Volume [7]
No. [1]
June 2010
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Volume [7]
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No. [1]
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June 2010
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Tristan Anderson and Gabby Silverman: 2010 ISM Rachel Corrie Award Recipientsby Paul Larudee May 2010 |
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| A chilly day in the shadows of the
concrete canyons of San Francisco’s financial district was the setting
for the presentation of the second annual Northern California ISM
Rachel Corrie Award on March 15, 2010. March 16 marked the seventh anniversary of the death of ISM volunteer Rachel Corrie in 2003 at the hands of an Israeli soldier who ran her down with a bulldozer as she stood in front of a Palestinian home that the soldier had orders to destroy. Her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, are suing the Israeli government. However, March 13, also marks the date that ISM volunteer Tristan Anderson, of Oakland, California, was gravely wounded in the head by another Israeli soldier firing a rocket propelled tear gas canister in 2009 as Tristan was filming Israeli soldiers attacking Palestinian residents of the West Bank village of Ni’lin. He has been in an Israeli hospital ever since. Beside him on that day was his partner, ISM volunteer Gabrielle (“Gabby”) Silverman. She has remained at his side ever since, advocating on his behalf and providing a liaison for ISM and Tristan’s many other supporters.  |
She and Tristan’s parents, Bill and
Nancy
Anderson, stayed with Tristan during many months of often discouraging
medical news, until at the end of 2009 Tristan started to make
remarkable progress. His news continues to be hopeful, and can be
followed at www.justicefortristan.org.
The Northern California chapter of ISM therefore awarded its 2010 Rachel Corrie award to Tristan Anderson and Gabrielle Silverman, in honor of their steadfastness and solidarity in support of the human rights of the Palestinian people and in particular their right to resist Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing. So why did the Northern California chapter of ISM ask its representative, Katie Miranda, to present the award among San Francisco’s skyscrapers? Why had Palestinians and their supporters, including Tristan and Gabby’s friends, gathered at that location? Because on the 22nd floor of one of those granite towers perches the celestial bunker of the Israeli consulate, in untouchable isolation from accountability, international law and human rights principles. As Katie said that day, “They need to know that we are here, that we are in Palestine, that we are with Palestinians until their rights are restored and respected, and that we are never going away.”  |