Rachel’s Words

This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel. Disappointment. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not the world you and Dad wanted me to come into when you decided to have me.

–Rachel Corrie, in an email to her mother, February 27th, 2003

Our family was very disappointed by the recent actions of the New York Theater Workshop. While we recognize the original good intentions of the theater to bring My Name is Rachel Corrie to New York this month, we think it important to understand and to consider what happened to change those. The play is a personal story about a personal journey that does, indeed, take Rachel to Gaza and to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The implications of the silencing of this story, for whatever reasons, go far beyond Rachel and the play, and should be of significant concern to all Americans. We are grateful for The Rachel’s Words initiative and the efforts of those in New York who have worked to bring light to this matter.

–Craig and Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s parents

When we first learned that My Name is Rachel Corrie had been indefinitely postponed, our reaction was one of outrage. How could a play this touching and beautiful be considered threatening? Why, as Rachel’s mother Cindy wondered, were people so afraid of Rachel’s words? Amidst the confusion of how and why the play had been called off, one thing seemed clear: Rachel’s voice must still be heard. Rachel’s Words was born.

In the three weeks that have ensued, amazing things have happened. Activists and theatre artists world-wide have decried the New York Theatre Workshop’s decision to step back from the play, causing the Workshop to embark on a crash course of political awareness and self-examination. Writers, actors and academics alike have reaffirmed how vital it is, now more than ever, to show courage in the face of intimidation. But most importantly, people all over the world stood together to make sure that Rachel was not – could never – be silenced. On March 16, the third year anniversary of Rachel’s death, there were over 70 readings of her emails in fifteen countries. People from Basra to Bellingham, Jenin to Jerusalem, Cambodia and Kosovo read the emails she had written in Rafah. They read them in theatres, street corners, cafes and living rooms. Afterwards, they discussed emotionally charged, often painful topics. The Wall. Bombings. Occupation. Rachel’s words open a space where people talk about difficult subjects with the emphasis placed just where it should be, just where Rachel herself placed it: on human lives.

March 22 could have marked a disaster. Fear, silencing, darkness, censorship, and cowardice might have been wrapped into this date. Instead, all of us here together are celebrating a triumph. We are moved by the extraordinary efforts thousands of people made in order to participate in, attend and express support for this event. We are in awe of how many people insist on resisting the imperative to stay silent around controversial topics and to speak out. About human rights. About justice. About Palestine. We are inspired by the memory of a young woman whose courage knew no limits.

My Name is Rachel Corrie will come to New York – of that we have no doubt. And when it does, it will find extraordinary support. But we hope tonight will also give all of us a real sense of empowerment. That we will all leave with more courage – the courage to promote other equally important voices that we know are being silenced in this country and around the world. Thank you for being here tonight. Rachel – the activist, the writer, the daughter, the sister, the friend – is being given the honor she deserves. There is so much more we could say about Rachel. But her own words do a better job than we ever could.

In solidarity,
Rachel’s Words
Sally Eberhardt, Jen Marlowe, Ann Petter, Brian Pickett, Suzy Salamy, Tom Wallace
www.rachelswords.org

——————–

Hosted by Amy Goodman and Dr. James J. Zogby

1. Zafer Tawil on u’d
2. Welcome from Rachel’s Words
3. Opening remarks from Amy Goodman and James Zogby
4. Video montage of children around the world reading Rachel’s words
5. Statement by Alice Walker read by Myra Lucretia Taylor
6. Video statements from Kathleen Chalfant, Eve Ensler, Mariam Said and Najla Said
7. Jonathan Tasini addressing Palestine and politics
8. Anthony Arnove on Rachel Corrie and the fight against imperialism
9. Patti Smith singing Peaceable Kingdom on video, dedicated to Rachel
10. Statement by Howard Zinn read by Brian Jones
11. Betty Shamieh and Maysoon Zayid address being a Palestinian artist in America
12. Liz Magnes playing piece composed in Rachel’s honor
13. Huwaida Arraf addressing the context in which Rachel was in Palestine—ISM and non-violent resistance
14. Sherif Fam giving an update on This Week in Palestine
15. Suheir Hammad performing a poem written for Rachel days after her death
16. Leonard Hubbard and A. Marcy Francis playing and singing a musical piece composed using Rachel’s writings
17. Cindy and Craig Corrie, Rachel’s parents, speak
18. Simon Shaheen plays u’d
19. Footage from Rachel in Rafah
20. Video of Maya Angelou reading one of Rachel’s journal entries
21. Live reading of Rachel’s emails by Brian Avery, Nirit Ben-Ari, Leila Buck, Kia Corthron, Lehni Lamide Davies, Danae Elon, Hedy Epstein, Delphi Harrington, Emily Jacir, Malachy McCourt, Betty Shamieh, Tom Wallace, Ora Wise, Maysoon Zayid
22. Closing video, Rachel Corrie at age 10

