#(ism)

[jelliedlimes]

Sometimes I'll be like idk maybe I'm not autistic maybe I'm just-

And then a minor change of plans happens and I have to hit one of these

[unsolicited-opinions]

hi! I'm deeply thankful I found your blog because it's such a breath of fresh air to find someone with articulate, sensible thinking on this hellsite. i was formerly very pro free palestine but blogs such as yours helped me open my eyes. with that being said, I ask this in good faith, because you've been really respectful and sensible in your other asks: what about activists killed by the IDF, such as Rachel Corrie? Again, I ask this in good faith, I'm very interested to hear your thoughts on it

Thanks for the kind words, Anon.

I'll get lots of Anon Hate for this, but I so appreciate your open mind and your good faith question, so I'd feel like an asshole if I didn't try to answer it in the same good faith.

All I can offer are my own (unquestionably biased) thoughts from what I've read. I have no more access to objective truth than anyone else ~6,000 miles and ~22 years removed from the events we're discussing.

I think this is one of those awful cases where a tragic death was turned into a political football...which is still being kicked around decades later.

The Basic Facts (upon which most seem to agree)

Rachel Corrie was a 23 year old college student from Washington State who joined the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and went to Gaza in 2003 and was killed while standing in front of an IDF bulldozer in Rafah.

It's a media-ready story. A young, idealistic woman trying to stand up for people she believed were being oppressed, and then dying violently. That should disturb people. It should make us ask questions.

When we ask those questions, we must also be willing to look at all the answers, not just the ones which flatter our instincts or fit our preferred existing narrative.

What actually happened?

In March 2003, Rachel Corrie was trying to stop IDF bulldozers from demolishing homes in southern Gaza, near the border with Egypt.

Why was the IDF demolishing homes?

The area, Rafah, was at the time a hotbed of militant activity. It was riddled with tunnels used to smuggle weapons and explosives into Gaza. These tunnels were often dug directly under civilian homes, and the IDF was using armored bulldozers to demolish structures suspected of being part of that infrastructure.

Corrie, with other ISM activists, placed herself in front of one of these bulldozers to block it. She was struck and fatally injured.

I believe that everyone agrees on that much.

Accounts diverge from there.

Some witnesses from ISM claimed she was clearly visible to the operator of the bulldozer and that she was deliberately run over. Other ISM witnesses disagree and have said the operator could not see her.

The IDF said the driver couldn't see her.

An internal IDF investigation concluded it was an accident, not a deliberate killing.

Corrie's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Israeli court, and in 2012, a judge ruled that the military was not liable because Corrie had voluntarily entered a closed military zone and her death occurred during an active military operation.

It's entirely legitimate to disagree with the ruling, but the legal process did not seem to reveal a cover-up by the IDF and does not appear to have been a sham legal process.

The Bulldozer Issue: Framing in Western Media

One reason this case still circulates with so much distortion is because of the images attached to it. If you Google Rachel Corrie today, you'll probably find photos of her standing in front of a yellow bulldozer, holding a megaphone.

Western news outlets used this pair of photos from the ISM to portray Corrie as standing very visibly in front of the bulldozer which fatally injured her.

You see what pairing these photos implies, right? One moment Corrie is standing in front of the bulldozer with a megaphone, the next she's injured on the ground.

Our brains fill in the blanks like these are two panels of a comic and conclude the bulldozer operator saw her standing there and deliberately plowed into her.

Look carefully at the bulldozer in each photo.

They're not the same machine. Look at the background. It's not the same place. It's not the same time.

The bulldozer in the top photo is a civilian Caterpillar bulldozer.

The bulldozer involved in Corrie's death (in the second photo) was an IDF armored D9, modified for combat conditions. It's massive, encased in steel armor, and built to operate in environments where there's a real threat of gunfire, explosives, or ambushes. Consequently, visibility from inside the cab is extremely limited. Drivers rely on spotters and cameras...but human error is very possible, especially when the scene is chaotic and high-risk...like in the combat settings where it is deployed.

Not the same machine, not the same location, not the same time.

Presenting these photos together is at least misinformation if not disinformation. It serves a narrative, not the truth, by suggesting that the second photo took place immediately after the first and that Corrie was fully visible to the operator of the bulldozer.

The IDF's position (and that of the Israeli courts and the US State Department) is that Rachel Corrie didn't die in a peaceful standoff with a malicious construction vehicle. She died in a war zone, in front of a combat bulldozer, during an active military operation, in an area where armed groups were explicitly attempting to kill Israeli soldiers...because she was put in harm's way by ISM for the explicit purpose of risking her life.

In my view, Corrie never should have been in this active combat zone.

None of this makes her death any less tragic.

What is the International Solidarity Movement and what exactly was Corrie doing there?

The ISM was not just some loose collection of Quaker-style peace advocates. It styled itself as nonviolent, but it took a deliberately confrontational approach. It inserted young, usually Western activists into active conflict zones, telling them to stand between the IDF and Palestinian militants or infrastructure.

Their theory of change was that Israel wouldn't risk bad PR from killing an American or European. It was a gamble. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Either way, ISM was using Corrie as a human shield. The whole point of ISM's tactics is to put people in harm's way.

