Rachel Corrie Foundation
Host: Basima Farhat
Showtime: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 – 6-7pm Pacific/9-10pm ET Listen Live on BBSRadio or you may also join us live in our virtual auditorium!
The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice is a grassroots, 501(c)3 non-profit organization that conducts and supports programs that foster connections between people, that build understanding, respect, and appreciation for differences, and that promote cooperation within and between local and global communities. The foundation encourages and supports grassroots efforts in pursuit of human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice, which we view as pre-requisites for world peace. Continuing the work begun and envisioned by our daughter, Rachel Corrie, our initial emphasis has been on Israel/Palestine.
We conduct and support projects that educate for peace and justice, that foster connections and understanding between peoples on global and local levels, that promote the use of art and the written word in fostering justice and peace, and that encourage individual grassroots participation in bringing to fruition a positive world vision.
We hope people will take from our work the same, simple understanding that Rachel expressed as a young child: that we are interconnected. The future of us all depends on our ability to truly want for other children those basic things that we want for our own – shelter, health, education, safety, opportunity, and joy – and to work for that. Our leaders seem very parochial now, emphasizing the differences between people and pointing to “the other” with fear and disrespect. Through our projects, we hope to illustrate how much we have in common with one another and that our differences should be points of celebration rather than fear.
The creation of the foundation was one response to Rachel’s killing. Shortly after her death, we had the opportunity to meet Linda Biehl whose daughter Amy was brutally killed as she registered voters for the first election in which all South Africans could participate. We learned how the Biehl family, guided by their daughter’s spirit and values, had established a foundation in South Africa. At the same time in the spring of 2003, people were asking us what they could do to remember Rachel. The conjunction of those two things encouraged us to believe that through a foundation inspired by Rachel’s values and spirit, we might make some difference. We slowly took the steps to organize the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice. The structure and work evolve as we continue to learn and to think about sustainability. We have drawn on the expertise of those in the Olympia community and elsewhere who have been eager to help us.
It requires tremendous effort and resources to establish the infrastructure for such an organization, and sometimes there is frustration at not being able to accomplish actual projects as quickly as we would like. We are primarily an all volunteer organization at this point. Certainly one of our frustrations is the struggle to keep up with communications that we have with wonderful people and supporters from throughout the U.S. and the world.
With the devastation and loss of life in Palestine, Lebanon, and Israel, Iraq and elsewhere it is challenging to hang on to hope. Still, it is always there for us, prompted by the many extraordinary people we meet throughout this country and in the world who work for justice on this issue and on many others. We are personally blessed each day with seeing the very best in humanity. A moment that stands out was at the West Bank village of Bi’lin in December where we joined Israelis, internationals, and an entire village of Palestinians who for over a year have been nonviolently protesting the Israeli military confiscation of sixty percent of their West Bank farmland. An apartheid wall and illegal settlements now stand where olive groves did before. Whenever we experience this convergence of Israelis, Palestinians, and many others – all recognizing the injustice, opposing it, and supporting human rights and international law – it is very heartening; and it happens for us frequently.
It can happen for others as well. The first thing Americans can do is to reject the idea, the myth really, that the Israeli/Palestinian situation cannot be solved. That kind of thinking makes it far too easy to avoid responsibility and action. Then, citizens can become better informed by seeking information from a variety of sources, including alternative media and from those with direct experience in the Middle East. They can join or lend support to one or more of the growing number of secular and religious groups that oppose the Israeli occupation and seek a just peace in the Middle East. They can educate their communities by monitoring local media coverage of this issue and writing informed letters to the editor. They can educate their representatives in Congress, challenge them to act and vote responsibly on this issue, and insist that U.S. laws regarding weapons exports are adhered to. The U.S. Government maintains a very biased stance in support of Israel that is not in the long-term interest of either Americans or Israelis, let-alone Palestinians. We must insist on more balanced policy that assures justice, freedom, security, and economic viability for both Israelis and Palestinians. Then there may be a chance for peace. Avoidance of this issue only makes the situation increasingly perilous for all involved, including the U.S.
Learn more: http://www.RachelCorrieFoundation.org
February 1st, 2012
--Upcoming Guests--, Craig & Cindy Corrie |
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Rachel Corrie Foundation
Host: Basima Farhat
Previously Aired On: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 – Listen to the Show
Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer on 16 March 2003, while undertaking nonviolent direct action to protect the home of a Palestinian family from demolition.
The day after Rachel’s death, in a phone conversation Ariel Sharon promised President Bush a thorough, transparent and credible investigation of Rachel’s death which Rachel’s parents felt never happened. In 2010, in an attempt to reveal the truth regarding their daughter’s death the Corrie’s brought a lawsuit against Israel. The lawsuit has already in part succeeded in bringing attention to the sacrifice of their daughter.”
Since Rachel’s killing, an enormous amount of solidarity activities have been carried out in her name around the world, including the founding of the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice by her parents which continues the work that Rachel Corrie began and hoped to accomplish, and carries out that work with her vision, spirit, and creative energy in mind. We conduct and support programs that foster connections between people, that build understanding, respect, and appreciation for differences, and that promote cooperation within and between local and global communities. The foundation encourages and supports grassroots efforts in pursuit of human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice, which we view as pre-requisites for world peace.
Please visit:
http://RachelCorrieFoundation.org
January 1st, 2011
--Previous Guests--, Craig & Cindy Corrie |
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Parents of Rachel Corrie
Previously Aired On: March 13, 2007 – Listen to this Show!
Rachel Corrie: Rachel Corrie was killed in the Gaza Strip in Palestine on March 16, 2003, trying to prevent the demolition of the home of a Palestinian pharmacist, his wife, and three young children.
On January 18, 2003, Corrie traveled to the Gaza Strip, where she attended two days of training in non-violent resistance and serving as human shields. Through February and March, according to ISM activists and e-mails Corrie sent to her family, she took part in a mock trial of George W. Bush; a demonstration as part of the February 15, 2003 anti-war protest against the war in Iraq, where she burned a paper U.S. flag; and helped to occupy the area around local wells, an operation designed to protect the wells and Palestinian workers from the IDF, according to the ISM.
Rachel was killed when she tried to obstruct an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Caterpillar D9 bulldozer operating in a Palestinian residential area of Rafah, next to the border with Egypt – an area the IDF had designated a security zone and which contains a network of smuggling tunnels connecting Egypt to the Palestinian side of Rafah.
Craig and Cindy Corries’ transformation into activists didn’t happen overnight. At first the couple focused on getting answers about their daughter’s death. At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised a “thorough, credible, and transparent” investigation. A few days later, the US invaded Iraq and it was months before the Corries got a response. When the investigation was finally concluded, it exonerated the soldiers of wrong doing.
Like the military families who have become increasingly critical of US policy in Iraq, the Corries have gone from looking for answers to explain their daughter’s death to helping to continue her work–and in the process gaining them some peace. “Through ourselves we can bring Rachel to life,” says Craig, “and through Rachel we can bring the people she knew and what she saw to life.”
Rachel Corrie Foundation
March 13th, 2007
--Previous Guests--, Craig & Cindy Corrie |
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