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Add an EventConfronting Caterpillar in San Leandro
Ben Terrall
On the second anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie, killed by a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer while defending the home of a Palestinian civilian, around sixty people gathered at the gates of the Peterson Tractor Company in San Leandro, California. The activists, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, held a spirited protest against Caterpillar's continuing sales of bulldozers to the U.S. Department of Defense (which are then delivered to the Israeli military under a Foreign Military Sales Agreement).
As a line of protestors displayed banners to passing traffic condemning Israeli Defense Forces use of CAT equipment to destroy Palestinian homes, others gathered at a partly open gate and began saying Kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead, for Corrie. (Jewish Voice for Peace also paid tribute to Corrie in this fashion last year, when they swarmed into Peterson's corporate offices on the first anniversary of her death.)
Penny Rosenwasser, one of six activists who managed to get inside the gate before police and company security kept others outside, spoke over a bullhorn about the grim reality of what CAT equipment does in the occupied territories. Rosenwasser recalled how on a 2001 International Solidarity Movement trip to Rafah refugee camp she witnessed the wreckage of 200 houses which had been demolished the night before by CAT bulldozers; the local children were, not surprisingly, completely terrorized. The bulldozers were also used to destroy olive trees and wells, which Rachel Corrie committed herself to helping protect from such attacks.
Activist Kate Raphael, who has spent significant periods in the occupied territories, then spoke about how Rachel Corrie is known throughout the Arab world and seen as an important symbol of international solidarity. Though the six inside were prepared to face arrest for carrying out civil disobedience, the authorities were apparently not in a mood to press charges; no one was arrested.
The crowd repeatedly chanted for Duane Doyle, CEO of Peterson Tractor, to meet with them, but there was no sign of Doyle or any other higher-up at the dealership. JVP activists distributed a flyer demanding that Doyle, as an owner of Caterpillar stock, support a shareholder resolution which calls on the corporation to investigate Israel's use of its equipment. The flyer also called on Doyle to tell the Caterpillar Board of Directors to meet with Rachel Corrie's parents.
Since the Center for Constitutional Rights recently filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Corrie in a Washington district court, it's unlikely such a meeting will happen without lawyers present. The lawuit is "for compensatory and punitive damages against Caterpillar, Inc. for violations of international and state law committed against Rachel Corrie, including war crimes; aiding and abetting her extra-judicial killing; complicity in cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment that resulted in her death; negligence; and wrongful death."
In a press release about the case, Jennie Green, Senior Attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said, "International law clearly provides that corporations can be held accountable for violations of international human rights." CCR also pointed out that over the past four years, the Israeli military has used Caterpillar bulldozers to destroy more than 4,000 Palestinian homes, injuring, killing, or leaving homeless scores of individuals in the process.
Among the protestors were two groups of high school students, one with the East Bay-based Jewish Youth for Community Action. The other assemblage of teenagers were brought to the action by their economics teacher at Oakland's Oasis High School, Sheila Sathe. Sathe's students were especially vocal, and injected a hilarious, high-energy contrast to somewhat predictable renditions of "We Shall Not Be Moved" and other leftie-folkie chestnuts as they sat in the bulldozer on the compound's front lawn, jumping up and down on its seat and honking its horn along with some extremely noisy chants. I asked Ashley Bass if she was glad that she came to the action with her fellow students. She flashed a huge grin at me and said, "Yeah, we're just trying to get energized and help other people."
It's hard to improve on that sentiment, and one hopes as many U.S. activists as possible come out to do just that on April 13, the international day of action against Caterpillar, on the occasion of the company's stockholder meeting.
http://www.catdestroyshomes.org/article.php?id=132
Ben Terrall is a writer and activist who works with the Haiti Action Committee.
http://www.haitiaction.net
He can be reached at
bterrall [at] igc.org
we'd probably already have a law passed by Congress prohibiting Caterpillar from engaging in such commerce
--Richard
Why has the Jewish Zionist Israeli soldier not been punished for murdering Rachel Corrie? Because Israel is a racist war-mongering state dedicated to a Greater Israel for Jewish supremacists.
There must be no special privileges in this world for ANYONE and that includes the Zionist entity aka "Israel" and Zionist Jews.
Completely equal rights for all is the way to achieve PEACE in this world.
Caterpillar is just a tool of the Zionists. Duh. Confront Zionism! Zionism will be defeated.
Why has the anti-Jewish anti-Zionist, anti-Israeli ISM not been punished for lying about Rachel Corrie being murdered? Because their supporters are racist war-mongers dedicated to a Greater Palestine for Muslim supremacists.
There must be no special privileges in this world for ANYONE and that includes the anti-Zionist entity aka "ISM" and their anti-Zionist, anti-Jewish supporters.
Completely equal rights for all is the way to achieve PEACE in this world.
Caterpillar is just a tool of the anti-Zionists in their quest to knock Israel. Duh. Confront anti-Zionist stupidity! Anti-Zionism will be defeated!!
Completely equal rights for all is the way to achieve PEACE in this world.]
