Winograd For Congress Sponsors Rare Reading of "My Name Is Rachel Corrie"
On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, an American Evergreen College student and member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was run down by a Caterpillar D9R armored bulldozer. The American made bulldozer that crushed and killed Rachel Corrie was operated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Rachel died while protesting the destruction of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip of Palestine.
Just twenty-three at the time of her death, Rachel was an avid diarist who vividly chronicled her peace and justice actions in Palestine up till the time she died. The play, My Name Is Rachel Corrie, sponsored by Winograd For Congress this Saturday, August 8th in Los Angeles, is a powerful rendering of Rachel's writings depicting the plight of Palestinians and Rachel's lifelong passion for peace.
Progressive Democrat Marcy Winograd, who is challenging blue dog incumbent Jane Harman for California's 36th Congressional District, brings Rachel's story to Los Angeles to support President Obama's call for the Israeli government to freeze further expansion of Israeli settlements into the Palestinian territory.
As stated by Winograd:
"When President Obama spoke in Cairo, he urged the Palestinians to abandon violence, but he also said the United States does not accept the legitimacy of Israeli settlements.Our President spoke passionately about settlements as an obstacle to peace because the intrusions, now numbering over 100, continue to multiply in the occupied territories, turning a future Palestinian state into bantustans without contiguous borders."
Winograd for Congress 2010 has assembled prominent Arabs and Jews to co-sponsor this rare North American reading of My Name Is Rachel Corrie. Though the award-winning play enjoyed great acclaim at London's Royal Court Theater, it was cancelled in New York City after supporters of Israel's policies of home demolitions and settlement expansion pressured the New York Theater Workshop to pull it.
Actors Mimi Kennedy and Meredith Dilg will read excerpts from the play on Saturday, August 8th from 5 to 8 pm, at the Levantine Center, 5998 Pico Blvd., in Los Angeles. Kennedy, Chair of Progressive Democrats of America, co-stars with James Gandolfini in In The Loop, a newly released, critically acclaimed satirical anti-war film. Dilg, Kennedy's niece, currently plays in "The Lake," a webisode series directed by Jason Priestley for WB.com.
According to the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, Israeli settlements are built on stolen land in the occupied West Bank, as well as in East Jerusalem. To build a settlement, the Israelis first bulldoze the Palestinian homes, sometimes with only 15 minutes notice, using 64-ton Caterpillar tractors with ripper blades made to order for the destruction. Since 1967, the Israelis have demolished 24,000 homes in violation of international law.
Says Winograd, a co-founder of LA Jews for Peace:
"I am for universal human rights and the right to keep your home is considered sacred in Jewish tradition. The TALMUD, a rabbinic discussion of Jewish laws, recognizes that owning a home enhances dignity and self-worth. If we are to promote peace in the Middle East, we must heed Rachel Corrie's message of non-violent resistance to human rights violations. I appreciate President Obama's courageous call to action and support his efforts to begin a new peace initiative that holds both sides accountable to just principles."
Jane Harman, Winograd's opponent in the 36th congressional district, was previously investigated by the FBI for allegedly using her influence in Congress to get spying charges dropped against American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) analysts. Harman voted for resolutions in support of the Israeli siege of Gaza and the invasion of Lebanon and was a featured speaker at the recent AIPAC conference.
In 2006, after only three months of campaigning, Winograd impressively mobilized nearly 38% of the vote against wealthy incumbent Harman in the 36th Congressional District, which runs 30 miles from West Los Angeles to San Pedro.
The prestigious coalition of Arab and Jewish sponsors of the Rachel Corrie reading include Marcy Winograd, Winograd for Congress 2010; Dr. Anthony Saidy, Founding Vice-Chair Coalition For Peace In The Middle East; Sami Mashney, Esq., Publisher, The Independent Monitor; Jeff Warner & Richer Chertoff, Co-Chairs, LA Jews for Peace: Mashael Moamar, Past Pres., CDP Arab-American Caucus; Lillian Laskin, LA Jews for Peace; Executive Board Member of Westside Progressives; Rima Nashashibi, Vice-Chair, Democratic Party of Orange County.
