Shame on them…….shame on the N.Y. theater that cancelled this play.

Toronto’s Canadian Stage Company has decided not to stage My Name is Rachel Corrie, the controversial play about an American peace activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer.

It was a decision based on the play’s merits, rather than the political controversy that dogs it, CanStage artistic producer Martin Bragg said in an interview with CBC.ca.

“It was an artistic decision,” said Bragg, who saw the play in New York. “It just didn’t work on stage.”

Based on the diaries of U.S. activist Rachel Corrie, who died trying to stop the Israeli army from destroying a Palestinian house, the play chronicles her life as an adolescent and young woman.

The play has been divisive since it was first produced in London earlier this year, with supporters admiring its depiction of young woman developing strong political convictions and others saying Corrie was naive and misguided.

A New York theatre decided against staging the play this spring, after Jewish groups said it expresses anti-Israeli sentiments.

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To read firsthand accounts of life, and death in Palestine, visit the website of Mohammad Omer, a student who lives in Rafah, Palestine. He has won the First National Ethnic Media Awards Youth Voices awardfor his Gaza on the Ground series.