Neil Cooper, reviewing My Name is Rachel Corrie, has clearly been moved more by the perception of events in Gaza written in Rachel's diaries and emails and by the testimony of activists rather than by the evidence of the ensuing legal proceedings inquiring into the incident which resulted in her death (The Herald, February 7).
Rachel's death is very real and cannot simply be dismissed, but the stage production ignores the fact that events surrounding her death are disputed and a similar accident had previously occurred in a civil setting resulting in death caused by the reduced visibility of an armoured bulldozer.
What emerged in the proceedings which inquired into Rachel's death was that the heavy armour protecting the bulldozer obstructed all-round visibility at all times, particularly when the arm bearing the blade was elevated. In photos produced to support the claim that Rachel was completely visible to the operator at all times, two different types of bulldozer appeared in supposedly sequential photos – an error of continuity which demonstrates post-hoc improvisation was employed to substantiate the claim Rachel was deliberately killed by the bulldozer.
But seven other Rachels, the youngest aged 16, have also lost their lives – Jewish victims of the intifada. Does anyone remember them?
In Britain, how many people even know the name of Rachel Thaler, aged 16, a British citizen who was murdered by a Palestinian suicide bomber in an Israeli shopping mall?
M Green,
103 Ayr Road,
Newton Mearns.
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