29th anniversary of Land Day
•
Free Free Palestine!
• Palestinians
Commemorate Land Day
• Campaign
Against the Apartheid Wall - Statement of Palestinian Grassroots,
March 29, 2005
Caterpillar Guilty of War Crimes
• International
Day of Action Against Caterpillar, April 13, 2005
• Declaration
Regarding Caterpillar
Violations of Human Rights
• Family
of Rachel Corrie Charges Caterpillar - Center for Constitutional
Right
March 30 marked the 29th anniversary of Land Day, where the just demand for a return of Palestinian lands to the Palestinians is brought to the fore. The struggle to stop and remove Israel’s Apartheid Wall, which is grabbing yet more Palestinian land and destroying yet more farms and olive orchards, was a main demand. Voice of Revolution salutes these actions in support of the Palestinians’ struggle to end to the U.S.-backed Israeli occupation and achieve their national and social rights.
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Palestinians Commemorate Land Day
This year, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip joined their Israeli Palestinian compatriots and people worldwide in numerous actions. The Palestine Media Center reports that this year’s event was also dedicated to the unrecognized Palestinian Bedouin villages in the Negev desert of southern Israel. These villages are not recognized by the Israeli government, lack basic services and are threatened with demolition. A central rally was held in Abu Tlul, an unrecognized Bedouin village that is home to 3,000 Palestinians while parades and commemorations also took place in the northern Galilee region.
Palestinian Israeli member of the Knesset (MP) Taleb el-Sana said Land Day rallies specifically protested the government’s decision to seize land in 45 Bedouin villages in the Negev. “Living conditions in these villages are worse than in Palestinian refugee camps and we’re talking about Israeli citizens. They don’t have water or electricity,” said Sana. The determination of the people was emblazoned across T-shirts worn by the youth, proclaiming, “We’re staying here. No to threats, no to expulsion.” Palestinian Israeli leaders say that demolition orders hang over some 50,000 Palestinian Israeli homes, including 30,000 in the Negev.
Thousands of Jewish pacifists and members of left-wing Israeli groups also took part in the Abu Tlil rally. Another Palestinian Israeli MP, Mohammad Barakeh, slammed the Israeli government for setting aside seven million dollars in the 2005 budget to destroy Palestinian homes.
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip commemorated Land Day in Ramallah, Gaza and other towns to protest the continuing Israeli confiscation of their land in the name of security. Three demonstrations were also held in the Lebanese refugee camps in Beirut, Tripoli and Tyre, with speakers calling for the right of return and refusing the permanent settlement of Palestinians in Lebanon and other host countries.
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Campaign Against the Apartheid Wall
- Statement of Palestinian Grassroots, March 29, 2005 -
To our people, to those confronting Occupation Forces, their bulldozers and the Apartheid Wall with their bare hands!
While the implementation of the ICJ decision continues to be negated by the international community, the Occupation Forces continue to build their Apartheid Wall throughout the West Bank, confiscating our land and ruining our lives. In the meantime our people are undertaking their own implementation of the ICJ decision through their own popular resistance.
In Hebron, Yatta, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, and Beit Surik. In Jerusalem and Bil'in, in Deir Ballut and Zawiya our struggle against the Apartheid Wall continues. The popular movement demands a clear international acceptance that this Wall is a political issue, not an issue of charity that can be solved with a few dollars of humanitarian aid! We emphasize that the PA must always refuse to compromise on the illegal presence of the Apartheid Wall, and insist on its dismantlement.
On Land Day we declare our will and insistence to protect our land. We do so in the knowledge that the Apartheid Wall is a project to steal Palestinian land. The Wall is the bulldozer and catalyst of the colonial Zionist project in Palestine. It is the bulldozer of Judaization and our expulsion. It is the bulldozer that creates the facts on the ground, making the ghettos which they deem as a "viable state" for us.
Our people will not be misled! Our experience with the Occupation has been long and bloody! We know how the so-called "ceasefire" has always been used by the Occupation Forces for the further colonization of our lands, and construction of illegal settlements.
Ghettos cannot substitute for our state, our liberation and our land!
Ghettos are being created on 54% of the West Bank, turning our people into prisoners in their own country, locked behind a Wall and gates where the keys are held by the Occupation soldiers. Ghettos are turning our people into slaves in the joint industrial zones being built on our land. Stripped of our land and resources the Occupation wants to control and regiment us into their labor slavery systems.
