Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
The Second Death of Rachel Corrie: Censorship of the Worst Kind
I am urging the Royal Court Theatre to sue the New York Theatre Workshop for the cancellation of the production of "My Name Is Rachel Corrie". Not because I donated money for this production, which the Royal Court have been fundraising for--a target of 50,000 pounds, underwritten by Alan Rickman.
This is censorship of the worst kind. More awful even than that.It is black-listing a dead girl and her diaries.A very brave and exceptional girl who all citizens, whatever their faith or nationality, should be proud and grateful for her existence. They couldn't silence her voice while she lived, so she was killed. Her voice began to speak again as Alan Rickman read her diaries, and Megan Dodds became Rachel Corrie.Now the New York Theatre Workshop have silenced that dear voice.
I shall never forget the glimpse, at the close of Alan Rickman's production, of Rachel when 10 years old, shot on a little family movie camera, making her speech about world poverty and the urgent need to end the misery. The New York Theatre Workshop have silenced that little girl, as well as the girl who confronted the Israeli army Caterpillar bulldozer.
There has to be a court case on the sheer fact of the cancellation of this production. I suppose lawyers were consulted about the word "postponed". We in the theatre know however what cancelling a production means, whatever words are used. Megan Dodds, and a crew lose their jobs. The Royal Court Theatre lose a production that was a few weeks from opening in New York City.
For the Royal Court Theatre were producing "Rachel Corrie", with the New York Theatre Workshop, and putting up a lot of money--$100,000 dollars.
I hope that all theatre artists, writers, designers, actors, directors, independent producers and artists' representatives will make their protests known publicly as well as directly to the New York Theatre Workshop management. I hope that American Actors Equity will be asked to take up and support the Royal Court Theatre producer, Elyse Dodgson, the director, Alan Rickman, and the actress Megan Dodds.
If this cancellation is not transformed into a new production, somewhere in New York, immediately, we would be complicit, all of us, in a catastrophe that must not be allowed to take place. This play is not about taking sides. It is about protecting human beings.
In this case, Palestinian human beings who have no protection, for their families, their homes or their streets.
Rachel Corrie gave her life to protect a family. She didn't have or use a gun or bomb.
She had her huge humanity, and she gave that to save lives.
http://counterpunch.org/redgrave03062006.html
I shall never forget the glimpse, at the close of Alan Rickman's production, of Rachel when 10 years old, shot on a little family movie camera, making her speech about world poverty and the urgent need to end the misery. The New York Theatre Workshop have silenced that little girl, as well as the girl who confronted the Israeli army Caterpillar bulldozer.
There has to be a court case on the sheer fact of the cancellation of this production. I suppose lawyers were consulted about the word "postponed". We in the theatre know however what cancelling a production means, whatever words are used. Megan Dodds, and a crew lose their jobs. The Royal Court Theatre lose a production that was a few weeks from opening in New York City.
For the Royal Court Theatre were producing "Rachel Corrie", with the New York Theatre Workshop, and putting up a lot of money--$100,000 dollars.
I hope that all theatre artists, writers, designers, actors, directors, independent producers and artists' representatives will make their protests known publicly as well as directly to the New York Theatre Workshop management. I hope that American Actors Equity will be asked to take up and support the Royal Court Theatre producer, Elyse Dodgson, the director, Alan Rickman, and the actress Megan Dodds.
If this cancellation is not transformed into a new production, somewhere in New York, immediately, we would be complicit, all of us, in a catastrophe that must not be allowed to take place. This play is not about taking sides. It is about protecting human beings.
In this case, Palestinian human beings who have no protection, for their families, their homes or their streets.
Rachel Corrie gave her life to protect a family. She didn't have or use a gun or bomb.
She had her huge humanity, and she gave that to save lives.
http://counterpunch.org/redgrave03062006.html
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
I have far more respect for this brave Arab female commentator!
http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=null
http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=null
I thought I posted this earlier but apparently not, as I can't find it in the comment section. Things you should know about Rachel Corrie.
Rachel Corrie (1979-2003) was killed in an accident with an Israeli bulldozer in front of which the International Solidarity Movement (also known as the Palestine Solidarity Movement in the United States) had encouraged her to kneel. There are some very disturbing things that would-be peace activists should know before involving themselves with the Palestine Solidarity Movement.
