23 -YEAR -OLD RACHEL CORRIE was run over and killed by an Israeli bulldozer has she was protesting on behave of the Palestinians near the Gaza-Egypt boarder in 2003. Today her parents from America heard the judgement of the Israeli court that her death was an accident.
According to the judgement, Ms Corrie had brought the tragedy on herself by entering a closed military zone during the second intifada. Judge Oded Gershon rejected the lawsuit from Ms Corrie’s parents saying; “There is no justification to demand the state pay any damages”. Reading from his 162-page verdict, the judge said what happened had been a “regrettable accident” that could have been avoided had she obeyed the warning signs and a travel ban on the Gaza Strip. “She did not distance herself from the area, as any thinking person would have done.
The judge said that Ms Corrie had “consciously put herself in harm’s way. The driver of the bulldozer, in his evidence said he did not see Ms Corrie, or even knew he had hit her.
Judge Gershon gave the only verdict he could given in the circumstances. That Ms Corrie’s life which was taken from her at only 23-years of age, was a tragedy; but one which could have been and should have been avoided.
The only way in which it could have been anything other than a tragedy, would have been if the driver of the bulldozer had act deliberately to kill Ms Corrie; anything else comes down to a grave misjudgement being made by the young activist; and however tragic this may have been, the Israeli state was never culpable.
Even if the driver had deliberately killed her; he may be guilty of murder, but the Israeli state were not culpable in that murder. Ms Corrie had been warned to stay clear of the area and should have been guided by the travel ban – this what not New York after all.
If Ms Corrie had been physically dragged from the scene by an IDF soldier; then Israel would have been accused of an overreaction or, to use that old favourite of the left, “using disproportionate force”.
IN RESPONSE TO Judge Gershon’s verdict, Ms Corrie’s mother Cindy gave a press conference. Obviously the verdict upset her. “'We are deeply saddened and troubled by what we heard today in the court. This was a bad day, not only for us, but for human rights, humanity, the rule of law and the country of Israel.” She went on to declare; 'We believe the bulldozer driver had the ability and responsibility to see what was in front of his machine,'
At times like this, when a mother, still deeply distraught by the loss of a daughter, makes a statement to the media, it is the practice to feel only sympathy and put any criticism of what she says to one side out of respect. But as I watched Cindy Corrie’s statement and saw the woman; I do not believe she would want to zip peoples lips shut, if only in deference to her campaigning daughter. So I am, out of respect for this lady, now choosing to speak my mind on her comments to the media.
First of all, to say as she did, that she was deeply saddened and troubled by what she heard in court was wholly understandable; and if in her position I had to sit through such a verdict I would have been more than saddened or troubled, I would have been bloody angry. Where she displayed dignity, I would have displayed a mawkish sentimentality and whished the state of Israel removed out of existence.
This was indeed a bad day for the Corrie family. But for human rights, humanity, the rule of law and the country of Israel? I am sorry but I must take issue with such a broad statement. First of all, the state of Israel has nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to human rights, unless they are under the supervision of the European Court of Human Rights, as our own courts are. Palestinian homosexuals, for instance, find an exile within Israel after facing nothing but persecution in Gaza.
Where humanity comes into this is of course a matter of judgement; but Israel has been attacked on a daily basis by rockets from the Gaza strip; Israel has had to build a wall separating herself from the Gaza strip - a wall which has been compared to the Berlin Wall, as well as the wall that divides Protestant from Catholic in Belfast.
In the case of Israel, the wall had to be constructed because suicide bombers from Gaza were entering Israel and, Israeli fathers and mothers (like Ms Cindy Corrie) were left mourning their sons and daughters after the Palestinians, as Muslims, sought to lay claim to their 22 virgins after death through suicide.
Turning to the rule of law and the state of Israel; neither off which Israel need apologise for for what happened in 2003.
The state of Israel is a democratic nation, and as such the rule of law has to take pride of place. If not it is no longer a democracy. Uniquely, in that region of the world, Israel has a stable democracy - although the Arab world are doing their best to undermine and destroy it.
CINDY CORRIE’S statement to all the media gathered for the courts’ verdict cannot be left to bring shame on Israel. Her daughter, moved by idealism, sought to take up the cudgel on behalf of the Palestinians. How much she knew of the history of the region, I know not.
It is however my guess (and it is only a guess) that Rachel Corrie believed in supporting the underdog, coming from a liberal family (and this is also only a guess). She however, instead of campaigning on behave of the Palestinians in America, wanted to be where the action was. So she took herself off to Israel with little understanding of the realities on the ground.
In his summing up judge Gershon made reference to an organisation known as the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a body which seeks to advance the cause of the Palestinians, and which, apparently, Rachel Corrie had joined. The judge’s view was that the ISM, “abuses the human rights discourse to blur its actions which are de facto violence;”adding 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.”
In other words Rachel Corrie was being used as an American citizen. She was what Lenin once referred to as a useful idiot. She served her purpose. Today the case brought by her parents, and its verdict, is being seen throughout the world.
In a liberal West already dissatisfied (to put it kindly) with Israel, Cindy Corrie’s statement comes as a bonus that will be headlined within the liberal controlled Western media. The BBC, no doubt, will play it for all it is worth without any counter argument against the Corrie family.
Cindy Corrie disobeyed all the warnings. The driver of the bulldozer, whether deliberately or by accident, killed the young American, what cannot be denied is that Ms Corrie did ignore all the warnings, and therefore had to take responsibility for her own actions, and not through her parents pass it on to the Israeli state
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