Parents of activist killed in refugee camp criticize inquiry

Saturday, January 24, 2004

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DEARBORN, Mich. -- The parents of an American activist crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer in a Palestinian refugee camp criticized the Israeli government for not releasing the investigation report and renewed calls for an independent examination of their daughter's death.

Rachel Corrie, 23, of Olympia was killed March 16 while trying to prevent the bulldozer from razing the home of a Palestinian pharmacist in Rafah, along the border with Egypt. An Israeli army investigation concluded Corrie's death was accidental. Officials said the driver of the machine could not see the woman.

But Corrie's parents, Craig and Cindy Corrie, say Israeli officials are stonewalling efforts to release the report to U.S. representatives.

"What we want is what Prime Minister (Ariel) Sharon promised President Bush, an open and transparent investigation into Rachel's death. We haven't gotten that," said Craig Corrie.

"If (the bulldozer driver and the commander) are innocent, then there's no reason not to release the report and there's no reason not to welcome an independent investigation," he said shortly before a Michigan fund-raiser for the International Solidarity Movement, the pro-Palestinian activist group for which Rachel Corrie worked when she died.

Israeli officials view the group's activists as meddlers whose actions range from negligence to outright abetting of terrorism.

A message seeking comment was left with the Israeli Consulate in Chicago yesterday.

Cindy Corrie said that according to eyewitnesses to the incident, her daughter was atop a mound of rubble and was clearly visible to the driver.

"She stood her place and stared him in the eye. She thought he would stop, like they'd done in the past," she said. "But he didn't stop."

Joining the Corries at the fund-raiser was Brian Avery, a 26-year-old activist from Chapel Hill, N.C., who was hit in the face with machine-gun fire in the West Bank town of Jenin shortly after Corrie was killed. Another volunteer from Britain was shot last April while helping schoolchildren to safety and died earlier this month.

Along with helping to raise money for the International Solidarity Movement -- whose members often place themselves between Israeli forces and Palestinians -- the Corries are hoping to muster more support for the Rachel Corrie Resolution. The resolution, introduced in the House last March, calls for an investigation by the U.S. government into her death.

In the past 10 months, only 51 legislators have signed it. For the Corries, it has been hard to understand why so few have supported the resolution.

"What Rachel was doing was trying to call attention to the suffering of the ordinary Palestinian people. These were not the houses of terrorists that were razed," Cindy Corrie said.

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