This message contains but 2 items—both about the Rachel Corrie trial session yesterday. I’ve read about a dozen reports (Haaretz, Ynet, Guardian, LA Times, NY Times, e.g). The 2 below are, I believe, the most thorough and revealing.
The Al Jazeera report is more a reaction of the journalist to the trial (as the title suggests), but I learned from it why there was no room for myself and my spouse. Well, actually the fact that the defense filled the room with its observers is only part of the reason. The room for the trial is one of the smallest ones in the building, with 2 rows, each seats about 15 people. Undoubtedly, whoever assigned the room knew that this would be a trial that would draw numerous media people, friends of the Corries, and general well wishers. The fact that the room selected was among the small ones tells us something about what we can expect.
The Independent, by contrast to the briefer Al Jazeera report, furnishes some background and fills in more details than the other reports that I have seen.
From the way the trial has been going, the chances are very small of the Corries seeing justice at the end. May I be proven wrong.
Another message from me follows this one—the Shadi Fadda compilation. I am sending it for 2 main purposes: (1) so that you have some idea of how things are going during the olive harvest and the demonstrations against the route of the wall, and what is happening in East Jerusalem. (2) so that you can watch a brief video of how students at one institution of higher learning quietly taught Israeli soldiers who came to speak to them that they were not wanted. It takes but a few minutes—3 or 4. Do watch, please.
If you read nothing more of Shadi’s collection than the summaries, you will learn much more than had you not read them.
“Does anyone know the Hebrew word for ‘occupation’?” A question from the state assigned Hebrew translator to the packed out courtroom.
And that kicked off the trial into the killing of US activist Rachel Corrie, which took her family seven years to secure.
Today, several months later, we were back at Haifa District Court to hear from the Israeli soldier who was driving the bulldozer that killed Rachel whilst she was peacefully protesting against Palestinian home demolitions in Gaza in 2003.
And hear is all we could do – thanks to an unusual request filed by the state, and accepted by the judge, the driver and other soldiers testifying in this case have done so behind a dark screen to protect their identity (for “security” reasons).
I can’t tell you the driver’s name (there is a gag order) but I can say that he is a Russian immigrant to Israel that, ironically, shares the same birthday as Rachel.
It was a long and painful testimony, the driver answering the questions with variations of the phrase: “I don’t remember.”
He couldn’t even recall the time of day Rachel was killed and claimed he did not realize when he knocked Rachel down and drove over her with his four-tonne Caterpillar bulldozer.
Presumably, he also didn’t realize when he then backed up over her a second time crushing her body with his blade.
For Cindy Corrie, a retired music teacher from Olympia, Washington, that was the hardest part of the day: “Hearing the man who killed my daughter, without a shred of remorse in his voice, say he couldn’t remember when it happened.”
As Cindy says, even if he did it by mistake, how could he not recall the time of day he killed a 23-year-old girl?
Apart from the fact that it took five years from the time the Corries filed the lawsuit to the trial date – the court procedures and last minute changes by the Israeli state attorneys are simply embarrassing for a country that claims to be a democracy and practice the rule of law.
Sub par translators, erratic trial dates and a judge that stops proceedings because he has made other appointments (as happened today cutting the session short by two hours) have delayed the trial and frustrated everyone.
The Corries, journalists and rights groups were told they could enter the courtroom at 9am this morning.
At 8.15am the state filled the room with its “observers”, which meant apart from the family and their lawyers, only three or four journalists were allowed (in rotation) into the trial room to listen and report on what was happening.
I was inside for barely half an hour – just enough time to hear the driver make the point that he was simply following orders.
His superiors, he says, gave him instructions to continue with the demolitions despite the civilians protesting by the houses.
And therein lies the reason why this trial is so important.
It is not looking to blame or hold to account the soldier that dealt the final blow to Rachel.
The Corries are suing the state of Israel, for a nominal one dollar, for allowing, and at some points encouraging, its soldiers to act with impunity.
Whether they are preventing an aid ship from getting to Gaza, or in Rachel’s case stopping an activist defending a Palestinian accountant’s home, Israeli soldiers too often act with force, which shows they believe they are above the law.
And, as will be shown if the Corries lose this case, it’s because Israeli law will always protect them.
===========================
The Independent,
22 October 2010
Bulldozer driver insists he did not see Rachel Corrie
Israeli behind crush death testifies from behind a screen
The family of Rachel Corrie had a long and painful wait for the opportunity to come face to face in court with the driver of the Israeli Army bulldozer that crushed her to death in southern Gaza more than seven years ago. But yesterday they were denied the chance – listening instead to the driver’s voice from behind a screen during four hours of testimony as he gave his own version of what happened on that fateful March afternoon.
