Friends,

Craig and Cindy Corrie

As many of you know, a civil lawsuit in the case of our daughter Rachel Corrie is scheduled for trial in the Haifa District Court beginning March 10, 2010. A human rights observer and activist, Rachel, 23, tried nonviolently to offer protection for a Palestinian family whose home was threatened with demolition by the Israeli military. On March 16, 2003, she was crushed to death by an Israel Defense Force (IDF) Caterpillar D9R bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza.

The lawsuit is one piece of our family’s seven-year effort to pursue justice for our daughter and sister. We hope this trial will illustrate the need for accountability for thousands of lives lost, or indelibly injured, by occupation—in a besieged and beleaguered Gaza and throughout Palestine/Israel; bring attention to the assault on nonviolent human rights activists (Palestinian, Israeli, and international); and underscore the fact that so many Palestinian families, harmed as deeply as ours, cannot access Israeli courts.

Download this letter: Call To Action: Corrie Trial in Israel (pdf, 89.03 KB)

In order to deliver these interconnected messages as effectively as possible, we are asking for large-scale participation in the trial itself as well as in the events surrounding it. We hope you will join us for all or some of the events listed below and help us to put the call out to others.

Craig and Cindy Corrie

A talk by Cindy and Craig Corrie
Gaza and US Policy Flyer (pdf, 111.07 KB)

What is the current situation in Gaza and the U.S. responsibility in it? How can we, as U.S. citizens, take a constructive role in creating a foreign policy in line with universal human rights?

Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer while protecting the home of a Palestinian family. Her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, founded the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice to continue the work their daughter began. They have visited Gaza four times, twice in 2009, and work to support human rights in the Middle East. Their deep personal connections with Gaza provide the human context for looking at what the U.S. has done, and at what we should expect and demand of our policy-makers.

Sunday February 28th
Maui Community College
Ka Lama 103 – 4:00 pm
Free – Public Welcome

The Department of Anthropology, the office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, the Center for the Humanities, and the University Theatre of Oregon State University will present Alan Rickman’s and Katherine Viner’s My Name is Rachel Corrie, October 21-24, 7:30 PM, and October 25 at 2:00 PM in the Lab Theatre of Withycombe Hall, 30th and Campus Way. There will be free pre-show lectures (listed below) in the Green Room of the theatre at 6:30 PM exploring the events that formed some of the background of the play (Sunday talk begins at 1PM). There will be post-show discussions following every performance. Tickets are available at the door. A two dollar donation is suggested.

The play relates the story of Rachel Corrie, a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, who went to Gaza to work for Palestinian human rights and was tragically killed there on March 16, 2003. Rachel was a vital young woman driven by her need to make a positive difference in the world. Inspired by her story, and with permission from her family, Rickman and Viner edited Rachel’s diaries, journals, and e-mails to create this fascinating and moving portrait of this dynamic young woman. Newsweek said the play is “theater that not only stirs our hearts but sticks in our heads.” Time Out (London) said of the original production that it had “extraordinary power” and was funny, passionate, bristling with idealism, and luminously intelligent. The London Guardian reported that when theater is as “good as this,” it will “send us out enriched by other people’s passionate concerns.” USA Today noted that the play was “deeply, authentically human.” Rachel Corrie’s story has moved audiences around the world and there have been productions throughout the United States.