RACHEL: A LIGHT IN PALESTINE III

They love Rachel and the rest of the "Internationals" like a blessing from above. During Rachel's stay in Rafah, she witnesses Israeli attempts to annihilate Palestinians, the people who have become close to her heart. From the very beginning, Rachel has always dreamed of solidarity and harmony, praying that humans would discover peace and serenity. As days go by, Palestine is torn apart by its enemies. In the midst of the war against poor people, Rachel asserts her legacy of service, sacrifice, optimism and compassion for the people in dire need of help. Overall, it is a story of beautiful feelings and longings for a better life, her desire to see a different reality, her compromised voice with the poor, with the abused, with the hungry as young as a year old girl.

As a college student she immerses into the harrowing reality of the Genocidal Israeli Occupation of Palestine, ruined by the awful deeds of Bush, Blair and Sharon suffering in her own flesh what is still raging on today. Read more Read less.

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English Similar books to Rachel: A Light in Palestine IV. Product description Product Description Book IV continues and ends the story of a young woman's quest to bring hope and healing to Palestinians. Kindle Edition File Size: Breaking the Night; 1 edition 2 October Sold by: Share your thoughts with other customers.

Write a product review. A lot of the reason for that is I know that you actually do go and do your own research. All of the situation that I tried to enumerate above — and a lot of other things — constitutes a somewhat gradual — often hidden, but nevertheless massive — removal and destruction of the ability of a particular group of people to survive.

BOOKS: "RACHEL: A LIGHT IN PALESTINE" - RACHEL CORRIE

This is what I am seeing here. Even if they could get out, I think it would still qualify as genocide. Maybe you could look up the definition of genocide according to international law. I think you know this about me. I really value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop.

I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world.

This is not the world you and Dad wanted me to come into when you decided to have me. This is not what I meant when I looked at Capital Lake and said: More big explosions somewhere in the distance outside. When I come back from Palestine, I probably will have nightmares and constantly feel guilty for not being here, but I can channel that into more work.

So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible. I love you and Dad. Sorry for the diatribe. OK, some strange men next to me just gave me some peas, so I need to eat and thank them.

Thanks, Mom, for your response to my email. It really helps me to get word from you, and from other people who care about me. After I wrote to you I went incommunicado from the affinity group for about 10 hours which I spent with a family on the front line in Hi Salam — who fixed me dinner — and have cable TV. I sleep on the floor next to the youngest daughter, Iman, and we all shared blankets.

I helped the son with his English homework a little, and we all watched Pet Semetery, which is a horrifying movie. I think they all thought it was pretty funny how much trouble I had watching it. Friday is the holiday, and when I woke up they were watching Gummy Bears dubbed into Arabic. So I ate breakfast with them and sat there for a while and just enjoyed being in this big puddle of blankets with this family watching what for me seemed like Saturday morning cartoons. The other day, by the way, Grandmother gave me a pantomimed lecture in Arabic that involved a lot of blowing and pointing to her black shawl.

I got Nidal to tell her that my mother would appreciate knowing that someone here was giving me a lecture about smoking turning my lungs black. I met their sister-in-law, who is visiting from Nusserat camp, and played with her small baby. You can always hear the tanks and bulldozers passing by, but all of these people are genuinely cheerful with each other, and with me.

When I am with Palestinian friends I tend to be somewhat less horrified than when I am trying to act in a role of human rights observer, documenter, or direct-action resister. They are a good example of how to be in it for the long haul. I know that the situation gets to them — and may ultimately get them — on all kinds of levels, but I am nevertheless amazed at their strength in being able to defend such a large degree of their humanity — laughter, generosity, family-time — against the incredible horror occurring in their lives and against the constant presence of death.

I felt much better after this morning. I spent a lot of time writing about the disappointment of discovering, somewhat first-hand, the degree of evil of which we are still capable. I think the word is dignity. I wish you could meet these people. Maybe, hopefully, someday you will. Thanks everyone for the encouragement, questions, criticism.

The resistance of Israeli Jewish people to the occupation and the enormous risk taken by those refusing to serve in the Israeli military offers an example, especially for those of us living in the United States, of how to behave when you discover that atrocities are being commited in your name. I am a reserve first sergeant in the IDF. The military orisons are filling up with conscientious objectors. Many of them are reservists with families.

These are men who have proven their courage under fire in the past.

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Some have been in jail for more than six months with no end in sight. The amount of AWOLS and refusals to serve are unprecedented in our history as a nation as well as are refusals to carry out orders that involve firing on targets where civilians may be harmed. I am supposed to report to the Military Justice department — it is my job to hunt down runaway soldiers and bring them in.

