To the people of Gaza From the Family of Rachel Corrie

April 23, 2003

To the people of Gaza

From the Family of Rachel Corrie

Greetings to all of our friends in the Occupied Territories. We, the
parents, sister and brother of Rachel Corrie, want to thank you for
all you did for Rachel while she was working in Rafah and for all you
have done to honor her memory since she died on March 16. We
understand that you will be remembering her especially on the
fortieth day anniversary of her death. Know that we will be thinking
of all of you

We are grateful to those of you who became Rachel’s friends and who
welcomed her into your homes and shared your tea and food with her.
She wrote to us about you and about your wonderful families. She
admired how you supported one another even as you struggled against
the cruelties of the occupation. Writing about you, Rachel told us, "
I am nevertheless amazed at their strength in being able to defend
such a large degree of their humanity-laughter, generosity, family-
time-against the incredible horror occurring in their lives and
against the constant presence of death..I am also discovering a
degree of strength and of basic ability for humans to remain human in
the direst of circumstances.. I think the word is dignity."

We are grateful to those of you who cared for Rachel as she died and
after. We will always remember the respect and love with which she
was treated in life and in death by the people of Gaza.

We are grateful to all of you who have honored Rachel’s memory during
these past weeks. It lifts our spirits to hear of the Rachel Corrie
Children and Youth Cultural Center in Rafah and the Rachel Corrie
Center for Women’s Empowerment. We know there are now newborn babies
named Rachel and streets that bear her name, too. We cannot find
adequate words to tell you how much these things mean to us. Thank
you for the many ways in which you have honored our daughter and
sister.

Rachel wrote to us that coming to Rafah was one of the best things
she had ever done in her life. She told us that she would stay in
Rafah longer than she had originally planned. She had watched another
ISM volunteer say goodbye to the families she had grown close to, and
Rachel said she saw then how hard it would be to one day leave all of
you. She had dreams of making connections between Rafah and her
hometown in the United States-Olympia, Washington. She had started
planning to make Rafah and Olympia sister cities. She had gone to her
old elementary school in Olympia and had encouraged the children
there to write letters to the children in Rafah. She was hoping to
help the women in Rafah who make handcrafted items to sell those
items at a fair trade store in Olympia. Rachel wanted your voices to
be heard in the United States. Had she lived, Rachel would have
worked to make all these things happen. Now, we want you to know that
many people in the United States are working very hard to make these
dreams of Rachel’s come true. The dreams are not forgotten. Rachel is
not forgotten. And your suffering is not forgotten.

Our family wants very much to come to Rafah. We plan to do so as soon
as we are able. When we come, we hope to meet the children who taught
Rachel Arabic words, the grandmother who watched out for her health,
and the families with whom she shared meals and tea. We hope to visit
the Rachel Corrie Children and Youth Cultural Center and the Rachel
Corrie Center for Women’s Empowerment and maybe to meet a newborn
baby named Rachel. We are eager to look into your eyes and to have
you look into ours as we remember Rachel together.

We want you to know that each day here in the United States we are
doing all that we can to make Americans aware of your suffering. We
will continue to work here for a just and peaceful resolution to this
conflict that has caused so much loss for each of you and now for us,
as well. We know that Rachel will forever be linked to the
Palestinian people. She brought your story to us so that now, you
will always be in our hearts.

Sincerely,

Cindy, Craig, Chris, and Sarah Corrie

Rachel’s Family