——————–

Maya Angelou is a poet, memoirist, actress and an important figure with the American Civil Rights Movement. Angelou is known for the autobiographical writings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) and All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). Her volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’Fore I Die (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993, Angelou read her poem On the Pulse of Morning for Bill Clinton’s Presidential inauguration at his request.

Anthony Arnove is the editor, with Howard Zinn, of Voices of a People’s History of the United States. He is currently working with Howard Zinn, The Culture Project, and director Rob Urbinati on a stage adaptation of the book. Arnove’s latest book, is Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal. He is also is the editor of Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War and Terrorism and War, a collection of post–9/11 interviews with Howard Zinn. An activist based in Brooklyn, he is a member of the International Socialist Organization and the National Writers Union, and writes regularly for ZNet.

Huwaida Arraf is a first generation Palestinian-American. The oldest of five children, she was born and raised in Detroit, MI. In 1998, she received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan with majors in Political Science, Arabic and Hebrew & Judaic Studies. With other Palestinian and international activists, she co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in April, 2001. The ISM is a Palestinian-led movement of Palestinian and international individual activists and grassroots community organizations working to raise awareness of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and an end to Israeli occupation. The movement utilizes nonviolent, direct action methods and strategies to confront and challenge the Israeli occupation forces and policies, in working towards its goal of bringing about an end to the brutal and repressive Israeli occupation. In 2004, Huwaida co-edited Peace Under Fire – a collection of personal accounts of ISM volunteers and she is currently co-editing another book on the Palestinian resistance. Huwaida is currently a student at American University’s Washington College of Law. She is married to fellow human rights activist, Adam Shapiro.

Brian Avery is a human rights and environmental activist from North Carolina. He has worked on numerous sustainable agriculture projects in the US and Europe, and co-founded Genewise, a Biotech industry watch group based in Chicago. In 2003 he traveled to Palestine to assist with the work of the International Solidarity Movement. He was severely injured in the city of Jenin during an attack against ISM personnel by members of the Israeli military.

Nirit Ben-Ari is an Israeli citizen, and was a soldier in the Israeli military radio station. She has been an activist with the International Solidarity Movement and JATO (Jews Against the Occupation). She worked for the United Nations Department of Public Information, Africa section. She is a Ph.D. student of Political Theory at the City University of New York, and an adjunct lecturer in Hunter College.

Leila Buck is a founding member of Mixed Company, a bi-cultural theater collective, and Nibras, with whom she performed Sajjil for the 2002 New York Fringe Festival. Her one-woman show, ISite, has traveled across Europe, Asia and the U.S., and was most recently featured in Lebanon’s Daily Star and The New York Times. A professional teaching artist, Leila is pursuing an M.A. in Educational Theatre at NYU and directing Nibras’ education program, bringing Arab culture to students, teachers and communities across New York and beyond.

