Seven years after Rachel Corrie, a US peace activist, was
killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, her family was to put the
Israeli government in the dock today (March 10).
A judge in the northern Israeli city of Haifa was due to
be presented with evidence that 23-year-old Corrie was killed unlawfully
as she stood in the path of the bulldozer, trying to prevent it from
demolishing Palestinian homes in Rafah.
Corrie’s parents, Craig and Cindy, who arrived in Israel
on (March 6), said they hoped their civil action would shed new light on
their daughter’s killing and finally lead to Israel’s being held
responsible for her death. They are also seeking damages that could amount
to millions of dollars if the court finds in their favour.
An internal army investigation was closed shortly after
Corrie’s death, exonerating both the bulldozer-driver and the commanders
who oversaw the operation.
Three Britons and one US citizen, who were standing close
to Corrie when she was killed, are expected to challenge Israel’s version
of events, arguing that the bulldozer-driver knew Corrie was there when he
ran her over.
The Israeli government had sought to block the activists
from entering Israel for the hearing but finally relented three weeks ago
when Britain and the US exerted strong pressure.
The four, like Corrie, belonged to the International
Solidarity Movement (ISM) which brings activists to Israel to resist the
occupation non-violently alongside Palestinians.
Cindy Corrie, from Olympia, Washington, said: “My family
and I are still searching for justice. The brutal death of my daughter
should never have happened. We believe the Israeli army must be held
accountable for her unlawful killing.”
For many observers, Rachel Corrie’s death in March 2003
rapidly came to symbolise the injustices of Israel’s occupation. Diary
entries, many of them written while she was living with Palestinian
families, were adapted into a play that has been performed around the
world.
However, as one Israeli commentator noted in the liberal
daily newspaper Haaretz on the first anniversary of her death, “In
Israel, her name has been all but forgotten.”
Corrie’s family hopes the court case will rectify that.
Rachel, a film released last year about her life and
the events in Rafah, is due to be screened in Tel Aviv on March 16, on the
seventh anniversary of her death and in the midst of the legal
proceedings.
Until the court case in Haifa, the Corrie family had run
into a series of administrative and legal brick walls in trying to get
their daughter’s death independently investigated and to hold those
responsible to account.
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister at the time of
Corrie’s death, promised a “thorough, credible and transparent
investigation” would be conducted.
But an internal military inquiry clearing the two soldiers
operating the bulldozer was widely criticised, including by US officials.
Human Rights Watch said it “fell far short of the transparency,
impartiality and thoroughness required by international law”.
The army’s report claimed that Corrie had been “hidden
from view” behind a mound of earth and that the bulldozer had never come
into contact with her. It concluded that “Corrie was struck by dirt and a
slab of concrete” as earth slipped on top of her.
The four former ISM activists due to appear in court this
week have been told not to comment before giving their testimonies.
But previous witness statements, backed by photographic
evidence, have questioned the army’s account. Photographs show Corrie,
wearing an orange fluorescent jacket and holding a megaphone, confronting
the bulldozer over several hours. They also show the bulldozer’s track
marks over Corrie’s body moments after she was crushed.
Tom Dale, a British activist who was next to Corrie when
she was killed, wrote two days later that she had climbed on top of a
mound of earth as activists nearby shouted at the bulldozer-driver to
stop.
The bulldozer, he wrote, “pushed Rachel, first beneath the
scoop, then beneath the blade, then continued till her body was beneath
the cockpit. They waited over her for a few seconds before reversing. They
reversed with the blade pressed down so it scraped over her body a second
time.”
In 2007 a US court denied the Corrie family the right to
sue the Caterpillar company, which supplies the Israeli army with the
special D-9 bulldozers that killed their daughter and that Israel
regularly uses to demolish Palestinian homes.
This week’s hearing is the outcome of a private lawsuit
filed by the Corries in March 2005 at the suggestion of the US state
department.
Cindy Corrie said: “We hope this trial will also
illustrate the need for accountability for thousands of lives lost or
indelibly injured by the Israeli occupation and bring attention to the
assault on non-violent human rights defenders.”
Craig Corrie added that the family had had to endure “lies
and misrepresentations” about the circumstances of their daughter’s death.
The family also accused Israel of resorting to procedural delays to drag
the case out.
Although Israel has agreed to let in the four ISM
witnesses, it has refused to allow Ahmed Abu Nakira, a doctor in Gaza who
treated Corrie, to attend the hearing or to be questioned over a video
link.
The lawsuit accuses the Israeli government of being
responsible either for Corrie’s intentional killing or for the negligent
conduct of its soldiers towards unarmed demonstrators.
Israel claims it is not liable because the army’s actions
were “acts of war” and because Corrie recklessly endangered herself.
Around the time Corrie was killed, three Britons – Iain
Hook, Tom Hurndall and James Miller – were fatally shot by Israeli
soldiers. Only in the case of Hurndall, another ISM volunteer who was shot
in Rafah a month after Corrie, did an investigation lead to a soldier
being found guilty and jailed.
Hussein Abu Hussein, the Corrie family’s lawyer, said they
were seeking $3,24,000 compensation for specific costs related to Corrie’s
death, including the funeral, legal expenses and flights. In addition, the
family will ask for general compensation for their suffering and Rachel’s
loss of earnings, and punitive damages from the state.
In recent weeks the ISM’s office in the West Bank has been
raided several times by the Israeli army, with computers and documents
taken.
Abu Hussein said he would be arguing in court that the
D-9’s manual specifically states that work must not be carried out with
civilians nearby, and that the state ignored a judicial decision that a US
embassy representative be present at Corrie’s autopsy.