Posted by 
The parents of Rachel Corrie stand in front of her picture during a rally in the West Bank city of Nablus to mark the fifth anniversary of her death March 20, 2008. Photo: Reuters/Abed Omar Qusini
The family of an American killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza will launch a damages case on Wednesday, stoking controversy over the treatment of pro-Palestinian protesters and angering Israelis frustrated by international criticism.
Rachel Corrie was one of several foreign activists killed in confrontations with Israel in occupied territory in the past decade. Her family is suing for $324,000 in the case, being heard by a court in the city of Haifa.
The Israeli army says Corrie, 23, a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, was fatally struck by a concrete slab on March 17, 2003, as a bulldozer cleared a militant hideout in the Gaza area.
Corrie’s family, citing witness accounts, has charged the Israeli driver must have spotted her before moving the blade in her direction.
“As we approach the seven-year anniversary of Rachel’s killing, my family and I are still searching for justice,” Cindy Corrie, the victim’s mother, said in a statement.
Two former activists in Gaza are to testify in the case.
Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich, an Israeli army spokeswoman, told Reuters in an interview that “the crew inside the bulldozer did not see her nor hear her,” and that tear gas and stun grenades had been fired to warn protesters to flee.
Israelis have shown little sympathy for Corrie, whose death occurred at the height of a Palestinian uprising in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank in which thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis were killed.
Revival of her case was expected to stoke anger in a nation still reeling from a scathing United Nations report alleging both the Israeli army and Palestinian militants committed war crimes during the 2008-9 Israel-Gaza conflict.
Steven Plaut, an Israeli from Haifa, charged in a column for the Jewish Press newspaper that Corrie’s parents were a “two-person anti-Israel propaganda SWAT team” who supported Israel’s enemies.
Related posts:
- General ‘tried to cover up truth about death of Rachel Corrie’
- Israel Vows ‘Powerful Response’ to Gaza Attacks
- UN: Israel kills driver on aid mission to Gaza
- Israel authorizes mass expulsion of Palestinians
- Israel bombs Gaza in ‘all-out war’ on Hamas
- Israel tells Gazans to brace for war escalation
- The Killing Zone
On March 16, 2003, in the town of Rafah in southern Gaza, Rachel Corrie, 23, an “international peace protester,” dropped to her knees in front of an Israeli bulldozer during an IDF anti-terrorism action. She was squished flat, and therefore shall forever be known as St. Pancake.
On the anniversary of her squishing, rather than think about a stupid, brainwashed, terrorist More.. apologist, I’ll spend the day thinking about a few other Rachels, all of whom were murdered by the palestinian terrorists who were Rachel Corrie’s friends:
Rachel Thaler, 16, was enjoying dinner with her
14-year old brothers and friends at an Israeli
pizzeria when a palestinian bomber detonated
himself at the restaurant.
Rachel Levi, 19, murdered when a Palestinian
rammed a bus into a crowded Israel bus stop,
killing Rachel and five others on February 14, 2001.
Rachel Levy, 17, was a high-school student
who was killed when a Palestinian suicide
bomber detonated herself at an Israeli supermarket.
Her death came on the heels of the death of Rachel’s
cousin one month earlier in a terrorist shooting.
Rachel Charhi, 36, was killed when a
Palestinian terrorist detonated himself in a
café in Israel on April 4, 2002.
Rachel Gavish, 50, was murdered by a Palestinian
terrorist who infiltrated her home in Israel,
shooting dead Rachel, her husband David,
her son and Rachel’s father.
Rachel Kol, 53, who worked for 20 years
in the neurology lab at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital,
was murdered with her husband in a drive-by shooting by the Fatah.
Rachel Ben Abu, 16, killed with her teenage friends by a suicide
bomber at the Netanya shopping mall, in July 2005 (in the midst
of a supposed Palestinian truce)
Rachel Shabo, 40, (top right) and three of her sons
were murdered on June 20, 2002 when a Palestinian
terrorist entered the family home and opened fire.
It has been a while since this happened…
It is a sad reality that Rachel Corrie was caught in between this mess and her promising life came to an end…
I just hope that sooner than later all the misunderstanding will be ironed out, justice be served and peace to over rule.