This past summer, I attended the Mennonite Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, and while I was there, I saw a performance of My Name is Rachel Corrie. The play, taken from Corrie’s journals and emails, describes her horror and outrage at the Israeli army’s treatment of Palestinian people.
That day, Corrie’s outrage became my outrage, and it should be yours, too.
The homes of innocent Palestinians are being destroyed. Farmers are being cut off from their land, their livelihoods ruined. Poor families are forced to buy overpriced water- water that legally belongs to them- from the Israelis. An entire municipality is at risk for major health and environmental problems because the Israelis have closed off landfills, forcing the Palestinians to burn their garbage inside the city. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) has attacked innocent civilians, killing at least 37 in 2011 alone.
This is nothing new. Corrie was killed fighting for Palestinian rights in 2003- a decade ago. Since then, Israel’s oppression and, as one writer puts it, “genocide,” of Palestinians has remained. Meanwhile, Israel continues to receive more US aid than any other country.
In other words, your tax dollars are funding genocide.
Are you outraged yet?
You might think that the situation is being taken care of. It’s true that efforts are being made to hold peace talks, but those talks have a long history of failure. The problem is that no world powers are trying to stop Israel’s expansion. Laws regarding where Israel can and cannot settle are not enforced, so why should Israel bother to make an effort at negotiating?
You might say that Palestinian violence against Israel justify Israel’s actions, but Corrie disagreed. On seeing the way Palestinians live, she wrote, “[N]ot only do I question that logic in light of international law… I also question that logic on the basis of common sense.”
You might say that opposing Israel is anti-Semitic. However, you, like many others, would be confusing the state of Israel with the Jewish people as a whole. The actions of the IDF do not represent the Jewish people. In fact, many Jews are probably just as unaware of the violence and oppression going on in the Middle East as you were before reading this editorial. It is not Judaism I am arguing against, but the actions of a group of people who happen to be acting on behalf of the Jewish state. These actions are deplorable no matter who commits them.
I realize that the task of putting a stop to this oppression seems daunting. If the negotiations and peace talks haven’t worked, what will?
Donating is a good start. The International Solidarity Movement, the organization for nonviolent protest with which Corrie was affiliated, relies solely on donations to keep itself going. Raising awareness is even better. Share this article or others with your friends and family. Recommend the play or the book, Let Me Stand Alone, both published after Corrie’s death. If you are involved in a discussion group, offer the issue up as a topic of discussion. If you feel you’re up to the task, you could even try volunteering. The work is hard and potentially dangerous, but volunteers are always needed. Students should be especially aware of this as an alternative to going directly to college.
Whatever you do, do something. As Corrie wrote, “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.”
~Rachel A. Schrock