30-Aug-12: Who killed Rachel Corrie?

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An Israeli court ruled yesterday in a civil case brought by the family of Rachel Corrie that the government of Israel bears no responsibility for her death in 2003. Seeing the large number of angry columns that appeared in the last 24 hours arguing one side or the other, we felt no need to join the shouting match.

Then we read a slick, subjective, sneering and thoroughly sickening advocacy piece that appears today on the website of TIME Magazine. Concealing much more than it reveals about yesterday's judicial decision, it is authored by the magazine's Jerusalem correspondent Karl Vick. Vick is the husband of the woman who manages press relations for the Corries. We'll leave it to others to comment on the ethical dimensions.

Once we read the TIME piece, we realized we need to say something. So it's the trigger for our republishing here a brief extract from a factual, moderate-toned and modest contribution to the Corrie controversy written by Lenny Ben David. It's published on the Times of Israel's website [here]. If you read nothing else about the Corrie decision, read this one and pass the contents around.

From Lenny Ben David's article:

Numerous pictures of Corrie standing defiantly in front of an Israeli bulldozer appeared in the media, but upon investigation it transpired that not a single one was from the incident that killed her. Some were taken hours before the fatal incident with a different bulldozer; others were sloppy photoshopped forgeries. Why were there photos after she was injured and not before?Corrie was not the only member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who was nearly crushed beneath the bulldozer’s maw that day. Indeed, at least two – “Will and Jenny” – were pulled away by their colleagues at the last second.Immediately after Corrie’s death, several leaders of ISM were interviewed. They didn’t express horror or even sorrow. They spoke of peace soldiers’ sacrifices in battle and the PR benefits of an American woman dying at hands of Israel’s army. [More]

The life and death (by deliberate act of murder) of our daughter Malki deserves, but certainly has never gotten, at least a tiny fraction of the worshipful attention paid by journalists to the Corries and their daughter's accidental death. We're content that Malki's memory is honored by a foundation bearing her name that we created and that, daily, does measurable, concrete and quite unique good for families of special-needs children in Israel, whether they are Christian, Moslem, Jews or of any other faith. 

Thousands of them in the last ten years.