Without the dismantlement of the Apartheid Wall, without the liberation of our land, without the destruction of settlements, there will be no real independence, no viable state and no dignity. Neither the humanitarian aid missions of the UN, nor the funds offered by the World Bank and United States for the industrial zones and hi-tech gates of the Wall, can alter our resistance to tear down the Apartheid Wall.
On Land Day, we will make our voice heard:
• Land is the essence of our struggle,
without liberating the land there is no solution for our national cause!
•No
sovereignty and no independence can be achieved with settlements on Palestinian
land!
•The United Nations has to respect and implement the ICJ decision
to
dismantle the Apartheid Wall!
•No modifications to the Wall's path, no charity assistance — only
the dismantlement of the Apartheid Wall!
•We will never accept that our
cause be transformed into a humanitarian one as the world did to the refugee
issue!
•No real settlement can be achieved without all of our rights. Right
to return!
Right to Jerusalem! Dismantlement of all Zionist colonies!
•All power to
the grassroots resisting
the Apartheid Wall and the Illegal Settlements!
Through popular and grassroots resistance we confront the Apartheid Wall, and force the implementation of the ICJ decision to dismantle the Wall.
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US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
International Day of Action Against Caterpillar - April 13, 2005
On Wednesday, April 13, people all over the world and across the country — from San Francisco to Stockholm, from Mobile to Chicago — are joining together for a day of action against U.S. monopoly Caterpillar, condemning its role in war crimes in Israel. On April 13, Caterpillar shareholders will meet in Chicago and will discuss a resolution on sales of bulldozers to Israel. Various groups are organizing local demonstrations at CAT-related locations, such as board of directors’ offices or CAT dealerships, to send a strong message against human rights abuses. We list below some of the planned actions.
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco: Protest Against Caterpillar, Wednesday, April 13th, 2005. Rally
in the San Francisco Bay area.
OREGON
Corvallis: Corvallis/Albany Caterpillar Protest Vigil, Wednesday, April 13th,
2005.
ILLINOIS
Peoria: Cat Headquarters, Wednesday, April 13th 2005 noon. Protest in front
of Cat headquarters noon until 1pm. We will be passing out educational flyers.
Chicago: Protest outside shareholder meeting, Wednesday, April 13th, 2005,
12pm - 3pm. Press conference (12:30) and rally outside of the annual Caterpillar
shareholder meeting.
INDIANA
Lafayette: Protest Against Caterpillar
Saturday, April 9th, 2005 12 noon. Protest with signs, banners, speakers
SOUTH CAROLINA
Greenville: Billboard unveiling. Wednesday, April 13th, 2005 10:00am.
Billboard unveiling and educational leafleting on Israeli human rights violations
and Caterpillar’s complicity.
TEXAS
Dallas: Protest Wednesday, April 13th 5pm. This will be an informational picket.
We will stand in front of the Cat dealership holding signs and banners and
will give out informational fliers.
TENNESSEE
Memphis: Protest Against Caterpillar
Wednesday, April 13th at 11:00am.
Protest with signs and banners against Caterpillar’s continued cooperation
with the Israeli Military despite the grave human rights abuses committed by
their equipment.
NEW YORK
Buffalo: Join the WNY Peace Center in a worldwide effort to voice
our opposition to Caterpillar. Wednesday, April 13, 11am. Milton CAT Dealership,
2140 Military
Road, Tonawanda.