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Lordy me. A sure way to alienate anyone not on the far left. Winograd, worked with the Stalinoids of the IAC/ANSWER/Workers World Party to organize a demo during the Gaza war. when will "progressives, " grow up and stop the posturing?
Prediction:
If the "blue dogs" keep attacking progressive issues and initiatives, the whole Democratic party is likely to falter.
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Mr. Pugliese -
For the record, Israel's recent assault on Gaza received harsh worldwide condemnation. Even the US government wasn't pleased. Marcy Winograd protested with LA Jews For Peace, the Jewish human rights organization she co-founded. I would hope those who want an end to the enmity and war in the Middle East would be happy that she did.
Don't you want the bloodshed to end, Mr. Pugliese? Or would you simply prefer that it continue? Endless warfare? Endless death? More dead Palestinians? More dead Israelis? Does that really suit you, Mr. Pugliese?
I hope not.
The assault on Gaza worked, the rockets and mortars have mostly stopped coming into Israel. The Israelis tried other ways of stopping the bombs, but an invasion was the only way that worked. Unfortunate, but there were no other choices, certainly you aren't offering any other options.
Observation:
Israel and her supporters go so far as to attack human rights advocates, libel them and -- as shown with Rachel Corrie, or Tristan Anderson, or UNWRA in Gaza -- even kill them if that's what it takes to silence them.
This isn't, or shouldn't be, about "guilt by association", as some of the above posters have attempted. The fact that Corrie was with the ISM doesn't make her death less tragic or brutal; nor does it make the Israeli occupation less violent, humiliating or unjust. And it doesn't detract from the validity of Corrie's cause; the suggestions above from Hedonist and misaacm that somehow her death was deserved are outrageous. .
That's so untrue. Nobody claimed her death was deserved. However, the fact remains that the goal of the group she was involved with is anything but a peaceful solution to this conflict. It is equally outrageous to claim she was deliberately killed when all the evidence demonstrates the converse is true.
Observation:
The evidence is that an armored military bulldozer -- something rare in the rest of the world but is a staple of the IDF -- ran over an American citizen who was trying to stop it from flattening the home of a Palestinian doctor.
Even if it were accidental, there is still culpability. If a driver runs over a child on the street, he is not exempted from blame just because it is an accident.
Hedonist, your suggestion and trashing of the ISM, and the statements at the site to which you linked point to the contention that Corrie was a warrior in this fight, which in turn suggests it was OK to kill her, or at least that Israel was blameless for her death. In fact, the violence, deaths injuries, bitterness and tragedies are the fruits of the occupation.
She died at Rafah which is where the weapons smuggling tunnels are. The weapons smuggled through those tunnels are used to kill Israeli civilians. She wasn't a peace activist, just a poor misguided girl whose naive idealism was used by Hamas. As usual, they were hiding behind a civilian, and the civilian got killed. Which was their plan in the 1st place.
Also, Two British suicide bombers met with ISM members before blowing up a popular bar in Tel Aviv near the U.S. embassy in April 2003.
Rachel Corrie, as was mentioned below, wasn't a peace activist, she was a war activist, and her death was pointless because the driver of the bulldozer didn't see her as she was hiding.
Observation:
She wasn't "hiding," she was trying to obstruct the path of an armored military bulldozer that was being used to raze the home of a Palestinian medical doctor.
Untrue. She was trying to prevent the bulldozing of a weapons smuggling tunnel.
Rachel did NOT die while protesting the destruction of Palestinian homes - she was hidden among rubble protesting the demolition of weapons smuggling tunnels. There is actual video footage of what happened. http://www.stoptheism.com/
Anyone who refers to her as a "peace activist" knows absolutely nothing about the group she was active with. Of course, who has taken up the "Cause" of Rachel Corrie - the "National Socialist Movement." Not surprising considering the ISM shares the exact same ideology.
Highly Amused Observation:
That the pro-Israeli lobby will create myths like "Pallywood," and then proceed to direct people to examples of how /it/ accomplishes what it accuses the Palestinians of doing.
Pallywood is a myth?? HAHAHA You, of course, remember that footage from Jenin wherein a group of Palestinians were parading an allegedly killed terrorist's body for the cameras - his body kept falling off the stretcher and he would then stand up and climb back on.
Another hilarious example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_B1H-1opys
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