April
13, 2004
James
W. Owens, CEO
Caterpillar
100
Northeast Adams Street
Peoria,
IL 61629
Dear
Mr. Owens:
We are the parents of Rachel Corrie, a peace activist from
the United States who was killed on March 16, 2003, in Rafah, at the southern
end of the Gaza Strip. Several
weeks ago we found ourselves standing among hundreds of other Americans, holding
candles in silent vigil remembering Rachel.
A year before, Rachel had stood bravely in front of a Caterpillar D-9
bulldozer in order to protect the home of Dr. Samir Nasrallah, a Palestinian
pharmacist, his wife, Intiman, and their children, Kareem, Reem, and Iman.
Rachel was crushed to death when she was run over by that Caterpillar D-9
bulldozer operated by the Israeli Defense Force.
We are writing to request a meeting with you on April 23rd,
when we will be at your headquarters in Peoria.
We hope to discuss with you how Caterpillar can become a force for peace
in the Middle East.
In January 2003, Rachel left our home in Olympia,
Washington, and traveled to Israel where she joined others in the International
Solidarity Movement (ISM). There
are only two stipulations for joining ISM:
one must believe in the right to freedom of the Palestinian people based
on the relevant United Nations resolutions and international law; and one must
agree to use only non-violent direct action methods of resistance.
Rachel quickly made her way to Rafah where she hoped her presence would
offer some protection not only to families like the Nasrallahs, trying to live
in their homes along the Egyptian border where a border strip is being cleared
and a steel wall erected, but also to municipal water workers trying to repair
wells destroyed by the IDF, and to other civilians trying to peacefully go about
their daily lives. She worked with
school children to help them learn about democratic institutions and to try to
set up a pen–pal relationship with her own grade school in Olympia.
She contacted Traditions, a folk art store in Olympia to create a
commercial outlet for the handcrafts made by the General Union of Palestinian
Women. Rachel’s dream of an
informal sister city relationship between Rafah and Olympia is happening now
through work by her friends in both cities.
After
arriving in Rafah, Rachel wrote to her mother:
“I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one hour now, and
I still have very few words to describe what I see. It is most difficult for me to think about what’s going on
here when I sit down to write back to the United States. Something about the virtual portal into luxury.
I don’t know if many of the children here have ever existed without
tank-shell holes in their walls and towers of an occupying army surveying them
constantly from the near horizons. I
think, although I’m not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these
children understand that life is not like this everywhere.
An eight-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank two days before
I got here, and many of the children murmur his name to me–Ali–or point at
the posters of him on the walls...”
“Love
you. Really miss you.
I have bad nightmares about tanks and bulldozers outside our house and
you and me inside. Sometimes the adrenaline acts as an anesthetic for weeks and
then in the evening or at night it just hits me again–a little bit of the
reality of the situation. I am
really scared for the people here.”
The reality is that the machine that killed Rachel was a
D-9 Caterpillar bulldozer (serial number 949623), a machine manufactured by your
company and given to Israel as part of the aid package from the U.S. government.
It is widely known and documented that Caterpillar bulldozers are used on
a regular basis by the Israeli army to destroy Palestinian homes, to uproot
olive trees and raze farmland, to build illegal Israeli settlements in the West
Bank and Gaza, and to construct the separation barriers that Israel is erecting
within the West Bank and on the Rafah border with Egypt.
In fact, the bulldozer has become a symbol of the Israeli occupation.
We understand that the Caterpillar company is not driving these machines
when they are used for such destruction (rather than for construction); but we
feel there is corporate responsibility that your company holds for the use of
its machines in such a manner.
Mr. Owens, we ask that Caterpillar stop sending machines to
Israel for such purposes and that you demand that the Israeli government cease
using its existing Caterpillar equipment to commit human rights abuses against
the Palestinian population. We
realize that through such action, you cannot bring back our daughter, rebuild
the thousands of homes that have been destroyed, nor replant the hundreds of
thousands of trees that have been uprooted. Nevertheless, we do know that there
are more homes out there that will be destroyed, each one striking another blow
to the dream our daughter had for peace and freedom in the Middle East.
At a time when the United States and its corporations are viewed by much
of the world as causing harm, pain and suffering, imagine what a statement and
an example Caterpillar could make by living up to its own corporate standards,
as articulated in Caterpillar’s statement of social responsibility:
As
a company, we strive to contribute toward a global environment in which all
people can work safely and live healthy, productive lives, now and in the
future.
What a different world your statement of social
responsibility envisions. It is
within your power to help make that vision a reality.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
We very much look forward to hearing from you and to meeting you on April
23rd.
Yours sincerely,
Craig and Cindy Corrie