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From: Madison-Rafah Sister-City Proj <[log in to unmask]>
03/01/04 12:13PM >>>
Dear Peter,
Could you please forward the following announcement to anyone on your
persoal e-mail list that you think would be interested? This event will
be our big spring fundraiser for Rafah relief, so we'd appreciate your
assistance in publicizing it. Also, the film is incredible and the
speaker should have very current, first-hand information for us.
I have attached a brief biographical sketch provided by Laura Gordon
for your info.
Thanks as always for your support,
Barb O.
MRSCP
========================
On March 9 and 10 MRSCP and WORT Radio will co-sponsor an event in
commemoration of the death of RACHEL CORRIE. The program will be the
same both nights. It will feature the Madison Premiere of the powerful
British TV documentary "THE KILLING ZONE" which documents the death
toll in Rafah including the killings of Rachel, British activist Tom
Hurndall and British cameraman James Miller.
The main speaker will be LAURA GORDON, the last ISM volunteer in Rafah
who has just returned after 10 months there. We will also be joined by
Rachel Corrie's Aunt, CHERYL BRODERSON, from Iowa. Cheryl has been
trying to inject the issue of justice for Rachel into the presidential
campaign.
Tuesday, March 9 7 pm at The Crossing, 1127 University Avenue, corner
of Charter and Univ.
Wednesday, March 10 7 pm Morgridge Auditorium,
Grainger Hall, UW Campus
There is no admission charge, but we will be collecting donations to
benefit our material aid projects for Rafah.
NOTE: Laura and Cheryl will also be guests on WORT's "A Public Affair"
with Esty Dinur on Wednesday, March 10 at noon. And Laura will be
speaking at MATC-Truax on Thursday, March 11 from 9:30-10:30 am--look
for posters on the MATC campus for location.
=========================================
Laura Gordon, a 21-year-old American Jew was raised in Pittsburgh, PA.
Pittsburgh has a large and flourishing Jewish population. The family
attended a small Reconstructionist synagogue, which had a close
community that fostered in Gordon from an early age a
"strong and very spiritual" connection to Judaism.
Gordon grew up hearing about the situation in Israel/Palestine, but
she was not politically involved. After taking a leave of absence
from college in 2002, Gordon had become "increasingly distressed" by
news about the violence between Israeli Jews and Palestinians, and so
decided to go and see with her own eyes what was taking place and what
she could do to help.
She went to Israel on a program called Birthright. Birthright takes
Jewish youth living outside Israel on free 10-day tours of Israel. The
program is funded primarily by the Israeli government and also by a few
Jewish donors in North America. The goal of the trip is to foster
connections between U.S. Jewish youth and the state of Israel. During
her Birthright trip, Gordon heard Prime Minister Ariel Sharon speak at a
large gathering in Tel Aviv for Birthright participants. Sharon told
the audience that his objective was for them "to immigrate to Israel and
join the military."
After her tour was over, Gordon stayed in Israel with no set plans.
She spent a month volunteering for a religious program called Livnot
U'lehibanot, "painting the homes of people traumatized by suicide bombs,
visiting one man who had been in the hospital for two years following a
bomb on Ben Yehuda street, and working with inner city youth to make
art."
She then moved to Haifa, where she volunteered for two months at Beit
Hagefen, a Jewish-Palestinian cultural exchange center. Gordon worked
with children in the library.
She then made a decision that would change her life. "I had been in
touch with a friend of mine who was working in Rafah with the
International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and our views on the situation
weren't matching up. I decided to visit Rafah to see what he was talking
about." She went to Rafah, where she met numerous Palestinians as well
as the internationals working with ISM, among them Rachel Corrie.
Going to Rafah deeply affected Gordon. "The people were so kind and
yet in such a hard situation. Everybody in Israel told me I would be
killed by Palestinians if they knew I was Jewish, but I found just the
opposite, that people welcomed me because despite my religious identity
I had come to see them."
Gordon stayed in Rafah for only three days before going back to work in
Haifa. Almost two weeks later, Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by
soldiers in an Israeli military bulldozer while she tried to prevent the
demolition of a Palestinian doctor's home. Corrie's death was a
turning point for Gordon. "I couldn't find anyone in Israeli society
who cared that I had lost an acquaintance.
"The attitude seemed to be, 'Get over it.' I went to Rafah to see my
friends there, knowing that I had to change what I was doing with my
life. Seeing Rachel go so suddenly really made me reassess my own
situation."
Upon returning to Rafah, Gordon "knew immediately" that she would stay
for some time. But she didn't know for how long. During her time
there, she lost British colleague Thomas Hurndall when a soldier in an
Israeli sniper tower shot him in the head, and aquaintance James
Miller, a British journalist who was shot in the neck by a soldier in
an Israeli tank. As closure on the Gaza Strip intensified,
internationals had a harder time getting in, which increased her resolve
to stay as long as possible.
"Israel doesn't want anyone on the outside to know what it is doing
in Gaza," says Gordon. "That's why they are making it almost
impossible for anyone to get it, even UN and international aid
workers."
After ten months, "burned out on living under Occupation," Gordon
received the news that Thomas Hurndall had passed away after nine
months in a coma. She left immediately to attend his funeral in London.
Now back in the United States, Gordon is touring, speaking about her
experience, hoping that by educating people she will "in some way
repay the families in Rafah who, despite the awful situations they face
daily, took me in, took care of me, and treated me as family." Gordon
is also currently editing a set of journal entries she wrote in Rafah,
which she will compile into a book to be published in 2005.
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