Kathleen Chalfant is a politically active actress who has appeared in over thirty movies, television productions, and Off as well as On Broadway. Her outstanding performances have received a Tony nomination (for Tony Kushner’s Angels In America), two Drama Desk nominations and one Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, and Los Angeles Ovation awards, as well as two Obie awards, including Sustained Excellence in Performance and Outstanding Performance. Ms. Chalfant is on the advisory board of THAW (Theatres Against War). She was a cast member in the reading of Lysistrata, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, on the International Theatre Day of Protest against the war in Iraq in 2003. She is on the board of trustees for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Kia Corthron is a playwright whose work has been produced by New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Theater Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Stage and Film, London’s Royal Court Theatre and Donmar Warehouse, Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, LA’s Mark Taper Forum, Hartford Stage, Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre, Yale Rep, the Humana Festival, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Boston’s Huntington, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and others. Awards include the AT&T On Stage Award, Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, Fadiman Award, NEA/TCG, Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, New Professional Theatre Playwriting Award, Callaway Award. In 2002 Kia traveled with playwrights Naomi Wallace (who initiated the project), Tony Kushner, Robert O’Hara, Lisa Schlesinger and Betty Shamieh to Palestine to meet with theatre artists there. In 2004 Kia traveled to Liberia as the country was coming out of its civil war, a journey sponsored by Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater, and has since workshopped Tap the Leopard, a play inspired by the trip.

Lehni Lamide Davies is a Nigerian Performance Artist, Producer and Creative facilitator. She utilizes video, photo, sound, song, text and movement to create performances that explore social issues through creative documentary practice. She has performed in collaborative performance pieces including Mike Ladd’s Domestica at the Kitchen, Sense Us at The Henry Street Settlement, Beg by Lynn Book & Ensemble at Dixon Place, and her own pieces including Meeting God, a live performance with sound at Dixon Place and Embracing Venus, a video installation at Bodega gallery in Brooklyn. She has been a member of NYU’s Creative Arts Team. She has worked for Seeds of Peace, an international Peace camp, facilitating dialogue and conflict transformation workshops with Israeli and Palestinian youth. She has been a featured on albums by Mike Ladd, Daniel Givens and the experimental hip-hop group No Surrender. She is sometimes found singing in Asiko – a twelve piece Afro-beat band.

Danae Elon was born in Jerusalem and is a graduate of the NYU film school. She was honored for her merits in cinematography. Danae has been based in NYC for the past 12 years working as a documentary filmmaker. Her latest film, Another Road Home, tells the story of a Palestinian man whom her parents hired to be her caregiver. The film was released nationally in theaters. It is due to broadcast on the Sundance Channel April 10. She has also made films in Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru both as a documentarian and as a cinematographer.

Eve Ensler, the award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues, is touring 20 North American cities from October 2005-April 2006 with her newest play The Good Body, following engagements on Broadway in NYC, at ACT in San Francisco, and in a workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Ms. Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues has been translated into over 35 languages and ran in theaters all over the world, including sold-out runs at both Off-Broadway’s Westside Theater and on London’s West End (2002 Olivier Award nomination, Best Entertainment.) Her experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. Ms. Ensler’s performance in The Vagina Monologues can be seen in the HBO original documentary of the play (2002). Ms. Ensler has devoted her life to stopping violence, envisioning a planet in which women and girls will be free to thrive, rather than merely survive. The Vagina Monologues is based on Ensler’s interviews with more than 200 women. With humor and grace the piece celebrates women’s sexuality and strength.

Hedy Epstein is an 81 year old Nazi Holocaust survivor and life-long human rights and peace activist. Hedy was 8 years old when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Her family was first sent to Camp de Gurs, a concentration camp in occupied France, and eventually to Auschwitz. Hedy was one of 10,000 children saved by the kindertransport to England, where she was finally adopted. She went on to work at the Nuremberg Medical Trial which tried doctors accused of performing medical experiments on concentration camp inmates. Some of her later and current causes include fair housing, abortion rights, and antiwar activities. As a peace delegate, Hedy journeyed to Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Cambodia in 1989. She has been to Palestine three times since December 2003.

Sherif Fam is a retired engineer who has worked on the Israel-Palestine conflict for many years. He is on the steering committee of the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, and is a member of Boston to Palestine, United for Justice with Peace, Israel-Palestine Task Force, and New England Tikkun. He hosts a weekly radio program This Week in Palestine on WZBC Radio in Boston.

