Israeli court finds that Rachel Corrie's death was a 'regrettable accident'

Rachel Corrie's family had launched a civil suit against the state of Israel over her death. The court, in Haifa, first heard evidence in the case in 2010.

Giving judgement today, 28th August 2012, Judge Oded Gershon ruled that her death was a “regrettable accident” but that the state could not be culpable as it happened during war-time. "I reject the suit," the judge said. "There is no justification to demand the state pay any damages."
"She (Corrie) did not distance herself from the area, as any thinking person would have done."

Eyewitness Richard Purssell, from Brighton, England said, during his evidence in Haifa in 2010, “She was standing on top of a pile of earth...The driver cannot have failed to see her. As the blade pushed the pile, the earth rose up. Rachel slid down the pile. It looks as if her foot got caught. The driver didn't slow down; he just ran over her. Then he reversed the bulldozer back over her again."

The initial Israeli Defence Force (IDF) internal investigation, completed within a month of Rachel's death, concluded that the IDF was not to blame. "Rachel Corrie was not run over by an engineering vehicle but rather was struck by a hard object, most probably a slab of concrete which was moved or slid down while the mound of earth which she was standing behind was moved”.

The court in Haifa today found no flaw with this initial IDF investigation.

In 2007 the Corrie family brought a case against Caterpillar in the US, charging the company with complicity in the death of Rachel and of Palestinians killed or injured by Caterpillar bulldozers demolishing their homes, causing them to collapse on top of them. The case was dismissed on the grounds that any ruling would intrude on US foreign policy decisions.

Rachel has become a symbol of international solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and, since her death, actions have taken place all over the world against Caterpillar, the company that made the bulldozer that killed her and has, in the hands of the Israeli military, demolished thousands of Palestinian homes. Occupations of factories, trade fairs and headquarters have been followed by concerted divestment campaigns which in 2009, resulted in the Church of England divesting millions from the company. In the US in 2012 the Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation (FFC) divested $900,000 in shares of Caterpillar. Also in the US, after concerted campaigning, Caterpillar was removed from the MSCI-ESG ethical investment index. This led to TIAA-CREF, the US pension fund, which had been targeted by a wide US civil society coalition, removing the company from its Social Choice Funds.

Rachel was part of an International Solidarity Movement (ISM) group attempting to stop the D9 bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian home in the Philadelphia Corridor, a strip separating the part of the city of Rafah which falls within Gaza from the Egyptian border. By 2004, Israel had demolished 1,218 houses in the corridor. Throughout the Gaza strip over 2,500 homes were demolished in the same period. The corridor was extensively bombed during Israel's assault on Gaza in January 2009.

After the case, Cindy Corrie, Rachel's mother, told the Guardian, “the process has shown there are huge problems here [in Israel] in investigations and the legal system. There continue to be things that need to be discussed, exposed and addressed."

Indeed, according to the Israel human rights organisation Yesh Din “... 91% of investigations [by Israeli police in the OPT] into crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians and their property are closed without indictments being served. 84% of the investigation files are closed because of the investigators' failure to locate suspects and evidence…Indictments were served in less than 3% of these cases." The Israeli justice system is not weighted in favour of the victims of Israel's military policies. Abu Hussein, Rachel Corrie's lawyer, said after the verdict “In denying justice in Rachel Corrie’s killing, this verdict speaks to the systemic failure to hold the Israeli military accountable for continuing violations of basic human rights.

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Rachel Corrie's family have called for a global week of action against house demolitions – for more details see  http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/blog/2012/08/27/planned-events-for-the-week-of-action.

Palestinians in Gaza recorded this video in memory of Rachel, calling on people to support the international campaign for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli occupation, militarism and apartheid –  http://palsolidarity.org/2012/08/gaza-activists-remember-rachel-support-bds/.