I think we all know of Rachel Corrie, the young International Solidarity Movement activist who was callously murdered by the Israeli Defence Force 3 years ago (see for example  http://www.rachelcorrie.org/) I recently noticed that a MySpace account had been set up (I believed) to honour her memory ( http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=72351750.) At first glance the 'Rachel Corrie' page seems appropriate enough, but yesterday I watched a video (one of several hosted there) called 'The Other Israel' by one Ted Pike, which gave me considerable cause for concern.

Before going any further, to those who don't know me well enough, I'll lay my own credentials on the table. I have been a life-long opponent of all forms of bigotry, racism, and fascism, and opposed Zionism and supported the Palestinian struggle a long time before it was fashionable to do so. When I say that I "opposed Zionism" and "supported" the Palestinian struggle I don't just mean that I've signed a few petitions or that I slag off the Israeli occupation of Palestine on the internet. At the age of 17, following Israel's 1978 invasion of Lebanon, I went there and FOUGHT for 2 years, during some of the fiercest warfare that country had then seen. Later I was sent to prison on an explosives charge after being captured on a mission undertaken on behalf of the Palestinian resistance. Despite the fact that scores if not hundreds of my friends and comrades, and later their families, were slaughtered by the Israeli war machine, I have never once for a moment entered the sewer of anti-Semitism. During the time I spent in Lebanon, despite daily Israeli air-strikes and shelling, despite all the murderous onslaughts that Israel has unleashed on the dispossessed Palestinian people, I never once heard so much as an anti-Jewish sentiment expressed. There are many Jewish Palestinians, and in fact my English comrade, who I fought alongside had a Jewish father.

Most progressively minded and intelligent people, despite Israeli propaganda, are perfectly able to distinguish between Judaism and Zionism, and between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Not so, it seems the person, who has set up the MySpace Rachel Corrie Page.

I watched Ted Pike's video with mounting horror, as this right-wing Christian proceeded to blame Jews for all the ills of the world, everything from the death of Jesus Christ and Middle-Age pogroms to the 'scourge' of feminism, socialism, Marxism, 'liberalism', and communism. These 'erroneous' political positions, along with presumably anarchism, are according to Ted Pike merely some invention of cabals of evil Jews intent on bringing the world to it's knees. While Pike, the 'director' of the American 'National Prayer Network' (a "Christian Conservative watchdog organization") claims that he is not anti-Semitic, it is hard not to form an opposing view. Certainly Pike is very popular with Neo Nazis (see the US based Vanguard News Network for example), and he is a supporter of fascist Holocaust deniers such as David Irving and Ernst Zundel.

After viewing Pike's film, I though that perhaps the person who runs the MySpace Rachel Corrie page, had included it without themselves watching it properly, and wrote to them to draw their attention to it, as follows:

Dear friend,

As a former Palestinian commando, who has fought and killed for the Palestinian struggle, as well as spending time in prison for my activities, I hope that you will consider my opposition to Zionism and the Israeli state to be unassailable. As such, I am asking you to please remove the video 'The Other Israel' from your Rachel Corrie page. I can only think that you have not viewed it since it is a piece of right-wing Christian claptrap, which contains attacks on feminism, socialism, communism, and liberalism. According to the 'thinking' of this video, prominent Jewish Anarchists such as Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman would not be genuine Anarchists at all, but merely opportunistic Jews intent on establishing a Jewish 'New World Order'. Despite a few token condemnations of anti-Semitism, it is hard not to see this video as anti-Semitic. I regret to say that it is the sort of material I would expect to see on a fascist website, not on a webpage celebrating the life, commitment, and ideas of Rachel Corrie. We don't need to use this sort of pseudo-religious right-wing rubbish to condemn Israel or Zionism.

Always in struggle

Mark Barnsley

In a PS I suggested doing a 'Google' search on Pike, and mentioned his support for Nazi Holocaust deniers such as Zundel and his fellow Nazi sympathiser Germar Rudolf, saying that we did not have to lie down with people like this to oppose Zionism. I am appalled by the flippancy of the reply I received today, and even more so by it's content:

"um, lie down with? first of all, I myself am a holocaust denier, is that so wrong? I dont doubt it didnt happen, I just doubt it happened as they tell us it did.
And WHO knows rachels politics? he does? hahaha.... yeah, it seems to me that the ted pike version is more in line with her burning the flag than not... but who knows and who cares, because we will never know rachels politics! Ack!!!!
She could have been a damn christian! jeeeeeeezus fuck!!!!!!!"

So basically we have some scumbag here who presumably thinks that Auschwitz was a bakery, and who doesn't even CARE about Rachel Corrie's politics. Moreover, who seems to find the whole situation funny!

Now, I don't know everything about Rachel Corrie's politics, I've read her writing and I have friends who shared her last days and were there when she was killed, but I don't pretend to be party to all her views. However, I do know that she was an intelligent and compassionate young woman, and I don't think her opinions had anything in common with the right-wing, anti-feminist, anti-socialist, and anti-Jewish tub-thumping of the likes of Ted Pike. And she deserves better than this.

Sadly, with her pale skin and blond hair, Rachel's picture has appeared on Nazi websites such as the 'Combat 18 - Blood & Honour' site, but at least in this case it's obvious what these bastards believe. Zionists ruthlessly try to tar all those who oppose their subjugation of the Palestinian people with the brush of anti-Semitism, calling Jewish anti-Zionists "self-hating Jews". Morons who are unable to oppose the Israeli state without falling for every claptrap conspiracy theory that the Jew-haters trot out simply provide Israeli Zionism with a propaganda victory, and do no service to the virulently anti-racist Palestinian people. It is a disgrace that Rachel Corrie's memory should be insulted like this.