The British theatre is doing its valiant bit to promote the propaganda of lies and hatred towards the Jewish state. ‘My Name is Rachel Corrie’, a dramatised version of the writings of the International Solidarity Movement activist who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in disputed circumstances while attempting to prevent the destruction of Palestinian houses, has received the kind of enthusiastic reviews one would expect from an intelligentsia which has almost universally inverted victim and murderer in the Arab war against Israel. The ISM have been, on the most charitable analysis, attempting to prevent Israel from taking the measures it deems necessary to protect its citizens from mass murder or, according to the less charitable interpretation, actively assisting the Palestinian homicide squads. Either way, to eulogise Rachel Corrie is the theatre of moral dementia.

Undaunted, the reviewers have emerged from the performance mostly moist-eyed with admiration for this paragon of empathy. The fact that she empathised not with the victims of mass murder but with those who were punished for their part in the death cult that took their lives barely troubles them. In the Telegraph, Charles Spencer allows himself a brief tremor of anxiety over

‘Corrie’s occasionally glib convictions’

and longs for ‘

calmer and more informed viewpoints’

, before leaving the theatre

‘mourning not only Rachel Corrie’s death but also one’s own loss of the idealism and reckless courage of youth’

.

In the Guardian, Michael Billington has no qualms at all but rapidly ascends to the high ground of Mount Sanctimony:

‘Theatre has no obligation to give a complete picture. Its only duty is to be honest. And what you get here is a stunning account of one woman's passionate response to a particular situation. And the passion comes blazing through in Corrie's eloquent reaction to her father's inquiry about Palestinian violence. As she says, if we lived where tanks and soldiers and bulldozers could destroy our homes at any moment and where our lives were completely strangled, wouldn't we defend ourselves as best we could. The danger of right-on propaganda is avoided by the specificity of Rickman's Theatre Upstairs production.’

For a moment, I thought Billington was saying that if we lived in a situation where terrorists could blow children and teenagers to bits in pizza parlours and on buses we would of course defend ourselves as best we could. Silly me; he’s endorsing the side of the killers, of course. Thank heavens he‘s avoided the dangers of ‘right-on propaganda’.

The only discordant note in this sickening festival of humbug is sounded by Clive Davis in the Times:

‘With no attempt made to set the violence in context, we are left with the impression of unarmed civilians being crushed by faceless militarists. Early on, Corrie makes a point of informing us that more Israelis have been killed in road accidents than in all the country ’s wars put together. As she jots down thoughts in her notebook and fires off e-mails to her parents, she declares that “the vast majority of Palestinians right now, as far as I can tell, are engaging in Gandhian non-violent resistance”. Even the late Yassir Arafat might have blushed at that one’.

Tom Gross and Robin Stamler have reminded us of a few of the results of the ‘Gandhian non-violent resistance’ supported by Rachel Corrie and extolled in this uplifting drama:

'1. My Name is Rachel Levy (Israeli girl age 17, blown up in a grocery store) 2. My Name is Rachel Thaler (Israeli girl aged 16, blown up in a pizzeria) 3. My Name is Rachel Levi (Israeli girl aged 19, murdered while waiting for the bus) 4. My Name is Rachel Gavish (killed with her husband and son while at home) 5. My Name is Rachel Charhi (blown up while sitting in a cafe) 6. My Name is Rachel Shabo (murdered with her three sons aged 5, 13 and 6 while sitting at home)’

As Steven Plaut observes on his own website:

‘It would be interesting knowing how many of THESE Rachels were murdered with explosives smuggled in through the same tunnels that Rachel Corrie and her ISM pro-terrorist friends were "defending”!’

Indeed. But of course, that would be propaganda.

Posted by melanie at April 18, 2005