This is the story of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, she took a semester off to be a peace activist, shielding Palestinians from Jewish aggression in Gaza. She was murdered by an Israeli soldier on 16 March 2003.
Before the killing, the IDF soldier had already menaced the activists by using the Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozer (serial number 949623) to press huge piles of dirt and rubble against them, pushing Rachel back against a fence on one occasion and pushing another activist (Will) into some coils of razor wire.
In doing this, the bulldozer driver was intimidating the activists by demonstrating his disregard of their safety. "Don't get in my way, or I'll hurt you!" is what he was conveying with his actions.
The peace activists refused to be intimidated, so the Israeli bulldozer driver became murderously resolute. He aimed his bulldozer at Rachel Corrie, who was initially sitting in between the bulldozer and a house belonging to Dr. Samir, a Palestinian physician. The IDF soldier wanted to knock down the doctor's home. Rachel Corrie was determined to protect that house. She would either move or she would die, decided the bulldozer driver.
As the bulldozer approached Rachel, she stood up and climbed a pile of dirt that the bulldozer had shoveled up, in order to remain in the driver's direct view. She was the most visible object in the driver's forward direction, since not only was she in plain sight, she was also wearing a high-contrast fluorescent orange jacket.
Rachel got so high onto the mound of dirt that she was at eye-level with the cab of the bulldozer. Her head and upper torso were above the bulldozer's blade, and the bulldozer driver and co-operator could clearly see her. Despite this, he continued forward, which pulled her legs into the pile of rubble, and pulled her down out of view of the driver. If he'd stopped at this point, he may have only broken her legs, but he continued forward, which pulled her underneath the bulldozer.
We ran towards him, and waved our arms and shouted, one activist with the megaphone. But the bulldozer driver continued forward, until Rachel was underneath the central section of the bulldozer. At this point, it was more than clear that she was nowhere but underneath the bulldozer, there was simply nowhere else she could have been, as she had not appeared on either side of the bulldozer, and could not have stayed in front of it that long without being crushed. Despite the obviousness of her position, the bulldozer began to reverse, without lifting its blade, and drug the blade over her body again. He continued to reverse until he was on the boarder strip, about 100 meters away, and left her crushed body in the sand.
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