"Truth and Untruth"

Chapter Four

2006-12-03T18:21:00.000-05:00

Chapter Four text:

February 28 2003 (To her mother)

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. The two front rooms of their house are unusable because gunshots have been fired through the walls, so the whole family - three kids and two parents - sleep in the parent’s bedroom. 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 Cemetery, 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. Then I walked some way to B’razil, which is where Nidal and Mansur and Grandmother and Rafat and all the rest of the big family that has really wholeheartedly adopted me live. (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.

Nidal’s English gets better every day. He’s the one who calls me, “My sister”. He started teaching Grandmother how to say, “Hello. How are you?” In English. 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.

Chapter Three

2006-11-29T18:05:00.000-05:00

The Definition of Genocide according to International Law

The international legal definition of the crime of genocide is found in Articles II and III of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.

Article II describes two elements of the crime of genocide:

1) the mental element, meaning the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such", and

2) the physical element which includes five acts described in sections a, b, c, d and e. A crime must include both elements to be called "genocide."

Article III described five punishable forms of the crime of genocide:
genocide; conspiracy, incitement, attempt and complicity.

Chapter Two

2006-11-27T18:29:00.000-05:00

Chapter Two text:

Leaving Olympia

We are all born and someday we’ll all die. Most likely to some degree alone.
What if our aloneness isn’t a tragedy? What if our aloneness is what allows us to speak the truth without being afraid? What if our aloneness is what allows us to adventure – to experience the world as a dynamic presence – as a changeable, interactive thing?

If I lived in Bosnia or Rwanda or who knows where else, needless death wouldn’t be a distant symbol to me, it wouldn’t be a metaphor, it would be a reality.

And I have no right to this metaphor. But I use it to console myself. To give a fraction of meaning to something enormous and needless.

This realization. This realization that I will live my life in this world where I have privileges.

I can’t cool boiling waters in Russia. I can’t be Picasso. I can’t be Jesus. I can’t save the planet single-handedly.

I can wash dishes.

Rachel’s Emails from Palestine

February 7 2003

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. It is most difficult for me to think about what’s going on here when I sit down to write back to the United States. Something about the virtual portal into luxury. I don’t know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them constantly from the near horizons. I think, although I’m not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like this everywhere. An eight-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank two days before I got here, and many of the children murmur his name to me - Ali - or point at the posters of him on the walls. The children also love to get me to practice my limited Arabic by asking me, “Kaif Sharon?” “Kaif Bush?” and they laugh when I say, “Bush Majnoon”, “Sharon Majnoon” back in my limited Arabic. (How is Sharon? How is Bush? Bush is crazy. Sharon is crazy.) Of course this isn’t quite what I believe, and some of the adults who have the English correct me: “Bush mish Majnoon” … Bush is a businessman. Today I tried to learn to say, “Bush is a tool”, but I don’t think it translated quite right. But anyway, there are eight-year-olds here much more aware of the workings of the global power structure than I was just a few years ago.

Nevertheless, no amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and word of mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just can’t imagine it unless you see it - and even then you are always well aware that your experience of it is not at all the reality: what with the difficulties the Israeli army would face if they shot an unarmed US citizen, and with the fact that I have money to buy water when the army destroys wells, and the fact, of course, that I have the option of leaving. Nobody in my family has been shot, driving in their car, by a rocket launcher from a tower at the end of a major street in my hometown. I have a home. I am allowed to go see the ocean. When I leave for school or work I can be relatively certain that there will not be a heavily armed soldier waiting halfway between Mud Bay and downtown Olympia at a checkpoint with the power to decide whether I can go about my business, and whether I can get home again when I’m done. As an afterthought to all this rambling, I am in Rafah: a city of about 140,000 people, approximately 60% of whom are refugees - many of whom are twice or three times refugees. Today, as I walked on top of the rubble where homes once stood, Egyptian soldiers called to me from the other side of the border, “Go! Go!” because a tank was coming. And then waving and “What’s your name?”. Something disturbing about this friendly curiosity. It reminded me of how much, to some degree, we are all kids curious about other kids. Egyptian kids shouting at strange women wandering into the path of tanks. Palestinian kids shot from the tanks when they peak out from behind walls to see what’s going on. International kids standing in front of tanks with banners. Israeli kids in the tanks anonymously - occasionally shouting and also occasionally waving - many forced to be here, many just aggressive - shooting into the houses as we wander away.

I’ve been having trouble accessing news about the outside world here, but I hear an escalation of war on Iraq is inevitable. There is a great deal of concern here about the “reoccupation of Gaza”. Gaza is reoccupied every day. If people aren’t already thinking about the consequences of this war for the people of the entire region then I hope you will start.

My love to everyone. My love to my mom. My love to smooch. My love to fg and barnhair and sesamees and Lincoln School. My love to Olympia.

