The deeply disturbing Israel court ruling on Rachel Corrie

Posted on September 29, 2012

Special to the Times: Op-Ed

Last month, in a deeply disturbing ruling, an Israeli court dismissed the civil lawsuit brought by my family against the state of Israel for the wrongful death of my daughter Rachel Corrie.

Born and raised in Olympia, Rachel was a human rights defender and peace activist killed in 2003 by an armored Israeli military bulldozer as she stood for hours, visibly and nonviolently protesting the Israeli government’s policy of civilian home demolitions in Rafah, Gaza.

The home Rachel and her friends from the International Solidarity Movement defended was eventually demolished with hundreds more in mass-clearing operations to create a buffer along Gaza’s southern border.

Our lawsuit was not a solution, but rather a symptom of a broken system of accountability within Israel and our own U.S. Government. Despite a promise from Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for a “thorough, credible, and transparent” investigation and repeated calls from the highest levels of our government for such an investigation to occur, there was no diplomatic resolution. According to the U.S. State Department, its calls “have gone unanswered or ignored.”

[link to full article at The Seattle Times]

Israeli soldiers to testify behind screen in Corrie Case

Posted on October 7, 2010

  Extraordinary state secrecy motion is granted

Witnesses in Corrie trial to testify behind a screen.

(Haifa, Israel – October 7, 2010)– The Haifa District Court on Thursday granted a government request to allow soldiers to testify behind a screen in the lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza.

The order includes the driver of the bulldozer that killed Rachel, who is slated to testify later this month. However, Judge Oded Gershon ruled that both the commander of the unit and the second soldier in the bulldozer that hit Rachel would testify in plain view, because their faces were already publicly known. […]

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[Read more…]

Military police investigator’s testimony reveals additional flaws in the investigation into Rachel Corrie’s killing

Posted on September 5, 2010

(Haifa, Israel – September 5, 2010)– The civil law suit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza, resumed Sunday in the Haifa District Court. In March, the Corrie family called their witnesses to the stand. Today marked the beginning of the State’s testimony.

Rachel Corrie, an American human rights defender from Olympia, WA, was crushed to death on March 16, 2003, by a Caterpillar D9R military bulldozer. She had been nonviolently demonstrating against the demolitions of Palestinian homes.

Download: [Download not found], [Download not found], [Download not found], [Download not found]

The first state witness, a Military Police investigator known to the court as Oded, was part of a three-person team that investigated Rachel’s killing. Oded corroborated much of the testimony provided by El’ad, an investigator who testified in March, and added additional details about the inadequacy of the investigation.

Oded confirmed that a commander of the unit involved in Rachel’s killing interrupted the questioning of the bulldozer operator, telling him that Doron Almog, head of the Israeli military’s Southern Command, had ordered that the questioning cease. He also said that, in his experience, interference of this nature from military commanders was not uncommon.
When asked why he did not challenge the intervention, Oded said that as a junior investigator, it was not his place to do so. He was 20-years-old at the time, with only a high-school education and three-months of training in investigation.
Corrie’s case was the first civilian killing that Oded investigated from beginning to end. [Read more…]

Military investigator testifies that head of IDF Southern Command instructed bulldozer operator not to cooperate with investigation

Posted on March 24, 2010

(Haifa, Israel – March 24, 2010)– On Monday, March 22 and Wednesday, March 24, 2010, the Haifa District Court heard the fifth and sixth days of testimony in the civil lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza. Witnesses included an Israeli military police investigator, an expert witness for the Corrie family, and Rachel’s father, Craig Corrie.

Elad, an Israeli military police investigator who was part of the team that investigated Rachel’s killing, completed his testimony on March 22. In his testimony he stated that:

A commander of the unit involved in the incident interrupted the testimony of the operator of the bulldozer that killed Rachel, telling him that the head of the Southern Command of the Israeli military ordered him to stop talking, not to sign anything and not to cooperate with the investigation. When asked if he considered this an intervention into the interrogation, the investigator testified that he did.

[Read more…]

Israeli Military Investigator Admits Failures in the Military Investigation of Rachel Corrie’s Killing

Posted on March 17, 2010

(Haifa, Israel – March 17, 2010)– The Haifa District Court heard the fourth day of testimony today in the civil lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza. Witnesses included an Israeli military police investigator and Gregory Schnabel, an American eye-witness to Rachel’s killing.

Elad, an Israeli military police investigator who was part of the team that investigated Rachel’s killing stated that:

He never inspected the site where the killing occurred; nor did he ever sit inside the D9 bulldozer to see for himself the view the driver had and what the field of vision was.
He admitted that the Israeli military’s D9 bulldozer regulations state that the D9s should not be operated with civilians in close proximity. He failed to question the bulldozer driver about these regulations or make them part of the military police investigation file. [Read more…]

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