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Friends,
Twenty-two years ago, our daughter Rachel Corrie introduced our family and many others to the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Rachel wrote about the community. Through her emails and journal entries, we came to know about organizations and places in Gaza like the Children’s Parliament, the General Union of Palestinian Women, and the Al-Iskan Water Well where workers, as well as activists, were fired upon by the Israeli military. We were introduced to the families of Mohammed, Abu Jamil, Naela, Abu Ahmed, Nidal and his grandmother, and to the Nasrallahs.
In 2003, while Rachel and other internationals were in Gaza, Rafah was being eaten alive – the homes of Palestinians devoured by bulldozers and the inhabitants shot by snipers. Rachel wrote to her mother, “So I think when all means of survival is cut off in a pen (Gaza) which people can't get out of - I think that qualifies as genocide. Even if they could get out, I think it would still qualify as genocide. Maybe you could look up the definition of genocide according to international law.”
The Nasrallahs – two brothers and their wives, one family with three young children and one with two at the time – lived together in the two-story duplex Rachel stood to protect on March 16, 2003, when she was killed by the Israeli military. The home was completely destroyed the following winter, and the family ripped apart. To escape the insatiable appetite of the Israeli bulldozers, they were forced to move, and move, and move again. In the two decades that followed, the children grew to become parents and the parents became grandparents. They managed to survive in their community of Rafah. And Rafah managed to survive.
But now, 22 years later, there is no question of this being genocide. As Israel launched their ground invasion in 2023, Prime Minister Netanyahu referenced the Old Testament retribution on Amalek, and U.S, President Biden supplied the bombs to carry out that travesty. Now President Trump suggests building hotels over the bodies of Palestinians still entombed in the concrete that once was their homes. We did look it up. Yes, Rachel, it does qualify as genocide.
All of Gaza is reduced to rubble. Rafah is no exception. Yet, as the bombs have let up, the people have come out, looking to rebuild their homes, their institutions, their community – their lives.
In her last email Rachel wrote, “I think it is valuable to make commitments to places, so I would like to be able to plan on coming back here within a year or so.” Rachel never left Palestine. She and her commitment remain part of that community. Rachel told us that going to Gaza was one of the most important things she had done in her life. These 22 years later, we know she would implore us all to stand as she stood – for peace with justice for all in the region and in solidarity with the Palestinian people. They are fighting a genocide – and not just for their lives, but for their humanity. If during these turbulent times we fail to stand with them, we abandon our own humanity.
From Craig and Cindy Corrie
March 16, 2025
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