Parents want case to highlight events that led to American activist’s death under Israeli army bulldozer

RACHEL CORRIE

Peace activist Rachel Corrie died while protesting in front of a
bulldozer trying to destroy a Palestinian home in Rafah in March 2003.

The family of the American activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an
Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago, is to bring a civil
suit over her death against the Israeli defence ministry.

The case, which begins on 10 March in Haifa, northern Israel, is seen
by her parents as an opportunity to put on public record the events
that led to their daughter’s death in March 2003. Four key witnesses –
three Britons and an American – who were at the scene in Rafah when
Corrie was killed will give evidence, according the family lawyer,
Hussein Abu Hussein.

The four were all with the International Solidarity Movement, the
activist group to which Corrie belonged. They have since been denied
entry to Israel, and the group’s offices in Ramallah have been raided
several times in recent weeks by the Israeli military. Now, under
apparent US pressure, the Israeli government has agreed to allow them
entry so they can testify. Corrie’s parents, Cindy and Craig, will also
fly to Israel for the hearing.

A Palestinian doctor from Gaza, Ahmed Abu Nakira, who treated Corrie
after she was injured and later confirmed her death, has not been given
permission by the Israeli authorities to leave Gaza to attend.

Abu Hussein, a leading human rights lawyer in Israel, said there was
evidence from witnesses that soldiers saw Corrie at the scene, with
other activists, well before the incident and could have arrested or
removed her from the area before there was any risk of her being
killed. “After her death the military began an investigation but
unfortunately, as in most of these cases, it found the activity of the
army was legal and there was no intentional killing,” he said. “We
would like the court to decide her killing was due to wrong-doing or
was intentional.” If the Israeli state is found responsible, the family
will press for damages.

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 23,
she was dressed in a fluorescent orange vest and was trying to stop the
demolition of a Palestinian home. She was crushed under a military
Caterpillar 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 International Solidarity Movement 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.”

Witnesses presented a strikingly different version of events. Tom Dale,
a British activist who was 10m away when Corrie was killed, wrote an
account of the incident two days later. He described how she first
knelt in the path of an approaching bulldozer and then stood as it
reached her. She climbed on a mound of earth and the crowd nearby
shouted at the bulldozer to stop. He said the bulldozer pushed her down
and drove over her.

“They pushed Rachel, first beneath the scoop, then beneath the blade,
then continued till her body was beneath the cockpit,” Dale wrote.

“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. Every second I believed they would stop but they never
did.”

While she was in the Palestinian territories, Corrie wrote vividly
about her experiences. Her diaries were later turned into a play, My
Name is Rachel Corrie, which has toured internationally, including to
Israel and the West Bank.