Israeli Supreme Court Upholds the Military Murder of Rachel Corrie
February 16, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On February 12, the Supreme Court of Israel dismissed the appeal of Cindy and Craig Corrie in the wrongful death case of their daughter, Rachel Corrie.
Rachel was from Olympia, Washington, and was 23 when she was murdered by the Israeli army in 2003. She was taking part in an International Solidarity Movement protest in Gaza against the illegal destruction of Palestinian homes by the Israeli occupiers. The protest aimed to shed light on Israel's brutal destruction of Palestinian society and the continuing project of ethnic cleansing that has been underway since the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel. (For more on the nature of the state of Israel, see the special Revolution issue, Bastion of Enlightenment or Enforcer for Imperialism: The Case of Israel)
Standing in front of a targeted home, Rachel Corrie was brutally crushed by a U.S.-made Caterpillar bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier. After this outrageous killing, Rachel's parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, along with many other people, launched a campaign for justice for Rachel and to continue Rachel's work in resisting oppression. (See Revolution Interview with Cindy and Craig Corrie, October 10, 2010.)
In 2012, nine years after Rachel was killed, an Israeli court ruled that the Israeli army was not responsible, despite numerous eyewitness accounts that Rachel was clearly visible to the bulldozer driver and the revelation in court that the Israeli army had a standing “shoot to kill” order against any adult in this zone.
A statement by Rachel Corrie’s family said: “It will take some time before we have ability to read the decision in English and to process all the court has said. Nevertheless, it is clear that this decision affirming the August 2012 lower court finding amounts to judicial sanction of immunity for Israeli military forces when they commit injustices and human rights violations.”
The story is painfully familiar for far too many people around the world, including in the U.S. In a world dominated by capitalism-imperialism, far too many lives have been stolen by armed enforcers of the oppressive setup; far too many families have suffered the traumatic loss of loved ones; far too many times the authorities responsible have blatantly claimed they have no blame; far too many times the blame is leveled against the victim by a system that declares itself “not guilty.”
Rachel Corrie was a fighter for justice who had made the cause of the Palestinian people her own. She was standing up and standing firm, and she paid the ultimate price for not backing down from what she knew was right. Though justice has been denied her for now, her sacrifice has helped many people around the world to see the bloodthirsty hypocrisy and the actual nature of the state of Israel—a power that is founded on driving nearly a million people from their homes and stealing their land, and has been committing murder and war crimes on a huge scale to expand its occupation, right down to today. All this while serving as a military fortress to help U.S. imperialism enforce its domination in the region and around the world.
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