Rachel Warmly Applauded at Packed Castro Theater

It is playing again Tuesday, August 4 at 6:30 pm at the Roda Theater in Berkeley, 2015 Addision Street, the home of the Berkeley Repertory Theater near the downtown Berkeley BART station, seating 600 people, and everyone who has not seen it should pack that theater too, so the Zionists censors finally learn to stop censoring as it then becomes the forbidden fruit that we all must have and of course, we all can hardly wait to exercise our First Amendment right to see any movie we wish to see.

Congratulations to the Jewish Film Festival for standing up to the censors, thus guaranteeing very broad support for the survival of this important cultural institution.

The movie was preceded by a pathetic young medical doctor who gave a rambling speech complaining about the deaths of various Israelis and internationals in Israel but failing to mention the deaths of Palestinians and failing to mention the most important fact that Israel exists due to $6 billion given to it by the American taxpayers, including the Caterpillar and the Israeli military that killed Rachel Corrie. He was so stupid that after attacking groups like Jewish Voices for Peace, which cheered at the mention of their name as they had many people in the audience, then attacked the audience, a sign that he failed public speaking, basic essay writing and basic logic. I would not want him as my medical doctor. Unfortunately, his irrational Zionist mentality is all too common among the middle class, including medical doctors.

The movie was very well crafted with various people important to Rachel's life reading from her writings as well as making their own statements. Two that were particularly outstanding were (1) the young Israeli whose grandparents were Communist Party members who dedicates his life to the struggle because he claims he has no hope, but understands that one must resist and (2) the young American who provided a final rousing chant at the end as the credits rolled that was both a tribute to Rachel Corrie and a description of the propaganda machine in Israel that teaches young people to kill Palestinians and their supporters like Rachel Corrie.

The lies of the Israeli military were apparent with every word they uttered in defense of the obviously deliberate murder of Rachel, as well as of the coroner's office, which had the unmitigated gall to state that Rachel's body had minor injuries and she died of suffocation when in fact, as Rachel's mother, Cindy, stated after the film, every bone in Rachel's body was broken by the Caterpillar.

The bullet-ridden homes of the Palestinians, whom the Israeli military admits they shoot at, while people are inside, as a prelude to their bulldozing of these homes in an obvious land grab, are the eyeopener all Americans need to see as we pay for all this devastation.

The audience gave the movie a standing ovation at the end and warmly welcomed Cindy Corrie, the mother of Rachel Corrie, to the question and answer session after the movie. Cindy Corrie is very intelligent and articulate and gave us a good description of the many legal remedies the Corrie family has pursued and continues to pursue. Not much has been achieved by these legal actions but the exposure of the US/Israeli war machine with such movies as "Rachel," is helping us all to realize the goal that Rachel wanted: To put an end to this madness in Palestine, perpetrated by our tax dollars, and that is why the Zionists did not want this movie at the Jewish Film Festival.

The resistance to the Zionist censors was a milestone in the struggle and demonstrates the decline of US imperialism and its propaganda machine. May we see many more movies like "Rachel" at the Jewish Film Festival. For more on Rachel Corrie, see
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/