Israeli Court Rejects Responsibility for Death of American Activist

“She did not distance herself from the area, as any thinking person would have done,” said a judge in Haifa, Israel, ruling against the family of Rachel Corrie, the American activist who was crushed while standing between an Israeli bulldozer and a Palestinian home in 2003.

Corrie’s family sued the Israeli government for a symbolic $1 in damages, but Judge Oded Gershon said her death was an accident.

BBC:

Judge Oded Gershon, presiding at the court in the town of Haifa, said Ms Corrie had been protecting terrorists in a designated combat zone.

He said the bulldozer driver had not seen her, adding the soldiers had done their utmost to keep people away from the site. “She [Corrie] did not distance herself from the area, as any thinking person would have done.”

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The Israeli government disputes that the young activist, who is pictured wearing a bright orange jacket, was visible to the bulldozer driver.

Corrie’s parents said they would appeal the decision.

—Posted by Peter Z. Scheer.

AP/HO, International Solidarity Movement

Rachel Corrie uses a loudspeaker as she stands between an Israeli buldozer and a Palestinian physician’s house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah in 2003.