(1) The International Solidarity Movement and Hamas are on record as stating openly that they had a motive for wanting Rachel Corrie dead.
o http://www.standwithus.com/news_post.asp?NPI=85 "Recently, the Director of the Solidarity Movement, George Rishmawi, explained to the San Francisco Chronicle that the recruitment of American student volunteers is useful to the Palestinian Movement because "if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice.""
o Joseph Smith, who was present when Corrie died and whose highest priority was apparently to take pictures, said "The spirit that she died for is worth a life. This idea of resistance, this spirit of resisting this brutal occupying force, is worth anything. And many, many, many Palestinians give their lives for it all the time. So the life of one international, I feel, is more than worth the spirit of resisting oppression." (http://www.freepalestinecampaign.org/Stranger article.htm, a source friendly to the Palestine Solidarity Movement. If he really feels that way, incidentally, why didn't he kneel in front of the bulldozer? Why was it worth Rachel's life but not his own?)
o A Hamas terrorist said openly that Rachel was worth more dead than alive. "'Her death serves me more than it served her,' said one activist at a Hamas funeral yesterday. '...Her death will bring more attention than the other 2,000 martyrs.'" "Making of a Martyr" by Sandra Jordan, Guardian Newspapers (http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-22-2003-37821.asp.
When you are more useful to your friends dead than you are alive, it is time to find new friends— quickly.
(2) Several ISM activists testified vigorously about their eyewitness accounts of Rachel's death but not one of them, by their own accounts, lifted a finger to pull her out of the slowly-moving bulldozer's path.
o Per "Making of a Martyr" by Sandra Jordan, Guardian Newspapers (http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-22-2003-37821.asp, "Her British friend and fellow activist, Tom Dale, 18, from Lichfield in Staffordshire, said he saw her die. First, he said, there was fear on her face as she realised that her defiant gesture was going wrong. Joe Smith, 21, who went to college with Corrie, said that, although they acknowledged the danger, they saw death as a 'small, unlikely, potential risk'."
o "Dale watched as she knelt down in front of the bulldozer, perhaps 20 metres away, something the activists had done repeatedly that day as they had in the past. 'The bulldozer went towards her, very slowly, she was fully in clear view, straight in front of them.'"
o He testifies that the bulldozer was moving very slowly— plenty of time for him or another man to pull her out of its path when it became clear that (for whatever reason) it was not going to stop. Not one of the ISM activists even claims to have tried.
o "A traumatised Smith raised his camera and took photographs: Rachel standing in front of the bulldozer; then her bloodied body being pulled from the freshly turned soil; being cradled in the arms of her friends."
o Why was his first priority to raise his camera and take pictures instead of trying to get Rachel out of the bulldozer's path?
o "'If only they'd had a video camera,' one Palestinian journalist lamented. 'A film of the Israelis killing an American in cold blood would have ended the intifada.'"
o The Palestinian journalist's primary lament is that they didn't have a video camera— and not that someone didn't pull Rachel out of the bulldozer's path.
o ISM member Tom Dale's testimony, from the ISM's own Web site (http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2003/03/17/the-closest-eye-witness-account-on-the-murder-of-rachel-corrie/ highlighting and bracketed comments are mine) says that he was standing only 10 meters, only ten long paces, from Rachel when it happened but he does not even claim to have tried to get her out of the bulldozer's path when it became clear that something was going horribly wrong with her act of civil disobedience.
o "Many of you will [have] heard varying accounts of the death of Rachel Corrie, maybe others will have heard nothing of it. Regardless, I was 10 metres away when it happened 2 days ago, and this is the way it went. …The bulldozer drove toward Rachel slowly, gathering earth in its scoop as it went." [If the bulldozer was demolishing houses, why bother to scoop up earth? Why not just drive through the houses?]
o Dale also testifies that Rachel died in the ambulance of massive brain hemorrhaging but http://www.voicesofpalestine.org/outrageous/rachelcorrie.asp says, "Palestinian doctors try to save the life of Rachel Corrie at the Najar hospital in the southern Gaza town of Rafah." Somebody somewhere is not getting their story straight.
