Rachel Corrie's Legacy: From Seattle Weekly

Tweet "Caterpillar is a symbol of the occupation," says Cindy. She recalls trips to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank during which she and her husband have seen the destruction that the IDF has caused using Caterpillar bulldozers: piles of rubble where entire neighborhoods and markets once stood. The Corries believe that Caterpillar cannot separate itself from this devastation, and by suing the company they are joining a growing effort to hold corporations liable for international human-rights abuses carried out with their products or in the course of commerce. "If Caterpillar can figure out whether the habitat of a crane is being destroyed," Craig says, noting the company's stated commitment to environmental protection, "then it can figure out whether the habitat of a child is being destroyed."

I wasn't totally pleased with Shapiro's reluctance to see Rachel Corrie's mission the way I do, as the heroic intervention of an American teenager. But I do like the fact that Shapiro finishes the article talking this way about the tragedy of the Palestinian people, something I think Rachel Corrie would have appreciated.

"The legal papers make for sobering, eye-opening reading. The cases besides Rachel's, as described, are even more compelling. One concerns a demolition that killed a family, including a pregnant woman and children ages 4, 7, and 9. Another demolition trapped and killed a paralyzed man, despite his family's warnings to the IDF that the man was in the house. Warnings by family members during another demolition also failed to save a man in his 70s who was so sick that he could not walk or hear."

"Of course, these descriptions come from one side. Evidence has to be presented to back them up, and that has to be weighed against evidence from the IDF. It's questionable whether such scrutiny should happen in the context of a suit against Caterpillar, but that it should happen is beyond doubt." [Emphasis in original]