An Israeli civil court's decision to exonerate the Israeli Defense Force in the death of Rachel Corrie, was not a surprise.
Rather, the decision, written in Israeli narrative language, reinforces the obvious: Israel's judicial system has become a legal front that protects the power of Israel's military dictatorship.
The court's verdict blamed the victim with all the subtlety of a court describing a rape victim who invited trouble by wearing provocative clothing.
Gary Spedding, a Huffington Post blogger from Belfast, Ireland, writes:
"After waiting for almost ten years for today's court verdict the family of Rachel Corrie have left an Israeli court in Haifa this morning feeling the bitter sting of injustice from Israel's politicized justice system.
"Early Tuesday morning the Israeli court rejected accusations that Israel was at fault over the death of US citizen Rachel, who was crushed by an army bulldozer during a 2003 pro-Palestinian demonstration in the occupied Gaza strip.
"Summarising a 62-page verdict the Israeli Judge Oded Gershon noted Rachel's 'involvement with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM)' adding that 'ISM activists had even defended Palestinian families involved in terror, aiding, even if indirectly the activities of terrorists.'
"Further into the court decision the Judge absolved the Israeli military of its actions by claiming in his decision that, 'The army had not been involved in demolishing houses, just clearing an area of places from which IDF had been attacked.'"
Ha'aretz, a Jerusalem-based Israeli newspaper, described the death of Rachel Corrie in Israeli narrative language:
"At the time of her death, during a Palestinian uprising, Corrie was protesting against Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip."
Protesting during a Palestinian uprising? That's one way of describing her death. But what is a protest and what is an uprising? Who defines these terms? A different way of seeing her death was that Rachel Corrie was an American volunteer, working with the non-violent International Solidarity Movement (ISM), an organization that the state of Israel, the official keeper of the Israeli narrative, tries to smear with unproven "terrorist" connections.
Was Rachel Corrie protecting terrorists? Was this 23-year old from Olympia, Washington defending the home of a Rafah, Gaza, family from an IDF bulldozer, or was she protecting "terrorists"? The Haifa court does not offer an answer to those questions.
An ISM photo (above) was taken just before Rachel's death. Rachel is at the far right, wearing a brightly colored jacket. She does not look like a "terrorist," unless any American activist peaceably standing up against an IDF bulldozer, is automatically assumed to be a danger to the state of Israel. This is not the mindset of a modern democractic nation. It is paranoia in its most malignant, dangerous and acute form.
According to the JTA, "The global news service of the Jewish people," the "core issue" involved in the final verdict came down to a simple legal question.
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