posted 07/22/10 04:41 PM | updated 07/23/10 06:25 AM
Featured Post! | Views: 771 | Comments : 8 | National & International News

The Rachel Corrie Story

By dliebich
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Last week’s presentation at the Nexstage Theater of the one woman play “My Name is Rachel Corrie” has certainly provoked animated dialogue in the valley, to the degree that this discussion can be called dialogue. (See here and here) Charlotte Hemmings’ portrayal of Rachel Corrie, a young woman from Olympia, Washington, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer while defending a Palestinian home in Gaza engaged everyone in the audience. There was, however, a large gap in the way that people in the audience responded. On Tuesday night, one questioner linked Ms Corrie to terrorists and Hamas. On the other hand, on Wednesday night most of the conversation was about how it felt to lose a daughter who was so committed to human rights and justice.

One of the problems with any attempt at conversation on this subject is that it is often not about facts. With some exceptions, almost everybody can agree that Ms Corrie was in Gaza as part of the International Solidarity Movement, a non-violent international activist group. She saw and experienced terrible destruction and violence inflicted on Palestinian residents of Gaza and she was killed, intentionally or unintentionally, by an Israeli bulldozer attempting to destroy a Palestinian home.

Some of the issues arise from transporting the events of 2003 into today’s Middle East context. In 2003 neither Gaza nor the West Bank were governed by Hamas. Gaza was occupied by Israel with 8000 settlers living there protected by thousands of Israeli soldiers. In order to protect these settlers, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) was creating “no man’s” areas, check points and barriers around Gaza’s borders and the Jewish colonies. It was into the resulting maelstrom that Rachel walked.

Most people can agree on the basic facts. The disagreement becomes a question of values. Some people know exactly what is happening in Palestine and think that it is right. Others know what is happening and think that it is wrong. Some justify what is happening by citing Israel’s security needs. Certainly all Israelis, Muslims, Christians, Jews and atheists, are entitled to security. The question is “Can Israel achieve its security needs by doing what it is doing or does it have to find another way?” Does anything go in the name of security? I would argue that it has to find another way. (Maybe the US needs to ask the same question.)

In many ways the political issues are easier than the moral issues. The larger question that Rachel raises is “How are we called to respond to injustice in the world?” This question is hard to deal with in our affluent comfortable life in the US. Rachel answered the call in her way and paid with her life.

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Eventually
Eventually peace and a two state solution will come. But the human primates involved have not yet tired of killing, snarling, fighting, threatening and vying for victim status enough to make peace.
Comment by Mick Garcia
1 month ago
( +1 votes )
Don Liebich & The Rachel Corrie Story
Lest anyone think that Mr. Liebich is an unbiased observer/reporter, in his own words he is hopeful that Israel will cease to be a Jewish state and that it will happen in his lifetime.
Comment by Bernard Friedlander
1 month ago
( 0 votes )
One state - Two state
For the record, what I have said on this issue is that Israel has succeeded in creating facts on the ground that make a "two state solution" impossible. If anyone can envision a two state solution that can create a viable, secure Palestinian state without relocating over 100,000 Israeli Jews against their will (a political impossibility), I am all for it. They should propose it to the parties.
Comment by dliebich
1 month ago
( 0 votes )
Rachel Corrie a dupe???
Sorry, but having had numerous confrontations and arguments back in the 1980s with a number of students of ALL ages at Olympia's Evergreen State University (where Rachel Corrie was a student just prior to her death in in the Gaza Strip, in 2003) -- during numerous trips to visit my aunt and uncle who live in Olympia -- and then again in 1990 (when I briefly moved to and worked in Olympia), I can unequivocally attest to the fact that that sorta/kinda/not-really "college" has more obviously proud-as-hell self-proclaimed Anarchists, Marxists, Communists, Full-Time Apologists For America and/or radiant anti-Semites per capita than just about any other campus I've ever visited ANYWHERE in the U.S. (and I've been to A LOT of them) ... save for maybe UC Berkley!!!