A. Marcy Francis is a vocalist, Minister of Healing, massage therapist, musician and artist in residence at University of Pennsylvania. She loves working with children, homeless, recoveries and Penn students. Her teaching is focused on loving yourself through percussion and affirmations.

Amy Goodman anchors the acclaimed grassroots global unembedded news hour Democracy Now! from New York. It airs on over 400 public radio and TV stations around the country. Goodman is the author of The New York Times bestseller The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them. She has won numerous awards for the documentary Massacre: The Story of East Timor. She is a recipient of a 1999 George Polk award for Drilling & Killing: Chevron and Nigeria’s Oil Dictatorship. Go to www.democracynow.org for video/audio podcasts and transcripts.

Suheir Hammad was born in Amman, Jordan to Palestinian refugee parents on October 25, 1973. Suheir’s family immigrated to Brooklyn, NY when Suheir was five years old, and she was raised there until the age of sixteen. Suheir has been able to travel throughout the world via her poetry. She has read her poems in Ivy League Universities and on Brooklyn’s street corners. Her work has appeared in award winning anthologies, and in zines stapled together by queer youth collectives. As far as we know, Suheir was the first Palestinian starring in a Broadway show, and she continues to be the first Palestinian in many artistic spaces throughout the States.

Delphi Harrington was born to Greek immigrants who became fiercely patriotic and brought the American dream to life. Delphi went on to great acclaim appearing On Broadway in The Sea Gull, Chapter II, Thieves, Romeo & Juliet, and Everything in the Garden. Her list of Off Broadway appearances is extensive. She is a board member of the Actor Company’s Theatre and a member of Actors Center Workshop Company. She is politically active with Move-on.org. She is married with three children.

Leonard Nelson “Hub” Hubbard is a band member of the Grammy-award winning hip hop band The Roots and has been playing bass for the Philadelphia outfit since 1993. He has composed music for films, including the documentary Darfur Diaries: Message from Home.

Emily Jacir is a visual artist originally from Bethlehem. She grew up in Saudi Arabia, went to high school in Rome, and received her B.A. and M.F.A. in America. She currently lives and works between Ramallah and New York City. Because she holds a U.S. passport, Jacir is allowed to travel between Israel and Palestine, although she still has to pass through the many checkpoints and border patrols. A substantial number of her fellow Palestinians, however, have found themselves living in exile, unable to return to their homeland. This restriction of movement and freedom has formed the basis of Jacir’s artistic practice. She has shown extensively throughout Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. She has exhibited her work in group exhibitions internationally. Her work is featured in the acclaimed Made in Palestine exhibit currently showing in New York.

Brian Jones studied Acting and Directing in Brown University’s Department of Theater, Speech, and Dance. Jones has toured across the country as Marx in Howard Zinn’s one-man play Marx in Soho since 1999. He recently lent his voice to the audio recording of Noam Chomsky’s new book, Hegemony or Survival. He is a teacher in Harlem, and a member of the United Federation of Teachers and the International Socialist Organization.

Liz Magnes combines an extraordinary approach to jazz piano with a World Music flavor to create a totally new and fresh solo jazz piano sound. An Israeli-American, her signature blend of American and Middle Eastern jazz is an exciting meeting of East and West.

Malachy McCourt is an actor and writer. He has performed On-Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional theatres in plays such as Mass Appeal, Da, The Hostage, Inherit the Wind, Carousel and Translations. In the early seventies he was one of the first radio talk show hosts on WMCA and also worked at WOR, WNYC and WABC. As a writer, Malachy has had articles published in many periodicals including New York Newsday, National Geographic, Conscience Magazine and New York Times. He is the co-author of the play A Couple of Blaguards with his brother Frank, and the New York Times bestseller memoir, A Monk Swimming. Malachy McCourt is happily married to Diana for almost four decades, has five grown children and is grandfather to four.

Vanessa Redgrave is widely regarded as one of Great Britain’s finest modern dramatic actresses. In 1977 she won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in the tragic Julia. At the Oscar ceremony, the actress generated considerable controversy during her acceptance speech by using the opportunity call attention to the issue of Palestinian rights in Israel. In addition to her stellar acting career, she has remained a committed advocate for human rights.

