In The Midst Of Genocide In Gaza – The Legacy Of Rachel Corrie Lives On
In The Midst Of Genocide In Gaza – The Legacy Of Rachel Corrie Lives On
During her time in Gaza, Corrie stayed with a family in Rafah. In her letters home, she referred to the difference between there and here as a “virtual portal into luxury”.
In 1990-91, Corrie wrote in her journal: “I guess people are happier not caring…Gee, maybe I should try not caring sometime. Then I’d be unstoppable, untouchable. What a blast! Or would it be?” (Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie, 2008, pp. 12, 13).
On March 16, 2003, a 60-tonne D9 bulldozer built by Caterpillar Inc. ran over her while she was attempting to protect a home from demolition in Rafah. Murdered much too young, Corrie believed that a live well-lived involved living for a cause.
During her time in Gaza, Corrie stayed with a family in Rafah. In her letters home, she referred to the difference between there and here as a “virtual portal into luxury,” an awareness that she would always see the life her host family lived through a Western lens.
Written shortly before her death, Corrie experienced many things that shocked her. Yet she was not what activist/journalist Ramzy Baroud would term a “victim intellectual,” an individual who, within the space allowed by pro-Palestinian groups, spoke only of the Palestinian’s victimhood, thereby conveying narratives that lack appropriate historical context.
“The Palestinian struggle cannot be reduced to a conversation about poverty or the horrors of war,” Baroud writes, “but must be expanded to include the wider political contexts that led to the current tragedies in the first place.”
When Corrie describes the checkpoints that Palestinians must pass through on their way to work or university, when she calls attention to demolished homes, she is putting information into an historical, geopolitical context, one that includes the victimizer, too.
Continue reading from the PDF below: There are included in this posting Rachel’s letters to her Mum.
