Court Rules Israel Is Not at Fault in Death of American Activist

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/world/middleeast/court-rules-israel-wasnt-at-fault-in-rachel-corries-death.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120829


August 28, 2012

Court Rules Israel Is Not at Fault in Death of American Activist

By JODI RUDOREN and DANIELLE ZIRI

JERUSALEM — An Israeli judge ruled on Tuesday that the state bore no responsibility for the death of Rachel Corrie, the young American woman who was run over by a military bulldozer in 2003 as she protested the demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.

The lengthy verdict in the civil case, read in part to a courtroom in Haifa packed with supporters of Ms. Corrie’s family, called the death a “regrettable accident” — a characterization that Ms. Corrie’s allies strongly disputed.

“She chose to put herself in danger,” said the judge, Oded Gershon. “She could have easily distanced herself from the danger like any reasonable person would.”



Since her death, Ms. Corrie has become an international symbol of the Palestinian resistance. A play based on her writings has been performed in 10 countries, and a ship in an attempted aid flotilla to Gaza bore her name. Books, documentaries and songs have recounted how Ms. Corrie, a 23-year-old student, dressed in an orange vest and wielding a bullhorn stood between a bulldozer and the home of a Palestinian family in March 2003 during the height of the second intifada, or uprising.



Hussein Abu Hussein, the lawyer who brought the wrongful-death suit on the Corrie family’s behalf, said he would appeal the ruling within 45 days to Israel’s Supreme Court. At a news conference after the verdict, he showed pictures of Ms. Corrie taken the day of her death, saying “anyone could have seen” her bright garb.



“It’s a black day for activists of human rights and people who believe in values of dignity,” Mr. Hussein said. “We believe this decision is a bad decision for all of us — civilians first of all, and peace activists.”



In his ruling, Judge Gershon said the military’s mission that day “was not, in any way, to destroy homes,” but to clear brush and explosives “to prevent acts of hatred and terror.” He said the bulldozer was moving slowly, about 1 kilometer per hour, and that the driver could not have seen Ms. Corrie, finding “no base to the plaintiff’s claim that the bulldozer hit her on purpose.”



Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, called the verdict a “vindication” of the nation’s military and court systems.



“I empathize for the family, they’ve lost a loved one, who as the judge said was killed in a tragic accident,” Mr. Regev said. He dismissed as “simply without foundation” accusations that the Israeli courts are not independent, impartial and do not hold the highest professional standards.



Ms. Corrie, a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., joined the International Solidarity Movement in January, 2003, and spent the last weeks of her life in Rafah, the Gaza town that borders Egypt. In a Feb. 27, 2003, e-mail home, she wrote that 600 homes had been destroyed there since the start of the intifada. On March 16 she and seven other American and British activists acted as human shields, dropping to their knees between the bulldozers and a home they believed were marked for destruction. The verdict came more than a year after the last of 15 sessions of oral testimony, which began in March 2010. Some of the witnesses, including the drivers and commanders of two bulldozers that were operating in the area that day, testified from behind a screen to protect their identities. Ms. Corrie’s parents or sister attended every session of the trial, spending about $200,000 on travel, translating about 2,000 pages of documents, and other expenses.



“A lawsuit is not a substitute for a legal investigation, which we never had,” Ms. Corrie’s mother, Cindy Corrie, said at Tuesday’s news conference. “The diplomatic process between the United States and Israel failed us.” The United States Embassy, which sent a representative to the oral-testimony sessions, declined to comment on the verdict. In June 2004, a representative of the secretary of state wrote to the Corrie family saying the United States agreed with them that the military’s investigation was not “thorough, credible and transparent.”



In Washington, the State Department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said, “We understand the family’s disappointment with the outcome of the trial,” and noted that American diplomats “have worked with the family all through this process” and that they would continue to do so. She declined to discuss the remarks that Ms. Corrie’s family attributed to the American ambassador that the Israeli investigation had not been transparent. But on Tuesday, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, said in a statement that the United States government “has been noticeably absent, and its silence is deafening,” calling Washington “complicit in compounding the crime.” She also said that the trial had revealed “overwhelming proof that Rachel was deliberately murdered” and said that “Palestinians as a whole will continue to love Rachel and cherish her memory.”



Sarah Corrie Simpson, who has met with more than 200 Congressional offices in Washington about the case, said she remained convinced that the driver of the bulldozer saw her younger sister. “I hope someday he will have the courage to sit down in front of me and tell me what he saw and what he feels,” Ms. Simpson said.



In an interview before the verdict, Ms. Corrie’s father, Craig Corrie, said, “You don’t really close a wound like this, but it certainly is a big milestone.” At meetings across Israel over the past week, Mr. Corrie carried with him a picture not of his daughter but of the Palestinian girl, then 6, whose family’s house was behind Ms. Corrie when she was killed.



“I think this one in some ways is more hopeful,” he said of the picture. “She deserves a future that we all want for our children.”



Jodi Rudoren reported from Jerusalem, and Danielle Ziri from Haifa, Israel. Reporting was contributed by Irit Pazner-Garshowtiz from Jerusalem and Steven Lee Myers from Washington.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 28, 2012

An earlier version of this article misstated the proportion of witnesses in the case who testified from behind screens to protect their identities. Some did, but most did not.

© 2011 The New York Times Company

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