Rachel Corrie’s Iowa Family Seeks “Thorough, Credible” Investigation Into Her Death

By Betsy Mayfield


Cheryl Brodersen (l), Rachel Corrie’s aunt, at an April 23 march on Caterpillar headquarters in Peoria, IL. Corrie was killed in the Gaza Strip by an Israeli soldier driving one of the American-made machines used to demolish Palestinian homes (staff photo B. Mayfield).

HEARING ABOUT Rachel Corrie, bulldozed to death on March 16, 2003 by an Israeli military conscript, I was horrified and saddened—just as I’d been on hearing about other deaths in Gaza, the West Bank or Israel. Rachel’s story kept me awake nights. Some friends of Israel haven’t wanted Americans to hear about her death, however. “Just say, ‘Every life is equally precious.’ That’s enough!” they’d tell me.

Although Rachel Corrie was from Olympia, Washington, her aunts and uncles live in Iowa. The Iowa Brodersen family includes three sisters and one brother of Rachel’s mother, Rachel’s grandmother, plus extended family members. Since Rachel was killed, I have marveled watching them seek answers in what has been, for this farm family, a solemn one-step-at-a-time experience. Explained Cheryl Brodersen, Rachel’s aunt, “We’re on this quest because we believe that it is in our family’s, America’s and Israel’s interest to seek truth and justice. We believe in focusing on facts rather than innuendo, half-truths or untruths. We seek definition. What is a ‘thorough, credible, transparent’ investigation? Will the United States government accept anything less?”

Refusing to be silenced, Cheryl and the rest of the Corrie-Brodersen families carry on with inherent trust and politeness, a sense of humor masking their pain. They’ve assumed the responsibility of demanding the truth. Determined to work through established U.S. government channels—the State Department and Congress—the family proceeds without invective or casting unproven blame. They personify what it means to be responsible and trusting in a free and open society. As Cheryl Brodersen says, “This is what we do.”

Nonviolent Action

Rachel Corrie was killed when she stood her ground between a Gaza pharmacist’s home and the Caterpillar bulldozer being used to destroy it—in what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claim was “routine terrain leveling and debris clearing.” With other young people from around the world, members of the International Solidarity Movement, Rachel was there to witness and use nonviolent methods to stop, if possible, the destruction of the home. The IDF soldier driving the American-built caterpillar, however, drove over Rachel as she stood before the home, crushing her to death.

Within six weeks of Rachel’s death, an IDF sniper shot Brian Avery, a North Carolinian, in the face on April 3; Britain’s Tom Hurndell was shot in the head April 11, while trying to rescue Palestinian children from harm’s way. He remained in a vegetative state until his death in January 2004. IDF soldiers shot and killed British filmmaker James Miller on May 2, 2003, as he approached an armored personnel carrier while waving a white flag.

There are friends of Israel who speak hatefully about the incident and about Rachel, whose e-mails to her parents and speeches in Gaza passionately articulated the reality of Palestinians’ lives there. “I am concerned with the amount and type of misinformation and disinformation that has been circulated to Congress and the press,” Brodersen said. “Rachel was a young woman who actively worked at making her words precise and accurate. She stated once, ‘I value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions.’”

Brodersen and the rest of the Iowa family have joined Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, in urging Rep. Brian Baird (R-WA) to gain co-sponsors for HCR 111, “Rachel’s Resolution,” which he sponsored. It calls on Washington “to undertake a full, fair, and expeditious investigation into the death of Rachel Corrie” and encourages the United States and Israel to work together to determine all the circumstances that led to the incident. Congressional insiders told the family they’d be lucky if 20 representatives signed onto it. As of this writing, 78 members have done so.

Most Americans who travel abroad assume they will be reasonably safe. As Iowa State University sociologist Stephen Aigner notes, however, “If a citizen experiences harm at the hands of a foreign government, we expect our country to ask why. This is especially so when it happens in a nation considered a U.S. ally. I don’t see Rachel Corrie’s death as a Palestinian versus Israeli issue,” he explained. “I see it as a nation-to-nation situation that should receive the same attention as any crime against a civilian.”

As Cheryl Brodersen put it, “Rachel’s death takes us out of the grey areas of international wrongdoing and allows specific awareness.”

What American family wouldn’t ask: Why would an ally of our country go so far as to kill an unarmed 23-year-old pacifist? Why would the United States hesitate to ask for an independent investigation?

“The Israeli military has provided two ‘reports’ on Rachel’s death,” Brodersen said, “but this does not mean there were two ‘investigations,’ as the Israeli government, certain members of Congress and the press have stated. Unfortunately, saying something does not make it true.

“So far,” she continued, “we’ve learned that one of these ‘reports’ is actually a 32-slide Command Report PowerPoint presentation, compiled by the officers responsible for the bulldozer operation. The ‘report’ concludes that Rachel was not killed by the bulldozer, but fails to include any information about military action in the 50 minutes preceding her death.”

Brodersen said she knows of only two State Department officials who, aside from Rachel’s parents, have been allowed to see the “legal opinion” issued by the Israeli Defense Force’s advocate general. She has heard comments from those who have seen it of the report’s “inconsistencies of note,” and that it “raises more questions than it answers.”

A polygraph test given to the bulldozer operator and his commanding officer resulted in the conclusion that “it was not possible to reach a ‘conclusive’ finding.” According to the report, the two men contradicted each other, one saying that they had run over Rachel and the other saying they had not.

“I trust that our government cares,” Brodersen maintains, “and I have faith that a just investigation will happen. I know that President Bush talked to Prime Minister Sharon right after Rachel was killed. Our Department of State is currently in contact with Rachel’s parents and has, from the start, respected our right to request a credible investigation.

“Congressman Jim Leach (R-IA) told us it was ‘extraordinary’ that an individual, Rachel Corrie, was mentioned and given a paragraph in the 2003 State Department Human Rights Report,” Brodersen added. “The American Embassy in Tel Aviv chastised The Jerusalem Post for printing a letter reflecting ‘a level of discourse unbefitting any serious newspaper.’ Our family appreciates the support and assistance we’ve received so far, but our need is not over nor will it be until a ‘thorough, credible, transparent’ investigation has been secured.”

This past June, Cheryl and Colette Brodersen, along with Bill Pusateri, Rachel’s uncle, traveled to Washington, DC. The group visited every congressional office, leaving information about Rachel with staff members. The Brodersens met with the staffs of l7 members of the Near East Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee. “We are a family and citizens committed to making the system we believe in work,” Pusateri explained. “From Rachel’s environmentalist colleagues and friends to human rights activists to people we’ve talked to here and there, we find a strong interest in what Rachel Corrie’s death means to America and to the world.”

Cheryl Brodersen begins a 20-minute talk about her niece saying, “Let me introduce you to Rachel Corrie.” She shows a home video of 5th grader Rachel giving a talk about world hunger. She tells how Rachel, the environmentalist, loved salmon, “every single fish,” and how she dressed herself and others as peace doves to celebrate spring in Olympia’s annual Procession of the Species. She reads her niece’s words: “It’s hard to be extraordinarily vacuous when you always have the salmon in the back of your mind: in that pipe down there on their way to daylight at Watershed Park. Salmon are history that isn’t trivia; the history that is now. They are what was here before.”

It’s as if Brodersen’s speech is keeping an American child with us, if not forever, at least for one more evening.

Betsy Mayfield is a writer and activist based in Ames, Iowa.