I didn't attend either of those two nexStage readings of "My Name Is Rachel Corrie" -- doesn't sound like I missed much, either -- and what I DO know about the various "outbursts" that occurred after the readings were over I know via second-hand accounts I've received from a number of people who WERE there on at least one of those two nights.

But two things have become very clear to me now:

One is that "Mt. Express" reporter Trevon Milliard seemed to go to almost laughable lengths to NOT quote verbatim even just ONE of the many heated comments/questions posed by the audience there (even though Milliard went to similarly laughable lengths in that very same July 16th "Express" article to extensively quote verbatim both Rachel's father, Craig, and also Hailey resident Aaron Taylor -- both of whom were obviously more than little... read more
Comment by Music Rules
1 month ago
( 0 votes )
r. carrie story
An isolated story, that is mellow campared to the daily atrocities committed by Muslims, or have we forgotten 9/11, and now they are using our freedoms and constitution to build a monument to their victory near the site. What biased propaganda! could have been balanced with objectivity!
Comment by pawan mehra
1 month ago
( 0 votes )
Thanks, Pawan/Islam's 'Violent Heritage'....
I really appreciate you sharing your rather potent and insightful views with us on this subject, Pawen!!!

Never ceases to amaze (and even sorta amuse, too, sometimes) me how our post-"9/11" United States Of America can often be soooooo blissfully and unrelentingly ignorant and apathetic on the subject of Islam's verrrrrrry violent history!!!

Btw, Pawen -- there's a really terrific non-fiction 2002 book by Morgan Norval, "The Fifteen Century War: Islam's Violent Heritage," that is must-reading for anyone who feels even remotely (and stupidly) compelled to apologize ad nauseam for America's ongoing "unfairly antagonistic" attitude toward Islamic edicts, docterines, policies, attitudes, etc.

--John Pluntze
WriteStuffIdaho@gmail.com
Comment by Music Rules
1 month ago
( 0 votes )
Visit http://RachelCorrieFacts.org and JewishVirtualLibrary.org !!!
Well, I guess the ever dogged/intrepid reporter in me is STILL verrry much a part of my persona -- whether I WANT it be there anymore, or not!!! (LOL) -- even though I actually haven't worked for a newspaper since the 1980s, back when I lived in Los Angeles, and was working for the now now-defunct "Herald-Examiner" and then, later on, for "Daily Variety") ... but in ANY case over the last couple-three weeks in my spare time I've discovered a veritable TON of information available on the internet that paints a verrry vivid and less-than-flattering portrait of 23-year-old Rachel Corrie (and her alleged "murder") that is radically different from the one depicted in that play, "My Name Is Rachel Corrie," a play which our own nexStage Theatre felt verrry oddly compelled to produce back in July of this year.

Two of the sites with arguably the most radiant and well-researched condemnations I've found so far about both the play AND about her -- and both I think are longggggg, long overdue!!! -- can be found at http://rachelcorriefacts.org

AND also at:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf24.html (the latter will lead you to an exhaustively-researched and superbly-written article by Mitchell G. Bard -- an article I'm guessing depressingly few people here in the Wood River Valley are even AWARE of, let alone have ACTUALLY READ, least of all Indian Creek resident Don Leibich (who likewise felt verrry oddly compelled to pay for the travel expenses of Rachel Corrie's parents to visit here back in July -- two "grieving" people, btw, who can be seen happily accepting less than... read more
Comment by Music Rules
3 weeks ago
( 0 votes )
'Rachel Corrie' review at solomonia.com
Just go to http://www.solomonia.com and then type into its search engine there the words "Rachel Corrie"; a number of related Corrie articles will appear -- including that devastating March 29, 2008 review that is titled, "Earnest Ignorance: My Name Is Rachel Corrie at the New Rep."

GREAT, GREAT reading!!!! : )

--John Pluntze
WriteStuffIdaho@gmail.com
Comment by Music Rules
3 weeks ago
( 0 votes )
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