Author: ISM Media Group

“My Name is Rachel Corrie” Opens in New York

The play “My Name is Rachel Corrie” recently opened in New York. Below is transcript to an interview with Rachel’s father and sister about the play that was recently broadcast on Democracy Now!. There are also links that let you listen to or view the interview. After the transcript are links to several reviews of the play from various news sources (only a small selection of many). Finally, remember that Rachel’s Words recently came up with an excellent factsheet about her death that we republished here.

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“My Name is Rachel Corrie” Opens in New York

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“My Name is Rachel Corrie” – a play based on the life of the late US peace activist who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer – was scheduled to open last March at the New York Theatre Workshop. But six weeks before opening night, the theater announced it was indefinitely postponing the production. The move that was widely criticized as an act of censorship. On Sunday, the play finally opened at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York. We play exclusive excerpts of the play, and speak with Rachel Corrie’s father, Craig; her sister, Sarah; and the play’s co-editor, Katharine Viner. [includes rush transcript] Rachel Corrie was killed in Gaza three years ago when she stood in front of an Israeli bulldozer set to demolish a Palestinian home. The play is based on Corrie”s writings before her death.

“My Name is Rachel Corrie” was scheduled to open last March at the New York Theatre Workshop. But six weeks before opening night, the theater announced it was indefinitely postponing production of the play. They cited the current political climate as the reason for the cancelation, pointing to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon”s coma and the election of Hamas.

The move was widely criticized by artists and activists all over the world. At the time, we had a debate on Democracy Now and I read a letter written by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter to the artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop James Nicola and the theater”s managing director, Lynn Moffat. The co-editor of the play, Katherine Viner, joined us from London.

* Katharine Viner. Co-editor of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie. She is also an editor at the London newspaper The Guardian.

* Craig Corrie. Rachel Corrie’s father.

* Sarah Corrie. Rachel Corrie’s older sister.

* Excerpts from “My Name is Rachel Corrie.”

* Excerpt of the documentary, “Rachel Corrie: An American Conscience.” It was directed by Yahya Barakat.

TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: This past Sunday, the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, finally opened in the United States, here in New York at the Minetta Lane Theatre.

MEGAN DODDS, as RACHEL CORRIE: This realization that I will live my life in a 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.

AMY GOODMAN: Rachel Corrie was killed in Gaza on March 16, 2003, nearly three years ago, when she stood in front of an Israeli bulldozer set to demolish a Palestinian home. The play is based on Rachel Corrie’s writings before her death. My Name is Rachel Corrie was scheduled to open last March at the New York Theatre Workshop, but six weeks before opening night the theater announced it was indefinitely postponing production of the play. They cited the current political climate as the reason for the cancellation, pointing to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s coma and the election of Hamas. The move was widely criticized by artists and activists around the world.

At the time, we had an exclusive debate on Democracy Now!, and I read a letter written by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter to the artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop, James Nicola, and the theater’s managing director, Lynn Moffat. The co-editor of the play, Katharine Viner, joined us on the line from London.

AMY GOODMAN: There’s a letter today in The New York Times. It’s written by Harold Pinter, who is the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Gillian Slovo, Stephen Fry, and it’s dated March 20. The letter was signed by 18 others, and it says, “We are Jewish writers who supported the Royal Court production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie. We are dismayed by the decision of the New York Theatre Workshop to cancel or postpone the play’s production. We believe that this is an important play, particularly, perhaps, for an American audience that too rarely has an opportunity to see and judge for itself the material it contends with.

“In London it played to sell-out houses. Critics praised it. Audiences found it intensely moving. So what is it about Rachel Corrie’s writings, her thoughts, her feelings, her confusions, her idealism, her courage, her search for meaning in life — what is it that New York audiences must be protected from?”

The letter goes on to say, “The various reasons given by the workshop — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s coma, the election of Hamas, the circumstances of Rachel Corrie’s death, the ‘symbolism’ of her tale — make no sense in the context of this play and the crucial issues it raises about Israeli military activity in the Occupied Territories.”

And the final line of the letter says, “Rachel Corrie gave her life standing up against injustice. A theater with such a fine history should have had the courage to give New York theatergoers the chance to experience her story for themselves.” Signed Gillian Slovo, Harold Pinter, Stephen Fry, London, March 20, 2006. Harold Pinter this year won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Our guests, Lynn Moffat is managing director of the New York Theatre Workshop, in our studio with Jim Nicola, artistic director; and in the London studio, Katharine Viner, co-editor and co-producer of My Name is Rachel Corrie. Lynn Moffat, your response to the letter?

