Israeli Court Denies Rachel Corrie Lawsuit

(Haifa, Israel) Back in 2003, a 23-year-old student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, Rachel Corrie, traveled to the Gaza Strip to participate in the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) effort against the Israelis.

During a protest in a war zone, Corrie died as she was run over by an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) bulldozer.

On behalf of Corrie's family, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed. The case was decided earlier today.

A Haifa District Court invoked the "combatant activities" exception, and said on Tuesday that the US activist who was killed in disputed circumstances involving an IDF bulldozer on March 16, 2003, while protesting an IDF home demolition in Rafah, could have avoided the dangerous situation.

The court nonetheless called her death a "regrettable accident."

In the verdict, Judge Oded Gershon invoked the principle of the combatant activities exception, noting that IDF forces had been attacked in the same area Corrie was killed just hours earlier.

The combatant activities exception essentially says that a country's armed forces cannot be held liable for civil damages for physical or economic harm to civilians in an area defined as a war zone.

A major point of contention was whether the bulldozer operator saw Rachel Corrie before running her over. The court held that "the driver had not and could not have seen Corrie because the bulldozer has an obstructed view."

An appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court has been promised by the Corrie family lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein.