In his column of April 12, " 'Peace activist' or 'war activist'?," Rocky Mountain News media critic Dave Kopel misrepresents the purpose and activities of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), an organization that advocates nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. More disturbingly, he seems to justify the use of deadly force by Israelis against idealistic people who are trying to uphold moral standards in peaceful but activist ways.
Kopel's article was written after the third attack on internationals in less than four weeks.
Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old from Olympia, Wash., was deliberately crushed by an Israeli bulldozer; Brian Avery, a 24-year-old from Albuquerque, was shot in the face by an Israeli soldier in an armored vehicle; and Tom Hurndall, a British national, was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper from a watchtower and is now brain dead.
They were targeted not because they are "war activists" but because Israel is now showing the same disregard for the lives of Palestinian supporters as it has always shown Palestinians.
So what do ISM activists do in the occupied territories, anyway?
They try to provide protection for Palestinians who are simply trying to cope with systematic Israeli assault on their very existence as a society.
ISM activists accompany Palestinian ambulances to improve the chances that they will reach the people who need them and get them to hospitals.
They bring food to Palestinian families confined to one room in their homes when Israeli soldiers take over the rest of the house and deny them permission to leave.
They negotiate with Israeli soldiers at checkpoints to facilitate Palestinian passage and to assist Palestinians arbitrarily detained.
They try to protect Palestinian farmers who are trying to harvest their fields and groves and who face attacks by Israeli settlers.
They move in with Palestinian families whose homes are slated for demolition, either because they had a relative who was a suicide bomber or because Israel wants the land to expand the Jewish presence on Palestinian land.
The ISM activists, like most people who have a sense of fair play, do not believe that entire families (and in the Middle East, this can include up to 15 people), even the families of suicide bombers, should be punished for the actions of a single member.
International law, too, forbids this kind of collective punishment.
Corrie, Avery and Hurndall cannot be fairly described as "war activists." They are extraordinary people trying in their own way to speak truth to power.
They were standing up for powerless people and speaking up for voiceless people. They believed that their presence could focus attention on people who have been abandoned by the world.
Reading their letters home, we glimpse their noble instincts, their compassion; we sense the possibilities that arise when people reach out to others in a simple affirmation of a shared humanity.
By labeling them "war activists," Kopel attempts to decriminalize their murder or attempted murder. None of them was involved in any activity that could be considered remotely violent.
Corrie wore an orange fluorescent vest and addressed the driver of the bulldozer; he could see that she posed no threat, and yet he ran over her - twice.
Avery was in a deserted street, hands lifted above his head, when he was shot, and Hurndall was trying to protect two (clearly noncombatant) children when he was shot in the head.
The targeting of these individuals, just like the murder of 2,359 Palestinians since Sept. 28, 2000, was a criminal act with a political purpose.
Israel is apparently tired of Westerners bearing witness to its assaults on Palestinians and their society, and it is trying to discourage other activists from appearing on the scene.
Rather than smear these ISM activists, I think we must salute their uncommon courage to stand up for what is right.
And we should ask: What are they witnessing that makes Israel so determined to silence them?
Ida Audeh is a Palestinian-American who lives in Boulder. She traveled to the West Bank last May to interview Palestinians living there.
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