I have not reported in for 18 months. I love my country. I believe that Israel is under the leadership of some very bad people right now. I believe that settlers and local police are in collusion with each other and that the border police are acting disgracefully. Please document as much as you can and do not embellish anything with creative writing.

The media here serves as a very convincing spin control agent through all of this. Pass this on letter to your friends. There are many soldiers among the ranks of those serving in the occupied territories that are sickened by what they see. At all times possible try to engage the soldiers in conversation. Do not make the mistake of objectifying them as they have objectified you. Respect is catching, as is disrespect, whether either be deserved or not. I think I could see a Palestinian state or a democratic Israeli-Palestinian state within my lifetime.

I think freedom for Palestine could be an incredible source of hope to people struggling all over the world.

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I think it could also be an incredible inspiration to Arab people in the Middle East, who are struggling under undemocratic regimes which the US supports. I look forward to all of us who are new at this developing better skills for working in democratic structures and healing our own racism and classism and sexism and heterosexism and ageism and ableism and becoming more effective.

One other thing — I think this a lot about public protest — like the one a few weeks ago here that was attended by only about people. Whenever I organize or participate in public protest I get really worried that it will just suck, be really small, embarrassing, and the media will laugh at me.

Oftentimes, it is really small and most of the time the media laughs at us. The weekend after our person protest we were invited to a maybe 2, person protest. His pictures went up on the Rafah-today website that a guy named Mohammed here runs. People here and elsewhere saw those pictures. I think about Glen going out every Friday for ten years with tagboard signs that addressed the number of children dead from sanctions in Iraq. Sometimes just one or two people there and everyone thought they were crazy and they got spit upon. Now there are a lot more people on Friday evenings.

The juncture between 4th and State is just lined with them, and they get a lot of honks and waves, and thumbs ups. They created an infrastructure there for other people to do something. Getting spit on, they made it easier for someone else to decide that they could write a letter to the editor, or stand at the back of a rally — or do something that seems slightly less ridiculous than standing at the side of the road addressing the deaths of children in Iraq and getting spit upon.

Just hearing about what you are doing makes me feel less alone, less useless, less invisible. Those honks and waves help.

The international media and our government are not going to tell us that we are effective, important, justified in our work, courageous, intelligent, valuable. We have to do that for each other, and one way we can do that is by continuing our work, visibly. We can work with them, and they know that we work with them, or we can leave them to do this work themselves and curse us for our complicity in killing them. I also get the sense that people here, in particular, are actually more concerned in the immediate about our comfort and health than they are about us risking our lives on their behalf.

People try to give me a lot of tea and food in the midst of gunfire and explosive-detonation. Thank you for your email. Rafah has seemed calmer lately, maybe because the military is preoccupied with incursions in the north — still shooting and house demolitions — one death this week that I know of, but not any larger incursions.

Rachel’s Writing and Emails from Palestine

Thanks also for stepping up your anti-war work. I know it is not easy to do, and probably much more difficult where you are than where I am. I am really interested in talking to the journalist in Charlotte — let me know what I can do to speed the process along. Right now I think I could stay until June, financially. Considering trying to get English teaching jobs — would like to really buckle down and learn Arabic. Also got an invitation to visit Sweden on my way back — which I think I could do very cheaply. I would like to leave Rafah with a viable plan to return, too.

One of the core members of our group has to leave tomorrow — and watching her say goodbye to people is making me realize how difficult it will be. I think it is valuable to make commitments to places — so I would like to be able to plan on coming back here within a year or so. I think I would just be angry the whole time and not much fun to be around.

It also seems like a transition into too much opulence right now — I would feel a lot of class guilt the whole time as well. Let me know if you have any ideas about what I should do with the rest of my life. I love you very much. If you want you can write to me as if I was on vacation at a camp on the big island of Hawaii learning to weave. One thing I do to make things easier here is to utterly retreat into fantasies that I am in a Hollywood movie or a sitcom starring Michael J Fox.

I can wash dishes. Emails From Palestine February 7 Hi friends and family, and others, I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one hour now, and I still have very few words to describe what I see. Rachel February 20 Mama, Now the Israeli army has actually dug up the road to Gaza, and both of the major checkpoints are closed. Love to you and Dad and Sarah and Chris and everybody. Rachel February 27 To her mother Love you. You asked me about non-violent resistance. Rachel February 28 To her mother Thanks, Mom, for your response to my email. You are doing a good thing.