US activist's parents confront bulldozer driver

[October 21, 2010]  JERUSALEM (AP) -- The parents of an American protester crushed to death seven years ago by an Israeli bulldozer are getting their first chance to confront the man who drove the vehicle that killed her.

But the contact in an Israeli courtroom is indirect: The unidentified bulldozer driver is being shielded behind a wood-and-plastic partition, his voice floating into the hall over a microphone.

Rachel Corrie's parents were seated about 15 feet (five meters) away as he testified publicly for the first time Thursday in their civil lawsuit against the Israeli government.

Rachel Corrie was killed in 2003 trying to block a military bulldozer that sought to demolish a Palestinian home in Gaza. The driver was not charged or tried.

[Associated Press]

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