LYNN MOFFAT: To the letter? It’s a beautiful letter. It actually addresses the issues that we were concerned about. We believe in Rachel’s voice, as they believe in Rachel’s voice. We want it heard by a New York audience, but we want the voice heard by the New York audience, not the ancillary events that can pollute that voice. So that is the purpose of the methodology that New York Theatre Workshop employs when it uses — when it develops context for a play. I know “context” has become a much maligned word in the last few weeks, but that is what we do, because ultimately the purpose of the workshop in producing art is to foster community dialogue, and to do that requires a lot of work just beyond the play that is seen on stage.

AMY GOODMAN: But now, you did agree to produce the play, and it was going to have its opening night tonight?

LYNN MOFFAT: And we still want to produce the play.

JAMES NICOLA: Yep.

LYNN MOFFAT: We still want to produce the play, and the word “indefinite,” we don’t know where that word came from. We really — and we never canceled the play. We were having a conversation with our colleagues at the Royal Court about the difficulties that we were having, not only just with the research that we were doing about the project and about the play, but also about, you know, contracts and budgets and fundraising, and all that sort of stuff.

JAMES NICOLA: Visas.

LYNN MOFFAT: Visas. We were having a conversation with them, and then Katharine’s letter appeared in the Guardian.

AMY GOODMAN: Katharine Viner, your response.

KATHARINE VINER: Yeah. I mean, I’m actually not a co-producer of the play. I was just the co-editor, so — but as I understand it, we had everything set. Our tickets — our flight tickets were booked. I was due to fly out yesterday to New York. The production schedule was finalized. Both sides of the Atlantic had agreed on a press release that was going to go out to the press, announcing the production of My Name is Rachel Corrie, and then the Royal Court, as I was told, received a telephone call saying that the play was to be postponed indefinitely. That’s where the phrase came from.

AMY GOODMAN: Katharine Viner, speaking on Democracy Now! in March. She joins us now in our firehouse studio. She is the co-editor of My Name is Rachel Corrie, also an editor at the London newspaper, The Guardian, also joined by Rachel’s father and sister, Craig and Sarah. We welcome you all to Democracy Now! As you watch that, Katharine Viner, you were speaking to us from London, had planned to be in New York at the time, and yet, here you are, and the play is being shown now at the Minetta Lane Theatre. What happened?

KATHARINE VINER: Well, we’re so delighted that it’s finally on — the play is finally on in New York. We always said that it’s an American play. Rachel was always just wholly American and should be heard here, and I think it just shows that the whole controversy was needless. The play has been very well received. Ticket sales are sort of through the roof. Word of mouth is fantastic, and it just shows that New York wanted to see this play all along.

AMY GOODMAN: Sarah, you’re a key part of this play. You are [Rachel]’s older sister, and you’re the person who started this process of collating your sister’s emails. Can you talk about that process?

SARAH CORRIE: Yes, actually we received an email from the Royal Court Theatre shortly after Rachel was killed, asking if they could do some sort of a work based off of Rachel’s emails. And at the time it was just too emotional for us to be going through Rachel’s writing. We knew there was a vast amount of material there, but it also felt very important to us. Rachel was a writer. She had always wanted to be published. I think it was one of the dreams that she had, and so I felt like it was something that I could give back to my sister in order to sort of allow that part of her life to still move forward.

So it was approximately a year after we first got the email from the Royal Court Theatre that I sat down and was able to sit down with Rachel’s journals. She was — in the play, she describes herself as a very messy girl, so these journals were in tubs, they were in closets, they were in places all over the house.

AMY GOODMAN: You live in and she grew up in Olympia, Washington?

SARAH CORRIE: In Olympia, Washington, and we actually both lived together. She had moved back into the house that we grew up in, with my husband and I, and lived together for the last four months before she went over to Rafah, so she was living in the home with my husband and I at that time. So I was able to sit down with those journals. I’d take an evening to just look at the journals, read them, gain sort of the emotional need that I had for myself to understand the context, and then the next day, I sat down with a glass of wine next to me and just typed them out without trying to edit anything, sort of like a secretary would, just to get the words down on paper, and that is what became the text that we then sent to the Royal Court for editing at that time.

