Their daughter purposefully injected herself into a war zone, on the wrong side, and stupidly got herself killed by jumping in front of an Israeli armored bulldozer. Pro-terrorist groups around the world then seized on her death like ghoulish leeches and milked it for every ounce of propaganda they could squeeze out.

Now, in the inevitable conclusion to this tawdry affair, Rachel Corrie’s worthless parents are suing Israel.

The family of Rachel Corrie, a pro-Palestinian activist killed by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer in Rafah two years ago, sued the State of Israel and the IDF for damages in the Haifa District Court on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old Corrie was killed on March 16, 2003 when she tried to block an IDF bulldozer from destroying a Palestinian house near the Philadelphi Route, the strip of land in the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt.

An IDF investigation ruled the incident was an accident and that the driver did not see Corrie, and the military prosecutor’s office decided not to press charges in connection with Corrie’s death.

Corrie’s parents, brother, and sister, who are represented by Umm al-Fahm attorney Hussein Abu-Hussein, argue Corrie was killed despite the fact that she was wearing bright clothing and had identified herself as an activist with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement.

UPDATE at 3/15/05 4:50:36 pm:

They’re also suing Caterpillar.

SEATTLE - The parents of a 23-year-old activist killed while trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home is suing Caterpillar Inc., the company that made the bulldozer that ran over her.

The federal lawsuit, which lawyers said would be filed here Tuesday, alleges that Caterpillar violated international and state law by providing specially designed bulldozers to Israeli Defense Forces that it knew would be used to demolish homes and endanger people.

And in the “things that make you want to say aaarrrggghhh” category, please note the false description of Corrie’s death by Associated Press writer Elizabeth M. Gillespie:

Rachel Corrie, a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, was standing in front of a home in a refugee camp in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, in March of 2003 when a bulldozer plowed over her.

According to Gillespie and the Associated Press, Corrie was just standing there, minding her own business, when a bulldozer decided to run over her. No ... plow over her.

When in fact, Corrie was deliberately putting herself in the path of the bulldozer, and an IDF investigation concluded that the driver could not have seen her. It was a war zone, and the D9 bulldozers used by the IDF are so heavily protected from Corrie’s friends the terrorists that the driver’s field of vision is severely restricted.

And the bulldozer did not “plow” over Corrie. Photos taken after the incident showed Corrie injured but not flattened, as she would have been if a multi-ton bulldozer had actually run over her. There are so many different stories floating around in the propaganda corners of the web that it’s hard to know what really happened, but the most likely direct cause of her death was a sudden encounter with the blade of the bulldozer as it descended.

This little AP story is one of the very worst distortions I’ve ever seen from mainstream media—and that’s saying plenty.