Rachel Corrie: Media Issue Their Own Verdicts
August 28, 2012 15:09 by Simon Plosker
An Israeli court has ruled against a civil action taken by the family of International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie. According to an Israeli judge:
This was a very unfortunate accident and not an action undertaken with intent… The deceased put herself into a dangerous situation, standing in front of a large bulldozer in a place where the operator could not see her. She did not distance herself as a reasonable person would have done.
Corrie’s death, he said, was “the result of an accident she brought upon herself.”
Unsurprisingly, the verdict has made international news. The inappropriate headline of the day goes to the Daily Telegraph:
Contrary to the headline, it was not Israel absolving itself of all blame but the very credible and thorough Israeli legal system which had examined the case in great detail. There are plenty of times when Israeli judges have ruled against the state or the IDF and there is no reason to believe that the judge in this case did not come to his conclusions without prejudice.
This wasn’t enough, however, to stop Jon Snow, the UK Channel 4′s top news presenter from describing the verdict as “grim”:
Is Jon Snow expressing his distaste for the verdict? If so, perhaps he should stick to reporting the news rather than passing his own judgments.
Rachel Corrie even became part of a “cycle of violence” according to The Guardian. This part of Harriet Sherwood’s report stood out:
At the time – the height of the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising – house demolitions were common, part of an increasing cycle of violence from both sides. Palestinian suicide bombers were causing death and destruction with terrifying frequency; the Israeli military was using its mighty force and weaponry to crush the uprising.
So, according to The Guardian’s Harriet Sherwood, house demolitions to prevent Palestinian weapons smuggling fall into the same category as blowing up Israeli buses or cafes; Israeli measures to protect its civilian population are of the same moral equivalence as the Palestinian terrorism that deliberately targeted Israeli civilians; the death of Rachel Corrie in a tragic accident no different to the deaths of Israeli victims of terror.
And all of this as part of a “cycle of violence”.
This article is continued on Page 2
Josephine Bacon
4:31 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Jon Snow, whom I knew at LBC radio, is by no means a friend of Israel to put it mildly. The BBC chose Jon Donnison, another antisemite and (what they of course did not mention) their correspondent in Gaza (!) to report the verdict. The Corries are just trying to keep the propaganda machine going for as long as possible, no doubt they are heavily funded by Arab resources to keep this thing going.
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m
4:32 pm
Aug 28, 2012
RC was an naive leftist moron. You can’t walk into a store to steal something then on your way out run and break your leg, and then sue the store owner. You can try but you won’t get far. I think the driver of the bulldozer should SUE HER FAMILY for the mental anguish he has when she put herself in his way without him knowing, and then him accidentally hitting her. Imagine what it is like to have to live with that.
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Mark
4:40 pm
Aug 28, 2012
If you are STUPID enough to stand in the path of an operating bulldozer, where the driver cannot see you, you run the risk of being run down and killed. As the court’s decision stated, SHE “put herself into a dangerous situation, standing in front of a large bulldozer in a place where the operator could not see her. She did not distance herself as a reasonable person would have done.”
It boils down to: what a REASONABLE person would have done. Standing in front of an operating bulldozer clearly is not what a reasonable person would do. It’s what a MORON would do. No crime in being STUPID, and sometiems, being stupid can be costly.
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Claudia, Tampa FL
4:43 pm
Aug 28, 2012
No doubt this is a tragedy for the Corrie family and I pray for them in their pain.
They will never come to terms with Rachel’s bad decision’s because they share them. Especially when she is now a martyr for their anti-Israel cause. They will keep this going as long as they live, they have no other choice…to admit she was wrong would be admitting she died for nothing.
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Stuart Kaufman
5:01 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Rachel Corrie was a useful idiot, with an asterisk: if she didn’t understand the malevolence of those who put her in the path of disaster, she should have. It is hard to feel sorry for an idiot unless she was too stupid to understand. I feel no sympathy for this idiot, nor for her parents who have allowed themselves to be used by terrorists. There is a special level in Hell for useful idiots. Corrie is unquestionably toasting her toes there right now, waiting for her parents and the others who sympathize with her.
