Rachel’s Words

By Christian Hill
McClatchy Newspapers

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Cindy Corrie never imagined losing one of her children, nor did she believe she would survive such a loss.

Then on March 16, 2003, the unthinkable happened. Her 23-year-old daughter, Rachel, was crushed beneath an Israeli bulldozer as she stood defending the home of two Palestinian families in Rafah, Gaza.

Cindy, 59, and her husband, Craig, made up their minds then to keep their daughter’s words and message alive, despite their loss.

“In fact, within the hour, we did start making decisions,” Cindy Corrie said, “and one was because Rachel’s words (in diaries and e-mails) had had such an impact on us, that those words needed to be available to people. She had worked on that. That was something she wanted to see happen.”

Rachel Corrie’s voice can still be heard four years after her death, with last week’s opening of the controversial play “My Name is Rachel Corrie” in Seattle.

And her voice continues to resonate, in her hometown of Olympia, Wash., and elsewhere.

For some, it’s a message of peace, a calling for nonviolent protest to right what’s wrong in the world.

This article was originally published in Arabic by the Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Ayyam on March 16, 2007, and translated by Mazin Qumsiyeh.

Children from the Mini Palestinian Parliament in Rafah commemorated the fourth anniversary of the killing of Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Corrie, 23, lost her life under an Israeli army bulldozer on March 16, 2003 while attempting to stop the bulldozer from demolishing a home belonging to a Palestinian citizen near the Brazil neighborhood southeast of Rafah city.

The children installed a permanent exhibit to honor her life that included pictures and personal belongings at the parliament site in the center of Rafah governorate. The exhibit includes pictures of Rachel and statements and other documents released upon her loss, some personal belongings, as well as a symbolic coffin covered by the Palestinian flag.

Nadeem Al-Mahaydeh, 11, and Islam Abu Sharkh, 12, read commemorative poems they’d written in English. The two girls spoke about Rachel’s heroic stand in front of an Israeli bulldozer in an attempt to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home in Rafah—a stand that cost her life.

published in Arabic by Al-Ayyam Newspaper
translated by Mazin Qumsiyeh.

Rachel we need you,
Rachel Corrie died as a Palestinian,
We welcome her in the highest esteem and honor.
by Palestinian children in Rafah

Children from the Mini Palestinian Parliament commemorated the fourth anniversary of the loss of the American solidarity activist Rachel Corrie by enacting a permanent exhibit for her that includes pictures and personal belongings at the parliament site in the center of Rafah governorate. The exhibit, which was attended by a large number of children and others concerned, included pictures of Rachel and statements and other documents released upon her loss, as well as some personal belongings and a symbolic coffin covered by the Palestinian flag. The exhibit was opened by reading commemorative poems two girls wrote in English: Nadeem Al-Mahaydeh (11 years old) and Islam Abu Sharkh (12 years old). The two girls spoke about Rachel’s heroic stand in front of an Israeli bulldozer in an attempt to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home, a stand that cost her life.

Below are events happening on March 16, 2007, commemorating Rachel Corrie. If you organized an event, please let us know by contacting us.

Washington, DC
Poets Against The War
Note from organizer, Reuben Jackson:
My wife and I are planning a March 16th event (we plan to red from Rachel’s letters) at our house in DC. We saw “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” in NYC in November of last year, and at the risk of uttering a cliche, I have not been the same.

Vienna, Austria
Women in Black and Jewish Voice for a Just Peace (Austria)
Note from organizer, Paula Abrams-Hourani:
We have held vigils for Rachel Corrie every year since she was killed and will do so on Friday, 16 March 2007. This time we will extend the memorial vigil to all of the thousands of victims of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land….we think she would agree with this.

Molly Gilmore
published by The Olympian

While the play has inspired protest and controversy, “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” is, essentially, the story of one woman.

A Seattle Repertory Theatre production of the play, adapted from the writings of Corrie, The Evergreen State College student who was killed while standing in the way of an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza, opens Thursday. It already has played in London and New York amid controversy centered on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“This is a play about a young woman growing up and discovering who she is and discovering her voice as a writer,” said Craig Corrie of Olympia, Rachel’s father. “It’s disconcerting to see all this political storm around simply what somebody saw. It’s her experience, and in a sense, that’s undeniable.”

