Rachel Corrie was a 23 year old American college student and peace activist who tragically lost her life to a senseless act of violence in 2003. Rachel was dedicated to bringing peace to the world since she was in the fifth grade, and in college she volunteered for an environmental conservation group and with mentally ill patients. Rachel also joined a group called the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and traveled to the Gaza Strip with them for her senior year college project. There, Rachel hoped to organize a solidarity program between her home city of Olympia, Washington and Rafah, a city in Gaza.
Although Rachel was inspired to traveled to the Gaza Strip to build community ties, they were experiencing serious conflict with Israel, their neighbors to the east during the Iraq War. Rachel and some other international protestors were there to help the Palestinians of Gaza in a time of war and conflict and to assist with a peaceful protest against Israeli attacks. The Israeli army had cut off most of the checkpoints and roads to enter or leave Gaza and were beginning to demolish homes and businesses under false pretenses. Because the ISM protestors were international, and most of them Caucasian, they were considered almost “untouchable” by the Israeli forces and used this to their advantage when protesting. Rachel was attempting to block an armored Israeli bulldozer from demolishing the home of a Palestinian doctor whom Rachel and her colleagues had met when she climbed on top of a pile of dirt to speak directly to the driver of the bulldozer. She lost her balance and fell behind it and the bulldozer drove directly over her twice. Rachel was crushed and died hours later of her injuries while the driver claimed that he could not see her from his cabin. This created a large controversy among Americans and Palestinians alike but the driver was never charged with her death.
I am inspired by Rachel because of her dedication to use her privilege to make a difference. I identify with Rachel, a young white female from an average American family. As a young woman with a college education and support from her family, she had a world of opportunity to do anything but she chose to fight for freedom and rights for those who could not do it for themselves. Rachel says in an email to her mother from Gaza,
“When that explosive detonated yesterday it broke all the windows in the family’s house. I was in the process of being served tea and playing with the two small babies. I’m having a hard time right now. Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom.”
When Rachel went to Palestine, she gained their trust by burning a photo of the American flag and denouncing the Iraq War because it had indirectly caused the attacks from Israel. Rather than use her privilege as a pedestal for herself, she offered it to others with grace and humanized the “starving children overseas” her peers would always ignorantly refer to. Rachel inspires me to use my privilege to make a difference for those whose voices are silenced.
Works Cited
Rachel Corrie. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/rachel-corrie
The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://rachelcorriefoundation.org/