is like saying a woman deserved to get raped because of provocative dress. It's just not right.
Greenpeace. Hahahaha! The only good thing the French did militarily in the last 50 years was sink their boat.
Dagmaraka wrote: would we know at all that activists' houses get demolished in palestine
Israel does not make any secret of this. Houses of people actively involved in terror and of leaders of the terror organizations are being demolished. Such a thing exists quite a long time. But not houses of some imaginatory activists, but houses of terrorists. Abu Mazen, for example, or Sari Nusseiba, are Palestinian activists, but they are not involved in terror, and their houses stay intact.
cjhsa
I wonder, how you can laugh when people have been killed and wounded.
Better: I don't wonder, since it clearly points out something.
I wasn't laughing at that Walter. Do you wish me to go back and edit my post?
And by the way, what are you implying? Oooh, god forbid, we might just have one of them conservatives here on A2K?
Greenpeace, however you want to present it, is run by a bunch of anarchists, admittedly so. That's what I'm laughing at - how can you even name an organization based on anarchy?
cjhsa - no comment. sorry, i do not wish to waste time in a conversation that leads nowhere and is based on deprecation, outside of reason. nothing againsts conservativists, i do know quite a few in my department, and we converse in a civilized manner for hours, although we disagree on many things. can you do so?
steissd- you know that, and those that follow the news very closely know that. however it does not make headlines until something as unfortunate as the yesterday's incident happens. i did not know, then again, like many people, i stopped following the conflict too closely as i grew very tired and desperate.
