assist in protecting families caught in the
brutal civil rights movement where the color of one's skin determines his or her freedoms.  Her work with the international aid organization places her in immediate danger daily. Yet the families are starving, losing their homes and their lives.  At any time in the middle of the night, soldiers can show up, destroy the home and arrest or kill family members who disappear, never to be seen again.  The work is dangerous, yet worth the cost.  She knows their plight and is compelled to do something, anything to help those under attack and the brutal oppression of the Caucasian South African minority.  One bright sunny morning in March, she loses her life by standing before a bulldozer set to flatten the home of an innocent man.  Rather than flatten the home, she is crushed beneath it.

In America a composer reads of her life and death, the courage and humanity she displayed at the young age of twenty-three.  He too has been following the struggle in South Africa and is compelled by her selfless act to write a cantata, honoring her sacrifice, bravery and humanity.  Others join in from around the world, putting words and prose to his music and telling the story of the young American's short life in service to others. 

Weeks before the first concert, a press release goes out announcing the concert and tribute.  Immediately the South African community living in the United States accuses the composer of being racist for not recognizing the white minority's right to rule the land they conquered.  They accuse him of defending terrorism by honoring the aid worker claiming her work encourages terrorist attacks against the innocent white minority that is simply protecting its own.  They threaten the musicians playing the cantata with violence if the piece is played and the composer is labeled a racist for daring to show the South Africans as oppressors of freedom and the murderers of an American.  At its unveiling, the composer is ridiculed and threatened, heckled by the audience, many in attendance specifically to stop the performance.  The musicians are forced to flee under security in fear of their safety; the South African supporters effectively censor the cantata from further performance as the young woman killed is branded a terrorist by their movement. TOP

Is this story fiction? 

In premiss it is a fact, though it didn't happen in 1988; it is happening now.  It didn't happen in South Africa and it didn't involve the South African soldiers though the circumstances are real.  The country of conflict is the Occupied Territory known as Palestine, also struggling against apartheid where the color of your skin if you are Jewish, or your faith if you're not, determines your freedoms and value as a human being.  The South Africans in the story represent the Israeli military. The composer in question is Alaskan Philip Munger; the cantata, a combination of music, poetry and song is the “The Skies are Weeping,” a tribute to American Rachel Corrie who was killed last March 16, 2003 in Gaza, crushed to death by an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) American built and funded Caterpillar bulldozer as she attempted to prevent the razing of an innocent pharmacist's home.

SILENCING THE MUSIC

The work, scheduled for premiere at The University of Alaska Anchorage on April 27, 2004, aroused controversy in a segment of Anchorage’s Jewish and Christian Zionist communities between completion and the beginning of rehearsals, even though the cantata has nothing to do with Judaism.  It simply speaks of the murder of an American citizen engaged in peace-keeping work in the Occupied Territories.  Unfortunately, the murderers are Israeli.

At the end of March, an Anchorage Rabbi invited composer Philip Munger to discuss the cantata’s content over coffee.  Enthusiastic about an opportunity to relieve this gentleman’s concerns, Munger prepared 6,000-plus-word document defining the work’s context, integrity, unity, and structure, defending “The Skies are Weeping” from the Rabbi’s claims that it is anti-Semitic and supports terrorism.

The Skies are Weeping documents an event through music and poetry of a human rights worker; an American citizen murdered trying to save the house of an innocent man.  If the men in the bulldozers had been Cuban, Iraqi, Chinese or any other nationality on the planet, Rachel would be an American hero.  Because they were Israeli, suddenly speaking of her death and the events leading up to it are anti-Semitic?  Interesting flogic, but how is speaking of a documented war crime, collective punishment and the destruction of civilian property without cause or compensation, anti-Semitic? TOP

A joint meeting between the composer and the Rabbi was agreed to at a coffee house Thursday, April 8, 2004.

In the ten days between that agreement and the meeting, some members of the musician's ensemble whose names and e-mail addresses had been made public, began to receive an enormous increase in unwanted e-mails and virus upload attempts. 

For Americans unfamiliar with the terror exerted on journalists, teachers, writers and now musicians by Zionist political groups, the most vicious attacks often originating from Evangelical Christians rather than those of the Jewish faith; this tactic of spamming and virus instigation is common and usually the first step. Hacking and shutting down websites, hijacking e-mail addresses to send spam and viruses is also common.  If the targeted persons fail to back off, the terror often escalates to physical violence, destruction of property, public defamation and death threats−some of which have been carried out.

why Rachel's story must be suppressed

To understand the hatred and anger directed at Munger, one needs to understand the ideas behind it, the political movement of Zionism.  Originally sold to many in the Jewish and Christian faiths as a movement to create a predominantly Jewish state where Judaism could be worshiped and celebrated in peace, the original meaning and Theodore Hertzl's vision became lost soon after Israel's creation. Zionism, supported by Evangelical Christians and Talmudic Jewry originates in Talmudic Law, racial supremacy and fascism. It survives by enshrouding itself in the faith of Judaism, with the perception and perpetuation of two ideas: Elitism and Victimization. Zionism is not Judaism; however, Zionism does use Judaism to protect it from scrutiny and disguise its reality. NEXT

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