Corrie Responsible for Own Death, Court Rules
The Rachel Corrie lawsuit ended Tuesday in Haifa with a ruling that Israel was not responsible for the pro-Palestinian activist’s death beneath a bulldozer in Gaza in 2003, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports.
Here’s The Associated Press’ version of the story, via The Seattle Times.
The reactions are plentiful, if not surprising.
Israel is satisfied with the ruling, while the attorney for Corrie’s parents says it was a “black day for human rights,” The Jerusalem Post reports. Here’s the attorney’s full statement, online at the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice.
A U.S. State Department spokeswoman said the American government understands the family’s disappointment and noted that the Corries can appeal, according to a Yedioth Ahronoth report that includes video from Reuters.
The Guardian, no friend to Israel, spins the ruling as a “dangerous precedent.”
The Jerusalem Post, on the other hand, hopes that people will focus instead on the real violators of human rights in the region.
For a video version of the tale, check out the Christian Science Monitor, which also has a long story.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer offers a Rachel Corrie slide show.
A Washington Post blog post covers some of the Twitter response (mostly using the hashtag “RachelCorrie”), including filmmaker Michael Moore, who calls the ruling “shameful.”
In short, don’t expect the ruling to change anyone’s mind about what happened. Corrie will remain a martyr for some and a deluded fool for others.
Elsewhere around the web:
• If you thought the Corrie case, more than nine years after her death, was a bit late, well, you’ll probably feel the same about this Reuters report: France is opening a murder investigation into the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004.
• Maybe this report from The Times of Israel is something everyone can agree on: Anyone who throws a Molotov cocktail at a car is a terrorist, Israel’s internal security minister says, regardless of the ethnicity of the thrower and the driver.
• Isaac, go home (and leave my old home). As of now, this is likely to be as bad as a Category 1 hurricane can be for New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. We’ll see Wednesday how bad that is.
• A Jewish sophomore at Michigan State University was assaulted early Sunday in East Lansing in what he says was a hate crime, including having his mouth stapled, although The State News says police aren’t convinced.
• Meanwhile, nine Jewish teens have been indicted in an attack on an Arab teen in Jerusalem two weeks ago, The Jerusalem Post says.
• Rodney Ho at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an interesting piece speculating on where Jewish DJ and Atlanta radio institution Mara Davis will wind up now that Dave FM is in its final weeks before becoming a sports-talk station. Her contract is up Friday, although Ho says her agent is negotiating for an extra month.
• Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Aly Raisman highlights the 2013 class at the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. Also among the eight inductees are Munich 11 weightlifter David Berger and former Pittsburgh Steeler tight end Randy Grossman.
• Migron was supposed to be evacuated Tuesday; it wasn’t. The Times of Israel looks at the West Bank settlement’s saga.
• One risk of all the attention on Iran’s nuclear program is that it draws attention to Israel’s nuclear program. Arab nations are hoping to turn the International Atomic Energy Agency’s meeting on Iran against Israel, The Times of Israel says. In case one Iran link isn’t enough to satisfy you, here’s a Times of Israel analysis on the state of the would-be, might-be, could-be Israeli strike. And The Jerusalem Post reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says peace with the Palestinians would be more likely if the Iranian nuclear threat went away.
• Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced Tuesday that he is fighting cancer for the third time, and, despite reports that the 82-year-old from Pennsylvania is seriously ill, he said he plans to win the fight, CNN reports.
• When visiting India, don’t miss the Hitler clothing shop, unless Jewish activists get the owner to change the name, Yedioth Ahronoth reports.
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