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Boston support group for the International Solidarity Movement

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Rally decries bulldozer death
By Sara Withee / Daily News Staff
Thursday, March 17, 2005

MILFORD -- Activists protesting the death of a young woman who lost her life
while trying to stop the Israeli military from bulldozing a Palestinian home
brought their message to Quarry Drive yesterday.

The group of 40 staged a two-hour rally near the entrance of Milton
CAT, which sells products by Caterpillar, the Illinois-based maker of the
bulldozers the Israeli military uses to level homes.

The group handed a Milton CAT representative a letter at the end of the
company's driveway yesterday while Police Chief Thomas O'Loughlin and
several officers stood by. No problems were reported.

The Milton CAT representative released a statement from Caterpillar
that said the company shares the world's concern about the Middle East
situation, but that it has neither the legal right nor the means to police
use of its equipment.

The members of the BootCat Chapter of the Boston Committee for
Palestinian Rights and Boston to Palestine support group for the
International Solidarity Movement vowed to return each Saturday until April
13, when Caterpillar holds its annual meeting in Chicago. Shareholders are
expected to consider a resolution stating Caterpillar is violating its code
of ethics with sales to Israel for demolitions.

Yesterday's rally marked the second anniversary of Rachel Corrie's
death. The 23-year-old human rights worker from Washington state was killed
when she stood in front of a Palestinian home and tried to block the Israeli
military from demolishing it with a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer.

Activists have long called for a U.S. investigation into Corrie's death
and earlier this week, a lawsuit was filed against Caterpillar on her
parents' behalf in U.S. District Court.

Yesterday, Jeff Halper, of the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions, told the group the Caterpillar's D9 bulldozers are larger than
those commonly seen on United States soil.

"It's a powerful machine that's specifically designed to demolish
Palestinian homes," Halper said. "That's its only function."

Halper said Corrie believed peace overseas is as important as peace at
home and wondered why the United States didn't intervene.

"This wasn't a conflict far away, but in a part of the world she lived
in and simply as a part of the world, she felt the need to act," Halper
said.

The group shared some of Corrie's writings and Halper said Corrie was
right to call the Israeli government's action "genocide," because
demolishing homes strips the Palestinian people of themselves.

"It also talks about destroying their identity and their cultural
heritage," Halper said. "In other words, the whole point of human rights is
based on human dignity."

Israel has knocked down at least 12,000 homes since 1967, according to
Halper's organization. Building permits are hard for Palestinians to obtain,
making the ongoing destruction even more painful, said Ridgely Fuller, 55,
of Sherborn.

"It's the destruction of someone's home and to have to sit there and
watch it, it's very painful," she said.

Kathy Roberts, 65, of Cambridge, said visiting Palestinian refugee
camps in Lebanon shows the toll of the decades of war -- and even acceptance
from the Palestinian people.

"All I had heard about was the violence before," Roberts said. "What I
came away with was how peaceful these people are to be living with these
conditions."

Roberts said Corrie's story adds to an already desperate situation.

"I was an activist at her age and I brought up my children to be
activists and it really brought it home," Roberts said. "I was really shaken
and knew that I had to do more than just sign petitions."