Corrie family’s wrongful death suit ready for trial

By ICEJ News

09 Mar 2010

A Haifa court is set to hear a civil damages case next week originally filed in 2005 by the parents of anti-Israel activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed under an IDF bulldozer in 2003 while trying to stop the giant machine from destroying underground smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza. Witnesses at the scene will join the Corrie family in testifying about her death. Corrie was a 24-year-old volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a radically pro-Palestinian group, when she was killed during an IDF operation in the Rafah area to collapse a home hiding the entrance to a tunnel used to bring in weapons to Hamas and other Palestinian terror militias. The Corrie family, who are from Olympia, Washington, is suing the State of Israel for $324,424 for wrongful death. The IDF Southern Command thoroughly probed the incident and closed the case without any measures taken against the IDF personnel involved, as the driver claimed he did not see her stumble and fall in the path of his massive bulldozer. According to the State, Corrie put herself in harm’s way in front of the approaching bulldozer and is responsible for the accident. Israel says its forces were holding legitimate military exercises in an area where civilians should not have been and thus the Damages Law may not be invoked.

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