How did we forget Rachel Corrie?

Do young people even know about her?

After Israeli rockets struck an aide convoy carrying foreign workers, the world was treated to the hideous display of U.S. lawmakers finally taking notice that not all is well in Gaza. It’s clear that it’s because the victims were white, foreign nationals.

Still, there’s a vague hope that the killings have led to a sea change. This hope is wrong.

Remember Rachel Corrie? The 23-year-old from Olympia, Washington, was living with a family in Rafah, Gaza, as part of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). The group was founded after Israel refused to let U.N. human rights monitors into Gaza. They documented, and tried to stop, human rights abuses like home demolitions. When they came for the home where Corrie was staying with the family of a pharmacist, she stood in front of the bulldozer, wearing orange, and speaking through a bullhorn. She continued to stand as the bulldozer approached and crushed her to death. The bulldozer was made by an American company.

March 16th marked the 21st anniversary of her death. Did you know that? I didn’t. And I have an unhealthy near-total immersion in the news cycle. In fact, I was only reminded of her by this excellent breakdown by Jonathan Cook about how the IDF doesn’t hesitate to kill a few foreign nationals if they’re telling the world about what’s happening to Palestinians. Outside groups, unable to secure their employees’ safety, pull out. Like the World Central Kitchen, ISM pulled out of Gaza after Corrie’s death.

There wasn’t anything in the New York Times — the last story is from February of 2015, when an Israeli court ruled no one was to blame for her death. The Washington Post stopped writing about her in 2012.

Amy Goodman had a good segment. In it, we learn the atrocious way her family was treated by the Israeli and U.S. governments. They never apologized. There was a resolution in U.S. Congress calling for an independent investigation, but it didn’t go anywhere. They sued the US, Israeli governments, as well as the U.S. manufacturer, for a nominal $1 sum. The judges threw the lawsuit out of court because they didn’t feel they had purview to criticize Israel’s foreign policy. Plus, by that time, we were off to the races with the war in Iraq.

NPR also had a story. The story notes that Corrie is a national (yes national) hero in Palestine. People name their kids after her. There’s (or was) a street named after her. NPR chirpily adds, “It still resonates in the United States, where her journals were turned into books and a play.”

I called the local Barnes and Noble, looking to see if they carry her book, “Let Me Stand Alone” (I had to look it up because NPR didn’t bother naming it).

“How do you spell that?” the clerk asked.

“C O R R I E” I replied.

“Hmmm …ummmm…. let’s see here. That’s weird.” Not only does the store not carry it, but none of its distributors do. “It’s not just out of stock, I can’t even order it. It’s not exactly out of print, but …”

NPR followed up with the family Corrie was staying with.

"I was just two, but the memories and the stories about her have been passed down through my family from one generation to the next," Nour Nasrallah told NPR in voice messages from Gaza. "My dad always talks about her ... how she was this brave soul and fearlessly stood up for the truth." Not people in her home country.

21 years later, they’re once again terrified their home is about to be destroyed.