AMY GOODMAN: I watched the play last night at the Minetta Lane Theatre, and afterwards you all spoke. You talked to the audience and answered questions. And one of the key parts of this play is the list that Rachel makes. Can you talk about the process of going through these and deciding whether on earth the Royal Court Theatre would be interested in Rachel’s lists, like when she’s going to do her laundry?

SARAH CORRIE: Yes. Rachel throughout all her writing had these sort of what most people would look at, say these are odd little lists, but interesting in a way, and I’d see this things within her writing and look at them and say, “Well, what possibly could somebody do with these?” But at the same time, they struck my interest. I don’t consider myself a writer. I don’t consider myself someone that would be good at creating a piece of theater, and I told myself, I don’t have the right to edit that out. They were interesting to me, and so I ended up just typing them up along with everything else, putting them in, and then that became sort of the piece that wove the different aspects of the play together.

AMY GOODMAN: Katharine Viner, you are careful to say you’re not the playwright here, but that you co-edited Rachel’s letters. What about these lists? Can you talk about them, and for people who don’t understand what we mean by lists? What’s on these lists?

KATHARINE VINER: Well, some of the lists are sort of “five people I wish I’d met who are dead,” or “five people to hang out with in eternity,” and that was very entertaining. Some lists are quite sort of functional, but actually convey something very revealing. So there may be a list about tasks to do in Gaza, which sort of showed you what life is like under occupation, just from a list. And it was interesting when we were editing the play, how they worked dramatically, these lists, because it became a kind of recurring motif for, somehow, something you knew about Rachel, that she loved making these lists, and you could chart her sort of psychological progress through these lists and how they developed while she was there. They also worked really well on stage, I think, and the audience gets very involved in them.

AMY GOODMAN: So, the people she wanted to see who are dead. Jesus?

KATHARINE VINER: Jesus, E.E. Cummings, Gertrude Stein, Martin Luther King, Josephine — a selection of those anyway, wasn’t it?

AMY GOODMAN: Well, this is an excerpt from My Name is Rachel Corrie. In this scene, Rachel sits down and reads an email from her father.

MEGAN DODDS, as RACHEL CORRIE: Rachel, I find writing to you hard, but not thinking about you impossible, so I don’t write, but I do bore my friends at lunch, giving vent to my fear. I am afraid for you, and I think I have reason to be, but I am also proud of you, very proud. But as Don Remfert says, I’d just as soon be proud of somebody else’s daughter.

AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt of the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie. Craig, as you listen to that, your daughter, Rachel, reading your letter. Do you remember writing that email?

CRAIG CORRIE: Oh, yes. Chills are going down me right now. I had such a hard time. That’s the only email I wrote to Rachel while she was in Rafah. I’m a Vietnam vet, and when I was in Vietnam, of course, Cindy and I, my wife and I, were corresponding by mail, and that was easy for me, but I think it was hard for her. And I was learning from Rachel being over there that it was hard, because I didn’t know how she was. We were talking by telephone, and so when she was on the telephone I knew that she was okay for that period of time, but I was so worried about Rachel after she got over there.

When she started reporting about what she saw, the bullet holes next to the windows and stuff, I became extremely frightened for her, because I recognized, this is a military that’s out of control, and I know how much effort I spent in Vietnam to keep the people around me in control and understanding that the other people there are human beings, and I didn’t see anything about what Rachel was reporting that indicated that, so I became frightened that somebody would just needlessly harm her or the people that she was with.

And so, I finally got the nerve to write this email to her, and so it always chokes me up, because I had not envisioned her reading this email until I saw Megan doing it on the play, and then it’s — her reply is the last thing that we ever heard from Rachel, and so her reply in an email back to me, that’s our last contact with Rachel.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go now to another clip, to Rachel Corrie in her own words. This is actually not from the play. This is an excerpt of the documentary, Rachel Corrie: An American Conscience, which was directed by Yahya Barakat. It includes excerpts of Rachel speaking in Gaza about the plight of the Palestinian people.

