Israel cleared of Corrie death

ISRAEL is not responsible for the death of American pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie, a judge in Haifa ruled on Tuesday.

An Israeli military bulldozer ran over Corrie in Gaza in 2003 causing her death, and ever since her family has been trying to prove that Israel, and not Corrie who positioned herself in front of the bulldozer, was to blame for the death – through calls for investigations and the Israeli civil suit that has just come to a close.

“I hereby determine unequivocally that there is no foundation to the plaintiffs’ claim that the bulldozer struck the decedent intentionally,” said Judge Oded Gershon. “This was a very unfortunate accident and was not intentional. No-one wished to harm the decedent.

“I was convinced that the bulldozer’s operator would not have continued to work if he had seen the decedent standing in front of the bulldozer, as he and his colleagues acted in similar circumstances earlier that day.” Gershon said that experts had ascertained that Corrie was not in the driver’s line of vision – a claim that her family denies.

The Corrie family’s lawyer claimed in a statement that the ruling “has given its stamp of approval to flawed and illegal practices that failed to protect civilian life”, adding: “In this regard, the verdict blames the victim based on distorted facts and it could have been written directly by the state attorneys.”

At a press conference Cindy Corrie, Rachel Corrie’s mother, said that Tuesday was “a bad day not only for our family but a bad day for human rights, for humanity, for the rule of law and also for the country of Israel”.

But Yisrael Beteinu, the party that controls Israel’s Foreign Ministry, issued a statement saying that the court’s decision should be respected, and represents “vindication after vilification” for Israel.

NATHAN JEFFAY

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