Autopsy doctor admits to violating court order in Rachel Corrie autopsy

Rachel Corrie Foundation

14 March 2010

For Immediate Release:

Today 14 March 2010 the Haifa District Court saw the second full day of testimony in the civil lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza. Rachel Corrie, an American human rights defender from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death on March 16, 2003 by a Caterpillar D9R bulldozer. She had been nonviolently demonstrating against Palestinian home demolitions with fellow members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct action methods and principles.

In today’s hearing:

– Dr. Yehuda Hiss, the former head of the Israel Forensic Institute who conducted the autopsy of Rachel Corrie at the request of the Israeli military, admitted that he violated an Israeli court order requiring that an official from the U.S. Embassy be present during Rachel’s autopsy. Hiss also stated that his policy was not to allow entrance to the autopsy to anyone who is not a physician or biologist. Dr. Hiss stated that he spoke by phone with the US Embassy after receiving the court order and was told they would not be sending a representative, and that the Corrie family had agreed to the autopsy. Dr. Hiss admitted there was no documentation in his file of this conversation with the Embassy. The U.S. Embassy has repeatedly told the family that this was not the conversation that occurred.

– Dr. Hiss also disclosed that he had kept samples from Rachel’s body for histological testing without informing her family. Dr. Hiss admitted that he did not inform the family about their right to bury the samples and that the samples were likely to have been buried with other body samples from the Institute, but he was uncertain. This was the first time that the family of Rachel Corrie received confirmation that the Israeli Forensic Institute had indeed kept samples of her body, despite prior attempts to receive this information. Dr. Hiss has been the subject of a prior lawsuit in Israel brought by families for whom he did not return body parts and samples.

– The judge granted the Corries’ request to expand their punitive damages request, to include the failure to ensure that a U.S. Embassy official was present during the autopsy. In response to the State’s demand, the judge requested that the Corries specify the amount of claimed punitive damages. The Corries set the punitive damages at the symbolic amount of $1, stating that the court’s pronouncement of accountability and preventing future harm to others was more important to them than money.

– The judge granted the Corries’ motion to allow into evidence the medical report of Dr. Ahmed Abu Nikera the Palestinian physician who pronounced Rachel’s death in Rafah, Gaza. The State agreed to the admission of this report only after the judge granted the Corries’ earlier motion to allow Abu Nikera to testify via video conference from Gaza. In Professor Hiss’s testimony, he stated that Abu Nikera’s medical report was consistent with his findings, including the statement that Rachel had arrived dead at the hospital.

Today’s hearing also included the conclusion of Tom Dale’s testimony, a fellow ISM activist and eyewitness to Rachel’s killing.

Today’s hearing was attended by several observers, including Andrew Parker, the U.S. Embassy Consul General and human rights representatives, including Lawyers without Borders, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

Testimony will continue on March 15 from 9am-1pm, and on March 17 from 9am-4pm.

[Download this press release: http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/download/14]

In the Media

Associated Press, ‘Trial begins over death of US activist in Gaza’
CNN,
‘Parents demand answers from Israel in bulldozer death’
Democracy Now,
‘Civil Trial Begins over Israeli Army Killing of Rachel Corrie’
Guardian,
‘British activist saw Rachel Corrie die under Israeli bulldozer, court hears’
Ha’aretz,
‘State accused of whitewash as Rachel Corrie suit begins’
Ha’aretz,
‘State: IDF not to blame for activist Rachel Corrie’s death’
Ha’aretz, ‘Corrie’s sister to Haaretz: U.S. encouraged family to sue Israel’
Huffington Post,
‘Rachel Corrie’s (Posthumous) Day in Court’
Independent,
‘I saw Israeli bulldozer kill Rachel Corrie’
Ma’an News,
‘Israeli Defense Ministry goes on trial for Corrie death’
Reuters,
‘Family of slain U.S. activist sues Israel’
The National,
‘Corrie family finally puts Israel in dock over daughter’s death’
YNet News,
‘Dozens protest near Haifa Court in memory of Rachel Corrie’

Growing protests in the Gaza Strip against the imposition of the buffer zone

12 March 2010

Women demonstrate in Gaza.
Women demonstrate in Gaza.
Deep dissatisfaction with the Israeli policy of preventing access to the 300 metre belt along the border have resulted in a rise in number of weekly protests in Gaza and a significant increase in the number of people participating in them. This measure has made 30 percent of the best agricultural land of Gaza Strip off limits. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas of the world and farm land is already in short supply.