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Declaration Regarding Caterpillar Violations of Human Rights
Whereas
The Caterpillar Corporation's machinery is directly implicated in grave abuses of human rights and humanitarian law by the Israeli army;
The Israeli army has used Caterpillar equipment to uproot hundreds of thousands of olive trees as well as orchards of dates, prunes, lemons and oranges, causing widespread economic hardship and environmental degradation in rural areas of Palestine;
Since 1967, the Israeli army has used Caterpillar equipment, including specially modified D9 and D10 bulldozers to destroy over 12,000 houses in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, leaving tens of thousands of men, women and children homeless;
Since September 2000, the Israeli army has used Caterpillar equipment to destroy more than 3,000 homes, hundreds of public buildings and private commercial properties and vast areas of agricultural land;
Home demolitions are usually carried out without warning, often at night, and the occupants are forcibly evicted with no time to salvage their belongings. Often the only warning is the rumbling of the Israeli army's US-made Caterpillar bulldozers beginning to tear down the walls of their homes;
The Israeli army has continued bulldozing homes even when notified that residents were still inside the targeted homes;
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in such instances, such as Nabila al-Shu'bi, who was seven-months pregnant, as well as her three young children and four additional members of her family, left to die under the rubble of their Nablus home when it was bulldozed on April 6, 2002;
On March 16 2003, 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie was murdered by Israeli soldiers driving a Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer, while she was standing in non-violent protest of a home demolition in Rafah;
All these home demolitions and civilian deaths are illegal under international law, specifically violating the Hague Regulation of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention;
The Israeli army uses Caterpillar bulldozers to build a separation wall with significant portions of it inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
The International Court of Justice considered the construction of such a wall to be contrary to international law-specifically violating the Hague Regulation of 1907; the Fourth Geneva Convention; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
The sale of Caterpillar bulldozers to the Israeli army is carried through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program and is in violation of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, U.S. Public Law 90-829, which prohibits the use of U.S. weapons against civilians and for anything outside of "internal security" or "legitimate self-defense";
The sale of the Caterpillar bulldozer to the Israeli army contravenes the United Nations' Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, which stipulate that transnational corporations "shall not engage in nor benefit" from war crimes or other violations of human rights and humanitarian law (article C3); and that transnational corporations "shall refrain from actions which obstruct or impede" the realization of basic human rights, such as the right to development, adequate food and drinking water, adequate housing, and the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (articles E11 and E12);
Caterpillar's involvement in the above-described abuses has attracted the attention of the United Nations and leading human rights organizations;
The Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has written to Caterpillar CEO James Owens that "allowing the delivery of your. . . bulldozers to the Israeli army. . . in the certain knowledge that they are being used for such action, might involve complicity or acceptance on the part of your company to actual and potential violations of human rights...";
Amnesty International has issued a call to Caterpillar to "take measures - within the company sphere of influence - to guarantee that its bulldozers are not used to commit human rights violations, including the destruction of homes, land and other properties";
Human Rights Watch has called on Caterpillar to suspend the sale of its D9 bulldozers, parts or maintenance service to the Israeli army, so long as the military continues to use the bulldozers to violate international human rights and humanitarian law;
The Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly voted July 2, 2004 to start a process of a phased and selective divestment of its nearly eight billion dollar portfolio from select companies that profit from sales of products or services that cause harm to Palestinians or Israelis or both. The Presbyterian Church (USA) researchers are working to determine which companies profit most "from building settlements, from constructing the wall and from selling machinery that destroys Palestinian homes, vineyards and orchards." The case of Caterpillar is currently being considered by the group's Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) Committee;
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions supports divestment from companies that profit from involvement in the Occupation, including Caterpillar whose bulldozers demolish thousands of Palestinian homes;
All of the facts described above are a matter of public knowledge;
The sale of the Caterpillar bulldozer to the Israeli army contradicts Caterpillar's own Code of Worldwide Business Conduct, which states that "Caterpillar accepts the responsibilities of global citizenship" and recognizes that Caterpillar's "commitment to financial success must also take into account social, economic, political, and environmental priorities";
Spokespeople for Caterpillar, Inc. have acknowledged that Caterpillar is aware of the Israeli army's use of Caterpillar equipment to destroy civilian homes, infrastructure and agricultural resources but Caterpillar has, nevertheless, refused either to condemn these practices or to take actions necessary to halt the sale or transfer of Caterpillar equipment to the Israeli army;
Therefore
We call on Caterpillar to stop selling bulldozers to Israel until Israel stops using these machines to destroy Palestinian lives and livelihoods in contravention of human rights and humanitarian law;
We call on Caterpillar to establish transparent and credible mechanisms for independent monitoring and verification, with the assistance of human rights ngos, to establish when these conditions are met;
We further call on Caterpillar to adopt a code of conduct which complies with the UN Human Rights Norms for Business and ensures the application of Article 11, which states that Trans National Corporations and other business enterprises should take stringent measures to prevent any products or services they produce or supply from being used to commit violations of international human rights or humanitarian law.
We further call on civil and human rights activists, faith-based organizations, peace activists, Arab-American organizations, Jewish groups, students, and others who promote peace and justice in Israel and Palestine to join us in our efforts.
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Bulldozer Used for War Crimes in Palestine
Family of Rachel Corrie Charges Caterpillar
- Center for Constitutional Rights -
NEW YORK, NY, March 15 — The 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.
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 Corrie’s 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.
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.
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. We believe Caterpillar and the IDF must be held accountable for their role in the attack on my daughter Rachel.”
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.”
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.
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.
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