American peace activist Rachel Corrie killed by Israel remembered
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 10/28/2005

Britain's former International Development Secretary Clare Shirt has blamed American support for Israel as being responsible for global conflict.

IRNA reported: "US backing for Israeli policies of expansion of the Israeli state and oppression of the Palestinian people is the major cause of bitter division and violence in the world," Short said.

The former minister, who resigned from her cabinet post in protest over the Iraq war, was issuing a statement in support of next week's World Premier of a musical tribute to American peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by the Israelis in March.

"There has been the usual campaign to silence even a cantata to commemorate a young woman who gave her life in order to stand for justice," Short said about Corrie, who was killed when attempting to stop an Israeli bulldozer destroying a Palestinian house in Gaza.

The tribute, "The Skies are Weeping" is being premiered at the Hacney Empire in east London on November 1.

A stage version is also currently being acted out at London's Royal Court, one of the capital's premier theaters.

Other accolades in support of the premier have come from Professor Noam Chomsky, one of America's most prominent political dissidents, who said 23-year old Corrie was a "young woman of rare courage and integrity, who risked her life to protect victims of savage destruction and brutality." "Her heroic actions have all the more meaning for Americans because of our direct participation, unwitting or not, in the crimes she gave her life to prevent," the linguists professor said.

She should be remembered, and honored, by all decent people, and should be a constant inspiration to them to do what they can to defend the principles that she upheld." Campaigning British journalist John Pilger said the concert is important because "it is about an individual's right to life and the right of all of us to freedom, nothing more, nothing less, and we should support it." Israeli historian Ilan Pappe referred to Israel's "crimes" and said that a reminder of Corrie's legacy was to "continue the international struggle against the occupation until peace arrives in the torn land of Palestine and Israel." Professor of International Relations at St Antony's College, Oxford, Avi Shlaim, said the world premier was of "great symbolic significance and a fitting tribute to a young woman of exceptional courage and dedication." He said Corrie "sacrificed her life in defense of Palestinian rights against brutal Israeli aggression." In doing so, he added, that she had "set an example for the rest of us and she helped to keep alive the hope that justice for the Palestinians will prevail."

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