ISM activists were injured or killed in multiple cases. Others were detained for coordinating with militants or knowingly entering combat areas. Even left-leaning Western journalists have criticized the group for being reckless and manipulative in using under-informed idealists as cannon fodder for political theater.

It's also worth asking why ISM wasn't doing this sort of thing in areas where Palestinian militants were putting civilians at risk. If they were non-partisan peace activists, why weren't they forming human chains to prevent rocket launches from schoolyards, hospitals, or mosques? Why weren’t they protesting the use of children as shields?

You can't claim to be a non-partisan, anti-war organization while assisting one of two sides in its war efforts.

Was Rachel Corrie murdered? Was she deliberately killed?

As far as I can tell, no.

I haven't been able to find any evidence that the IDF targeted Corrie deliberately. The legal case didn't find such evidence. The US State Department didn’t find such evidence. Even some ISM members admitted Corrie may not have been visible to the driver.

I also struggle to imagine what plausible motive the IDF would have to deliberately kill an American. That would obviously bring all kinds of international trouble from the US...and that was the ISM's whole reason for putting Corrie in harm's way. Killing Corrie deliberately would be giving them exactly what they wanted. Why would the IDF do that on purpose?

What happened to Corrie was preventable (and that was the basis of the negligence claim her family made in court), but preventable is not the same as criminal or liable.

In the long term, the tragedy lies not just in Corrie's tragic death, but in how eager people were to risk it and exploit it.

Corrie's face has been painted on walls and printed on protest signs for more than 20 years. This isn't because anyone seriously studied the facts of her death, but because she became a useful symbol. A martyr. A weapon.

Her story has been flattened, turned into a cartoon of noble activist vs evil bulldozer, figuratively and literally:

What would accountability for Corrie's death look like?

If people really want accountability for Rachel Corrie's death, they might consider starting with the ISM. They put untrained American college students in front of armored military vehicles in war zones.

They took advantage of people who wanted to make a difference, and they fed them a script designed for media consumption, not for survival.

Or maybe ask why Hamas and Islamic Jihad were building weapons tunnels under civilian homes in the first place. That's why bulldozers were there. That's what made the area a war zone. That's what put civilians and foreign activists in danger.

Decades later, what do we now know about Hamas' tunnels?

Most people don't want real accountability. They want a nice clean story which serves their preferred narrative. Wherever context and nuance gets in the way of the narrative, they cut it out.

Rachel Corrie's death should make us ask serious questions about:

How propaganda works

How war zones get whitewashed for the comfort of Western audiences

What happens when idealism is used as a propaganda tool instead of as a principle

As always, I welcome anyone to take issue with my reading of these events. If you do, please bring support for your assertions.

Here's where I'll annoy some of Israel's defenders:

While we likely agree on much about the Western "Free Palestine" movement, Anon, I hope we also agree that Palestinians in Gaza and (particularly in Area C of) the West Bank need real help and Israel must do more.

The "good guy vs bad guy" framing by anyone on either side is bullshit. There's plenty of failure to go around, even if it is unevenly distributed.

The settler violence in the West Bank is committed by a tiny minority, but it's still terrorism...and Itamar Ben-Gvir fails to make a good faith effort to end it. I hope the universe brings Ben-Gvir the justice he richly deserves.

Set aside the international law question of whether the West Bank is occupied for a minute. Palestinians in Area C have little to no say in their own governance.That's obviously wrong and needs to change.

I hope the rumors that Egypt and the UAE will get deeply involved in the rebuilding of Gaza are true. When/if that happens, I urge you to support those efforts any way you can.

A prosperous Gaza at peace with its neighbors becomes possible with both regional and international support after Hamas is gone.

Thanks for the Ask, Anon. I'd welcome any others you may care to submit.

[lazymik0r]

just gonna drop these here, enjoy! :D

I was just messing around with lighting and it turned out pretty good ^v^

[bugbarians]

"Am You An ISM Or Am You An IST?" Original Digital Art ©2025 Bug Barians Ltd., LLC

[gizm0-gadgetz]

My partner got hacked. Their main account has blocked me and I am unable to tag it.

The accounts in question @screechinginthevoid @voidselfshipp @voidwritesstuff @voidsfanficfortress @jericos-art-corner @merchants-corner-market

Ignore any messages you get from these accounts.

They requested I let the ism community know hence the tags

[dr-ock]

Me: “Man, this really shows how far Otto strayed away from his old self, narrowing in on anger and revenge instead of helping others like he once dreamed of.”

Also me: “Damn that font he drew up for the word ‘Destroy’ goes hard as fuck.”

[pestinfestati0n]

IN SOUND MIND FANART!

Thanks to my great friend @lazymik0r, I got into In Sound Mind recently- it's such an amazing game, i'd recommend it to anyone who's a fan of psychological horror, mystery stories and themes of mental health, conspiracies and the lives of a therapist and his patients :)

Anyways, enough yapping, enjoy the art :D

Characters in order:

Agent Rainbow

The Watcher

The Shade

The Bull

The Flash