RACHEL CORRIE: Sometimes it takes awhile for it to set in what is happening here, because I think many of the people here, they try to maintain what they can of their lives, and I think — I don’t know — maybe it has to do with protecting their children, that they try to be happy, joke with their children. So sometimes it takes time to — it’s hard to hold in your mind, you know, the complete reality of what’s happening here. Sometimes I’m sitting down to dinner with people, and I just realize that there is a massive military machine surrounding them and trying to kill these people that I’m having dinner with, these families that I’m sitting down to eat with and who are being very generous and kind to me, and their children here, who are incredibly threatened, living lives that no child ever should have to live. And so, I feel a lot of horror. Really, I feel a lot of horror about the situation.

AMY GOODMAN: Rachel Corrie being interviewed in Gaza. Craig, when was this?

CRAIG CORRIE: That was two days before Rachel was killed, and I’d just like to take people’s attention to the scene behind Rachel. That used to be a neighborhood. She was on Abu Jamil’s house. Abu Jamil no longer has a house, and, of course, Rachel is no longer alive. But that’s the destruction that’s going on and was going on in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: The Israeli military bulldozer that crushed her — you are suing a U.S. company, Caterpillar, that made that bulldozer. Where does that suit stand?

CRAIG CORRIE: Well, of course, in the first place, that suit is predicated on the fact that Caterpillar knew that the bulldozers that they were supplying to the Israeli military were used to aid and abet in human rights violations. But at this point, the case actually has been dismissed, and it was filed in Weston, Washington, in the U.S. Superior Court in Weston, Washington, and the judge dismissed that and, I think, relied — I am not a lawyer, but he relied on a misinterpretation of U.S. law, because essentially, under this judge’s interpretation, unless the corporation, Caterpillar, actually profited from the actual human rights violation, they can’t be held accountable.

So if, for instance, I was in McDonald’s and somebody comes in and starts shooting in McDonald’s, runs out of bullets, and I sell them more bullets, I still wouldn’t be responsible for that person’s actions after they start to shoot again. So, of course, we’ve appealed that to the Ninth Circuit. And the appeals have been filed, but oral arguments in front of the Ninth Circuit have not yet occurred.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Sarah, to see this play — I was watching you. I was watching your family watch the play last night at the Minetta Lane Theatre. Is it a little bit like your sister is brought back to life?

SARAH CORRIE: No. It can never be Rachel up there on the stage, and I think when we first saw the play, we realized that. We weren’t expecting it to be Rachel on the play, but it’s a very accurate and honest view, I think, of what Rachel was feeling at that time, I mean, the person that she is. So, yes, I mean, it’s difficult as a family to watch. I think every family member that’s been there to see that play says for exactly that reason it’s difficult to watch the play, because Rachel’s not with us and you’re seeing somebody up on the stage bringing her words back to life and bringing her — a little bit of her personality and her humor back to life. And those are the kinds of things that you miss so much on just a day-to-day basis. So it is. It’s very difficult, but it’s also very warming at the same time to just have those words, either reading them to ourselves or up there on the stage. It — you know, it keeps Rachel with us just a little bit longer.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you all for being with us. Again, the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, is now being performed at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York. Sarah and Craig Corrie, thank you. Katharine Viner, thanks for joining us.

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List of reviews

The opinions expressed in these reviews do not necessarily reflect the opinion of ISM.

* The Jewish Week
* Indymedia New York
* TheaterMania
* Variety
* NY Daily News

Bil’in Peacefully Breaches Fence

by ISM media team, October 20th

At midday yesterday the villagers of Bil’in again marched in solidarity with Emad Bornat, who was attacked and taken from Bil’in by the Israeli occupation forces on 6th October. Nearly forty people, twenty Palestinians along with twenty internationals and Israelis, participated in the demonstration, aiming to reach the apartheid wall.

As the demonstration reached the outskirts of the village they were met by seven soldiers with the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF). Their attempts to prevent the demonstration from reaching the wall, by forming a blockade, were unsuccessful. While the demonstration marched towards the barrier, IOF soldiers fired tear gas and concussion grenades at Palestinian demonstrators, most of whom were children.

Demonstrators first entered through part of the apartheid barrier, where a hole had been cut in the fence and razor wire. They proceeded to march up to, and through the gate and onto the settler-only road, when they were confronted by at least forty IOF soldiers and border police. In reaction to IOF soldiers and police trying to force the demonstration off the road, demonstrators sat down, chanting “NO to the wall”, and singing in resistance. A message to the occupation forces was spelt out in stones on the settler road in both English and Hebrew. “NO TO THE WALL!”