So I say let's have a secular state called "Palestine", where Jews, Palestinians, Bedouins and anyone else who lives there has equal rights and privileges, instead of what we have now, one Zionist nationalist entity, and an emerging, nascent Palestinian nationalist one.
I would also assume, of course, that you are adamantly opposed to the method that Israel chooses to develop the West Bank, one that results in the construction of housing, roads and commercial centres for Jews only, connected by access roads for their use only.
--Richard
Don't forget the reasons for the fundation of the modern state of Israel: the Jews were being massacred in Europe.
It is very sad that even now there are people who don't recognize Israel's right to exist. The Palestinians and the Islamic fundamentalist want to wipe the Jews out of their country and out of the world. And the ISM is their fith column.
Excuse me if I am giving my opinion when you are addressing to somebody else.
Apart from my well-known objection to dismantling the State of Israel in favor of a "Semitic plus" polity of the kind you're espousing, I object to the use of the name 'Palestine' for such a polity, since it's long been hijacked by Palestinism. A neutral name would be required.
>>>"I would also assume, of course, that you are adamantly opposed to the method that Israel chooses to develop the West Bank, one that results in the construction of housing, roads and commercial centres for Jews only, connected by access roads for their use only."<<<
Your insinuation of racism is rather devoid of merit. For the umpteenth time, be mindful that those access and other roads were paved due to the grave risks Jews faced using the "regular" roads. And Arabs have been barred from Jewish communities -- and consequently from commercial areas --in the disputed territories (not Israel proper) due to severe security risks for the Jewish locals. Would you be willing to consider the construction of access roads for Arabs only as racist under every circumstance? Somehow I doubt it. So why have a different standard for Jews?
As for housing in the disputed territories, why would Arabs want to reside among Jews? Their unwillingness to live in Jewish areas turns the matter into a non-issue.
They don't make sense to anyone who can think straight and honestly.
Honestly!
She doesn't make sense to anyone who can think straight and honestly.
Honestly!!!
Free Free Palestine of Zionist tyranny!
Zionism WILL BE DEFEATED.
Free Free Israel of the real tyranny - the anti-Zionist Palestinian murderousness!
Zionism WILL BE DEFEATED.
This is wishful thinking at the level of ignorance. How about we start with Israel's neighbors like Saudi Arabia and see how far your idea flies? Israel needs to be viewed in the context of the "neighborhood" ie the Middle East. Until the Middle East is democratized and integrated into the global market, any attempts at "secularization" will be to the detriment of Israel. Once the rest of the neighborhood cleans up its act, then we can talk. I'm sure Syria, Iraq and the rest of the Middle East will be ready at that point to offer the right of return to Jews who were kicked out and offer reimbursement for any property that was seized. I'm sure Israel would be glad to reciprocate. But, until Israel has real partners for peace, all of this is a pipe dream.
and, anyone willing to assist in the creation of the system of segregation in the occupied territories is no different than those who successfully propagated the myth of 'separate but equal' in the US for 60 years
["So I say let's have a secular state called "Palestine", where [Jews, Palestinians, Bedouins and anyone else who lives there has equal rights and privileges..."
This is wishful thinking at the level of ignorance. How about we start with Israel's neighbors like Saudi Arabia and see how far your idea flies? Israel needs to be viewed in the context of the "neighborhood" ie the Middle East. Until the Middle East is democratized and integrated into the global market, any attempts at "secularization" will be to the detriment of Israel. Once the rest of the neighborhood cleans up its act, then we can talk. I'm sure Syria, Iraq and the rest of the Middle East will be ready at that point to offer the right of return to Jews who were kicked out and offer reimbursement for any property that was seized. I'm sure Israel would be glad to reciprocate. But, until Israel has real partners for peace, all of this is a pipe dream.]
such a perspective might also explain why Arab Americans at universities around the Bay Area and elsewhere have been politically effective at obtaining support from people of color, especially Latinos
this comment could be lifted verbatim, and used by them for outreach
--Richard
this comment could be lifted verbatim, and used by them for outreach
--Richard
Yes Richard, very good, take the obvious and turn it around for the propaganda you want, Yes very good....you are powerfull with the help of the darkside...I can teach you nothing else... Darth Impaler...
But seriously the Hate you feel for the Jews is not that hard, infact, with that thinking perhaps you can sway a nation. and organize your minions with arm bands... unless someone has patented this idea, it could be a go.
Then we could exploit the arabs for cheap labor, once we are rid of the Jews. Oh wait, that didn't work so well in france.
Hmmm... I will be back with some more help, maybe i need to think this through Richard, Stand by.
So Sayeth the Impaler!
You're dismissed.
(1) http://www.standwithus.com/news_post.asp?NPI=85 "Recently, the Director of the Solidarity Movement, George Rishmawi, explained to the San Francisco Chronicle that the recruitment of American student volunteers is useful to the Palestinian Movement because "if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice.""
