Rachel Corrie, an American who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in 2003, was a committed peace activist even before her arrival in the Gaza Strip the previous year.
She was a student at Evergreen State College in her local town of Olympia in Washington State, which is known for its liberal sensibilities.
The 23-year-old arranged peace events there before joining, through local group Olympians for Peace and Solidarity, a Palestinian-led organisation that uses non-violent means to challenge Israeli army tactics in the West Bank and Gaza.
Her parents paid tribute to her concern for human rights and dignity, remembering how she was “dedicated to everybody”.
They spoke hours after Corrie died in hospital on 17 March 2003 from injuries caused by an armoured Israeli army bulldozer demolishing Palestinian houses in the southern Gaza Strip, two years before Israeli troops and settlers withdrew from the coastal territory.
She was with other activists from the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) trying to stop the demolition in the Rafah refugee camp.
The Israeli authorities said at the time that such tactics were necessary because Palestinian gunmen used the structures as cover to shoot at their troops patrolling in the area.
Corrie - who was wearing an orange fluorescent jacket to alert the bulldozer drivers to her presence - had previously described the hazards of her work.
An email distributed by the ISM detailed a confrontation on 14 February between another bulldozer and her own group, which she refers to as the “internationals”.
“The internationals stood in the path of the bulldozer and were physically pushed with the shovel backwards, taking shelter in a house,” she wrote.
“The bulldozer then proceeded on its course, demolishing one side of the house with the internationals inside.”
An Israeli army investigation subsequently concluded that the American activist’s death was an accident while she was disrupting military operations on the ground.
Officials said the driver of the machine could not see her - a claim her fellow activists disputed.
Following her death, Rachel’s father Craig said: “We’ve tried to bring up our children to have a sense of community, a sense of community that everybody in the world belonged to.
“Rachel believed that - with her life, now.”
“Rachel was proud, and we are proud of Rachel that she was able to live with her convictions.
“Rachel was filled with a love and sense of duty to our fellow man, wherever they lived, and she gave her life trying to protect those that could not protect themselves.”
Corrie’s mother,Cindy, said her daughter had spent nights sleeping at wells to protect them from bulldozers.
“She lived with families whose houses were threatened with demolition and today as we understand it, she stood for three hours trying to protect a house.”
— Compiled from agencies
