Navigate to News section

U.S. Backs Corrie Family Suit

Sister says a U.S. official encouraged it

by
Marc Tracy
March 12, 2010
Rachel Corrie’s parents(Wikimedia Commons)
Rachel Corrie’s parents(Wikimedia Commons)

In a pretty epic case of burying the lede (though it is in the headline), Haaretz published a profile of Sarah Corrie Simpson, the sister of Rachel Corrie, while waiting until the penultimate paragraph to reveal the real scoop: that (according to Simpson) an unnamed U.S. government official encouraged the Corrie family to sue the Israeli government over her sister’s death (which it did, last month)—was, in fact, the first person or entity to do so.

Rachel Corrie, then 23, was killed in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer while protesting in Gaza. The facts in dispute concern whether Corrie’s death took place in an active combat zone, and how visible Corrie made herself to the bulldozer’s driver. An Israeli probe cleared the driver and the authorities; the Corries, as well as U.S. authorities, don’t fully buy it. The civil trial is currently going on in Haifa District Court.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.