After sitting on the road for about half an hour, the demonstrators called off the action, and returned to the village escorted by IOF soldiers. The soldiers followed until the demonstrators had left the area where the barrier has been established.

On returning to the village, demonstrators came across two soldiers who had become separated from their unit. As their unit returned for them, the unprovoked soldiers fired concussion grenades and tear gas, at dangerously close distances.

After reaching the village, IOF soldiers and police started shooting tear gas, concussion grenades and rubber bullets. Soldiers then began aiming their rifles (minus the rubber-bullet attachment) at children. Some of the international demonstrators decided to stand in their way, in order to prevent them from firing. This forced the soldiers to question their actions, which eventually got them to step back. At this time IOF soldiers and police were aiming their rifles directly at demonstrators and several internationals were nearly hit by tear gas and concussion grenades. One grenade exploded just an inch from the leg of one person causing burn injuries. One soldier threatened an international, pushing and hitting her with a baton. A short while later, a military jeep entered the outskirts of the village, shooting rubber bullets at Palestinian demonstrators. Two villagers were hit with the rubber bullets.

The demonstration today was a great success in support for the freedom of Emad Bornat, resistance against the settlements and the apartheid wall. The weekly protests will continue.

injuries:
Khalid Khatib – rubber bullet
Sameh Burnat – rubber bullet

Bil’in Cameraman Still in Detention

Bil’in cameraman Emad Bornat remains in detention despite a military judge’s decision to release him today. The judge agreed to release Emad on 15,000 NIS ($3,500) bail and under house arrest to a neighbouring village to Bil’in. The judge, however, also gave the Israeli military until Sunday to appeal the decision. This is now the second time a military judge has decided to release the Reuters cameraman but given the army the chance to appeal. Emad was seized after a demonstration on October 6th and has been charged with throwing stones and assaulting a police officer, although he was filming at the time.

Whilst in the border police van Emad sustained severe head injuries needing hospital treatment and stitches. A judge ordered an investigation into the origin of these injuries, finding inadequate the border police’s explanation that communication equipment fell on him.

The villagers of Bil’in and supporters will be demonstrating in solidarity with Emad tomorrow. The demonstration will begin at the village mosque after prayers around 12 midday, and will march to the site of the wall, which has stolen over 50% of Bil’in’s agricultural land.

For more information:

Mohammed Khatib, Bil’in Anti-wall Popular Committee: 054 557 3285
Attorney Gaby Laski: 054 441 8988
Israeli video-journalist Shai Polack: 054 533 3364
ISM Media office: 02 297 1824

Israeli Soldiers Harass Palestinian Civilians in Tel Rumeida

by Tel Rumeida Project and ISM Hebron, 18th October 2006

At approximately 12.40pm an Israeli border police van stopped and asked two international Human Rights Workers (HRWs) on Shuhada Street whether they spoke English. When they replied that they did, one of the border police said, “I no speak English” and the policemen drove away. This happened a couple of times, until the border police stopped again and asked one of the HRWs if they could see the film on her camera. One of the policemen then looked through the pictures on the HRW’s digital camera, apparently looking for photos of soldiers, of which there were none. The policemen were all unusually friendly during all these exchanges. A short while later, the van pulled up at a nearby checkpoint and a few of the border police jumped out of the back of the van and chased each other a short way up the street, trying to hit each other. Later, the border police van stopped again, and the driver of the police van blew kisses to both the male HRW and the female HRW on Shuhada Street. He then made hand gestures to a young Palestinian child, who had been talking to the HRWs, to approach him. Once the child had approached, he then made hand gestures for him to go away and repeated this sequence several times. The border policemen’s behaviour during all these incidents was very unusual and the HRWs wondered at its cause, although they saw no signs of alcohol use or any other such substance during these incidents.

