The parents of a 23-year-old activist killed while trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home have sued Caterpillar Inc, the manufacturer of the bulldozer which ran over her.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in a Seattle US District Court, alleges that Caterpillar violated international and state law by providing specially designed bulldozers to the Israeli Defense Forces, knowing the machines would be used to demolish homes and endanger people.
Rachel Corrie, a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, was standing in front of a home in a refugee camp in Rafah, a Gaza Strip city near the Egyptian border, on March 16, 2003, when a bulldozer plowed over her.
PHOTO: AP
"The brutal death of my daughter should never have happened," her mother, Cindy Corrie, said in a statement released by the Center for Constitutional Rights, one of the law firms handling the case.
"We believe Caterpillar and the [Israeli Defense Forces] must be held accountable for their role in the attack," the statement said.
Cindy and Craig Corrie, who live in Olympia, are pursuing separate claims in Israel against the state of Israel, the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Israeli Defense Forces.
Israeli military officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Caterpillar spokeswoman Linda Fairbanks said the company had no comment on the lawsuit.
However, the company released a general, written statement on Tuesday that said: "Caterpillar shares the world's concern over unrest in the Middle East and we certainly have compassion for all those affected by political strife.
"However, more than 2 million Caterpillar machines and engines are at work in virtually every region of the world each day. We have neither the legal right nor the means to police individual use of that equipment," the company said.
The statement made no mention of the lawsuit or Corrie's death.
An Israeli army investigation concluded that Corrie's death was accidental. Officials have said the driver of the machine could not see the woman -- a claim activists have fiercely disputed.
In the past four years, Israel has used Caterpillar bulldozers to topple more than 4,000 Palestinian homes, killing and injuring people in the process, according to the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights.
Human-rights groups have condemned the demolition of Palestinian homes as a violation of international humanitarian law.
Israeli officials have said the military destroys only the homes of those with established links to terrorism. Israel has characterized the International Solidarity Movement, the group Rachel Corrie was working with when she was killed, as meddlers whose activism in some cases has amounted to abetting terrorism.
Last April, hundreds of protesters in Peoria, Illinois, used a wooden replica of a bulldozer to re-enact Rachel Corrie's death during a demonstration outside Caterpillar's headquarters.
That demonstration came a week after the Stop CAT Coalition organized a similar protest outside Caterpillar's annual meeting in Chicago, where shareholders rejected a resolution calling for a review of whether providing bulldozers to Israel violates the company's code of conduct.
Gwynne Skinner, a partner with the Public Interest Law Group and an adjunct professor in the Ronald J. Peterson Law Clinic at Seattle University's law school, is one of the lawyers on the Corries' legal team. She said they hope Caterpillar will admit it is partially responsible for their daughter's death and stop providing Israel with bulldozers.
"Caterpillar knew that its equipment was being used to commit human-rights violations, knew that Rachel Corrie and other civilians were foreseeable victims of these human-rights violations, and even with that knowledge ... they continued to supply that equipment," Skinner said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in