Israel Fails The Smell Test In Regards to Corrie's Murder

Lying Judge Clears Israel of Blame in Corrie Death

 The revealing part of his decision is how Israeli Judge Oded Gershon described the totally non-violent International Solidarity Movement of which Rachel Corrie was a member. According to the Israeli site Ynet news he said it "abuses the human rights discourse to blur its actions which are de facto violence." and further that "This included an army of activists serving as 'human shields' for terrorists wanted by Israeli security forces, financial and logistical aid to Palestinians including terrorists and their families, and disruption of the sealing of suicide bombers' houses." 

With that fantastic collection of lies as the basis of his thinking it's a given that Gershon would dismiss the civil suit of the parents of Rachel Corrie and that's exactly what he did. Ynet news says the judge concluded because in 2003 there was a "war time situation" and that the IDF had tried to keep people out of the area the Israeli government bore no blame for what happened. 

Ynet news says that the judge said the ISM "specialized in disrupting IDF activity". This was absolutely true. The IDF was knocking down house after house in Rafah, killing people without mercy for no apparent end other than the usual "teach them a lesson". The International Solidarity Movement heroically tried to put it's bodies as human shield against IDF criminality. The ISM website is here. Israel bars anyone identified with the ISM from coming into Palestine/Israel. 

Comment: It's not even true that the IDF was keeping people out of the area. You know the drill. The IDF calls an area a "closed military zone" and keeps everyone out. Corrie and other ISM activists were in the area for hours and no effort was made to detain or remove them. 

Comment: Some of the "evidence" in the trial was laughable. The soldier who ran over Corrie and who then backed over her claimed he did not know that she had been run over until he heard it on the radio. The fact that other activists had run over to where she was buried frantically trying to dig her out could hardly have escaped his notice. The soldier was not identified by name and testified behind a wooden partition. This was done with the excuse that it would prevent retaliation one guesses. Of course, it also prevents the family from finding out if he was a Kahanists or other anti-Arab group or a habitual liar. 

Comment: Gird yourself and read the titles of the comments to the Ynet article The collection of racist, chauvanist, triumphant and ignorant remarks tells you all you want to know about common Israeli Jewish popular opinion these days. (Of course, there are also many small anti-racist currents among Israeli Jews in the apartheid state.) 

Just in. Here is the statement of the attorney for Rachel Corrie's family about on the verdict. 
In its report on the press conference held by the Corrie family in Haifa the Electronic Intifada wrote: "According to Human Rights Watch, the Israeli army demolished over 2,500 Palestinian homes in Gaza from 2000 to 2004; two-thirds of that number were in Rafah alone." At the time of her death Rachel was standing in front of the home of a pharmacist in which she sometimes slept. The home was bulldozed a year or so after Rachel's killing. 

Comment: The Israeli excuses for bulldozing homes change with the wind. Sometimes it's to break up tunnels where "terrorists" bring in weapons. Sometimes its to stop terrorists from using houses or it's revenege on a family for a supposed act of violence against in Israeli and on and on. The Guardian (UK) reports that the Israeli justice ministry stated in the case of the Corrie death ""The security forces … were compelled to carry out 'levelling' work against explosive devices that posed a tangible danger to life and limb, and were not in any form posing a threat to Palestinian homes. The work was done while exercising maximum caution and prudence, and without the ability to foresee harming anyone."