Farmers from the border areas have been particularly badly affected by the imposition of the ‘buffer zone’. Intimidation by the Israeli army patrolling the border, including shooting at farmers and bulldozing of the land, has resulted in the formation of a new organisation called Popular Campaign to Oppose the Buffer Zone.
The Popular Campaign has joined forces with the existing protests and in addition they have been organizing their own weekly protests in different areas alongside the border.

On Tuesday 9 March, the protesters form the Local Initiative Beit Hanoun were they were joined by farmers from the Popular Campaign, a large group of local women living in some of the most dangerous border areas and five ISM activists. This was the largest demonstration near the Erez crossing so far, with more than 150 participants. The marchers stopped about 50 meters away from the border wall near the previously erected Palestinian flag. For about an hour the the marchers held speeches and chanted demands for an end of the occupation and lifting of the siege.

Demonstration in Erez, 10 March 2010
Demonstration in Erez, 10 March 2010
On the next day, Wednesday the 10th of March, the Popular Campaign held the first demonstration near the Karni crossing, which was until recently the main entry point for the goods allowed into Gaza. Local residents joined the demonstration together with approximately 200 protesters including the 5 ISMers and stayed one kilometer away from the border. They where confronted by a Israeli army jeep which was later joined by a second jeep and by what looked like a surveillance vehicle. Even though the demonstration was peaceful the soldiers fire several warning shots to keep marchers at bay. Fortunately no one was injured and about an hour after the demonstrators dispersed.

Both events have received excellent media coverage and were reported on Aljazeera, PRESS TV and on a local TV channels and well as in the local press.

Call to action: Rachel Corrie trial in Israel

Rachel Corrie Foundation

8 March 2010

Friends,

Rachel nonviolently blocks Israeli bulldozers from destroying Palestinian homes along the Rafah/Egyptian boarder while volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement.
Rachel nonviolently blocks Israeli bulldozers from destroying Palestinian homes along the Rafah/Egyptian boarder while volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement.

As many of you know, a civil lawsuit in the case of our daughter Rachel Corrie is scheduled for trial in the Haifa District Court beginning March 10, 2010. A human rights observer and activist, Rachel, 23, tried nonviolently to offer protection for a Palestinian family whose home was threatened with demolition by the Israeli military. On March 16, 2003, she was crushed to death by an Israel Defense Force (IDF) Caterpillar D9R bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza.

The lawsuit is one piece of our family’s seven-year effort to pursue justice for our daughter and sister. We hope this trial will illustrate the need for accountability for thousands of lives lost, or indelibly injured, by occupation—in a besieged and beleaguered Gaza and throughout Palestine/Israel; bring attention to the assault on nonviolent human rights activists (Palestinian, Israeli, and international); and underscore the fact that so many Palestinian families, harmed as deeply as ours, cannot access Israeli courts. In order to deliver these interconnected messages as effectively as possible, we are asking for large-scale participation in the trial itself as well as in the events surrounding it. We hope you will join us for all or some of the events listed below and help us to put the call out to others.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10
9:00-16:00—Trial Begins in the Haifa District Court (12 Palyam St. Haifa)

A strong presence of human rights observers, legal observers, and others on the first day of the trial will send the message that this case is being closely monitored and that truth, accountability and justice matter to us all. Other trial dates are: March 14, 15, 17, 21, 22 and 24. Supportive presence at all court sessions is both welcome and needed!

