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1)
Israeli soldiers shoot dead another Palestinian unarmed protester
ISM Media Office
April 18, 2004


[Biddu, NW Jerusalem] Shortly before 10:00PM this evening, 23-year-old De’yaa Abdul Karim Abu Eid succumbed to his wounds in Al Maqassed Hospital in East Jerusalem. De’yaa was shot in the chest by an Israeli soldier in a popular demonstration this afternoon in the town of Biddu, NW Jerusalem.

Eyewitness report that Israeli soldiers used live ammunition several times to disperse unarmed demonstrators, wounding critically near the heart De’yaa Abdul Kareem. De’yaa was transported to Al Maqassed Hospital in East Jerusalem where he underwent immediate surgery. The surgeon, Dr. Huwwari reported that the bullet had passed near De’yaa’s heart causing cardiac arrest and fragmenting one of his lungs, before exiting. A couple of hours after coming out of surgery and appearing to be stable, De’yaa died.

De’yaa Abdul Kareem was in the olive groves located approximately 500 meters from
the worksite of Israeli bulldozers when he was hit by a live bullet shot by an Israeli
army sniper. Eyewitnesses reported that the closest visible soldiers were positioned 400 meters from the man when he was shot. "Nobody heard any shooting, only the sound of the bullets flying above our heads" one ISM activist said.

During the same protest, Khaled Abud Bedwan was arrested and beaten by Israeli soldiers. Eyewitnesses reported that he was bleeding from the head but received no medical attention. He was arrested along with British peace activist Theresa McDermott and both are still detained in an unknown location.

Nine villagers were also injured during the protest, all of them in the upper parts of the body. Five of these wounds were caused by Israeli soldiers on horseback charging demonstrators. Other injuries were caused by rubber-coated steel bullets.

Two days ago, April 16, the army shot dead 17 year old Hussein Mahmoud Hussein Aweideh during another anti-wall protest in Beitunia, west of Ramallah. The army denied the use of live bullets but were contradicted by medical sources, eyewitness accounts and video footage.

For more information, please contact:
Shora: +972.67.254.910
Mansour: +972.55.804.830
ISM Media Office: +972.22.77.46.02

END
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2)

5-year-old girl injured by Israeli tank fire
Saturday, April 17, 2004
By: Phyllis
Tulkarem

This afternoon, Jaafar Tibi, a teacher at Dhanabbi School was driving his three young daughters home. The youngest was asleep in the back seat. He saw an Israeli tank in the road ahead of him. He turned to the right, onto his street. His five year old daughter, Batool, turned around to watch the tank. The tank fired several shots which went through his car, the car seat and into his daughter's chest. He kept driving to the hospital. An ambulance was in the area; the tank smashed it, crumpling its wheels.

The military denied having any forces in the area. The child is in stable but serious condition in hospital.

For photo of Batool in hospital, please see:  http://www.palsolidarity.org/reports/writings/17Apr04_14_33_30TulkaremPhyllis.htm

For more information, please call:
Abdulkareem: +972-59-836-783

END

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3)
Verdict in case against Huwaida and Shelly
Sunday, April 18, 2004

[Jerusalem] Today, at 2:00pm Israeli judge Irit Cohen delivered her verdict in the case of the State of Israel vs. Huwaida Arraf and Shelly Nativ. ISM coordinator, Huwaida Arraf and Israeli peace activist, Shelly Nativ were two of 11 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists arrested in Biddu on Thursday April 15 in a nonviolent demonstration against the destruction of Palestinian land and the ghettoization of the community. The two were accused of violating a “closed military zone” order and the police were asking that the two be banned from the West Bank for three months due to their tendency to “repeatedly violate orders.”
In their defense, Advocate Lea Tsemel argued that when settlers violate orders (in a much more dangerous manner), they are only ordered to keep within meters of the point of their arrest for a period of 5-15 days. That the State was asking to keep Huwaida and Shelly out of the entire West Bank was nothing more than an attempt by the State to keep them from demonstrating against the Apartheid Wall - an infringement on their freedom of speech.

Judge Cohen’s verdict was that Huwaida and Shelly refrain from nearing Biddu, Beit Iksa, Har Adar and Givon for a period of 21 days from the day of their arrest.

This verdict, though in principle, unacceptable, can be considered a small victory. In signing their release papers, both ladies signed “End the Occupation”.

END

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4)
Letter from Craig and Cindy Corrie to the CEO of Caterpillar


Friends,

We're passing on this letter from Craig and Cindy Corrie to James Owens, the current CEO of Caterpillar. Please feel free to forward. This letter will also be available at our www.stopcat.org website later today. As you already know, Friday - April 23, is the "INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST CATERPILLAR" in Peoria (Illinois) and we need you to be with us in the streets of Peoria. We will march to CAT corporate headquarters to demand James Owens meet with our delegation. If you cannot join us in Peoria, we are calling for creative nonviolent direct actions at Caterpillar facilities around the world on April 23. At a time when Palestinians are being murdered and injured by Israeli Occupation Forces for nonviolently protesting the construction of the Apartheid Wall, we must act. Since we know that Israel has demolished a minimum of 10,000 Palestinian homes (many of them with the use of D9 bulldozers manufactured by Caterpillar), we must act. The Palestinian people are counting upon us and we urge you not to disappoint them. The parents of Rachel Corrie are also counting upon us to stand with them in demanding that Caterpillar cease all sales of bulldozers to Israel now. We call on you to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people on Friday, April 23.

Kevin Clark

International Solidarity Movement-Chicago chapter

___________________________________

James W. Owens,
Chairman and CEO April 13, 2004
Caterpillar, Inc.
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