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Rachel (2009 film)

In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “a 2009 documentary film by simone bitton detailing the death of rachel corrie from "an israeli point of view"”. Today it says “a 2009 documentary film by simone bitton detailing the death of rachel corrie”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-02. In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “a 2009 documentary film by simone bitton detailing the death of rachel corrie from "an israeli point of view"”. Today it says “a 2009 documentary film by simone bitton detailing the death of rachel corrie”.
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The opening as it read in October 6, 2023

Rachel is a 2009 documentary film by Simone Bitton detailing the death of Rachel Corrie (1979-2003). Corrie was an American activist and diarist. A member of the pro-Palestinian group International Solidarity Movement (ISM), she was crushed to death by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored bulldozer in a southern Gaza Strip combat zone during the height of the second Palestinian intifada under contested circumstances. The premiere was at Berlin Film Festival in February 2009.1 It gives voice to all the people involved in Rachel’s story, from Palestinian and foreign witnesses to Israeli military spokespersons and investigators, doctors, activists and soldiers linked to the affair. The film begins like a classic documentary, but soon develops, transcending its subject and transforming into a cinematographic meditation on youth, war, idealism and political utopia. In the beginning, there is this: she was called Rachel Corrie. She was convinced that her American nationality would be enough to make her an effective human shield, that her simple presence would save lives, olive trees, wells and houses." Simone Bitton: "I suppose that I initiated the project of Rachel as an attempt to cleanse myself of this shame: I wanted to film in Gaza because I know that if filmmakers stop filming in places where they are not welcome, not only will it become easier for occupation forces everywhere to kill and destroy – but also documentary cinema itself will die – and only the TV news media spectacle of war will remain." The first North American public screening was at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival . It is said the film reports the case from "an Israeli point of view". But a controversy arose with respect to the showing of the film at the 2009 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival , and the festival's extending an invitation to Corrie's mother to speak. Jewish Voice for Peace , the film's sponsor, was called "anti-Semitic" by the festival managers. The Times of Israel . The Globe and Mail .

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Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “a 2009 documentary film by simone bitton detailing the death of rachel corrie from "an israeli point of view"”. Today it says “a 2009 documentary film by simone bitton detailing the death of rachel corrie”. Read the current article and compare.
201020152020Oct '232025
antisemitism01111
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2010 and 2025.

Then

a 2009 documentary film by simone bitton detailing the death of rachel corrie from "an israeli point of view"

Now

a 2009 documentary film by simone bitton detailing the death of rachel corrie

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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