Eye Witness Testifies in Rachel Corrie Case, says Israeli Military Tried to Morph Truth
March 15, 2010 posted by Johnny Punish · 2 Comments
Eye Witness Testifies: Israeli Military Investigator Tried to Influence My Statement
Today, March 15, 2010, the Haifa District Court saw the third day of testimony in the civil lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza. Rachel was crushed to death on March 16, 2003 by a Caterpillar D9R bulldozer.
She had been nonviolently demonstrating against Palestinian home demolitions with fellow members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct action methods and principles.
Today’s only testimony came from British citizen Alice Coy, a nurse, who was an eyewitness to the killing. The state spent most of the day trying to establish that contrary to all eyewitness accounts and human rights reports, the Israeli Military had no intention of demolishing homes in the area on the day Rachel was killed.
Ms. Coy testified that:
- She first visited Israel in order visit Israeli family members.
- When the Israeli Military interviewed her on April 1st about Rachel’s killing, the soldier who documented her testimony refused to record her statement that she believed the bulldozers were going to destroy civilian homes.
- She believed the Israeli Military was planning to demolish homes on the day Rachel was killed because the Israeli Military had been demolishing homes on the Philadelphi Corridor in the days and weeks prior, and because they had already begun to demolish a house earlier that day by damaging its porch.
- She had spoken with many Palestinian families in the area where Rachel was killed whose homes had been demolished by the Israeli Military.
- She believed the bulldozer driver who killed Rachel could see her.
- She described her view of her work with ISM as promoting peace for the whole region.
The home Rachel Corrie was protecting, that of Dr. Samir Nasrallah, was in fact demolished by the Israeli Military later that year.
According to an October, 2004 Human Rights Watch report, Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip (http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11963/section/11), between 2000 and 2004, the Israeli Military demolished over 2,500 Palestinian houses in Gaza, nearly two thirds of which were located in Rafah, resulting in more than 16,000 people – over 10% of Rafah’s population – losing their homes. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, in its 2004 report Through No Fault of their Own, found that contrary to Israel’s claim that prior warning is given before a home is demolished, occupants were given prior notification in a mere 3% of the cases.
The Human Rights’ Watch report further documented that most of the destruction in Rafah occurred along the Israeli-controlled border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor, the area where Rachel was killed. During regular nighttime raids and with little or no warning, Israeli forces used armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozers to raze blocks of homes, incrementally expanding a “buffer zone” that is currently up to three hundred meters wide.The pattern of destruction strongly suggests that Israeli forces demolished homes wholesale, regardless of whether they posed a specific threat, in stark violation of international law.
The trial will resume on Wednesday, March 17, 2010, at 9 a.m. at the district court in Haifa.
For more information, visit http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/trial
When is Israel going to bring up the fact that the International Solidarity Movement expressed motives for wanting Rachel Corrie dead (for publicity purposes) and also that it knowingly, willfully, and recklessly endangered her life as demonstrated by its own public statements? From the Electronic Intifada at http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml
“Picture taken between 3:00-4:00PM, 16 March 2003, Rafah, Occupied Gaza. Rachel Corrie (L) and Nick (R) oppose the potential destruction of this home (to the west of the Doctor’s home where Rachel was killed). In the instance pictured, the bulldozer did not stop and Rachel was pinned between the scooped earth and the fence behind her. On this occasion, the driver stopped before seriously injuring her.”
In other words, Rachel was almost killed by a bulldozer in a similar act of civil disobedience, thus making it eminently clear to a “reasonable person” just how much danger was involved–but the ISM allowed or encouraged her to do the same thing again. She was an adult and therefore responsible for her own decisions, but at what point does the organization to which she belongs become responsible–definitely morally if not legally–for encouraging her to do something like this when it KNOWS the risk? The photo was taken by Joseph Smith, who on two occasions said just how good Rachel’s death was for his cause. From http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-22-2003-37821.asp (“Making of a Martyr”)
“‘We knew there was a risk,’ Smith said, ‘but we also knew it never happened in the two years that we (the ISM) have been working here. I knew we take lots of precautions so that it doesn’t happen, that if it did happen it would have to be an intentional act by a soldier, in which case it would bring a lot of publicity and significance to the cause.’”
Note that (1) the ISM KNEW THERE WAS A RISK (a fact emphasized by Rachel’s close call with another bulldozer as reported by Smith on the EI page) and (2) Smith expressed the ISM’s motive for wanting Rachel or another activist to be killed or seriously hurt in a confrontation with the IDF. To this add, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/14/MNGBS7L5V71.DTL
“When Palestinians get shot by Israeli soldiers, no one is interested anymore,” Rishmawi said. “But if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice.” (ISM leader George Rishmawi expresses a motive after the fact for wanting Rachel Corrie dead.)
The bottom line is that, if the ISM had not allowed or encouraged Rachel Corrie to play “chicken” with a heavy construction vehicle, she would still be alive. It is especially disturbing that, after the ISM raised the issue of “murder,” two of its members expressed a motive for wanting the decedent dead. (As did the Palestinians with whom they were working.)
Note also the pictures of the injuries to her head, which a hard hat–mandatory in construction zones even if you aren’t playing chicken with the bulldozers–might have prevented or mitigated, and possibly made the difference between life and death. (Her back was reportedly broken, which might or might not have left her a paraplegic, but at least she would be alive.) The ISM recklessly and irresponsibly failed to provide one, thus reinforcing its carelessness and indifference to the safety of its activists.
Hey, get with the program! You’re supposed to be writing about throat-slitting Muzzies and those nasty Iranians.
Yep, the shit’s getting ready to hit the fan. Israel has been shooting up Palestinians, stealing more land, sending troops into Lebanon and now this. All of which never get reported on CNN or FUX or the NYT…. and getting ready to tear down a mosque in the Occupied West Bank.
When they finally fight back, then CNN and FUX reports on it as the Palestinians or Lebanese being the aggressors. Israel’s got a BIG drinking water shortage and they want an excuse to invade Lebanon, AGAIN and steal that country’s River Litani, which is located in southern Lebanon.
By the way, Israeli gunboats entered Lebanese water and fired at Lebanese fishing boats yesterday. Not a single word in the Western or Saudi press.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/03/not-in-us-press.html
Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.
The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US government signed a contract in January to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/final-destination-iran-1.1013151
Nothing like CNN and the NYT ginning up a war against one of Israel’s ‘existential’ enemies to take the heat off the Goldstone Report and the Corrie trial.
They’ll whip Americans into a Muzzie hating frenzy so we’ll be cheering the death and destruction when those smart bombs start blowing apart people in Iran and Israel sends in the IOF to invade Lebanon, AGAIN and steal that nation’s River Litani.