Today is the 7th anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie, a 23 year old American activist who was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer while attempting to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian home in Rafah, Gaza. Last week our local community theater presented a dramatic reading of the play “My Name is Rachel Corrie”, which uses the diaries and writings of this young woman to tell the story of her efforts to stand up for the oppressed.
For any organization to present this work in the US requires a great deal of courage. When the work was first produced in New York City in 2005, pressure by some in the pro-Israel community resulted in the cancellation of the production. The same kind of pressure manifested itself here. The theater company was publicly attacked for providing a venue for anti-Israel propaganda and, while acknowledging the criticism, chose to go forward and defended their right and obligation to provide a venue for works that promote dialogue on controversial subjects.
The one woman play, while set in the context of Israel/Palestine, could have been as easily set in any country where the government is attacking its population with the goal of destroying their livelihoods, homes and lives. No two situations are completely analogous, but Darfur, Sudan comes to mind.
At a time when the US is extremely unpopular in the Arab and Muslim worlds, Rachel Corrie is held up as an American hero. I have seen her image in a mosaic in a Catholic Church in an Arab town in Israel alongside martyrs of the early church. When asked about how he felt about Rachel being singled out as a heroine when so many Palestinians had died in the same cause, a Palestinian friend said that he thought it was right. “We are stuck in this situation and have no choice. She made a choice to stand with us.” In a recent interview, Khaled Nasrullah, who lived in the home Rachel was defending said, “Rachel really changed our fundamental ideas. Sometimes we believed that Western people were fully supporting the Israeli side and did not have feelings for us ...”
Shortly before she died Rachel told her Gaza story in this interview
I had read the play before seeing it last week, but it didn’t come alive for me until I saw the performance. If it is “coming to a theater near you”, I strongly recommend it.
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