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jimmy
5:51 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Unfortunately, all self-hating left-wing Jews are useful idiots.
Tikkun olam, saving the world, is the only religion they know. In their twisted minds, everyone but Jews deserve to be ‘saved’.
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J Parry
8:47 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Mr Kaufman
If you had any idea at all that hell is real (which, in fairness, I very much doubt) you would be an even greater monster than Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden et al! Even without believing that hell exists, how can you gloat over the possible fate of this poor deluded girl! and her parents?
Do you know for sure if you yourself are safe from the fate reserved for all haters and rejecters of God (which, in case you think yourself a good candidate for heaven, includes many self-serving religious people who imagine they are in favour with the Creator)?
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lux
9:22 pm
Aug 28, 2012
More to the point, she lived out the liberal/left cult of death, just as Paul Berman described it (see Terror and Liberalism). I have always seen her death as a suicide. I was glad to see Judge Gershom had the perspicacity to intuit that himself. She was raised to hate Israel (it’s widespread in Olympia and the Puget Sound area). She was raised to think of herself as chosen, special, magical. Even though she could not function at an adult level in the real world–she couldn’t even complete an ungraded bachelor’s degree at Evergreen State College or hold down a job for more than a few months–she could cultivate lamblike martyrdom. Her parents’ guilt is now projected onto the D9 driver.
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Reese
5:47 pm
Aug 30, 2012
Rachel Corrie was brainwashed with propaganda by left-wing extremists who control the American mainstream media, American education system, American entertainment system. They are all to blame for her death as she is because they perpetually “report” lies & propaganda in favor of murderous Islamic terrorists & against Israel. Israel restrains itself to ridiculous degrees as Israel is bombed, pelted, denigrated in the media with lies CONSTANTLY for decades. It is ridiculous that these pro-terrorist/pro-Palestinian people repeat lies that have been propagated to the point that they actually believe they’re true. Just like Hitler said, tell a lie big enough & frequently to make it believed.
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Rachel Corrie: Media Issue Their Own Verdicts | Blogs about Israel aggregation
4:58 pm
Aug 28, 2012
[...] This article is continued on Page 2 [...]
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Jake in Jerusalem
5:00 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Rachel Corrie’s death was tragic. Few people seem to know, though, that she was also an anti-American anarchist. Search for the photo of Rachel Corrie burning an American flag in Gaza and see for yourselves. Her mother explains that act as Rachel’s protest against America’s war in Iraq. If the Corries were honest about this, they would pursue the Palestinian International Solidarity Movement which placed Rachel in that mortally dangerous position, disregarding State Dept Travel Advisories, the IDF’s military closure of that area and any reasonable person’s understanding of what is smart and what is not. PISM sends “useful idiots” into such positions routinely and is properly to blame.
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John Kervin
5:09 pm
Aug 28, 2012
I worked in a paper mill. One department managed the chip supply (wood chips to make pulp) and the hog fuel (bark & other waste products). The Hog fuel was handled with D8 Cat (Bulldozer). In our training upon entering the department, it was stressed to us all that it was essential to make sure you have the Dozer Operators attention, so he knows you are there.
Having operated the D8 Cat, I can say that forward visibility is extremely limited. Visibility at a 5-10 deggre angle from straight ahead is ok, but straight ahead, you’re looking at the covers for the engine. Visibility in reverse is 100%.
Maybe she thought she was in Tianamin Square?
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Josephine Bacon
5:10 pm
Aug 28, 2012
So Rachel Corrie was against the war in Iraq. This means that, like so many misguided people in the UK, she sided with Saddam Hussein and his vicious treatment of his own subjects – and not just the Kurds and the Marsh Arabs but many others too – which was no less brutal than Assad’s in Syria. Sadly, the war in Iraq was not fought to get rid of a ruthless dictator but to finish off what had not been done when he invaded Kuwait. The fact that the West allowed him to stay in power after the First Gulf War means they condoned his brutality. As for Rachel Corrie, an objective English court would come to exactly the same conclusion as an Israeli court but of course, there is no such thing.
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jimmy
5:55 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Left-wingers believe in the line “What if there was a war and nobody came?”.
