Happy 34th Birthday Rachel Corrie!

We miss you Rachel. Thanks for shelving books at Last Word for a couple days in our infancy, oh so long ago, whole worlds away from now. And thanks for your shadow work and activism and dedication and martyrdom. -s

Reposted from The Rachel Corrie Foundation's e-mail newsletter. 

Contact info: info@rachelcorriefoundation.org

Dear Sky   Today, April 10, 2013, marks Rachel Corrie's 34th birthday. Rachel wrote about the day she was born:  "...I have this image of that day that is made up of all the jagged fragments that my parents and my brother and sister...have told me. My mom is lying in her bedroom...with this splotchy, sleepy-eyed baby in her arms - only my mom's face is smoother and her hair is completely brown and long and it swirls around her on the flowered pillowcases. My sister is there, and she is small and chubby with huge, dark eyes that I have seen in thousands of old photographs. She sits on the floor under the window and stares at me, but refuses to touch the spotted little creature. And my brother is on the bed with his skinny legs bent and propped up on his elbows so that he can study me and stick out an index finger to stroke my damp head or touch my tiny curling hands. My dad opens the door and he is thinner and his hair is longer, and his glasses and clothes make him look like a Dazed and Confused stand-in." (From Let Me Stand Alone: the Journals of Rachel Corrie).    As Rachel's family and friends remember on this day, and in her spirit, we ask you to join us in actions to bring justice for Palestinians and basic human rights for all closer to reality. Consider honoring Rachel this year by agreeing to be a recurring donor to the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, a tax deductible 501(c)3 donation.  As little as $10 a month can help ensure that Rachel's work continues! We are deeply grateful for the dedicated group of friends who have made this monthly or quarterly donation commitment through our online donation page with Network for Good, as their donations sustain our small staff and basic operations. A dozen Olympia Intercity Transit buses continue this month to carry the message "Equal Rights for Palestinians - the Way to Peace." We're determined to continue this campaign with large exterior ads, too, but we need your help to do so. Remember Rachel's birthday with a donation to support this effort. These advertising efforts bring the basic issue of Palestine to the public. Let's keep doing our work visibly! Interested in bringing ads to your communities? Contact our partners - SeaMAC. Additionally, our friends Sami Al Jundi and Jen Marlowe have written Sami's story in The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker. Yesterday, Jen Marlowe reflected on remembrances of both the April 9, 1948, Deir Yassin Massacre and the Holocaust and shared Sami's moving story of later working as a laborer in what had been his family's village until 1948. Read Made in Deir Yassin and share the stories. On April 17th, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Organization launches a global campaign calling on all of us to help"break...the silence on administrative detention".  At the Rachel Corrie Foundation, we have followed from a distance the agonizing but courageous stories of prison hunger strikers putting their bodies on the line to make the case for the rights of those detained.  In November, with an Interfaith Peace-Builders delegation to Gaza, Craig and Cindy Corrie met with prisoners released but exiled to Gaza (Hana Shalabi among them) and families of those not permitted to visit their relatives held in Israeli prisons.  This past week, we have learned of the death from cancer of 63-year-old Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh and charges that he was not provided the medical treatment required - prompting Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative, and others, to call for an international investigation.  Addameer reports 4,743 Palestinians detained by Israel - 10 women, 193 children, and 178 under administrative detention (held indefinitely on secret information without charge).  At its website, Addameer notes the international community's lack of effectiveness and commitment on this issue.  Let's change that!  Let's act this month on behalf of Palestinian administrative detainees and prisoners.  Visit Addameer's website to learn about the letters we can write and the messages we can send to our own and to Israeli officials.  Remember April 17th, Palestinian Prisoners Day, and plan for your own individual or community action!  Special thanks to our monthly donors! This dedicated group of friends support the ongoing work of the Rachel Corrie Foundation with monthly donations through our online donation page at Network for Good, or through campaigns at their places of work. We are deeply grateful for these regular contributors and count on you each month to sustain our small staff and basic operations. Your support is essential!   Please support the Rachel Corrie Foundation with your tax deductible contribution!  Upcoming Events JOIN US IN PORTLAND, OR, APRIL 27-28   VISIT US AT OLYMPIA'S ARTS WALK At the Spring 2013 Arts Walk, April 26-27, we are proud to showcase drawings from Gaza, "Doctors' River of Life."  The drawings were created by physicians who were dealing with frustrations about psychosomatic patients coming to overworked hospitals, and brought to the foundation by member of the board, Sonja Wentz.     MARCH 16TH REMEMBERED We are still celebrating the inspiring March 16th events that occurred in Olympia and round the world, and are thrilled to continue to hear from you about all that happened in your communities. Now, listen to our amazing March 16th keynote speakers Ramzy Baroud and Phyllis Bennis as well as speeches made at our rally- Stand for Justice!  You can also follow us and view photos from all of our events on our blog at http://rachelcorriefoundation.tumblr.com/.