Rachel Corrie, the slain American activist, honored and remembered in Beirut aljazeerah.info

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Rachel Corrie, the slain American activist honored and remembered in Beirut
Scholarship, newborn baby girl to carry name of Rachel Corrie

Nada Raad
Daily Star staff

The Islamic Association for Scientific Specialization and Orientation said Thursday it will offer a scholarship in the name of Rachel Corrie, the American activist who was killed Sunday in Gaza, while a Lebanese man named his newborn girl after Corrie in commemoration of the activist’s death.
The scholarship announcement was made Thursday at the association’s offices in Ramlet al-Baida in the presence of political and religious figures, journalists and others.
Association president Jamil Ibrahim said a scholarship for higher education in Human Sciences and International Relations will be named after Corrie to commemorate her “martyrdom and solidarity with Arab issues.”
Ibrahim expressed his gratitude to all those who fight for protecting human rights, particularly the “millions of people who are protesting worldwide against the US attacks against Iraq, as such action is nothing but a violation of international customs, laws, values and people’s right to determine their own fate.”
Corrie was crushed to death Sunday by an Israeli Army bulldozer in the Gaza Strip as she tried to prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes and the killing of innocent children, Ibrahim said.
He added that Corrie was expressing “the US people’s rejection of both killing and destruction policies, which are exercised on a daily basis by President George W. Bush.”
The association’s media secretary, Wassef Sharara, told The Daily Star that “the scholarship’s amount had not been set yet, but it would be offered to one student who deserves to study human sciences.”
In addition to the scholarship, a Lebanese citizen, Salah Noureddine, took the initiative to call his daughter “Rachel Corrie,” in an attempt to express his deep regret for the activist’s death.
Noureddine told The Daily Star it all happened by accident, as while he was in the South visiting his parents he saw how Corrie was crushed by Israeli soldiers on various television stations.
“When I heard the news, I felt so sad and thought of doing something to support the parents in this tragic accident,” Noureddine said.
He added that his daughter was born late last month, and “my wife and I were still undecided on a name, so I thought of naming her Rachel Corrie.”
Noureddine asserted that his initiative was not based on financial gain, but “this is the best way to express my deep concern about Corrie’s humanitarian action with the Palestinian and Arab people.”
“The saddest thing about the accident is that Israelis are not confessing their responsibility for the accident, which is a big lie,” Noureddine said.
Mohammed Baalbaki, the Press Federation’s president, said that “Corrie’s blood will always constitute a protest to Bush and his administration.”
“Enough oppression, enough aggression, enough violation,” said Baalbaki.
Stressing what he called America’s indifference to Corrie’s death, Kamal Fadlallah, an official with the Journalists’ Union, said that if such an accident was caused by an Arab country, Washington would have surely launched its naval, air and land military against the guilty party.
Fadlallah said that as long as the Israeli government is involved, the US administration will never react, even if a whole nation is killed.
Following the conference, attendants expressed solidarity with the Iraqi people and hoped the US attacks wouldn’t cause the death of innocent people.

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