VOA has an infuriating article containing an interview with Cindy and Craig Corrie, in which they talk about their daughter Rachel.
A documentary play that’s met with both praise and controversy is heading to Seattle, Washington, following a two-month run in New York City and original productions in London. My Name is Rachel Corrie tells the story of a young American human rights activist who traveled to the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip in 2003, and died there. The play has also revived questions, still not answered, about the death of Rachel Corrie.Actress Megan Dodds originated the part of the 23-year-old Rachel Corrie in the one-character drama, which is composed of emails, phone messages and journals by the real Rachel Corrie, compiled after her death. Corrie was a student and human rights activist who hoped to become a writer. The play tells the story of her last few months, when she left her hometown of Olympia, Washington, to volunteer in Gaza. She had joined the International Solidarity Movement [ISM], a Palestinian-led movement of activists from abroad that non-violently opposes the Israeli occupation. The ISM activists were living with families in the town of Rafah, where the Israeli military was building a large steel wall near the border with Egypt.
“And when they construct that wall, they then destroy the houses for some hundreds of meters into the Gaza strip, into the Palestinian territories, away from that wall,” her father, Craig Corrie, said in an interview. “So, Rachel was staying, as other members of the International Solidarity Movement, was staying often with families who had houses right along that border.”Craig and Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother, said their daughter was in Gaza in part to help protect those homes.—-Cindy Corrie said that independent investigations have found that the demolition of Palestinians’ homes is unjustified.“It’s important for people to know,” she says, “that the position of third parties like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B’Tselem, which is an Israeli human rights organization, is that these demolitions are against international law, and that they happen for clearing reasons, in order to take control of an area, as in Gaza. They happen because people don’t have [building] permits, as around Jerusalem – but Palestinians can’t get permits to build homes. And some happen because they are punishing individuals who have done violence against Israel, but even those demolitions are illegal under international law, because it is collective punishment against all the other family members.”
A spokeswoman for the group, Hope Winters, said, “The reason there was so much suffering in particular in Rafah at the time, why there were checkpoints and bulldozers, is that it was the height of suicide bombing in Israel. Just before Rachel arrived,” Winters said, “there were 70 underground tunnels discovered, tunnels that were bringing explosives, bombs, from Egypt, which is right next door to Rafah, into Rafah – so they could be strapped onto suicide bombers and suicide bombers could then walk into Israel, and blow up innocents in pizza parlors and bus stations.”Ms. Winters’ group critiqued the play on other factual grounds, too, and allege that Rachel Corrie was being used by the International Solidarity Movement, and that the group is not, in truth, dedicated to non-violence – a charge the ISM firmly rejects. The pro-Israel demonstrators also point out that Palestinian suicide bombers have deliberately killed many innocent people, whom they say died in part because activists like Rachel Corrie are used as pawns by Palestinian terrorists.
However, Israel has never said that there were tunnels concealed by the house that Rachel Corrie was attempting to protect. It was owned by a family never accused of involvement in violence, and who later received visas to travel to the U.S. The house remained standing for some months after Corrie’s death, the last in a neighborhood of demolished homes – but it, too, was later knocked down.
Courage And More MartyrsI was in the centre of Nablus yesterday, about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, when a youth was shot and killed by the IOF. He is SAMER ZORBHA, aged 18, a student at the High School in Nablus. He was shot twice, one bullet to the shoulder and lung, a favourite target, another to the side of the head. Another very seriously shot and injured and another injured I don’t know how badly. Samer is the best friend of a beautiful young Volunteer at the UPMRC Medical Relief Centre, Mohamed al Aseel, and we are feeling his loss with anger as well as griefIn retaliation for this murderous attack, fighters last night offered their life for their friend and killed two of the illegal occupying force, and injuring another. Two young fighters were killed and I don’t yet know the extent of other injuries. I would tell you that, from my bedroom window, I saw the night sky in the area lit up like it was day for more than an hour with brilliant flares and I saw the trail of rockets missiles and machine-guns bullets fired from the US gunship helicopters – so inappropriately named “Apache’ – and heard the rapid clatter of the guns of the ships of death riding the starry sky like alien invaders from another world. I heard the explosions of many shells and, I am not sure, but I think a bomb from a US F-16 warplane – the sky was full of them. There was protracted gun-fire for more than an hour. So these young guys really fought it out.—-I would also like to ask you, and those to whom you pass this on, to think about the relative positions of the fighters and occupiers in this monumentally unequal struggle. While the huge force of Israelis have every technical aid invented by the US war machine, the few young fighters have NOTHING BUT THEIR WEAPON (and this not the most modern) – no helmet, bullet proof vest, radio contact or other protection. No back-up, no plane, helicopter, tank, APC, searchlight, dogs, flares, ambulance or refuge – put all the Israeli/American propaganda aside for a few minutes and try to imagine, please, the courage it requires to do what these young fighters do, knowing that the odds are against escape and that, every time they do succeed in evading death, the odds against a further survival are shortened. Even if the operation is a success the price is always high.And every time the Israeli Command terrorises Nablus as today with tanks and Jeeps and APC’s bristling with death at every junction within the city, operating a lock-down even worse than before (how can this be possible), more Martyrs are ready to defend the honour of Palestine and fight for the freedom of surely the most gentle, generous and peaceful people on earth..
Since their youngest child’s death, Craig and Cindy Corrie have become activists for Middle East peace. They say that they, like Rachel, are not pro-Israeli, or pro-Palestinian, but pro-all the people in the region. And they hope their daughter’s story, which is memorialized now not just in the play, but in several films and songs, will also draw attention to the plight of the people of Gaza.
And that about says it all.
