Seattlest: Speak Ill of the Dead: "Rachel Corrie" @ Seattle Rep

Philip Munger

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 10:41:39 -0800

A blogger named Stephen Plaut created the "All the Other Rachels" meme back in May or June of 2004, in response to my work about Rachel Corrie, "The Skies are Weeping." Performances of that work were cancelled in Anchorage and NYC because of serious threats to artists and producers, before we were finally able to produce it in London, on November 1, 2005. To me, the most ludicrous aspect of the "all the other Rachels" idea is this: From the start, I've been asked again and again, either rhetorically or actually "Why didn't YOU write about these other Rachels?" This is silly. I wanted to write about Rachel Corrie. Nothing I've done, and other composers and poets and playwrights have said about Rachel Corrie has been an attempt to diminish the memory of these other innocent women. And nothing we've done has prevented anybody else from creating art about "the other Rachels." The fact that this meme keeps appearing - going on three yerars now - without any of the idea's adherents coming forward with such art, speaks for itself. An excellent, well-informed article, Jeremy.

Leftist Fascist

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:05:58 -0800

Corrie was a deeply dishonest woman. There she was, in 2003, living in the midst of the second intifada, with her political sponsors (the International Solidarity Movement she served was a creature of the PLO) organizing daily suicide bombings, rocket attacks, bus explosions, massacres of school children and she notices none of it, ever. On the contrary, she writes that "The vast majority of Palestinians right now, as far as I can tell, are engaging in Gandhian non-violent resistance." This obscene linkage of Yasser Arafat (who praised Corrie as "a martyr") with Gandhi calls to mind Gandhi's famous observation that "the worst deceivers are those who deceive themselves."

Herbert Kaine

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 08:55:17 -0800

Rachel Corrie has become the Horst Wessel of the anti-Israel crowd. Horst Wessel was a german pimp who was killed in the line of business. The Nazi movement made a martyr of him. Like Corrie, Horst has a spark of idealism in him, and felt if he could contribute to ridding the world of Jews, it would help redeeem himself

azzam azzam

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 10:23:41 -0800

seems to me she was a terrorist sympathizer at best, enabler at wrost. why the sympathy? these days if picked up by the us government in the field, she might have been sent to guantanamo or saudi arabia for reeducation. She has spared her family the embarrassment of a treason trial. honestreporting.com/graphics/articles/corrie.jpg

Jill Henry

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 08:13:06 -0800

The Palestinians have endured over two generations of Zionist attrocities and aggression -- only fear of the Jews prevents those in the West from understanding this. Thanks to this play and the writing of Pres. Carter, the world is finding out.

David S

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 22:12:53 -0800

Saw the play this week and I found it deeply moving. This piece puts most of the recent writing about the play to shame. I find the "many Rachels" approach of some critics to be odd. There are many perspectives of any issue -- and this play tells one point of view. We don't hear the "many Iagos" out there, do we?

David F.

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:38:38 -0800

The IDF agrees on the safety issue. They don't take responsibility for the death, but say they have changed operating procedures for the dozers and were planning to add CCTV cameras to them so they can get a better view of what's in front of the blade. Boy, even in our little Seattlest world, the backlash when you ask questions is swift, mean-spirited, and arrogant.

MvB

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:57:35 -0800

To my knowledge, it's not clear that the bulldozer was going to destroy the particular house Corrie was trying to protect -- I've also never read anything indicating that a tunnel was found underneath the home, which was occupied by a doctor and his family, yes? All I've been able to determine from all the various accounts is that there was a bulldozer and it ran over Corrie. Purely from a safety perspective, it seems like something could be corrected there.

no, i'm not kidding

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:47:53 -0800

Of course because being anti-Israel is equivalent to being evil. And as for all the Israeli Rachels I mourn their deaths but there are too many Palestinian women, men and children who have been killed by Israelis to be able to list in one post even if I were to keep to only one first name.

Lisa R

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:33:58 -0800

Yes, it's so brave for a woman to try and prevent the destruction of a building used to cover a weapons and terrorist smuggling tunnel. ISM, the group Corrie was working with, actively works with and supports terrorist organizations. She was a willing stooge for anti-Israel propagandists and nothing more.

Kevin

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:33:15 -0800

I know it's sick but I laughed when I first heard about this girl getting run over by a bulldozer. If you don't have the sense to get out of the way well umm...

David F.

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:21:36 -0800

Thanks, Jeremy. That's the most thoughtful review I've seen of this play--and it has been reviewed all over the place. I've been following the reaction to Jimmy Carter's Palestine Peace Not Apartheid pretty closely and the backlash has just been brutal. But then, I've kniown several survivors of the Shoah and can understand their belief that if you give in a little, you are on your way to oblivion.

Jake of 8bitjoystick.com

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:25:29 -0800

Personally I don’t give a damn what the “New Republican” magazine thinks about theater. Honestly the real reason why the right and Neocons are so freaked out by Rachel Corrie and they keep piling it on her years after she died is because she actually stood up and put herself in harms way for what she believed in and died because of it. She risked her life for her beliefs and the yellow elephants and chickenhawk war-pushers secretly wish that they had the personal courage to do that.

are you kidding

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:38:59 -0800

Well, we thought we would mention some other Rachels who have NOT been similarly commemorated in the London posh theaters yet (with thanks to Tom Gross). Here are the names of some plays that have not yet been produced in London: 1. My Name is Rachel Levy (Israeli girl age 17, blown up in a grocery store) 2. My Name is Rachel Thaler (Israeli girl aged 16, blown up in a pizzeria) 3. My Name is Rachel Levi (Israeli girl aged 19, murdered while waiting for the bus) 4. My Name is Rachel Gavish (killed with her husband and son while at home) 5. My Name is Rachel Charhi (blown up while sitting in a cafe) 6. My Name is Rachel Shabo (murdered with her three sons aged 5, 13 and 6 while sitting at home) It would be interesting knowing how many of THESE Rachels were murdered with explosives smuggled in through the same tunnels that Rachel Corrie and her ISM pro-terrorist friends were “defending”!