Background

Rachel Corrie was a 23 year old college student and human rights activist from Olympia, Washington. On March 16, 2003, she was run over and killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza, while defending a Palestinian home from demolition. A gifted writer, Rachel left behind a series of diaries and emails from an early age which were crafted into a play by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner. While the United States government in its annual human rights report describes Rachel as "a US citizen peace activist" and designates her as a human rights observer, this is often obscured by the fog of misinformation surrounding her.

Their Words

"She didn't take sides, although she went to defend Palestinians. It isn't about taking sides. It’s about defending human life. That's the basis of all human rights. That's the basis of what every country proclaims it stands for."-- Vanessa Redgraves on Rachel Corrie



"We are Jewish writers who supported the Royal Court production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie. We are dismayed by the decision of the New York Theatre Workshop to cancel or postpone the play's production. We believe that this is an important play, particularly, perhaps, for an American audience that too rarely has an opportunity to see and judge for itself the material it contends with.

"In London it played to sell-out houses. Critics praised it. Audiences found it intensely moving. So what is it about Rachel Corrie's writings, her thoughts, her feelings, her confusions, her idealism, her courage, her search for meaning in life — what is it that New York audiences must be protected from?

"The various reasons given by the workshop — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coma, the election of Hamas, the circumstances of Rachel Corrie's death, the 'symbolism' of her tale — make no sense in the context of this play and the crucial issues it raises about Israeli military activity in the Occupied Territories.

"Rachel Corrie gave her life standing up against injustice. A theater with such a fine history should have had the courage to give New York theatergoers the chance to experience her story for themselves.” A Letter to the New York Times Signed Gillian Slovo, Harold Pinter, Stephen Fry, London, March 20, 2006. Harold Pinter won the Nobel Prize for Literature that year.


"She was the first American citizen, perhaps the only American citizen -- I don’t know -- but to be killed by the Israeli army. She wrote so powerfully and so brilliantly about life under occupation, which is terrifying to hear if it’s not something you hear very often, but also, you know, she's young, beautiful, blond, white, American. She's completely easy to relate to for a vast majority of Americans, and that makes her very dangerous, and that's why there's been so much misinformation about her on the internet and elsewhere."-- Katherine Viner on the smear campaign against Rachel Corrie. Viner was co-editor of the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie


"Rachel Corrie lived in nobody's pocket but her own. Whether one is sympathetic with her or not, her voice is like a clarion in the fog and should be heard."-- Alan Rickman Hollywood actor and co-editor of the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie

Her Wisdom

"For a long time I’ve been operating from a certain core assumption that we are all essentially the same inside, and that our differences are by and large situational. That goes for everybody— Bush, Bin Laden, Tony Blair, me, you… Palestinians, everybody of any particular religion. I know there is a good chance that this assumption actually is false. But it’s convenient, because it always leads to questions about the way privilege shelters people from the consequences of their actions. It’s also convenient because it leads to some level of forgiveness, whether justified or not."



"Today, as I walked on top of the rubble, Egyptian soldiers called to me from the other side of the border: 'Go! Go!' because a tank was coming. And then waving and 'What's your name?' Something disturbing about this friendly curiosity. To some degree, we are all kids curious about other kids. Egyptian kids shouting at strange women wandering into the path of tanks. Palestinian kids shot from the tanks when they peek out from behind walls to see what's going on. International kids standing in front of tanks with banners. Israeli kids in the tanks-- occasionally shouting, occasionally waving-- many forced to be here, many just aggressive, anonymously shooting into the houses as we wander away."


"I am really scared for the people here. Yesterday, I watched a father lead his two tiny children, holding his hands, out into the sight of tanks and a sniper tower and bulldozers and Jeeps because he thought his house was going to be exploded. Jenny and I stayed in the house with several women and two small babies. It was our mistake in translation that caused him to think it was his house that was being exploded. In fact, the Israeli army was in the process of detonating an explosive in the ground nearby - one that appears to have been planted by Palestinian resistance.