Is that how Mr. Rishmawi thinks Rachel was "useful" to the Palestinian Movement? The following online source, which is friendly to the Palestinians, reinforces the idea that Rachel was more useful to the Palestinian movement dead than she was alive: http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-22-2003-37821.asp
"'Her death serves me more than it served her,' said one activist at a Hamas funeral yesterday. 'Going in front of the tanks was heroic. Her death will bring more attention than the other 2,000 martyrs.'"
It sounds like this Hamas terrorist-- and Hamas is a Foreign Terrorist Organization as defined by the U.S. State Department-- was actually happy that Rachel was killed and this statement ties in with Mr. Rishmawi's.
(2) Although several ISM members provided detailed eyewitness accounts of Rachel's accident with the bulldozer, I find it very disturbing that not one of them lifted a finger to pull her out of the slowly-moving vehicle's path when it became evident that the driver did not see her.
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-22-2003-37821.asp "Her British friend and fellow activist, Tom Dale, 18, from Lichfield in Staffordshire, said he saw her die. First, he said, there was fear on her face as she realised that her defiant gesture was going wrong. Joe Smith, 21, who went to college with Corrie, said that, although they acknowledged the danger, they saw death as a 'small, unlikely, potential risk'."
That's very interesting. He was close enough to see the fear on her face but he stood there and did nothing to save her when HE realized that her "defiant gesture was going wrong."
"The activists have compelling photographic evidence to support eyewitness claims that Corrie's death was a deliberate, murderous mowing down of a unarmed protester."
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE IS FORGED. THERE IS AT LEAST ONE PHOTOMANIPULATION AND IT IS NOT EVEN A GOOD ONE. http://www.crimesofwar.org/onnews/news-caterpillar.html (a site friendly to the Palestinians and hostile to Caterpillar) shows an ISM picture of Rachel and another ISM activist standing in front of a bulldozer. Take a VERY close look at http://www.crimesofwar.org/onnews/pix/caterpillar_pict2.jpg. (1) The man has no feet. His picture was obviously cut and pasted into the picture, and it wasn't even a good job; I can do a far better photomanipulation with Corel PhotoPaint.
(2) Rachel is casting a shadow to her left but the much larger bulldozer is casting no shadow whatsoever in that direction. As shown by the shadow of the hydraulic piston on the back of the bulldozer blade, in fact, the sun is coming from behind the bulldozer.
Back to http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-22-2003-37821.asp "Dale watched as she knelt down in front of the bulldozer, perhaps 20 metres away, something the activists had done repeatedly that day as they had in the past. 'The bulldozer went towards her, very slowly, she was fully in clear view, straight in front of them.'"
He himself testifies that the bulldozer was moving very slowly-- plenty of time for him or another man to pull her out of its path when it became clear that (for whatever reason) it was not going to stop. But neither he nor any of the other ISM activists chose to do so.
"A traumatised Smith raised his camera and took photographs: Rachel standing in front of the bulldozer; then her bloodied body being pulled from the freshly turned soil; being cradled in the arms of her friends."
That's interesting. Why was his highest priority the taking of photographs when his friend, or so she thought herself, was in immediate danger of life and limb??? Remember, this is from the ISM's own testimony as reported on a site friendly to the ISM and not from a pro-Zionist site.
"'If only they'd had a video camera,' one Palestinian journalist lamented. 'A film of the Israelis killing an American in cold blood would have ended the intifada.'"
This Palestinian and I must agree to disagree on this because my position is, "If only they had pulled Rachel out of the bulldozer's path." The problem with that, of course, is that you can't have a martyrdom without a martyr and pulling Rachel out of the bulldozer's path would have been very inconsistent with the Palestinians' goals. Like the Hamas terrorist said, she was worth far more dead than 2000 Palestinian "martyrs."
Finally, the ISM was probably criminally negligent in allowing or encouraging Rachel to enter an area in which bulldozers were operating without a hard hat (even to participate in civil disobedience). While this would not have saved her from the crushing injuries she allegedly sustained, some accounts of the accident implicate head injuries from debris that were thrown up by the bulldozer blade. (OSHA requires hard hats to be worn near operating construction equipment in the U.S., by the way.) Either way, however, encouraging a young college student to enter a construction zone (or equivalent), especially without head protection, shows the ISM's callous, reckless, and irresponsible disregard for her safety.
In summary, Rachel's so-called friends in the ISM apparently felt that it was far more important to watch, take pictures, and falsify the photographic evidence (this has been proven) afterward. As I see the matter, the ISM's conduct in persuading or encouraging Rachel to stand in front of a bulldozer, and then standing around and taking pictures while it ran over her was irresponsible and reckless at best, and I can think of far worse things to call it.
The current zionist liar, a.k.a "Bill," Is grasping at truly ridiculous straws. Obviously Corrie and her companion are standing in weeds, which are obscuring his feet. Also there's a little mound directly in front of "the man," plainly visible in the photo, and this mound could easily be the real explanation for the "shadow of Rachel to her left."
Three things to keep in mind at all times about zionists:
1) They're virulent racists
2) They're compulsive liars
3) Put the two together and you have someone who's convinced you're much too stupid to spot their lies.
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