At shortly before 5pm, three Israeli army vans pulled up at the checkpoint and two HRWs noticed that some of the soldiers had gone into the entrance of a Palestinian house next to the checkpoint. They seemed to be interfering with the ground-floor door to a Palestinian dwelling but when questioned by a HRW as to what they were doing, the soldiers refused to answer. A Palestinian lady and child left the building shortly afterwards and seemed to be saying that the army had not entered their house. Shortly after this, approximately 12 soldiers suddenly rushed through checkpoint 56 into H1 (under the 1997 Hebron Protocol, the H1 area of the city that is supposed to be controlled by the Palestinian Authority). They linked up with a further 10 to 12 soldiers and marched around the Old City for approximately 10-15 minutes. They then split into two groups – one of about fourteen, the other of approximately six. After a couple more minutes, the larger group entered a military base. On walking back through the Old City four soldiers were seen standing outside a children’s toyshop. On closer inspection another two soldiers were seen standing inside talking with the shop’s owner. After a few minutes they left. The shop owner indicated that the soldiers had been looking at toy guns and showed the HRW an empty box from which a gun had been taken. Whether the soldiers paid for the toy gun could not be determined. Just before the checkpoint to re-enter Tel Rumeida, the soldiers stopped a taxi, made the owner get out and examined his boot, before letting him go. A HRW on the H2 (Israeli controlled side under the Hebron Protocol) side of checkpoint 56 saw the soldiers returning from the patrol and carrying the toy gun. The soldiers were obviously very excited by this toy and pretended to fire at each other with it.

Gaza in Crisis: Interview With Mona El-Farra

Listen to show segment. Download MP3 of entire show. Watch 128k stream. Watch 256k stream. from Democracy Now, October 18th

Israel has ratcheted up threats of a massive ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. We go to Gaza to speak with physician and community activist Dr. Mona El-Farra.

Israel has ratcheted up threats of a massive ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israeli troops backed by tanks, helicopters and drones have already staged ground operations in parts of Gaza in yet another escalation in the ongoing assault on the Occupied Territories.

For the past four months, the Israeli military has led a wave of intense operations along the length of the Gaza Strip. It began after the capture of an Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, by Palestinian militants on June 25th. The Israeli military said its operations were intended to free Corporal Shalit and to halt Qassam rocket fire. Early on the Israelis bombed Gaza’s only power plant and they have kept Gaza’s crossing points to Israel and Egypt closed for most of the time.

Since the start of the operation – codenamed Summer Rain – more than 250 Palestinians have been killed. One in five were children. According to The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, which has investigated each case, the vast majority of the casualties are civilian.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian economy has ground to a halt. Unemployment levels stand at close to fifty percent and around eighty percent of households in Gaza are living in poverty. The crisis comes at a time when the two main Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, are deadlocked in their efforts to form a national unity government.

Dr. Mona El-Farra is a physician and community activist living in northern Gaza. She runs a blog called From Gaza, with Love. She joins us on the line from Gaza.

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RUSH TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Mona El-Farra is a physician and community activist who lives in northern Gaza. She runs a blog called “From Gaza, With Love.” She joins us on the phone from Gaza. Welcome to Democracy Now!

DR. MONA EL-FARRA: Hello, Amy, and hello to everybody. And thank you for interviewing me.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Can you start off by describing the situation today in Gaza?

DR. MONA EL-FARRA: Okay. The situation, the Israeli plane jetfighters are flying over Gaza since early hours of the morning, and it’s shame that the operation of re-incursion into Gaza is coming soon. The general mood of people are very, very low. People are feeling there’s no hope, there’s no vision for the future, especially that the political negotiation between Fatah and Hamas is deadlock. And the general situation is not promising. So people are very frustrated, feeling very low.

Then, some good news that we have heard, it might be news or rumors about the [inaudible] is coming in the next 48 hours. Even this good news doesn’t make us feel happy, because feeling this while the airplanes are flying over our heads and we are sitting every minute by the incursion and going back to what we experienced also the last three months. So the general mood of the population is not very good. And our Ramadan month is finishing and the heat is coming. The streets are nearly deserted. It is not — as these people are approaching the month — the feast, and it has a lot to do with the economical crisis that we are going through. This is in brief.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Mona El-Farra, there were reports from Italian television station RAI that the Israeli military is facing accusations it’s used experimental weapons during recent attacks in Gaza. They’re reporting the weapons have led to abnormally serious physical injuries, including amputated limbs and severe burns. This is a report by the same journalist who reported on the use of phosphorus as an offensive weapon in Fallujah, the weapon believed to be similar to the U.S.-made Dense Inert Metal Explosive, or DIME. In addition to inflicting major shrapnel wounds, the weapon is believed to be highly carcinogenic and harmful to the environment. Do you have any information on this?

