The Corries are Back!

Cindy and Craig Corrie, the parents of the infamous Rachel Corrie, seem to love Israel. After losing their frivolous lawsuit against the Israeli Ministry of Defense, they are back for another visit! According to this web site, this time around they are coming in honor of the olive harvest:

The delegation focuses on the Palestinian olive harvest which takes place each autumn. The olive harvest is an occasion of particular cultural and economic importance for Palestinian communities and a time when tensions between Israeli settlers and Palestinian residents of the West Bank run high.

As a veteran Israeli I feel obligated to offer a little bit of friendly advice for Craig and Cindy. After all, they are in a foreign county and they do not understand our language and customs.

1) If you reach an intersection and the traffic light is red, do not cross the street. Wait for the light to turn green, look both ways to make sure that there are no cars coming and then, only then, cross the street with caution.

2) If you see a fenced off area with a sign that says, "DANGER CONSTRUCTION, do not jump the fence.

3) Do not try to block moving vehicles, be they tractors, trucks, automobiles or motorcycles.

4) Do not enter closed military zones.

By the way, for those of you who do not know, the Corries hail from Olympia, Washington, an area whose Native American inhabitants were decimated by white settlers in the 19th century.

Court Rejects Corrie Family's Law Suit Against the Israeli Defense Ministry

This was a no-brainer:

A Haifa court ruled Tuesday morning that Rachel Corrie caused her own death by intentionally remaining in front of an IDF bulldozer. Her lawyer said he will appeal the decision.

Judge Oded Gershon supported the IDF claim that the driver of the bulldozer could not see Corrie, who was protesting the 2003 demolition of homes in Rafiah, Gaza, which were being used by terrorists.

The court noted that the case of Corrie is sad but that the young woman, who was 23 years old, was fully aware that she was in danger and that she could have prevented her own death by moving out of the path of the bulldozer.

An article at ynetnews has some more details:

"I reject the suit," the judge said. "There is no justification to demand the state pay any damages."

He added that the soldiers had done their utmost to keep people away from the site. "She (Corrie) did not distance herself from the area, as any thinking person would have done."

He rejected a claim of negligence explaining that the bulldozer's driver had limited vision unlike Corrie. "She consciously put herself in harm's way," Gershon said. The accident had been self inflicted, he added.

In a 162-verdict, the Judge Gershon pointed to three entry bans and noted that the Philadelphi route had effectively been a war zone formally declared a closed military zone at the time of the accident. He mentioned that the US had issued an Israel travel advisory warning its citizens to avoid Gaza and the West Bank.

The judge added that the organization where Corrie worked "abuses the human rights discourse to blur its actions which are de facto violence. He claimed that it specialized in disrupting IDF activity. "This included an army of activists serving as 'human shields' for terrorists wanted by Israeli security forces, financial and logistical aid to Palestinians including terrorists and their families, and disruption of the sealing of suicide bombers' houses."

Judge Gershon also rejected the Corrie family's claims that Military Police had not done its best to investigate the incident.

Like I wrote, this is a no-brainer.

Update: Jerusalem Diaries has a translation of the court's decision.