Rachel

Introduction

2006-10-25T15:56:00.000-04:00

Introduction to Rachel Corrie Podcast
by Michelle Riccio, Amy Gordon, Mike Rabe

“Theater and Social Change” challenges us to explore the parts of ourselves that we may have otherwise kept hidden. Maybe these parts aren’t politically correct or these ideas go against the majority. Theater and Social Change forces us to break down barriers within ourselves and between others. Through various experimental exercises, we have discovered new ways of expressing our ideas about difficult and controversial issues. We are breaking down stereotypes and prejudices to build up bonds of trust and understanding. Our goal is to create a strong community, in class, at Wheaton and in the world through understanding and communication. Theater is a tangible and truthful, and at its best, is used to inspire social change.

Our Theatre and Social Change class is recording excerpts from My Name is Rachel Corrie to present to the Wheaton community for numerous reasons. Rachel Corrie is easily relatable as a person, through her boyfriend troubles as a teenager, the conflicts of her family and her exploration of herself in the larger context of the world. Once the play shows us that Rachel Corrie was just an average young adult, it demonstrates what one person can do in the world to fight for change. Also, she was twenty-three when she was killed, thus making her the contemporary generation of Wheaton College students. While the US political policy is pro-Israel, it is important to see and understand the other side of the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. Rachel Corrie brings us this other perspective by showing the humanness of the Palestinians. Quoting from Rachel’s notebook, she expresses the difficulty of siding with the underdog, and she differentiates between Judaism and the politics of Israel: “The scariest thing for non-Jewish Americans in talking about Palestinian self-determination is the fear of being or sounding anti-Semitic. The people of Israel are suffering and Jewish people have a long history of oppression. We still have some responsibility for that, but I think it’s important to draw a firm distinction between the policies of Israel as a state, and Jewish people.” (Rickman, Alan and Viner, Katharine, My Name is Rachel Corrie. Theatre Communications Group: New York, 2006.) The style of the class recordings of Rachel’s emails, letters and journal entries is through choral voices to emphasize the play as a global piece, not solely an individual one.

Rachel Corrie arrived in Jerusalem on January 25th, 2003 amidst the seemingly endless battle between Israel and Palestine. The fighting has been going on since the very beginning of Israel. On May 15th 1948 Britain withdrew its troops and the State of Israel, the first Jewish state in over 2000 years, was declared. Due to this more than 800,000 Arab Palestinian inhabitants were uprooted and displaced. The fighting started almost immediately. In April of 1949 the Arab states and Israel agreed to an armistice, Israel gained about 50% more territory than was originally given by the U.N. In May of 1964 the Palestine Liberation Organization was founded with the aim of destroying Israel. The Palestinian National Charter was drawn up in 1968 and officially called for the liquidization of Israel. In 1982 Israel launched a massive invasion of Lebanon to fight the PLO. On Sept. 13, 1993 the Oslo Declaration of Principles made Israel and the PLO agree on mutual recognition. On January 18th 1997 Israel and the Palestinians reached an agreement on the Israeli redeployment in the West Bank city of Hebron. On September 11, 2001 the World Trade Centers were attacked by terrorists. The Israelis and Palestinians agreed to a ceasefire but it was never implemented. Beginning in March 2002 Israel conducted operation defensive wall in the West Bank following numerous suicide attacks. Corrie arrived in Jerusalem on Jan. 25th, on the 27th she traveled to Rafah in the Gaza strip were she worked to protect Palestinian homes from being destroyed using non-violent direct action. On March 16th 2003, she was killed by an Israel bulldozer. The fighting is still as bloody as when it started.

Podcast: Testing... one... two... three

2006-10-25T12:57:00.000-04:00

This is a quick test of the podcasting features on this website. Please standby for more (real) material.

(Click on the title of this post to hear the sound file.)

The Class

2006-10-04T12:28:00.000-04:00

Today's Quote for Thought: "Truth and untruth often co-exist; good and evil often are found together." -Ghandi

About our class (as written in the course catalog):
215. Theatre and Social Change
A course that investigates how theatre can be used to help communities talk about difficult issues regarding race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, economic status, religion and politics. Writers and/or performance artists studied include Anna Deavere Smith, Moises Kaufman, Tony Kushner, Danny Hoch and Suzan-Lori Parks.
(Stephanie Burlington)

We have just recently finished reading Anna Deavere Smith's "Fires in The Mirror", about the Crown Heights riots in the early 1990s. The work is a collection of monologues taken from actual interviews conducted by Smith, expressing both sides of the "Truth"--the Blacks and the Lubavitch Jews.

We are now diving into a project on "My Name is Rachel Corrie", which will be available on Podcast in the next couple of weeks.

We are all excited about working on this Blog and we hope that you all are as well!

Thanks,
The Students