“What you get here is a stunning account of one woman’s passionate response to a particular situation,” wrote Michael Billington in a review of the play in the London newspaper The Guardian. “And the passion comes blazing through in Corrie’s eloquent reaction to her father’s inquiry about Palestinian violence. As she says, if we lived where tanks and soldiers and bulldozers could destroy our homes at any moment and where our lives were completely strangled, wouldn’t we defend ourselves as best we could?”

One month from today we will mark the fourth anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death. Please join Rachel’s Words and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation in making March 16th a day of remembrance.

Below we have descriptions of four different Rachel’s Words events. They range from a small dinner party to a large production with professional actors and musicians. There are many creative possibilities in combining Rachel’s emails with current events, candle-light vigils, street theater, theatrical readings, film screenings, direct action, report-backs, teach-ins, or coffee and conversation.

Rachel’s Words can provide resources to make organizing easier. We have Rachel’s emails online and translated into several languages. Our Myths and Facts Sheet was reviewed by Craig and Cindy Corrie and addresses the misinformation often repeated in the media. It’s available online as text or as a pre-formatted .pdf and is intended to be used as a handout or a media tool.

We have video footage from our event at Riverside Church, DVDs of the documentary The Killing Zone, Rachel Corrie solidarity bracelets — and we’re building a community of people to share ideas and experience. Please contact us if we can help you organize an event, large or small. And let us know how you plan to mark the day.

To contact the organizer of this event or get information on similar readings, write to us at info@rachelswords.org

On March 16, 2006, I decided to hold a reading of Rachel’s Words in my very small living room. I had invited over thirty people. Most could not make it or did not want to make it. Present were two dear friends with whom I have breakfast every Wednesday morning. Fran and Lucy are very open-minded, caring women, though not necessarily well-informed about the situation in Israel/Palestine. But over the past few years, we have been talking about it, particularly since my trip back from the Occupied Territories and 2004. Thus I knew that they would attend with interest. Also present were my good friends Stacey and her husband. Stacey had traveled with me and both she and her husband are well-informed in world affairs; my dear friend, Barbara, who has been educating herself about the I/P situation since it became so important to me was happy to come. My friend Norma also attended. She sits in the middle ideologically, seeing both the Israeli point of view and understanding the plight of the Palestinians. My husband was, of course in attendance. As I was about to begin the reading, the only guest who had not arrived was my Israeli neighbor, Ana.

Committee for Peace in Israel and Palestine, contact: tvvic@aol.com

On Sunday, October 15, 2006, the Committee for Peace in Israel and Palestine, a rather small group of activists (we number ten or so) in the area of East Hampton, on Long Island, New York, had a presentation of Rachel’s Words based on what had been put together at Riverside Church in March of that year, after a production of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie was forced from the stage at the New York Theatre Workshop. We had magnificent help and support from the people at Rachel’s Words, and the performance was a great success. We spent a considerable amount of money – about $5000 – but most of that was for ads and other publicity, which – in these parts – is very expensive.

Contact: Judith Simmons, pnsimmons@ct.metrocast.net

Our church, The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme Connecticut, presented a reading entitled Rachel Corrie – A Woman of Conscience, the first weekend in November, 2006. This program was written and produced as a direct result of the silencing of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie. Several of us had attended Rachel’s Words, and felt we had to do something. During the month of October, the church hosted three other programs on the subject of women of conscience. We hosted Israelis and Palestinians and learned about the work they do together to bring peace to the region, and the respect they show to each other.

To contact the organizer of this event or get information on campus readings, write to us at info@rachelswords.org

On the third anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s killing, on March 17, 2006, the Princeton Committee on Palestine, together with a group of graduate students from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of International & Public Affairs, organized readings from those of Rachel’s journal entries and writings that had been made public and were available through the Rachel’s Words initiative. We applied for permission from the University to set up a microphone and speaker system in a central part of the campus, in the plaza outside of Princeton University’s Firestone Library. We asked for a permit to do outdoor readings on the plaza at midday in the hopes of drawing an audience of students on their lunch hour. We advertised the readings through flyers and announcements and circulated materials through university listservs concerning the controversy over the cancellation of the New York staging of My Name Is Rachel Corrie that spring. We also issued an open call for students and members of the community who would like to join in doing readings. We received permission for the event from the University and rented the audio equipment that was necessary through the university.