As if deciding not to defend themselves against war is somehow going to stop the people that decide to make war against them.
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Adrian K
5:15 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Interestingly Donnison (who never seems to ask the right questions (for whatever reason) has been struggling valiantly to avoid taking the bait at the BBC presenters loaded questions. Either he is afraid Israel may feel his collar or else he really does see where truth lies.
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P. D. Weinstein
5:28 pm
Aug 28, 2012
You can add CNN to the list of those media outlets which presume that their prejudices are more accurate than the highly sophisticated and impartial Israeli judical system which rendered the guilty verdict.
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Adrian K
5:32 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Mark, I wonder whether the fact that she felt it was ‘reasonable’ to stand where she stood indicated how the Israelis reputation was not to take action against protesters and back off.
She knew the chances were 99% that the bulldozer would stop. Her actions speak volumes. Was she so brave as to act in a life endangering manner or was she convinced by past experiences that she would be OK. Either that or her handlers had convinced her. However she must have missed the sign “If you can’t see my mirrors, I can’t see you”
Sad really.
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Jake in Jerusalem
6:23 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Adrian, you’re onto something important here. “Protest tourism” is popular in Israel precisely because they have gotten away with so much that it seems like fun. Try standing in front of an American ‘dozer in Iraq or Afghanistan and see what happens! (Incidentally, see Youtube for how American troops drive Hummers in Iraq and drive their TANKS right OVER Iraqi/Afghani cars, flattening them.) Israel is a theme park by comparison. Oh, and “journalists” love Israel for the same reason – they can pretend they are “war correspondents” while enjoying their poolside drinks at 5-star hotels. Gaza is not a playground. Had Communist Vittorio Arrigoni understood this, he might still be alive…
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lux
9:28 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Jake and Adrian, you are exactly precisely correct. These stunts are attractive to the students cultivated by the ISM, or Corrie’s teachers at Evergreen, precisely BECAUSE they trust Israel to be civilized. The outrage is that this time, daddy was too busy fighting terrorism to notice one small naive terror tourist playing James Dean chicken with a piece of machinery weighing 60 tons or more, and a drawbar pull of 70 tons.
To put it another way, the Evergreen/Olympia doobie is no match for a Doobi, but Hamas and ISM sure do know how to play the martyr game. Particularly with their upscale American collaborators. Very very sad all around, but I too thought of Mister Prosser and Arthur Dent.
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Jim
5:36 pm
Aug 28, 2012
End of rachael corrie,
End of that pathetic story.
Long live Israel and her people !!
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Rudi
5:39 pm
Aug 28, 2012
the parents should have sued ISM and not Israel!
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Ray Cannon
5:39 pm
Aug 28, 2012
It’s worth finding out who is funding the Corrie’s and paying their expenses.
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Barry
5:44 pm
Aug 28, 2012
While i am sorry for the tragic loss of life, i can’t help but wonder just how stupid, and/or arrogant, one must be to stand in front of a military bulldozer during a combat operation in a war zone as if to dare the bulldozer to advance in its mission, regardless of whether or not the driver could see her. (and i don’t believe he did see her). Still, I’d have felt a little more sympathy were she to have been protesting the constant rocket fire emanating from (the now totally self-ruling) Gaza by standing out in an Israeli crop field, awaiting another volley of rockets. As Jake points out, she was no ordinary victim, she was a “useful idiot”, who’s agenda was rather anti Israel & US.
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SM ISAC
8:05 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Corrie was not only standing in front of a military bulldozer, but also playing chicken with her colleagues all morning. Joseph Smith is one of them who also doctored photographs to make it look like she was standing in front of a house about to be demolished. He also commented that Corrie’s death was worthwhile sacrifice to further their cause. ISM and “Palestinians” wanted someone to be a martyr. Remember one of the first things she did upon her arrival was to drag dead bodies for the purpose of making Paliwood propaganda movie.
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Adrian K
5:47 pm
Aug 28, 2012
You might think the BBC would be embarrassed to run this story in this way at the same time as 12 innocent civilians people got shmettered in a car bomb in Damascus.
So far Corrie is the lead story.
