We are all Rachel Corrie!

She was crushed as she stood a human shield against the destruction of the lives of a people she considered innocent.

She was noble in doing that. She gave her life in a conflict where understanding of the other’s plight continues to be elusive. She was run over by a caterpillar driver who thought the one thing noble he could do for his people was tear down that pharmasist’s building which could well be a laboratory for bombs to be used against his people.

Rachel died defending a people who themselves suspected her of being a spy. That must have been tricky. If the people she was having dinner with and striving to defend doubted her, how many times the bulldozer driver, under military orders to execute and seeing her in his way, when he believed that at that very moment, a bomb could be under fabrication and could subsequently be hauled at his caterpillar?

Who knows, if Rachel wasn’t run over by that caterpillar, her suspicious hosts would have been her assialants.

Rachel died a martyred all the same and this commemoration of her death, even more than the trial, should challenge us all against prejudices, hate, refusal to dialogue and the feeling of superiority that holds us from stretching a hand at “people lesser than us”.

Rachel, the people we strive to serve don’t always understand even us, how many times each other for the peace process to advance?

We remember you, Rachel.

My thoughts and prayers are with you as embark on this chapter of the journey. Please know your courage and stamina are a source of inspiration and more than a bit of glue that keeps many wonderful people engaged in the work of peace and justice.

Blessings and Love,

Judith