Key Witness Punches Holes in Rachel Corrie ‘Martyrdom’ Suit

A key witness testifying in the suit charging Israel with bulldozing to death activist Rachel Corrie in 2003 said in court Sunday it was an accident and that the young woman was either very ideological or simply “stupid.”

Retired Colonel Pinchas Zuaretz, who was a brigade commander in Gaza, told the judge in Haifa that the IDF operated correctly. "She was killed in an accident caused by her own negligence," he said. "Anyone who runs toward the fire either has very deep ideology or is stupid."

Corrie was a member of the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement and was killed during a demonstration against the demolition of a building used by terrorists to shoot at soldiers. A pro-Hamas flotilla boat was named after her.

Her family and ISM activists sued, based on the claim that the IDF deliberately killed her. Subsequent footage released by the IDF showed that Corrie was in a trench, out of the line of vision of the driver of the bulldozer. Zuaretz added that a pile of rubble hid her from view and that she actually was killed not by the bulldozer but by a concrete pillar that was struck by the machine and which fell on her.

ISM witnesses have said that the driver saw her but continued moving towards her.

Corrie’s parents, Craig and Cindy, are suing out of principle, demanding one dollar plus court costs. They said they did not accept the military investigation that ruled that their daughter’s death was accidental.

Cindy Corrie said that the trial has brought out inconsistencies in the IDF investigation, adding that "the two people inside the bulldozer disagree about where her body was placed after the incident happened.”

The hearings on the case have concluded with Zuaretz’s testimony, but a verdict is not expected until next April.

US activist death in Israel was accident: witness

A key witness in a civil case brought by the family of US activistRachel Corrie, killed by an Israeli bulldozer during a demonstration in Gaza, said on Sunday that she had caused her own death.

Retired Colonel Pinhas Zuaretz, a former brigade commander in Gaza, said a military police investigation into the March 2003 incident found no fault with the behaviour of the bulldozer driver or the officers supervising him.

"Their operational behaviour was correct," he told the Haifa courtroom, as Corrie's parents Craig and Cindy listened intently through interpreters.

He said the massive, armoured D9 bulldozer was demolishing buildings from which shots had been fired at Israeli soldiers in a highly dangerous zone near the Gaza-Egypt border.

Zuaretz was giving evidence on the last day of hearings in the action brought by the Corries, who are dissatisfied with the outcome of the Israeli military investigation.

They are suing the state of Israel and the defence ministry for one dollar plus costs.

The retired colonel said the bulldozer operator did not see Corrie because she was behind a pile of rubble, and that a concrete pillar among the debris had struck and killed her.

"She was killed in an accident caused by her own negligence," he said. "Anyone who runs toward the fire either has very deep ideology or is stupid."

Activists who witnessed the 23-year-old's death said she and others were acting as human shields to prevent a house demolition in the Gaza border town of Rafah for more than two hours and were clearly visible to the bulldozer driver.

Cindy Corrie told AFP that the military investigation was wound up despite inconsistencies in witness testimony.

"The two people inside the bulldozer disagree about where her body was placed after the incident happened," she said. "That was never reconciled yet they closed their investigation and found no fault."

Craig Corrie said that former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharonhad promised then US president George W. Bush "a thorough, credible and transparent investigation."

"It's still the opinion of our government as well as our family that that has never happened," he said. "I think this trial has brought forward a number of cases where we can show explicitly how poor that investigation was."

Judge Oded Gershon said he would deliver his verdict next April.