![]() ![]() ![]() Just as those individuals seek some meaning from campaigning for greater gun regulations, or police reform, the Corries gained focus by trying to continue their daughter’s work, and by telling her story. Accountability, perhaps, felt more appropriate - but they are far still from securing that. Even back then, they were wary of the oft-touted talk of “achieving closure”. They were part of a club of which nobody seeks membership: parents or relatives of a loved one lost too early, whether through police violence, a school shooting, or else a rare disease the world knows little about. She had been killed, but they had to find a way to keep living, for the sake of their other children - Rachel also had a brother, Chris - for themselves, and for the cause for which Rachel had given her life. There was no time travel trick to bring back their “magical and caring” child, who had dreamed of being a poet or dancer. Within days, they realised their daughter’s death had set them on a different course. ![]() The two facts help motivate them to continue their work at the foundation they created in their daughter’s name. They are aware of criticisms that the publicity afforded their daughter’s death was vastly more than when a Palestinian is killed. The fact that countless thousands of Palestinians have died in the two decades since then - the majority, Palestinians argue, killed illegally by Israeli forces - sickens Rachel’s parents. That day, they they had been acting as human shields to stop the flattening of a home in the Rafah refugee camp occupied by the families of two brothers, Khaled and Samir Nasrallah. Rachel had been part of a group of Palestinian and international activists seeking to halt the destruction of Palestinian property. It is almost 20 years since that terrible day - Mawhen they learned their daughter had been killed in southern Gaza, crushed by a 60-tonne D9 bulldozer built by Caterpillar Inc and operated by the Israeli Defense Forces ( IDF). “I have no idea what’s happened in my life,” he told him. They then made a flurry of calls, mainly to other members of Rachel’s family, wanting to break the details personally rather for them to also see the news on the TV. ![]()
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