FRIDAY, MARCH 12
13:00-15:00—Film Screening at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque (2 Shprinzak St. Tel Aviv)

Screening of the documentary film RACHEL followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Simone Bitton and the Corrie family. RACHEL is a cinematic inquiry into Rachel’s killing. It raises many of the questions that should be asked and addressed during the trial.

TUESDAY, MARCH 16
20:00-22:00—Memorial; Location TBA

March 16th marks the seven-year anniversary of Rachel’s killing. We hope to mark this day as a “Day of Conscience” with a large gathering that calls for truth, accountability and justice, in Rachel’s case and beyond. There will also be events in Gaza (at the Rachel Corrie Children and Youth Cultural Center in Rafah), possibly in the West Bank (TBA), and around the world. If you are not with us in Palestine/Israel, please think about how you and your group/community can be visible/audible on March 16.

Cindy and Craig Corrie
Cindy and Craig Corrie

We expect this to be a challenging time, but we know the friendship we have felt from so many of you over the years will help us navigate the weeks ahead. Though the course and outcome of the trial are unknown, we welcome the opportunity to raise and highlight many of the critical issues to which Rachel’s case is linked. Thank you for your continuing support.

In solidarity and with much appreciation,

Cindy & Craig Corrie

Protest of the Friends of the IDF dinner at the Waldorf, NYC

5 March 2010

For immediate release:

On March 9th 2010, The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a registered 501-(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that provides support and services to members of Israel’s national army, will be holding a gala $1,000 a plate fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria. The keynote speaker will be Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, IDF Chief of General Staff, who was responsible for the prosecution of last year’s Operation Cast Lead against the people of Gaza. At the same time as the dinner, a broad coalition of local groups will stage a mobile protest outside the hotel to highlight the crimes committed by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead and Israel’s ongoing illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.

WHO: A broad and diverse tri-state coalition, including peace and Palestine solidarity groups as well as grassroots community organizations and religious institutions. (Complete list below)

WHEN: Tuesday, March 9th, 5-7 P.M.

WHERE: Starting 53rd ST. and Lexington Ave. then moving through the neighborhood.

VISUALS: Hundreds of protesters dressed in black, carrying placards detailing war crimes and names of civilians killed by the IDF, and marching silently around the blocks near the Waldorf Astoria.

Gabi Ashkenazi led the Israeli military assault against the people of Gaza in Dec.- Jan. of 2008-9, in which 1400 Palestinians were killed, more than one-fifth of whom were children. This included forcing 100 members of the extended Al-Samouni family into a storage shed and then bombing the structure, killing 23 people. Under Ashkenazi’s leadership, the Israel Defense Forces attacked schools and hospitals and flouted international humanitarian law and the laws of war with regard to the treatment of unarmed civilians.

The protest outside the Waldorf Astoria is a part of the 6th International Israeli Apartheid Week.

Co-sponsoring groups include: A.R.T. (Activist Response Team), Adalah-NY, American Jews for a Just Peace, Brooklyn For Peace, Center for Immigrant Families, Codepink, Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism, Gaza Freedom March, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA, Jewish Voice For Peace, Jews Say No!, Judson Church, Middle East Crisis Response, National Lawyers Guild – NY Chapter, NYC Anti-War Coalition, New York Collective of Radical Educators, Post Road, Progressive Democrats of America, Regeneración Childcare NYC, WESPAC Foundation, Women In Black Union Square, Women of a Certain Age, Woodstock Veterans For Peace.

Endorsed by the Israeli groups: Coalition of Women for Peace, Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian Call for BDS From Within.

Picking pebbles to live somehow

Eva Bartlett | Inter Press Service

2 March 2010

They come by the hundreds every day to sand dunes and rubble sites to sift for pebbles, stones and sand that can be used in making concrete blocks. They lean into trash bins across the Strip, and wade through piles of rubbish scavenging for plastics, metals, and any bits worth reselling.