This is in the area where Sunday about 150 men were rounded up and contained outside the settlement with gunfire over their heads and around them, while tanks and bulldozers destroyed 25 greenhouses - the livelihoods for 300 people. The explosive was right in front of the greenhouses - right in the point of entry for tanks that might come back again. I was terrified to think that this man felt it was less of a risk to walk out in view of the tanks with his kids than to stay in his house. I was really scared that they were all going to be shot and I tried to stand between them and the tank. This happens every day, but just this father walking out with his two little kids just looking very sad, just happened to get my attention more at this particular moment, probably because I felt it was our translation problems that made him leave."


"When that explosive detonated yesterday it broke all the windows in the family’s house. I was in the process of being served tea and playing with the two small babies. I’m having a hard time right now. Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom. I know that from the United States, it all sounds like hyperbole. Honestly, a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence of the wilful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me. I really can’t believe that something like this can happen in the world without a bigger outcry about it. It really hurts me, again, like it has hurt me in the past, to witness how awful we can allow the world to be."


"This is what I am seeing here. The assassinations, rocket attacks and shooting of children are atrocities - but in focusing on them I’m terrified of missing their context. The vast majority of people here - even if they had the economic means to escape, even if they actually wanted to give up resisting on their land and just leave (which appears to be maybe the less nefarious of Sharon’s possible goals), can’t leave. Because they can’t even get into Israel to apply for visas, and because their destination countries won’t let them in (both our country and Arab countries). So I think when all means of survival is cut off in a pen (Gaza) which people can’t get out of, I think that qualifies as genocide. Even if they could get out, I think it would still qualify as genocide. Maybe you could look up the definition of genocide according to international law. I don’t remember it right now. I’m going to get better at illustrating this, hopefully. I don’t like to use those charged words. I think you know this about me. I really value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions."



"You asked me about non-violent resistance, and I mentioned the first intifada. The vast majority of Palestinians right now, as far as I can tell, are engaging in Gandhian non-violent resistance... Who do you think these families are that I tell you about, who won't take any money from us even though they are very, very poor, and who say to us: 'We are not a hotel. We help you because we think maybe you will go and tell people in your country that you lived with Muslims. We think they will know that we are good people. We are quiet people. We just want peace'? Do you think I'm hanging out with Hamas fighters? These people are being shot at every day and they continue to go about their business as best they can in the sights of machine guns and rocket launchers. Isn't that basically the epitome of non-violent resistance?"



“The scariest thing for non-Jewish Americans in talking about Palestinian self-determination is the fear of being or sounding anti-Semitic. The people of Israel are suffering and Jewish people have a long history of oppression. We still have some responsibility for that, but I think it’s important to draw a firm distinction between the policies of Israel as a state, and Jewish people. That’s kind of a no-brainer, but there is very strong pressure to conflate the two. I try to ask myself, whose interest does it serve to identify Israeli policy with all Jewish people?”


More maybe added when I get my script to My Name Is Rachel Corrie.

My Response

Look, I bet you're all tired of hearing about her. But I cannot tell you how much seeing that play really affected me. And when I looked at all the misinformation about her on the Internet, it really upset me, because if you knew the things she said, you knew instantly that she was a peace advocate. And that she was a free spirit, and strong willed, and very bright, and when I walked out of that theater, I mourned the loss of that good soul and in someways, it still upsets me. She seemed like someone I would have loved to meet. She even makes my list of top ten people to meet in heaven.

Listen, like Vanessa Redgraves said, it's not about taking sides, it's about protecting everyone's inalienable human rights. And it's like Rachel said, we are all essentially the same inside. When she said that, I smiled, because I've said almost that exact same thing to people.

I'm sorry if this article upset or offended you, and at the same time I'm not. Because it should upset you. You should be angry. Katherine Viner once said that after seeing the play she wanted the audience to leave feeling inspired to do something about the inequalities of the world. I know this probably isn't nearly as powerful as hearing Rachel's words for yourself by a talented actress, but I hope it has inspired something in you.

If you were offended by this article, or if you disagree with the content in anyway, don't just rate it badly and leave. Comment. Explain. Get a discussion going. Please.

I feel I should say more, but I feel like Rachel's words should speak for themselves. If you can, I urge you to pick up a copy of the script. I own it, and I've read it through twice in addition to having seen the play.

For more information on Rachel Corrie and her words, please visit link, link, and link

Thank you, and I hope her words inspire you like they inspired me.