Afif Safieh is the Palestinian Ambassador in Washington, DC. Ambassador Afif Safieh served as the Palestinian General Delegate to the United Kingdom and to the Holy See from 1990-2005.

Mariam Said is the widow of the renowned Dr. Edward Said, a well-known Palestinian literary theorist, critic, and outspoken pro-Palestinian activist. According to Columbia News, Dr. Said was “one of the most influential scholars in the world”.

Najla Said is a founding member and the current artistic director of Nibras, the Arab-American theatre collective, whose inaugural production, Sajjil (Record) won best ensemble production at the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival. Currently at Seattle Repertory Theatre performing Heather Raffo’s solo show Nine Parts of Desire, Najla has acted in numerous New York productions including The Comfort and Safety of Your Own Home, Love’s Labours Lost, She Stoops to Conquer, and Salome. She trained at The Shakespeare Lab at the Public Theatre and The Actors Center in New York, and graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in comparative literature and a certificate in Theatre and Dance.

Simon Shaheen is a renowned musician who blends traditional Arabic sounds with jazz and Western classical styles. His has earned international acclaim as a virtuoso on the u’d and violin. His greatest success has come with Blue Flame, where he leads his group, Qantara, on a labyrinthian journey through the world of fusion music to discover the heart of the Middle East. The album has been nominated for eleven Grammy Awards, and the band’s performances have been called “glorious.”

Betty Shamieh is a Palestinian-American writer and actor. Her play Roar was the first play about Palestinians to appear off-Broadway, and was selected as a New York Times Critic’s Pick for four consecutive weeks. Her play The Black Eyed premiered at the Magic Theatre in May 2005. In June 2002, Betty traveled to Palestine as part of a delegation of playwrights including Kia Corthron, Tony Kushner, Naomi Wallace, Robert O’Hara, and Lisa Schlesinger. Shamieh is a graduate of Harvard University and the Yale School of Drama. She is currently a Playwriting Fellow at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. Her life and work has been profiled in American Theatre Magazine, Time Out, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, and the New York Times.

Patti Smith was one of the early pioneers of the dynamic New York City Punk scene; she has been creating her unique blend of poetic rock n’ roll for over a quarter-century. From her first ultra-rare independent single from 1974, “Hey Joe/Piss Factory”, to her 2000 Grammy-nominated Glitter in Their Eyes, her passion for music and art has undeniably stood the test of time. The 70’s witnessed a handful of seminal classic albums with guitarist Lenny Kaye including Horses (”Gloria”, “Free Money”) and Easter (”Because the Night”, “Ghost Dance”). Throughout the late eighties and nineties, Smith not only wrote more and more beautiful music, she also authored a number of books containing original poetry and artwork. This year, Smith is releasing Land on Arista Records, a 2-disc collection of fan favorites (voted on by over 10,000 fans), live performances, rare/unreleased works, and demos including the much sought after “Piss Factory”.

Jonathan Tasini will be challenging Senator Hillary Clinton in September’s Democratic primary. He is the president of the Economic Future Group, a national consulting group. He is a strategist, organizer, activist, commentator and writer, primarily focusing his energies on the topics of work, labor and the economy. From 1990 to April 2003, he served as president of the National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981); he remains the union’s president emeritus. He was the lead plaintiff in Tasini vs. The New York Times, the landmark electronic rights case won by the plaintiffs in a historic decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2001. He is also the president and executive director of the Creators Federation. He is the author of two books: The Edifice Complex: Rebuilding the American Labor Movement to Face the Global Economy, a critique and prescriptive analysis of the labor movement; and They Get Cake, We Eat Crumbs: The Real Story Behind Today’s Unfair Economy, an average reader’s guide to the economy. He also writes a regular column on labor and the economy entitled Working in America, which can be seen at www.tompaine.com.