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Barry
5:55 pm
Aug 28, 2012
naturally its the lead story! 10,000 Syrians could be butchered by Assad and hardly a head would turn at the BBC, but if a dim witted anti Israeli/anti American anarchist puts herself in mortal danger within a combat zone and pays the price, it should be obvious to all that clearly the Israelis are the monsters that those at the BBC well know them to be!!!
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Luis M. Delgado
5:48 pm
Aug 28, 2012
I saw the BBCworld coverage of the story at 6:30 AM (Peruvian time). After reading the news succintly in the usual way, they presented the reaction of Corrie’s parents who, of course, put all the blame on Israel. Everything seemed right to that point. But what did the BBC do next? Did they present the other side of the story for us to know? No, the gave more of the same Palestinians-as-victims narrative, this time from their own ‘impartial’ correspondent witness. This witness took several minutes to explain how it was impossible -from his point of view- that the Israeli tank did not see her presence. He implied, without explicitly saying it, that the Israeli soldier drove his tank deliberately on the poor girl, with the intention to kill her. That soldier must be a monster to do something like that! (what else can we make of his assertion that her death could not have been an accident?). Not a single second did the BBC stop to ask why she entered a combat zone and put herself so recklessly in danger, nor what cause she was realy defending or the big context of this terrible accident. It’s a shame that a channel that is viewed all around the globe be so partial when it comes to Israel.
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Barry
6:20 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Were it any news outlet OTHER than the BBC, one could suppose that they took that unbalanced approach to sensationalize the story, or to elicit anguish for the suffering family. But knowing what we do of the BBC, they do their best to further their own biased agenda in tarnishing Israel & casting it in the worst possible light. Never mind that this “victim” was a professional anarchist & protester. Never mind that she willfully inserted herself into an active war zone and placed herself in mortal danger. Never mind a total lack of common sense on her part. And, never mind a callous & cynical manipulation by her “handlers” in the “use” of this aptly labeled “useful idiot”. Never mind facts.
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GoonerEll
5:54 pm
Aug 28, 2012
I have a colleague who told me she very nearly got caught up in a similar “solidarity” movement for one of the many oppressed minorities in Turkey. Fortunately, she was able to extract herself before she got into any real trouble, but her story of the methods used is terrifying. It all starts with a very reasonable request for support for a people who are clearly in difficulties, but once you’re in, they railroad you to participating in dangerous stunts in an attempt to raise their profile. The ISM did just this with RC, but she obviously didn’t have my colleague’s ability to see through the ruse.
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tomsk
6:17 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Sadly If I went out to play on the motorway (freeway) I would be dicing with death and more than likely end up brown bread, this young lass has done much the same and the result is her dying for the cause of islamic terror. One can not stand up against a steel bulldozer and hope to come off victorious, the bulldozers are there because of islamic terror.
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Barry
6:33 pm
Aug 28, 2012
You present a series of inconvenient facts! What place do they have in an article published by the BBC or to those who find automatic blame on Israel’s part for just about everything… including bad weather, or shark attacks. It is obvious to all that a “time out” should have been called on the battlefield and that this anarchist should have been escorted to safety by the referee. It is clear to me and others, that everyone driving a military bulldozer in a combat operation should expect the occasional anarchist to pop up before them and prepare themselves accordingly. We need to conserve our anarchist, as they won’t last forever. And then, who will defend the terrorist? Such a shame…
Hot debate. What do you think?
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J Parry
8:58 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Barry, I don’t think those who gave you a thumbs down realise that you were being sarcastic. At least I hope you were
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Barry
9:08 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Yes, I realized after a little while that maybe the way I phrased things might have been a little difficult to interpret, especially if one is scanning quickly through the comments. Perhaps I was a bit overly sarcastic. Thanks for your comment, I do appreciate it.
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stubs
7:23 pm
Aug 28, 2012
Am I the only one who thought of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with this entire mess, when Arthur Dent tried to stop the bulldozer just before the Vogons destroyed the Earth?
Prosser: Have you any idea how much damage this bulldozer would suffer if I were to let it roll straight over you?
Arthur Dent: How much?
Prosser: None at all.
She is Arthur Dent
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