Rachel Corrie, an American student activist and human rights defender from Olympia, Washington was crushed to death on March 16, 2003, by a Caterpillar D9R bulldozer while nonviolently protecting a Palestinian home from demolition by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Rafah, Gaza, as a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). At the time, the Israeli military was engaged in a widespread house demolition campaign along the border between Gaza and Egypt.
Seven and a half years after her death, her parents and sister will hear the testimony of the IDF bulldozer driver who killed her when he testifies tomorrow in Haifa as a witness in their case, Corrie v. State of Israel, a civil suit filed in March 2005. Due to what Cindy Corrie, Rachel's mother, calls a "deeply disappointing" court ruling earlier this month, the Corrie family will not be able to see the bulldozer driver during his testimony. Arguing that it was concerned about the security of the soldiers, the State of Israel requested that the bulldozer driver and certain other soldiers testify from behind a partition. The use of a partition blocks the Corrie family and the public from seeing the face and the body language of the bulldozer driver, and denies the Corrie family from seeing what Cindy describes as "the whole person" of the driver. The district court judge granted Israel's request, and the Supreme Court denied the Corrie family's appeal.
A request to modify the ruling to at least allow the Corrie family to see the witnesses was also denied, suggesting that the court felt it also had to protect the soldiers from the Corries. Cindy Corrie describes this ruling and the implications behind it as a "personal affront." As the lawyer for the Corrie family in this case, Hussein abu Hussein, said, the ruling "shields the soldiers from the discomfort of telling the truth in open court."
It is hoped, however, that this testimony will still provide some of the answers, if not the accountability, that the Corrie family has sought since Rachel was killed.
For more information on the on-going trial in Israel, see rachelcorriefoundation.org, and for more information on Corrie v. Caterpillar, see http://www.ccrjustice.org/.
This entry was written by Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) Senior Staff Attorney, Katherine Gallagher, who is currently in Haifa to observe proceedings in the civil case filed by the family of Rachel Corrie against the State of Israel. Today, the driver of the Caterpillar D9R military bulldozer that killed Rachel Corrie will testify, and a second report from Haifa will be posted. Katherine was part of the legal team in Corrie v. Caterpillar, in which CCR represented Rachel Corrie's parents and Palestinian families in a case brought against Caterpillar for aiding and abetting war crimes by providing the D9 bulldozers to Israel knowing they were used to unlawfully demolish homes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Full Article
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vincent-warren/live-from-corrie-trial-in_b_770337.html
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