Myra Lucretia Taylor has extensive Broadway credits including the 2003 Tony Award winning production of Nine, Electra, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Mule Bone, A Streetcar Named Desire, and MacBeth. Her most recent performance was in Theater for a New Audience’s production of All’s Well That Ends Well. Her TV and film credits include Law & Order and Changing Lanes. Myra is a Fox fellow.

Zafer Tawil is an accomplished musician based in New York City. He is a virtuoso on u’d, violin, qanun, and is a master of Arabic percussion. He has performed with numerous musicians ranging from pop star Sting to Arab music virtuosi such as Simon Shaheen, Chab Mami, Bassam Saba, and George Ziadeh; to avant-garde composer/performer Elliot Sharpe, among many others. Zafer has also composed music for a number of films, and has held workshops on Arabic Music at many universities in the US. Zafer is Palestinian and was born and raised in Jerusalem.

Alice Walker is an African American author and feminist whose most famous novel, The Color Purple, won both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. She attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated in 1965 from Sarah Lawrence College. Her first book of poetry was written while she was still a senior at Sarah Lawrence. She returned to the South to work in the U.S. civil rights movement. Walker was also an editor for Ms. Magazine. An article she published in 1975 was largely responsible for the renewal of interest in the work of Zora Neale Hurston. She won the 1986 O. Henry Award for her short story Kindred Spirits published in Esquire magazine in August of 1985. A political activist, she is active in environmental, feminist, civil rights, and animal rights causes.

Tom Wallace is an American peace activist and former nutritionist. He was the media coordinator for the International Solidarity Movement at a crucial time following the killing of Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall as well as the shooting of Brian Avery by the Israeli army. Tom is a leader in Palestine Media Watch and member of many organizations which support peace and justice. He was published in Peace Under Fire and many opeds in newspapers from The Boston Globe to the Jerusalem Post. He has also been influential in the publication of dozens of other opeds by Palestinians, Americans, and Israelis who oppose the brutal occupation of Palestine and Iraq. He is also one of the organizers of Rachel’s Words.

Ora Wise is an American Jew born in Jerusalem and daughter of a rabbi. She teaches at two synagogues in New York City and is co-founder of the Palestine/Israel Education Project in NYC and a U.S-Palestine Youth Leadership Institute, which facilitate interactive youth workshops connecting the Palestinian struggle for justice to the experiences and struggles of youth from oppressed communities in the U.S.

Maysoon Zayid is an actress and professional stand-up comedian, who received her BFA in acting from Arizona State University. She has appeared on As the World Turns, MTV, 20/20, the New York Times, and WashingtonPost.com. Maysoon has performed comedy in top New York clubs, including Caroline’s, Gotham, and Stand Up NY, and has toured her stand-up act extensively in both the USA and abroad. Maysoon was the first comedian to perform stand-up live in Palestine, performing in Nazareth, Haifa, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jerusalem. Maysoon spends 3 months a year in Palestine where she runs an art program for disabled and wounded refugee children. She is also Co-Chairperson of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival as well as co-host of the radio show Fen Mejnoon (Crazy Art) with Dean and Maysoon.

Howard Zinn is a historian, playwright, and social activist. Zinn was raised in a working-class family in Brooklyn, and flew bombing missions for the United States in World War II, an experience he now points to in shaping his opposition to war. After the war, he went to college under the GI Bill and received his PhD from Columbia. In 1956, he became a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, a school for black women, where he soon became involved in the Civil rights movement, which he participated in as an adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and chronicled in his book SNCC: The New Abolitionists. Zinn also mentored a young student named Alice Walker. When he was fired in 1963 for insubordination related to his protest work, he moved to Boston University, where he became a leading critic of the Vietnam War. He has received the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award. He is perhaps best known for A People’s History of the United States, which presents American history through the eyes of those he feels are outside of the political and economic establishment.

