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The tragic and needless death of pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie is a favorite of those who keep trying to portray Israel as no less brutal than the Palestinians. The story of her "murder" by an Israeli bulldozer driver still persists long after it has been debunked. Like Muhammad al-Durrah, the circumstances of her death were falsified and she became a symbol of the Palestinian "resistance" and Israeli "Nazism."
On March 16, 2003, Israeli bulldozers were clearing away foliage used to hide bombs and tearing down buildings that were covering tunnels used for smuggling arms from Egypt into Gaza. Refusing warnings to clear the area, Corrie, who was demonstrating with other members of the International Solidarity Movement, stood in front of an oncoming bulldozer and was crushed to death. Even though the driver of the bulldozer was exonerated, the Palestinians keep insisting that Corrie was killed intentionally.
They do this by making dubious claims and by making up evidence when they need it. They claim that a photo showing Corrie holding a megaphone "removes any doubt" that her presence was known to the driver. However, the same photo shows how tiny Corrie was in comparison to the size of the bulldozer. It is apparent that the driver could easily not have seen her, and that the sound of her megaphone reaching him through the noise and the distance was highly unlikely.
The Palestinians claim that "eyewitnesses" saw the driver kill Corrie deliberately. Yet a CNN report sheds doubt on these "eyewitnesses":
"She was raising her hands and yelling at the bulldozer driver to stop," [Huwaida] Arraf[, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement,] said. "The bulldozer driver paid no attention.... He buried Rachel with dirt, which ended up, obviously, knocking her down. Then he ran over her, and then reversed and ran over her again."
Other witnesses, however, reported that Corrie had scaled a pile of dirt but then lost her footing and fell backward behind it, out of sight of the bulldozer operator. The bulldozer continued moving forward, covering Corrie with dirt and then crushing her.(1)
Not letting the truth deter them, the Palestinians have circulated two more photos showing Corrie "before" and "after" the bulldozer accident and trying to make it appear as if the driver could see her. The problem is, the photos are deceptive. In the first photo a trick of perspective gives an inaccurate impression of the line of site between the bulldozer and Corrie. But much more important, the first photo is mislabeled, and does not even show the same bulldozer that was involved in the accident!
The photo's mislabeling is well known and was pointed out by several sources, including the New York Times: the bulldozer in the first photo "was not the one that killed her."(2) Nevertheless, the Palestinians continue to ignore this (and hope you will ignore it too), and still present the photos as if they showed the same bulldozer "before" and "after." Even today one can view this phony presentation on the International Solidarity Movement and Electronic Intifada web sites.
All of the photos mentioned in this piece may be seen elsewhere on this site, as well as further details of the Rachel Corrie hoax.
Truth clearly means nothing to the Palestinian Disinformation Campaign. Eyewitness accounts? Evidence? If you need them, just make them up.
March 2005
Notes
1. "Israeli Bulldozer Kills American Protester," CNN.com, March 25, 2003.
(return)
2. "Corrections," New York Times, March 26, 2003.
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Return to Palestinian Disinformation Campaign
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
Peace with Realism