(3) At least one of the ISM's pictures may be a photomanipulated fake
The ISM posted a picture of Rachel Corrie in a bright red jacket confronting a giant bulldozer with a man named "Nick" nearby in a white T shirt. There are some strange things about this photograph.
o The sun is obviously coming from behind the bulldozer, as shown by the shadow of its hydraulic piston on the back of the bulldozer blade. Rachel, however, casts a shadow to her left (the bulldozer's right) instead of behind her (the direction indicated by the shadow on the back of the bulldozer blade). The bulldozer casts no shadow at all to its right (Rachel's left), and neither does the man next to her.
o The man appears to have been cut and pasted into the picture; he has no feet and he is standing almost as if he is kicking a soccer ball— a very odd pose indeed.
o Furthermore, the Electronic Intifada reports, "Picture taken between 3:00-4:00PM, 16 March 2003, Rafah, Occupied Gaza. Rachel Corrie (L) and Nick (R) oppose the potential destruction of this home (to the west of the Doctor's home where Rachel was killed). The shadow to Rachel's left is shorter than her height, which is not consistent with late afternoon in mid-winter.
o The same picture shows, incidentally, that the huge bulldozer blade would have prevented the driver from seeing a person who was standing (let alone kneeling) directly in front of it. ISM's own photographic evidence— if accepted as genuine and not a photomanipulated fraud— therefore gives the lie to the Palestine Solidarity Movement's statement that the driver saw Rachel and ran over her anyway. If it is a photomanipulated fraud, then ISM/PSM is guilty of perjury in the court of public opinion and should be judged accordingly.
While the picture should be examined by an expert, we must conclude, on the basis of the evidence shown here:
The ISM Lied and Rachel Died
Rachel Corrie (1979-2003) was killed in an accident with an Israeli bulldozer in front of which the International Solidarity Movement (also known as the Palestine Solidarity Movement in the United States) had encouraged her to kneel. There are some very disturbing things that would-be peace activists should know before involving themselves with the Palestine Solidarity Movement.
(1) The International Solidarity Movement and Hamas are on record as stating openly that they had a motive for wanting Rachel Corrie dead.
o http://www.standwithus.com/news_post.asp?NPI=85 "Recently, the Director of the Solidarity Movement, George Rishmawi, explained to the San Francisco Chronicle that the recruitment of American student volunteers is useful to the Palestinian Movement because "if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice.""
o Joseph Smith, who was present when Corrie died and whose highest priority was apparently to take pictures, said "The spirit that she died for is worth a life. This idea of resistance, this spirit of resisting this brutal occupying force, is worth anything. And many, many, many Palestinians give their lives for it all the time. So the life of one international, I feel, is more than worth the spirit of resisting oppression." (http://www.freepalestinecampaign.org/Stranger article.htm, a source friendly to the Palestine Solidarity Movement. If he really feels that way, incidentally, why didn't he kneel in front of the bulldozer? Why was it worth Rachel's life but not his own?)
o A Hamas terrorist said openly that Rachel was worth more dead than alive. "'Her death serves me more than it served her,' said one activist at a Hamas funeral yesterday. '...Her death will bring more attention than the other 2,000 martyrs.'" "Making of a Martyr" by Sandra Jordan, Guardian Newspapers (http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-22-2003-37821.asp.
When you are more useful to your friends dead than you are alive, it is time to find new friends— quickly.
(2) Several ISM activists testified vigorously about their eyewitness accounts of Rachel's death but not one of them, by their own accounts, lifted a finger to pull her out of the slowly-moving bulldozer's path.
o Per "Making of a Martyr" by Sandra Jordan, Guardian Newspapers (http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-22-2003-37821.asp, "Her British friend and fellow activist, Tom Dale, 18, from Lichfield in Staffordshire, said he saw her die. First, he said, there was fear on her face as she realised that her defiant gesture was going wrong. Joe Smith, 21, who went to college with Corrie, said that, although they acknowledged the danger, they saw death as a 'small, unlikely, potential risk'."
