Rachel's Words Live On --- Remi Kanazi

[Tom Joad]

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=10008

Each Palestinian has a special place in their heart for Rachel Corrie. She symbolized strength, perseverance, and self assuredness. Conversely, she was labeled an enemy of Israel, a nuisance of the American government and a target of ridicule by pro-Israeli propagandists. 58 years ago, my grandparents were dispossessed from their land in Palestine and this energetic little white girl from Olympia, Washington traveled half the world to try to fulfill their dream: the fruition of justice in Palestine.

On March 22 I sat in a pew at the Riverside Church, the very church Martin Luther King first chastised the war in Vietnam, with a congregation of ardent supporters to commemorate Rachel’s life and spread her words. This event came out of controversy. The critically acclaimed play “My Name is Rachel Corrie,” which chronicled Corrie’s work with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Palestine through email and letters (and had two sellout runs in London), was canceled by the New York Theater Workshop (NYTW). Just weeks after the cartoon controversy and the mass trumpeting of free speech worldwide, Rachel Corrie was being silenced…her emails, letters, compassion and grace were to be buried with the dirt that covered her body after a D9 Caterpillar bulldozer drove her into the ground and ended her life. The New York Theater Workshop attempted to crush her memory but her words live on. Other theaters have already expressed interest in putting on the show.

A list of brilliant speakers came out to show solidarity in the name human rights and justice. Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman opened, “Welcome to this sanctuary of dissent. Dissent is what makes this country great.” Arab American Institute president James Zogby professed, “She , not George Bush was our liberator.” Actress and activist Kathleen Chalfant declared, “There is hope that this will turn into a triumph. a model for political action.

Read the whole thing.

[tatertop]

1. Amy Goodman did a great job of smacking down anti-Rachel bigots

on Democracy Now. After she exposed what hateful bastards
they were, they bumbled and backtracked and wanted to escape.
Hammer time!

[Tom Joad]

2. "It is not about Muslims vs. Jews, it is about freedom vs oppression."

Huwaida Arraf.

I wish we could agree on that here. It is not "pro-Israeli" or "anti-Israeli", it is about supporting human-rights, opposing oppression.

The word I got was that Huwaida gave the speech of her life, btw.

[tatertop]

3. I don't know why we can't agree on that here

The hard liners not only
absolutely refuse to support human-rights and oppose oppression, they absolutely refuse to discuss the matter.