They venture dangerously close to the border fence to unlock metal and steel rods from their demolished home heaps. They are Gaza’s recyclers, and in a Strip where unemployment hovers at nearly 50 percent and poverty soars over 80 percent, environmental considerations are far from their minds. They do this work out of necessity.

Yousef, 14, leads two of his younger brothers in their daily hunt for concrete materials off the highway between Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.

“We live in Khan Younis and it takes about 30 minutes to get to this site. But we stop anywhere along the road to look for gravel,” he says, stooping to sort rocks. One of his brothers works in Gaza’s tunnels, another has no work. “I’ve got five sisters, too. There’re 12 of us altogether, and my dad has no work.”

Like many unemployed men in Gaza, Yousef’s father used to work in Israel, until Israeli authorities closed Gaza’s borders. Now, he infrequently works day labour for farmers when there is work, but the pay is low.

Moatassan, Yousef’s three-year-old brother, piles pebbles onto the donkey cart, adding his bit to the family income. “Each cartful is worth about 30 shekels (eight dollars),” Yousef says. “We can usually do two carts a day.”

He is characteristic of Palestine’s children who become adults all too quickly. “Al hamdilliah, thank God, this is at least some sort of work,” he says, never breaking from his rock sorting.

A few hundred metres south along Salah el-Din road, the soft sand hills are crowded with the day’s sorters. Children jab shovels into the sand, pile it into buckets, and laboriously haul the buckets to piles a hundred metres off. They do this every day, morning to night.

Older women sit, makeshift sieves dancing as they sift the finer sand, likewise piling it into buckets to be carried away. Abu Majed, a man in his late forties, works with some of his children digging and bucketing sand.

“I worked as a fisherman all my life. But after the Israelis started attacking us more on the sea, and prevented us from going out very far, there was no longer any point in fishing,” he says.

Under the Oslo accords, Palestinian fishermen should be allowed to fish 20 miles off the coast. Israeli gunboats impose a limit of three miles, firing and shelling on fishermen who venture near or beyond three miles, or even on those nearer in.

“We were sardine fishers, but sardines aren’t found next to the coast, you need to go out beyond six miles. What could I do? I have six children to feed. So I started selling sand and gravel. This is hard work and I only earn around 30 shekels a day. But it’s better than starving.”

Ninety-five percent of Gaza’s industry has been decimated by the combination of the siege – imposed shortly after Hamas was elected in 2006, and tightened in June 2007 – and by Israel’s winter 2008-2009 war on Gaza which destroyed or badly damaged 700 factories and businesses, according to Oxfam.

The nearly 4,000 industrial establishments which formerly operated in Gaza have ground to a halt, leaving a mere 5 percent of factories operating, reports the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), noting that even those operating do so at greatly reduced levels of activity.

The combination of siege and the war on Gaza led to a loss of roughly 120,000 private sector jobs since mid 2007, according to OCHA.

And while the full closure of Gaza’s borders and trade has become most severe in the last three years, Israeli journalist Amira Hass points out that Israel’s debilitating policy of Gaza border closures has been in place since the 1990s.

But to those scavenging off the roads and in garbage dumps, it’s the stark contrast between just years ago when there was some work and now, when there is none, that is the hardest.

Near central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, just off the main north-south road, five men work what used to be a 12-man job at the scrap metal yard.

“We work from 7 am to 7 pm, and another shift takes over,” says Mahmoud. “We earn at most 50 shekels a day. It’s not enough – we have to take taxis here and home and are trying to meet the expenses of our families.”

Prior to the siege, working from 7 am to 4 pm the workers would earn 100 shekels. The metal was exported, sold outside of Gaza. Now, the factory owner waits, collecting metal in heaping piles, waiting for the time when exporting will be possible again.

“We didn’t all work this job before. Some of us studied in university, some worked construction. We all had jobs or lives better than this,” says Mahmoud.

