Washington — Twenty years ago, Cindy Currie, a resident of Olympia, Washington, learned of the killing of her 20-year-old daughter, Rachel, by Israeli occupation forces in the city of Rafah in the occupied Gaza Strip at the time.

Rachel was among a group of international activists who sought to stop the destruction of Palestinian property and organized themselves as human shields to stop the destruction of a house in the Rafah refugee camp, but the occupation bulldozers made by the American company Caterpillar did not care about the presence of the young woman and crushed Rachel, who was killed immediately on March 16, 2003.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Cindy Currie said that "the efforts of the legal family ended in Israel in 2015 when the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the decision of the lower district court in Haifa and found no fault in the actions of the army."

She pointed out that "the efforts of the legal family revealed the nature of the work of the Israeli army in coordination with the occupation government and the Israeli courts in colluding to oppress the Palestinian people and maintain the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories."


No contact with the Biden administration

Cindy said she had not reached out to Joe Biden's administration about the Rachel case, pointing to a long history of discussions and meetings with government officials during previous administrations — such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA Director William Burns — and others who served in President Biden's staff when he was a senator in the Senate and when he served as vice president for 8 years.

Currie explained in her interview with Al Jazeera Net that "these officials often cared and helped, but with regard to Israel's responsibility for the killing, these evaded and the US government failed to take further steps to address Rachel's brutal murder and follow up on the questions they asked their Israeli counterparts."

Washington's unstinting support for Israel sends a message "to Israeli soldiers and government that they will be protected, and can work with impunity against Palestinians and others without serious consequences," she said, adding that she believes that it is this message that has contributed to the deaths of American citizens after all these years, as in the case of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the elderly Palestinian-American Omar Assad, and to the deaths of hundreds and even thousands of Palestinian civilians.

Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 when she tried to prevent her from destroying a Palestinian home (Getty Images)

Arab and Jewish moral support

Currie expressed her gratitude for the wide Arab sympathy she witnessed at the popular and official levels, as Arab officials contacted her and exchanged messages with them, noting that there is "encouragement and respect for our efforts and appreciation for Rachel's sacrifices, which are remembered by Arabs a lot, and thanks to the encouragement we were able to continue our work, and we also received this kind of support and encouragement from a large number of Israelis as well, and from Jews throughout the United States."

"As we witness what Palestinians endure, we can only feel respect for their steadfastness, as steadfastness increases their ability to uphold their humanity, while living every moment of their lives under occupation or its influence, and we continue to be inspired by the strong and informed generation of Palestinians who have taken up the baton and worked around the world for justice," Curie said.

Twenty years after Rachel's murder, Cindy Currie asserts that her goal and that of every family of martyr Rachel is "to continue to stand with the people of Palestine to maintain the commitment that Rachel was determined to make to them, we want to support them in spreading their stories and stand with them in their demands for freedom, equality and just peace."

Currie sent a message to the Palestinian and Israeli people that they have lived this way for far too long, "that there has been so much pain and loss, and that it is time to find a creative way to live together."