Rachel: An American Conscience

Director
Barakat, Yahya
Year
2009
Subtitle
English
Country
United States
Length
94
Format
DVD
Off
Description

Genre: Documentary

 

I’ve been here for about a month and half now and this is definitely the most difficult situation that I have ever seen. In the time that I have been here, children have been shot and killed. On the 30th of January, the Israeli military bulldozed the two largest water wells, destroying over half of Rafah’s water supply. Ever few days, if not everyday, houses are demolished here.. so I feel like what I am witnessing here is a very systematic destruction of peoples’ ability to survive and that is incredibly horrifying.

Yahya Barakat, who teaches at Al-Quds University, told The Washington Report that he began work on the documentary the instant he learned that Corrie had been crushed to death by an Israeli-driven Caterpillar bulldozer.

This documentary offers rare footage of Rachel talking to a camera and describing Israeli human rights violations against a Palestinian civilian population. The film opens with grim images of dinosaur-like Caterpillar bulldozers turning urban Rafah into a garbage pile of destroyed buildings. It continues with interviews of Rachel's fellow International Solidarity Movement volunteers, and concludes with comments from her parents