“But we take the work because there’s no other option. We need to live.”

The steel, gravel, sand and metals Gaza’s poorest now scavenge for a pittance of shekels used to come from Israel, at a cheaper rate than what it currently sells for.

According to OCHA, one ton of cement now costs 3,400 shekels versus the 350 shekels it cost prior June 2007.

Whereas construction materials made up over 50 percent of pre-siege imports, according to the Palestine Trade Centre, since Israel’s war on Gaza, only 0.05 percent of the monthly average prior to the siege had been allowed into Gaza as of December 2009. The siege prevents cement, piping, wood, glass, steel and metals, as well as all but less than 40 items into Gaza.

Even if there were enough cement, 20 of 29 concrete factories were damaged in the Israeli war on Gaza, along with 39 other factories related to construction, reports OCHA. With over 6,400 houses destroyed or severely damaged, and nearly 53,000 with lesser damages, the need for these materials is great. And the wait has been long. Displaced families continue to rent apartments most cannot afford to pay for, crowd into relatives overcrowded homes, or live in tents.

At a concrete factory using recycled rubble, hand-gathered gravel, and tunnel-imported cement, the prices are high and still at a loss.

“One cement block costs four shekels now. Before, it was one shekel,” says factory owner Abu Fadi. “Now we wait for one week for a pile of pebbles and rocks like this to reprocess into concrete blocks,” he gestures at the mound ready for processing.

“The cement we buy from Egypt is over three times as expensive since it comes through the tunnels,” he explains. “It’s absurd. Now, we pay 150 shekels per ton of gravel. But before, we used to pay people to take the gravel away.”

Gravel and cement quality, availability and prices are just some of the issues.

“Gaza has an electricity crisis now. So that means we can only run our machinery when the power is on. But there are usually cuts for eight hours a day. Twelve hours now. So we sit and wait.”

Down the lane is a small steel recycling shop. Donkey carts unload the rubble-scavenged steel and workers clamp and hammer it straight.

“It’s ironic. The demolished homes create a demand for building material. But at the same time, they provide the rubble and iron needed to re-build,” says Abu Fadi.

Ahmad, 23, quit university to work in the tunnels, bringing roughly 100 shekels a day when there is money. Some days his tunnel brings cement. This day’s cargo is gravel from Egypt. “A 50 kg bag of gravel will sell for 100 shekels in Gaza,” he says.

Sameh finished university and worked for two years before he became unemployed. “I joined my friends finally, gathering rocks and rubble near the border. We can sell one ton for 150 shekels, that’s 50 shekels per person. It’s hard, backbreaking work. I’m sore all over.”

Workers in the border regions suffer more than the strain of their efforts. Since mid 2007, at least 33 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli soldiers, including 11 children, as of August 2009. Over 61 civilians, including 13 children, have been injured, according to OCHA.

Shahin Abu Ajuwa (17) still has shrapnel in both his legs after an Israeli tank fired a dart bomb at him and his cousin Saber, 15, as they collected rocks and scrap metal east of Jabaliya, at the end of November 2009.

“We were over 600 metres from the border. We were in an area where many people go daily to collect metal and stones,” Ajuwa said. “The Israelis always see people working here, it’s normal.”

One of eight sons, Ajuwa has five sisters, and the 10 or 20 shekels he might have earned that day would have gone towards his family income.

“The doctors removed one from my leg, but there are still six more left.”

Some are abducted and detained by Israeli soldiers. Every week, news reports announce more rubble workers have been abducted by Israeli soldiers from within Gaza, including children, many of whom were beyond the 300 metres designated by Israel as “off-limits” to Palestinians.

The Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights reports such an incident on Feb. 10, when Israeli soldiers fired on youths gathering rubble 350 metres from the border. One of the three workers, 17-year-old Mohammed Suboh, was injured in the hand and chest by Israeli gunfire. All three were taken to Israeli detention. Suboh was released four days later.