Rachel Corrie was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement who was killed in 2003 by a bulldozer operated by the Israel Defense Forces when she tried to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian doctor's house in Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada.
[2] Tom Hurndall, a British photography student and ISM activist, was shot in the head in the Gaza Strip by an IDF sniper on April 11, 2003.
He began to research (mainly on the Internet) other composers' approach to the subject while searching for poems for the composition, and learned of Rachel Corrie's death the following month.
What interested me were the poems and songs coming from all around the globe: School kids and octogenarians, Jewel wannabes and established songwriters, student writers and poet laureates, Jews and Muslims from all continents; Christians, Buddhists, sectarians".
Section four is another poem, God the Synecdoche in His Holy Land, written in memory of Rachel Corrie by Alaskan poet Linda McCarriston.
Section five is a recitative, I Had No Mercy For Anybody, excerpted from the Gush Shalom translation of Moshe ("Kurdi Bear") Nissim's May 31, 2002 interview ("Jenin, A Soldier's Story") conducted in Hebrew by journalist Tsadok Yeheskeli for Israel's best-selling tabloid newspaper, Yediot Aharonot.
[4] Munger and a local rabbi (who later described the work as "bordering on anti-Semitic", claiming it "romanticized terrorism")[citation needed] co-chaired a public meeting to address objections from members of the Jewish community and others who believed the cantata was one-sided and unfair to Israel failed to resolve the disagreement.
After consulting with staff here at the University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Music, I have decided that I cannot subject sixteen students, whose names, fortunately, have not been released to anyone, to any possibility of physical harm or to the type of character assassination some of us are already undergoing.
[9][10] It was performed by soprano Deborah Naomi Fink, pianist Dominic Saunders, the Coro Cervantes Choir and the London Percussion Ensemble directed by Peter Crockford.
[9][10] A protest outside the premiere sought to highlight Israeli girls and women killed in suicide bombings during the Second Intifada - calling them the "other Rachels" – while a counter-protest by "pro-Palestine groups…including Jews Against Zionism" supported the concert.
"[12] Patrons of the concert were Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Professor Noam Chomsky, Julie Christie, Sir Richard Eyre, Moris Farhi MBE, Uri Fruchtmann, Jane Manning OBE, Susie Orbach, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Dr. Ilan Pappe, Anthony Payne, John Pilger, Harold Pinter CH, Sir Antony Sher, Professor Avi Shlaim, MP Clare Short, Baroness Jenny Tonge and Susannah York.
[10] Supporters included the Corrie Family, Jocelyn Hurndall, Afif Safieh (former Palestinian General Delegate to the UK), MP Jeremy Corbyn, Jeremy Hardy, Miriam Karlin, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Musicians Against Nuclear Arms, Andy de la Tour, Frances de la Tour, Lynne Reid Banks, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Jewish Socialists' Group, Just Peace UK, the International Solidarity Movement, Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Council for Arab-British Understanding.