From: Andrew Clough (aclough@mit.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 17 2003 - 23:59:36 MST
At 10:19 AM 3/17/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>From: Michael Wiik [mailto:mwiik@messagenet.com]
> > That's interesting, as the Israeli army has admitted it was
> > an accident. Apparently this was an armored bulldozer with
> > restricted vision.
>
>When I heard about this I assumed it was an accident too. However,
>below is a link to a site with pictures of the incident. You can see
>Rachel Corrie standing on a mound with what appears to be a direct
>line of sight to the driver. She's wearing a bright safety-orange
>jacket and has a megaphone pointed at the driver.
>
>After seeing this, and hearing eye witness reports, I believe this was
>an act of murder. Possibly the bulldozer driver thought she was
>"just" a palestinian, and who would really notice or care if he killed
>one of those in the course of his job?
>
>Here's the site with the pictures. Warning: there are a couple shots
>of her after being run over. Also, this is clearly a biased site, but
>the pictures speak for themselves.
>
>http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml
>
>mez
When I first visited the sight, I too was appalled that the Israeli driver
would claim not be ignorant of someone who was clearly standing and
shouting at him through a microphone. Also, she is shown to be standing
off to the side and the bulldozer driver would clearly have had to swerve
to hit her. However, I later read through several news sources that said a
variety of things and tried to piece together exactly what happened
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=273498&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0
says that she had climbed up onto the bulldozer blade before falling
underneath it.
CNN says that some witnesses claim she was in plain view, while other
witnesses say that she had fallen behind a pile of rubble, out of sight,
beforehand.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134654821_protester17m.html
says that she had climbed up onto a pile of rubble in front of the
bulldozer, and semi-implies that she was still there when she was
hit. This would be in accordance with the pictures Electronic Intifada,
but checking back the pictures of her on the rubble aren't labeled as
having been taken right before her death, and on examination (at least of
the uncropped versions available elsewhere) show that they were taken in a
slightly different location.
In summary, I now believe that she died...somehow...under an Israeli
bulldozer while trying to stop it from demolishing a house for some
reason. Anything else would be pure speculation on my part, and in any
event people have notoriously horrible memories of things that happen in
situations like this; if five people witness an assassin walk up to his
target, shoot him, and walk away they are likely to get five different
discriptions.
Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. Don't assign
to stupidity what might be due to ignorance. And try not to assume you
opponent is the ignorant one-until you can show it isn't you.
-M.N. Plano
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