o "Dale watched as she knelt down in front of the bulldozer, perhaps 20 metres away, something the activists had done repeatedly that day as they had in the past. 'The bulldozer went towards her, very slowly, she was fully in clear view, straight in front of them.'"
o He testifies that the bulldozer was moving very slowly— plenty of time for him or another man to pull her out of its path when it became clear that (for whatever reason) it was not going to stop. Not one of the ISM activists even claims to have tried.
o "A traumatised Smith raised his camera and took photographs: Rachel standing in front of the bulldozer; then her bloodied body being pulled from the freshly turned soil; being cradled in the arms of her friends."
o Why was his first priority to raise his camera and take pictures instead of trying to get Rachel out of the bulldozer's path?
o "'If only they'd had a video camera,' one Palestinian journalist lamented. 'A film of the Israelis killing an American in cold blood would have ended the intifada.'"
o The Palestinian journalist's primary lament is that they didn't have a video camera— and not that someone didn't pull Rachel out of the bulldozer's path.
o ISM member Tom Dale's testimony, from the ISM's own Web site (http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2003/03/17/the-closest-eye-witness-account-on-the-murder-of-rachel-corrie/ highlighting and bracketed comments are mine) says that he was standing only 10 meters, only ten long paces, from Rachel when it happened but he does not even claim to have tried to get her out of the bulldozer's path when it became clear that something was going horribly wrong with her act of civil disobedience.
o "Many of you will [have] heard varying accounts of the death of Rachel Corrie, maybe others will have heard nothing of it. Regardless, I was 10 metres away when it happened 2 days ago, and this is the way it went. …The bulldozer drove toward Rachel slowly, gathering earth in its scoop as it went." [If the bulldozer was demolishing houses, why bother to scoop up earth? Why not just drive through the houses?]
o Dale also testifies that Rachel died in the ambulance of massive brain hemorrhaging but http://www.voicesofpalestine.org/outrageous/rachelcorrie.asp says, "Palestinian doctors try to save the life of Rachel Corrie at the Najar hospital in the southern Gaza town of Rafah." Somebody somewhere is not getting their story straight.
(3) At least one of the ISM's pictures may be a photomanipulated fake
The ISM posted a picture of Rachel Corrie in a bright red jacket confronting a giant bulldozer with a man named "Nick" nearby in a white T shirt. There are some strange things about this photograph.
o The sun is obviously coming from behind the bulldozer, as shown by the shadow of its hydraulic piston on the back of the bulldozer blade. Rachel, however, casts a shadow to her left (the bulldozer's right) instead of behind her (the direction indicated by the shadow on the back of the bulldozer blade). The bulldozer casts no shadow at all to its right (Rachel's left), and neither does the man next to her.
o The man appears to have been cut and pasted into the picture; he has no feet and he is standing almost as if he is kicking a soccer ball— a very odd pose indeed.
o Furthermore, the Electronic Intifada reports, "Picture taken between 3:00-4:00PM, 16 March 2003, Rafah, Occupied Gaza. Rachel Corrie (L) and Nick (R) oppose the potential destruction of this home (to the west of the Doctor's home where Rachel was killed). The shadow to Rachel's left is shorter than her height, which is not consistent with late afternoon in mid-winter.
o The same picture shows, incidentally, that the huge bulldozer blade would have prevented the driver from seeing a person who was standing (let alone kneeling) directly in front of it. ISM's own photographic evidence— if accepted as genuine and not a photomanipulated fraud— therefore gives the lie to the Palestine Solidarity Movement's statement that the driver saw Rachel and ran over her anyway. If it is a photomanipulated fraud, then ISM/PSM is guilty of perjury in the court of public opinion and should be judged accordingly.
While the picture should be examined by an expert, we must conclude, on the basis of the evidence shown here:
The ISM Lied and Rachel Died
Just realized where I knew your name from- you wrote that amazing review of the Palestinian solidarity program in Georgetown.
That was hysterical- sure wish I could've been there to help.
So tell me- was Alison Weir really presented with a white robe and hood to commemorate her publication on the David Duke website?
That was hysterical- sure wish I could've been there to help.
So tell me- was Alison Weir really presented with a white robe and hood to commemorate her publication on the David Duke website?
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$40.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network