Rachel Corrie Spotted with Che and Mumia

By Jawad Ali

The Mission District in San Francisco is my new home. There are murals blossoming everywhere in this neighborhood that depict uplifting images of global struggles. The walls are covered with breathtaking images of nature, triumphant women of color, ancient cultures, community pride and all the modern heroes of social change.

Courtesy of precitaeyes.org

It came to me as no surprise that a freshly painted Rachel Corrie had joined the ranks of Caesar Chavez and Malcolm X as the young hero of the downtrodden. In this mural she is seen lending her strength and beauty to the struggles of Che Guevara and Mumia Abu Jamal and a host of others.

Images of kafiyyah clad men and women have long adorned the walls and facades of such prominent San Francisco landmarks as the Women’s Building. The most famous of these murals is the one painted by Break the Silence Mural and Arts Project. 

Break the Silence began 12 years ago when four Jewish American artists traveled to the West Bank city of Ramallah and worked on a series of community mural projects with Palestinian community members and artists. Upon returning from that first trip in 1989, the artists presented reflections on their experiences to approximately 100 audiences in high schools, universities, art galleries and community centers across the United States.

In 1990, BTS painted a mural in San Francisco about the Palestinian right to a homeland. This mural made connections between issues of "home" in San Francisco's Mission District and in Palestine. In the summer of 2001, the Bay Guardian ran a story about how repeated vandalism had caused the mural to be boarded up.

Look out for Corrie.  Protect her from the "friends of Israel." The first reader to correctly identify the location of the new Rachel Corrie mural will win a small, and probably worthless, prize from Muslim Wakeup. Click on the picture of the BTS mural to see a larger version