Daniel Mabsout,
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Now for more than ten years we have been commemorating Rachel Corrie’s martyrdom at the hands of Israelis, and- as happens with heroes- the more we read about Rachel the more we learn about her and how she has chosen to fight for this cause to the end , and at whatever price. Corrie is the personification of real activism that is directly related to the people’s cause and fully identified with it .
The sad thing is that BDS or the so called boycott campaign- funded by Soros Institutes- and other NGOs and by the European Union – is trying to use Rachel Corrie and employ her name in their anti Apartheid campaign that seeks to recognize Israel- as a legal state- and give legality to the usurping state under the pretext of fighting its racism. Instead of boycotting the usurping state of Israel , BDS recognizes the state and boycotts the goods . This -of course – has nothing to do with Rachel Corrie who knew more than anyone the truth about Israel, and the friends of Rachel should object to using Corrie’s name in the mess that BDS is responsible for by calling for the return of Palestinians and recognizing the legality of Israel leaving them with no place to go back to . BDS is responsible for the great distortion of the Palestinian cause and for wasting the sacrifices of martyr heroes in order to reach a settling that benefits the usurping state at the expense of Palestinians . How far is this from Rachel’s noble goals !!
This is an extremely touching letter from the beautiful person Rachel Corrie is. It is so rare to find westerners getting to know – to the bottom- the core of the Palestinian problem . Even some Arabs have some difficulties understanding this . In this beautiful letter addressed to her parents, Rachel tries- the best she could- to reproduce the whole picture of the Palestinian plight , to spread the word and have people know what is really happening. Rachel has great difficulty doing this, she knows she’s alone in this battle as true heroes are . She has had an insight into the whole matter and which she wants to share and transmit ..
People should know what it is like to live tracked and chased and threatened in one’s life and one’s livelihood by some usurpers who have taken your land and are threatening every aspect of your life. And Rachel goes on relating the unbelievable thing happening in front of her eyes : the slow death of entire families of children and mothers and fathers . Rachel wants humanity to feel responsible for this, because humanity is accountable for what happens to humanity . Let humanity know and then act accordingly and Rachel starts with the closest persons to her: her parents and even there she has difficulty making herself understood .How to allow gardens to be destroyed and green houses and flowers and everything that makes a livelihood to be wiped out ? How to allow people to be chased out of their houses and what are those people to do when they are shelled and their houses targeted and their windows blown and broken ?
The big question for Rachel remains.: How are we letting all this happen and what makes people allow this to happen? This should not be allowed to happen . And Rachel cannot go on leading an average life and dancing and enjoying life when this is happening to Palestinians; she simply cannot . This should stop before she could resume her normal activities and go back to her life in USA. Rachel knows that the enemy might break at any moment his “racist “pledge not to attack foreigners . Rachel was intentionally killed because she knew too much , not only she had diagnosed the disease but she almost found the cure for, what was left for those people except to resist, and this is not violence said Corrie , but self defense . Thank you Rachel Corrie for this beautiful unforgettable sacrifice !!
From Rachel Corrie’s Journal, Let Me Stand Alone
Excerpt: ”I thought a lot about what you said on the phone about Palestinian violence not helping the situation. Sixty thousand workers from Rafah worked in Israel two years ago. Now only 600 can go to Israel for jobs. Of these 600, many have moved, because the three checkpoints between here and Ashkelon (the closest city in Israel) make what used to be a 40-minute drive, now a 12-hour or impassible journey. In addition, what Rafah identified in 1999 as sources of economic growth are all completely destroyed – the Gaza international airport (runways demolished, totally closed); the border for trade with Egypt (now with a giant Israeli sniper tower in the middle of the crossing); access to the ocean (completely cut off in the last two years by a checkpoint and the Gush Katif settlement). The count of homes destroyed in Rafah since the beginning of this intifada is up around 600, by and large people with no connection to the resistance but who happen to live along the border. I think it is maybe official now that Rafah is the poorest place in the world. There used to be a middle class here – recently. We also get reports that in the past, Gazan flower shipments to Europe were delayed for two weeks at the Erez crossing for security inspections. You can imagine the value of two-week-old cut flowers in the European market, so that market dried up. And then the bulldozers come and take out people’s vegetable farms and gardens. What is left for people? Tell me if you can think of anything. I can’t.
Excerpt: ”I thought a lot about what you said on the phone about Palestinian violence not helping the situation. Sixty thousand workers from Rafah worked in Israel two years ago. Now only 600 can go to Israel for jobs. Of these 600, many have moved, because the three checkpoints between here and Ashkelon (the closest city in Israel) make what used to be a 40-minute drive, now a 12-hour or impassible journey. In addition, what Rafah identified in 1999 as sources of economic growth are all completely destroyed – the Gaza international airport (runways demolished, totally closed); the border for trade with Egypt (now with a giant Israeli sniper tower in the middle of the crossing); access to the ocean (completely cut off in the last two years by a checkpoint and the Gush Katif settlement). The count of homes destroyed in Rafah since the beginning of this intifada is up around 600, by and large people with no connection to the resistance but who happen to live along the border. I think it is maybe official now that Rafah is the poorest place in the world. There used to be a middle class here – recently. We also get reports that in the past, Gazan flower shipments to Europe were delayed for two weeks at the Erez crossing for security inspections. You can imagine the value of two-week-old cut flowers in the European market, so that market dried up. And then the bulldozers come and take out people’s vegetable farms and gardens. What is left for people? Tell me if you can think of anything. I can’t.
If any of us had our lives and welfare completely strangled, lived with children in a shrinking place where we knew, because of previous experience, that soldiers and tanks and bulldozers could come for us at any moment and destroy all the greenhouses that we had been cultivating for however long, and did this while some of us were beaten and held captive with 149 other people for several hours – do you think we might try to use somewhat violent means to protect whatever fragments remained? I think about this especially when I see orchards and greenhouses and fruit trees destroyed – just years of care and cultivation. I think about you and how long it takes to make things grow and what a labor of love it is. I really think, in a similar situation, most people would defend themselves as best they could. I think Uncle Craig would. I think probably Grandma would. I think I would.
You asked me about non-violent resistance.
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 willful 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. I felt after talking to you that maybe you didn’t completely believe me. I think it’s actually good if you don’t, because I do believe pretty much above all else in the importance of independent critical thinking. And I also realize that with you I’m much less careful than usual about trying to source every assertion that I make. A lot of the reason for that is I know that you actually do go and do your own research. But it makes me worry about the job I’m doing. All of the situation that I tried to enumerate above – and a lot of other things – constitutes a somewhat gradual – often hidden, but nevertheless massive – removal and destruction of the ability of a particular group of people to survive. 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.
Anyway, I’m rambling. Just want to write to my Mom and tell her that I’m witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I’m really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel. Disappointment. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not the world you and Dad wanted me to come into when you decided to have me. This is not what I meant when I looked at Capital Lake and said: “This is the wide world and I’m coming to it.” I did not mean that I was coming into a world where I could live a comfortable life and possibly, with no effort at all, exist in complete unawareness of my participation in genocide. More big explosions somewhere in the distance outside.
When I come back from Palestine, I probably will have nightmares and constantly feel guilty for not being here, but I can channel that into more work. Coming here is one of the better things I’ve ever done. So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government largely responsible.”