They heard the 38-year-old insist repeatedly that the first time he had seen the American non-violent activist was after he had gone into reverse, she had been fatally hit and friends had rushed to her aid. “I didn’t see her before the incident,” the Russian-born former reservist said. “I saw people pulling the body from the earth.”
The former driver, named in court only as YB after a gagging order forbidding publication of any identifying details, was visible only to the lawyers and the judge presiding over the civil suit being brought by the family against the State of Israel.
Ms Corrie had been in Rafah in 2003 as part of an International Solidarity Movement group seeking to protect Palestinians from house demolitions when she died. An army investigation concluded she was partially hidden behind a dirt mound and ruled her death was an accident. The driver and his commander were not charged or tried and no one was punished.
The driver said at one point yesterday that he heard over his headphones that he had hit a person. “I drove backwards and I didn’t understand what was happening. There was a thought that something wasn’t right. I wasn’t sure. There was just a possibility I had hit someone.”
Ms Corrie’s mother Cindy said after yesterday’s hearing that the family had appealed for at least herself, her husband and Rachel’s sister to be allowed to see the former driver give evidence, but had been refused.
“I do feel the state of Israel is saying that Craig, Sarah and I are security risks. I am affronted by this. I wanted to see the whole person, not just hear the words.”
The driver’s evidence painted an at times confusing and contradictory picture which exposed apparent deviations from statements made by witnesses – including himself – to a Military Police investigation.
While two soldiers had said she was buried while standing on the far side of a mound of earth – away from the approaching bulldozer – YB declared: “I am absolutely certain that she was between me and the pile.”
He said that with protective armour on the front of his 66-ton bulldozer, he had a “dead” area of vision which meant that he could see ground only from about 30 metres in front of him. When he was reminded that he had told the military police that the dead area was only three metres, he insisted: “It’s not three or four metres. It’s more.”
On the fact that he had not gone to help Ms Corrie as she lay on the ground he said: “We are not allowed to leave our vehicles.” Asked why he had not radioed for an ambulance, he said: “It was not at my level of command.” He acknowledged that he knew there were foreign activists in the area.
When the family’s attorney, Hussein Abu Hussein, put it to him that he had nevertheless been ordered by his commander to keep working, he insisted that he had seen no one in his path.
He added: “I told him that there are people around. Our instructions were not to stop and we can’t allow them to stop us working. It was not my decision, it was the officer’s. I am a soldier. You carry out orders.” His unit had been told, among a “whole bunch of things”, to be “careful” and that there were civilians in the area.
Asked later in his testimony if he had seen the foreign activists carrying anything that suggested they were “terrorists” he said: “They were carrying loudspeakers and a sign.” Asked further if he had suspected they were dangerous, he said: “I suspect everyone.”
Mrs Corrie said: “I wanted to keep Rachel’s humility and compassion for everyone in my heart but it was very hard because I did not hear one word of remorse from the witness today.”
She added: “My sense is that there were other people on the ground and in the rear who were giving the orders… and allowed the things that happened to Rachel and continue to happen.”
In the firing line…
Tom Hurndall
Tom Hurndall, a 21-year-old British photojournalism student and volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) – the same organisation for which Rachel Corrie worked – died in January 2004, nine months after being shot in Gaza by an Israel Defense Forces sniper. Taysir Hayb was convicted of manslaughter by an Israeli military court in 2005.
James Miller
Just three weeks after Tom Hurndall’s shooting, another Briton, the documentary-maker James Miller, was shot and killed in the Gazan city of Rafah. His film, Death in Gaza, depicted Miller and his colleagues carrying a white flag as they walked through a refugee camp. The Israeli army decided that the soldier suspected of firing the shot would not be indicted as they could not establish for certain that his shot was responsible.
Tristan Anderson
Another ISM volunteer, the American Tristan Anderson, was critically injured after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops in March last year, as they tried to disperse a demonstration. Anderson underwent emergency brain surgery in Israel, where doctors had to remove part of his frontal lobe and fragments of shattered bone. Anderson’s girlfriend, an American-Israeli, said he was taking photographs when the canister was fired. After more than a year in a Tel Aviv hospital, Anderson returned home to California.
Several Israelis participating in demonstrations against theft of Palestinian land have also been injured. Many more Palestinians have paid with their lives and injuries.
