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Israeli Court to Hear Civil Case Over Death of Rachel Corrie in Gaza
Parents of American activist killed by Israeli bulldozer seven years ago take fight for justice to Haifa courtroom
The case, brought before a Haifa court by Corrie's family, challenges the official Israeli version of events in which the military said its troops were not to blame. The family hopes the hearing will be a chance to put on public record the events that led to their daughter's death in March 2003. If the Israeli state is found responsible, the family will press for at least $300,000 (£201,000) in damages.
Rachel Corrie's parents stand next to a photograph of their daughter. (Photograph: Stefan Zaklin/Getty Images) Before the hearing began, Craig Corrie, Rachel's father, said the family had been on a "seven-year search for justice in Rachel's name".
"I think when the truth comes out about Rachel, the truth will not wound Israel, the truth is the start of making us heal," he said.
Cindy Corrie, Rachel's mother, said the family was still waiting for the credible, transparent investigation Israel first promised into her daughter's death.
"I just want to say to Rachel that our family is here today trying to just do right by her and I hope that she will be very proud of the effort we are making," she said.
The family's lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, will argue that witness evidence shows the soldiers saw Corrie at the scene, with other activists, well before the incident and could have arrested her or removed her from the area before there was any risk of her being killed.
He will argue her death was either due to gross negligence by the Israeli authorities or was intentional.
Four key witnesses – three Britons and an American – who were at the scene in Rafah when Corrie was killed are to give evidence.
The first witness to give evidence was Richard Purssell, a Briton who was an ISM volunteer along with Corrie. He described how he had gone to Gaza to see the situation for himself and to prevent the Israeli military from demolishing Palestinian houses.
He said the ISM told him it was a strictly non-violent organisation. "Our role was to support Palestinian non-violent resistance."
He briefly described the moment Corrie was killed. "Rachel disappeared inside the earth and the bulldozer continued for 4 metres and then reversed," he told the court.
Corrie, who was born in Olympia, Washington, travelled to Gaza to act as a human shield at a moment of intense conflict between the Israeli military and the Palestinians.
On the day she died, when she was just 23, she was dressed in a fluorescent orange vest and was trying to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home in Rafah. She was crushed under a military Caterpillar D9R bulldozer and died shortly afterwards.
A month after her death the Israeli military said an investigation had determined its troops were not to blame and said the driver of the bulldozer had not seen her and did not intentionally run her over.
Instead, it accused her and the group she was with, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), of behaviour that was "illegal, irresponsible and dangerous."
The army report, obtained by the Guardian in April 2003, said she "was struck as she stood behind a mound of earth that was created by an engineering vehicle operating in the area and she was hidden from the view of the vehicle's operator who continued with his work. Corrie was struck by dirt and a slab of concrete resulting in her death."
But several witnesses offered a different version of events, saying the driver had seen her but continued anyway, hitting her with the bulldozer blade. She was severely injured and died shortly afterwards in an ambulance.
While Corrie was in the Palestinian territories, she wrote vividly about her experiences. Her diaries were later turned into a play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, which has toured internationally, including in Israel and the West Bank.
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17 Comments so far
Show AllDemocracy Now! features an interview with Rachel's family today.
Notice that the witnesses this article refers to are foreigners. According to the interview, Israel originally refused to allow any witnesses to testify at this trial and only backed off when the US State department and embassy intervened.
Israel still refuses to allow three witnesses to testify, including a doctor who treated Rachel immediately following her "illegal, irresponsible and dangerous" behavior.
Israel? Justice?
Think not.
USS Liberty - Rachel Corrie.
Join the International Boycott of the entity known as "Israel"
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
It would be nice to see the US press follow this story and bring about support from Americans; but MSM has sold out
Americans in the same way politicians have.
It would be interesting to call the tractor driver as a witness and find out if he was following orders, and if so, whose orders.
I have found the public silence of the US government, including that of the two Senators from her state, through these years since the incident, appalling.
Imagine if the Iranians had run over Rachel and then backed up over her...we'd have WWIII.
Time to rethink the so-called "special relationship" and stop funding Israel with our taxpayer dollars.
Well, WWIII hasn't started since Iran canptured those hikers, which is pretty much how we can tell they weren't spies--Clinton would have issued threats and taken action instead of saying, "please let them go."
One of the silent senators from Rachael Corrie's state is up for re-election this November.
The same one that gave Big Telco 'impunity' to spy on citizens, etc.
I've never heard any spokesperson for the State of Israel express any interest in healing. I'm surprised they allowed an Israeli court to hear this case, considering how much they must want to forget all about Rachel Corrie.
Israel is locked into a tribal ethic of vengeance and retribution. Healing just isn't their "schtick." It isn't realistic to expect some kind of rehabilitation to emerge from such defiant nastiness. Nor should we wish other than karmic justice for them, their disappearance according to their own abominable rules, in a puddle of vampirical slime. There have been plenty of despotisms which have committed atrocities comparable to Israel's and worse, but a vestige of shame in every monster since Timurlane has at least prompted them to massacre children in secret and hide the bodies. They do us the service of putting patriarchal "religion" onstage in all its ugliness as a clear demonstration of what happens when a culture embraces esoteric gibberish over plain humanity. Hopefully, together with militant lunatics of the Christian and Muslim persuasions, they will succeed in turning the stomach of the world in some other direction.
(I have no problem with religion, esoterica, mystical practice or spirituality. Traditionally people with these callings become monastics one way or another, since the world is not compatible with such extreme perspectives. In the quiet or turmoil of their own hearts they may well discover the ground of their existence and liberate themselves from materiality and error. It is when they require the validation of public consensus that they become virulent, when they acquire guns and call themselves nations. Spiritual pioneers who miss the point in this way become berserkers and zionists, just another Pentateuchal plague on our unhappy planet.)
voxclamantis: "I'm surprised they (spokesperson for the State of Israel) allowed an Israeli court to hear this case, considering how much they must want to forget all about Rachel Corrie."
Israel has a separation of power.
The Israeli Judicial system is independent and the Government can't tell the courts what to do.
Great post, vox.
Don't expect any justice from this. Israeli court on something they want to hush-up won't be fair, it'll be 'let's sweep this under the carpet, ASAP.'
I am glad the Corries are having their day in court....after 6 years, it is about time.
My prayer is that the Corries will experience justice....my fear is that they won't get it. Israel's government and "justice" system are the same systems which kills Palestinian men, women and children every day without pause.... I don't see where these corrupt systems will take responsibility for a sympathiser for these poor/oppressed people....but one can pray.
I would love to have my day in court with GWB and his merry band of monsters so they could be held accountable for the murder of my son by the US government in Iraq in 2003. I'm pleased that Rachel's family had the fortitute to persevere.
For those readers who take the position that all military deserve what they get when they sign up for service, you're all wet. Most of our young men and women go into the military to raise money for college, because they want to do service for their country - as my son did - or because there are no job opportunities. And yes, some join for the drugs and some join for citizenship.
Amy Goodman and Democracy Now dedicated the entire hour today to discussing the upcoming trial with the Cory family.
Both the information about the incident and everyone of the family are just amazing. This is a "must see" program for those interested in this cause. View it at democracynow.org.
Poet
Separation of powers does not work in Israel - ask any Palestinian trying to get an building permit.
A rogue state it seems bent on its own distruction by it's own actions devoid of even the most simplist common decency.
Every day we must wait the latest outrage.
Rachel Corrie (RIP) is the human face on the tip of the iceberg. Here is whats below:
Tuesday, March 2
Israeli Professor – ‘We Could Destroy All European Capitals’
An Israeli professor and military historian hinted that Israel could avenge the holocaust by annihilating millions of Germans and other Europeans.
Speaking during an interview which was published in Jerusalem Friday, Professor Martin Van Crevel said Israel had the capability of hitting most European capitals with nuclear weapons.
“We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome . Most European capitals are targets of our air force.”
Creveld, a professor of military history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem , pointed out that “collective deportation” was Israel ’s only meaningful strategy towards the Palestinian people.
“The Palestinians should all be deported. The people who strive for this (the Israeli government) are waiting only for the right man and the right time. Two years ago, only 7 or 8 per cent of Israelis were of the opinion that this would be the best solution, two months ago it was 33 per cent, and now, according to a Gallup poll, the figure is 44 percent.”
Creveld said he was sure that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wanted to deport the Palestinians.
“I think it’s quite possible that he wants to do that. He wants to escalate the conflict. He knows that nothing else we do will succeed.”
Asked if he was worried about Israel becoming a rogue state if it carried out a genocidal deportation against Palestinians, Creveld quoted former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan who said “ Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.”
Creveld argued that Israel wouldn’t care much about becoming a rogue state.
“Our armed forces are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that this will happen before Israel goes under.”
So Moshe Dayan said that Israel should be like a "mad dog" that no one will bother?
How uninformed of the world that statement is. Mad dogs are always put down. Bad analogy, Dayan.
IF, there is any justice is Isreal's courts, the family of Rachel Corrie will prevail. I know that there are many Jewish people in Israel, who stand against ALL that Israel's zionists stand for.
Perhaps Plato was right:
"To DO injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it."
Of course, Israel, we need to look at your behavior re: judgement, Daniel V, 27
"Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting."
To Rachel Corries' family, WE know the truth, and no matter what happens , WE applaud your cause, and WE will never forget.