Family of Rachel Corrie Fight On
07.12.07 - 09:01am
The family of peace activist Rachel Corrie have returned to court to continue their legal fight against the Caterpillar corporation for aiding and abetting the human rights violators who killed her.
Rachel, 23, from Olympia, Washington, USA, was killed by the Israeli army, crushed beneath a Caterpillar bulldozer as she tried to stop the military flattening Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip in 2003. Her family are claiming the corporation should be held accountable as it knew its products were being used to perpetrate human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories.
“Caterpillar sold this product knowing — or it should have known — it would cause exactly this harm,” the family’s lawyer, Erwin Chemerinsky, told judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this week, as reported in the International Herald Tribune.
An American court initially dismissed the case in 2005 but Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, are trying to have it reinstated. Their legal team maintains that under common law dating back hundreds of years the corporation could be held liable.
Caterpillar’s attorney, Robert Abrams, told the court that the legal issue was complicated by the fact that the Israeli army bought the bulldozers with US aid money, a point dismissed as a red herring by the Corrie legal team.
The US “Justice” Department is supporting Caterpillar Inc.
“This is a case about direct commercial sales,” Mr Chemerinsky said. “It’s about holding corporations liable when they aid and abet violations of human rights.”
Cindy Corrie said after the hearing: “You can’t go back to the way things were before, so you determine a path forward. Rachel left a very strong message about trying to make a difference on these important issues. This gives our life a lot of meaning.”
Support the Rachel Corrie Foundation. More information is available here.
I returned the favor, and linked back to you.
I would imagine it would be useless and difficult to sue the Zionist government?
Considering the practical and diplomatic protection the Israeli state receives from the US Government and media, next to impossible, I would imagine.