Dr. James J. Zogby is founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C. based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. For the past three decades, Dr. Zogby has been involved in a full range of Arab American issues. A co-founder and chairman of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign in the late 1970s, he later co-founded and served as the Executive Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. In 1982, he co-founded Save Lebanon, Inc., a private non-profit, humanitarian and non-sectarian relief organization which funds health care for Palestinian and Lebanese victims of war, and other social welfare projects in Lebanon. In 1993, following the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord in Washington, he was asked by Vice President Al Gore to lead Builders for Peace, a private sector committee to promote U.S. business investment in the West Bank and Gaza. In his capacity as co-president of Builders, Zogby frequently traveled to the Middle East with delegations led by Vice President Gore and late Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. A lecturer and scholar on Middle East issues, U.S.-Arab relations, and the history of the Arab American community, Dr. Zogby appears frequently on television and radio. He has appeared as a regular guest on all the major network news programs. After hosting the popular A Capital View on the Arab Network of America for several years, he now hosts Viewpoint with James Zogby on Abu Dhabi Television, LinkTV, Dish Network, and DirecTV.

——————–

The Freedom Theatre in Jenin
We regret that the new Freedom Theatre in Jenin was unable to participate in the video portion of this evening’s program due to Israeli army closure.

Please visit them at: www.thefreedomtheatre.org

——————–

Dear All,
As my THAW [Theaters Against War] friends know I’m an Israeli-American playwright and actress. I have also served in the Israeli army. I’ve been following the on-line discussion closely the past two days. I had to resist the urge to respond right away, I wanted to read Rachel’s play (of which I happened to have a copy) before I say anything.

I was terrified to read the play. Not because I haven’t read or seen testimonials, books, movies on the subject and don’t know a whole lot more just by writing about it and having lived in Israel… but it is always excruciatingly paralyzing learning more about what my country, my army and the people I love are responsible for.

Israel and Palestine are indeed in an uncertain territory yet again. The disengagement from Gaza, Sharon’s sickness, Hamas’ recent victory and the up coming elections in Israel (for which I’ll be going home in two weeks) all contribute to the political fog. So, I do agree these are particularly sensitive times.

Which is exactly why Rachel’s words must be heard now.

Rachel’s words deal with suffering, unimaginable, horrific suffering; and it is exactly now, during these days of uncertainty and transition that the world needs to be reminded of horrific, unjust acts and that there are people living in unfathomable realities of occupation and war caused by misled if not sinful policies and leaders.

Rachel’s powerful words and actions must be heard now. As the world grows number and dumber about cruelty, evil and injustice, we need to be reminded that there are people who choose to, not only leave their comfortable homes and lives but also are willing to witness these harsh realities and put their lives in danger while making a clear argument for peace.

By this I don’t mean to take away from any other suffering. Having been there, I can tell you, that though different as night and day, Israeli suffering is real and tangible and fraught with nightmarish history.

But Rachel’s words are incredibly fair and honest and effective and beautiful and urgent. Extremely urgent. I’d like to support this in any way I can.

Peace and love,
Zohar

– Letter from Zohar Tirosh, Israeli-American playwright, to her colleagues

——————–

None of this could have been possible without the tremendous work and effort of Dave Reed, who built a website literally overnight and worked for hours on end to keep it up to date.

Movement Studio
movementstudio.org

——————–

Rachel
in this rubble
there are families
who continue to live for you
clipping mint into steaming white teacups
they remember your smile in all of Rafah
dipping pita into the plate of garlicky hummus
the sweet lemon of your laugh comes to mind
seeing children at play in the dusty highway
they see your heart consistent
and persistent
each lamb sacrificed for a wedding feast
or funeral strengthens
those to come
looking into the large plastic container of olives
found in the corner of each Arab kitchen
they know the salt of your tears
the waste of lives
lost
Ibnati Rachel
Daughter
Live in our house for a while

– Larry Kerschner, for Rachel Corrie (1979-2003)

———————

From Raising Rafah (October 2004) report by Human Rights Watch:

From September 2000 until the end of November 2002, the IDF demolished a monthly average of 13.9 houses in Rafah. During 2003, this figure tripled to 47.8 homes per month. The increase continued in 2004, with a monthly average of 78 homes demolished during the first seven months of the year.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006
Filed under March 22 Event.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.