My Name is Rachel Corrie opened in New York City on Oct. 15. The play is based on the writings of an International Solidarity Movement activist who lost her life while interfering with an Israeli military operation. The New York production was recently extended, and has garnered much press.
Below are CAMERA analyses of the controversy surrounding Rachel Corrie:
• “Idealist Rachel Corrie was misled“ (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 4, 2006)
Corrie was an idealist; but as fate had it, her idealism ended up channeled through the radical International Solidarity Movement, an organization that not only puts at risk the lives of Israeli civilians but also the lives of its members. …
[T]heatergoers should not be misled. They should know that any play based on the ISM’s dogmas might possibly provide audiences with a better understanding of the organization’s propaganda, but certainly will not offer viewers an accurate, complete or nuanced understanding of the difficult situation in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
• “LA Times‘ Uncritical ‘Review’ of Corrie Play“ (Oct. 28, 2005)
In his Los Angeles Times review of the British play “My Name is Rachel Corrie,” David Gritten describes Rachel Corrie as “a relatively obscure name in her native U.S,” one of several distortions ….
Corrie has been mentioned two dozen times the Los Angeles Times, and the anniversary of her death prompted Op-Eds and features from Boston to Seattle to Charlotte. (In comparison, who has heard of 14-year-old Abigail Litle, an American murdered by a Palestinian terrorist while riding home from school, just 11 days before Corrie died? She received one reference in the Los Angeles Times.)
• “From Tragedy to Propaganda; Rachel Corrie and ISM“ (March 18, 2004)
To mark the first anniversary of her death, the International Herald-Tribune (March 4) published a column by her cousin, Elizabeth Corrie; the Boston Globe (March 18) printed one by Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother; and the Seattle Times (March 14) and Seattle Post-Intelligencer (March 17) ran feature stories.
All four omitted key information regarding Rachel Corrie’s tragic death, and ignored or minimized the role of International Solidarity Movement, which recruited Corrie to be a “human shield” in Gaza.