Israel Matzav: Rachel Corrie's parents suing the IDF

Rachel Corrie's parents suing the IDF

The parents of Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by a bulldozer while acting as a human shield on Gaza (yes, even the Guardian says she was acting as a human shield), are coming to Israel to sue the IDF on March 10, just six days before the 7th anniversary of her death. The case will be heard in a Haifa court.

Corrie was crushed while acting as a human shield in the Rafah area where the IDF was bulldozing homes that were being used as access to tunnels to smuggle weapons into Egypt. This was 2003 and there was no 'blockade' on Gaza back then - except for weapons. But the tunnels existed even then and they were being used to smuggle weapons into Gaza. The tunnels came up in private homes just as they do today, and Corrie was trying to protect that home from demolition.

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.

Two years ago, I did a lengthy post in which I dissected what happened on that day on Rafah. Here's some of that post:

In a series of three videos, each running approximately nine minutes, Becky Johnson and Lee Kaplan debunk the myth that Corrie was protecting a house. In fact, as Smooth Stone points out and as you will see in the video below, Corrie was standing in a trench where she could not be seen, protecting an entrance to a weapons tunnel.

Actual video footage from the Israeli Defense Forces show the real circumstances under which the terrorist loving anarchist died: knee-deep in a trench in the middle of dirt in an open dirt field. The left arrow on the photo below points to the tractor, the right arrow shows the kneeling Rachel Corrie. To see the live action footage moments before Rachel Corrie's accidental death, go to the Part 2 video [which I am embedding below. CiJ], approx 49 seconds into the video:

The videos have apparently been removed, which is a pity. But you should still read the whole thing.
Israel Matzav: Rachel Corrie's parents suing the IDF