DR. MONA EL-FARRA: Actually, as physicians here in Gaza and our police in the ER rooms, because I am just a master surgeon, but what we have noticed in the general hospital in Gaza that the sort of weapon that has been used this time is different with what has been used two years ago during the incursion of Jabalia refugee camp, for example, and different parts of Gaza. So there’s difference in the sort of injuries. The injuries [inaudible] very lethal, destructive, destructive. It is very, very specific. And it seems to kill and hurt, to make handicapped. So that’s what we have noticed.

But to have tools, we don’t have the facilities to investigate what’s going on. We are isolated in Gaza. We don’t have the real facilities to say that it is such kind of weapons and it is — or it is international [inaudible] or whatever. So I can’t give you concrete information about this, but from our remarks, our notice that the increased number, increasing number of casualties and number of injured and the sort of [inaudible] of the injured is different from what we have noticed in the previous years.

AMY GOODMAN: UNICEF just came out with a report that says the number of Palestinian children killed this year is nearly double those killed in 2005. Suhaib Kadiah, a 13-year-old girl in Gaza became the 92nd Palestinian child to be killed when she was shot during an Israeli attack on Gaza. Overall, I think they’re saying Israel has killed more than 800 Palestinian children since the beginning of the Second Palestinian Intifada six years ago. What kind of information do you see on the ground in Gaza?

DR. MONA EL-FARRA: On the ground, more than 400 were killed in the last three months, and the number of children, more than 80 were killed. Not only children. I can say two-thirds of the people who died were civilians, entirely civilians who were just caught during the operation and have nothing to do with the goal of the Israeli occupying army. So the number of civilians that have been killed is increasing. And this is alarming. This is dangerous, too. That was what we have noticed. Entire families have been killed and vanished during these attacks to Gaza Strip.

AMY GOODMAN: You head the Rachel Corrie Center for Children, the children center in Gaza. In a few minutes, we’re going to talk with Rachel’s sister and father, who will join us here in the studio in New York. Can you talk about this center and why you’ve named it for Rachel Corrie?

DR. MONA EL-FARRA: The Union of Health Work Committees, this is the mother organization that founded this children’s center in Rafah refugee camp — the simple idea of the center was to give a place for the children of Rafah during the incursion and during those very hardship times they are facing, because [inaudible] this place to distract their attention from the war and what’s going around them. So by the time the center was finished, Rachel Corrie passed away and gave her life, sacrificing her life to defend the children of Rafah down in the south of Gaza Strip. So the Union of Health Work Committee, both directors of administration decided to call the center — to name it after Rachel Corrie to keep her memory alive, because she sacrificed her life, she lost her life while defending Rafah children and while standing [inaudible], supporting the position against the injustice that’s inflicting on Palestinian people living under occupation. This is the reason why we named the center this.

Another reason for naming the center, we wanted to be a focal point to keep the international solidarity movement going with Palestinian people through the center. So the children in the center can really — the center itself and the children can receive international solidarity groups, people who are supportive of the Palestinian cause to come to the center and meet and see the children. On another hand, the children can communicate with the world through the facilities in the center, like the internet — computer and internet, I mean — and so the children will not grow up hating the others. We want them to grow up knowing that there are still in the world place for people who respect justice and who are fighting to see the world full of justice, not hate and injustice.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, the infighting between Hamas and Fatah. On Sunday, Hamas accusing Fatah of accepting $40 million in aid from the Bush administration, as part of a U.S. effort to topple the Hamas-led government.

DR. MONA EL-FARRA: This is big problem here for us in Gaza. This is an internal fight between Hamas and Fatah, because this is a — this doesn’t make things improve. And besides the Israeli atrocities against Palestinians, the internal atmosphere is making us really very preoccupied. Everybody is occupied by these internal clashes between Fatah and Hamas and the mutual accusation between both. And after all, in my own opinion, that this is the outcome of occupation. This is outcome of occupation, what’s happening in Gaza. I don’t blame the occupation directly, but indirectly this is the outcome of our life under occupation.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Mona El-Farra, I want to thank you very much for being with us, speaking to us from northern Gaza. She runs the Rachel Corrie Children’s Center there. When we come back from break, we’ll be joined by Rachel Corrie’s father and sister to talk about a play that has finally come to New York.