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CAT charged with war crimes in lawsuit<br><br>
<a href="http://www.catdestroyshomes.org/article.php?id=256" eudora="autourl">
http://www.catdestroyshomes.org/article.php?id=256<br>
</a>by Jewish Voice for Peace<br>
March 15th, 2005<br>
<img src="cid:6.2.1.2.2.20050316053419.02541c28@66.103.156.66.0" width=8 height=5 alt="[]">
<br>
FAMILY OF AMERICAN WOMAN KILLED BY MILITARY BULLDOZER FILES SUIT AGAINST
CATERPILLAR, INC. <br>
<br>
Family of Rachel Corrie Charges Bulldozer Manufacturer Knowingly Sold
Machines Used to Violate Human Rights<br>
<br>
March 15, 2005, New York, NYThe Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
and partnering law firms today filed a federal lawsuit against
Illinois-based Caterpillar, Inc. on behalf of the parents of Rachel
Corrie, the 23-year-old American peace activist and student who was run
over and killed by a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer on March 16, 2003.<br>
<br>
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western Federal
District of Washington, alleges that Caterpillar, Inc. violated
international and state law by providing specially designed bulldozers to
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) that it knew would be used to demolish homes
and endanger civilians. The Corries’ daughter Rachel, a student at The
Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, was there as a volunteer
peace activist protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes when she
was brutally killed. Much of the world community, including international
human rights organizations and the United Nations, has consistently
condemned these demolitions as a clear violation of international
humanitarian law. <br>
<br>
The Corries also filed a tort claim today in Israel against the State of
Israel, the Israeli Defense Ministry and the IDF for their role in the
death of their daughter. They are represented by Advocate Hussein Abu
Hussein.<br>
<br>
Rachel’s mother, Cindy Corrie, stated, “As we approach the two-year
anniversary of Rachel’s killing, my family and I are still searching for
justice. The brutal death of my daughter should never have happened and
our family condemns attacks on all civilians. We believe Caterpillar and
the IDF must be held accountable for their role in the attack on my
daughter Rachel.”<br>
<br>
Jennie Green, Senior Attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights,
stated, “International law clearly provides that corporations can be held
accountable for violations of international human rights. Rachel Corrie,
a young American killed abroad because Caterpillar purposefully turns a
blind eye as to how their products are used, must have access to
justice.”<br>
<br>
Over the past four years, the IDF has used Caterpillar bulldozers to
destroy more than 4,000 Palestinian homes, injuring, killing, or leaving
homeless scores of individuals in the process. Rights groups have sent
over 50,000 letters to Caterpillar, Inc. executives and CEO Jim Owens,
decrying the use of Caterpillar bulldozers to carry out human rights
abuses. <br>
<br>
Plaintiffs Craig and Cindy Corrie are represented by lawyers from the
Center for Constitutional Rights, the Ronald J. Peterson Law Clinic at
Seattle University Law School, and the Public Interest Law Group PLLC in
Seattle, Washington. <br><br>
<br>
</font><h1><font size=5><b>We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie<br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Uprising on the Anniversary of a
Death</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5>By ALISON
WEIR<br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=6 color="#990000">T</font>
<font face="verdana" size=2>here is a quiet battle going on for the
memory of a young woman who could have been my daughter, or perhaps
yours.<br><br>
On one side are those who would like to erase her from history her
actions, her beliefs, her murder. If they are unsuccessful at that, they
will settle for posthumous slurs on her character, falsifications of her
death.<br><br>
On the other side are those who feel her shining principles should be
praised, her courage honored, her death grieved. On this side are those
who believe that heroism is noble, bravery admirable, and compassion for
others the most fundamental form of morality.<br><br>
To those of us on this side, Rachel Corrie will never be forgotten. She
was 23 when she was killed.<br><br>
We won't forget her young idealism, her sweet bravery, her needless
death. And we won't forget her beliefs, the third of which killed her:
that good would triumph, that justice would prevail, that Israel would
not kill her.<br><br>
She was wrong on that last one. On March 16, 2003, two Israeli soldiers
drove a house-crushing bulldozer over her twice crushing her into the
Gaza dirt. With five other nonviolent human rights defenders, Rachel had
been sitting in front of a family home in Palestine, pleading with
Israeli soldiers not to demolish it. They didn't (until later); they
demolished her instead.<br><br>
Her friends ran to her screaming. They dug her out of the dirt. One told
me that Rachel's eyes were open; her last words were, "My back is
broken."<br><br>
Far more, of course, was broken. The day was broken, the universe was
broken, her sister's world was broken, her brother's life was broken, her
parents' hearts were broken. All the things were broken that break when
someone is killed.<br><br>
In the past five years, thousands of Palestinian lives, days, worlds have
been broken; hundreds of Israeli ones. We hear about the Israeli
tragedies; we rarely hear about the many times more Palestinian ones the
mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters and brothers who are killed
and mutilated during all those wonderful periods of "relative
calm" our news media lie to us about.<br><br>
I wonder if we'll hear about Rachel Corrie on March 16th, the second
anniversary of her death. Israel, as with all those it kills, claims that
her death "was an accident" or "was necessary for
security" or that "she was a terrorist" or that "she
was protecting terrorists!" As fast as these Israeli fabrications
are refuted, new ones are produced. Never mind that they're
self-contradictory our complicit media never question.<br><br>
What Israel says, our media repeat. What Israel demands, our government
gives. What Israel wants, its well-greased lobby delivers.<br><br>
Change is coming, however, and it is gathering momentum. People across
the United States remember Rachel, and grieve her death. While Congress
is intimidated into denying her parents' right to an investigation of the
American "ally" who murdered their daughter, people in towns
throughout the United States are planning commemorations and future
actions.<br><br>
From across the country, slowly but steadily, there is the start of an
American uprising. One by one, people are rising up community by
community and town by town. We are deathly tired of gratuitous cruelty
and rapacious creeds of violence, and we won't stand by any longer.
<br><br>
We are reclaiming our nation, our principles, and our souls. We are the
only ones who can do it.<br><br>
We won't forget Rachel.<br><br>
And we won't be stopped.<br><br>
<b>Alison Weir</b> is executive director of
<a href="http://www.ifamericansknew.org/">If Americans Knew</a>. She can
be reached at:
<a href="mailto:alisonweir@yahoo.com">alisonweir@yahoo.com<br><br>
</a></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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