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Israeli
jeeps with loudspeakers are currently (10pm, Sat)
roaming the streets around Arafat's headquarters advising
residents to open their windows and turn off the main
electricity breaker in our homes in preparation for
a massive explosion they are planning. We have no
idea what they have planned but the terror campaign
is working and the unmanned plane is wizzing overhead
as I write. Al-Bireh is tense tonight.
Although
I passed this out before, for the sake of the new
subscribers, I would like to request that the following
poster be downloaded and posted wherever possible
- work, subways, busses, libraries, supermarkets,
etc:
http://www.epalestine.com
Steadfast
under curfew,
Sam
CAT
Executives "Arrested" For War Crimes: Office
Condemned (Caterpillar corporation)
At
9am Tuesday morning, September 17th, a media advisory
went out stating that executives from the Caterpillar
corporation would be arrested at their office in DC
and at other locations around the country. The media
responded immediately, assuming it was another case
of corporate corruption, but, when Fox News arrived,
they quickly realized it was not an issue of corruption
but of War Crimes! Activists from SUSTAIN (Stop US
tax-funded Aid to Israel Now!) marched into the building
in Downtown DC that houses the Caterpillar office,
to make a citizens arrest under the provisions of
the 4th Geneva convention, and to demand that the
CAT executives come to the UN building in DC immediately
to turn themselves in for war crimes. The arrest warrant
served to CAT read:
"The
Israeli Defense Forces have committed numerous war
crimes and crimes against humanity--as defined by
the Fourth Geneva Convention--against the Palestinian
people using Caterpillar equipment. The Caterpillar
corporation, by knowlingly selling equipment to be
used for such purposes, and by refusing to cease such
sales when illegal uses were documented, is complicit
in these
crimes. It is thereby violating its duty under international
law, and violating its own code of moral conduct."
Based
on this complicity, and in the spirit of Israeli justice,
which CAT supports, the warrant called for: "the
immediate arrest of all senior executivs of the Caterpillar
Corporation. Further, all Caterpillar executives living
in the District
of Columbia, are to be exiled to Anacostia [ghettoized
area in southeast DC]. They will be furnished with
UN refugee tents erected in abandoned alleys, though
these will later be bulldozed with Caterpillar equipment.
While some of these executives may not be directly
associated with Caterpillar complicity in war crimes,
we
suspect they are related to people who are, and that's
good enough for us."
Upon
delivery of the warrant, the CAT executives tried
to slam the door, but the SUSTAIN activists blocked
it with their bodies and held it open. The CAT executives
first threatened to call the police, and then threatented
physical assault. The activists replied calmly that
they would remain there until they were finished articulating
all of the war crimes for which CAT was responsible.
They presented color photographs of CAT bulldozers
demolishing civilian homes, and
explained that at Nurenburg, corporate executives
who knowingly supplied equipment for war crimes were
tried and held accountable under international law.
Meanwhile,
downstairs in front of the building more activists
from SUSTAIN, dressed as Israeli soliders, were condemning
the CAT building for demolition. They were demanding,
over a bullhorn, that everyone evacuate the building
because people complicit in terrorist acts and war
crimes were being arrested inside. "This is a
closed Israeli military zone" they yelled as
'construction workers' put orange
cones in front of the entrance and wrapped the building
in yellow 'Caution' tape. They then posted "Condemnation
Orders" on the front doors of the office building
which read:
"This
Office of the Caterpillar Corporation (and the activities
carried out herein) Are Condemned. All personnel are
instructed to vacate the premises and to turn over
this office to homeless Palestinian families."
The
CAT executives were visibly shaken, and were publicly
indicted in front of the media. The executives and
the media were made aware of the fact that similar
actions happened today at other CAT offices around
the country, and that if CAT continues to supply bulldozers
for Israeli war crimes, the actions will continue
to
escalate nationally and internationally.
Pictures
and Video footage from todays action, provided by
the DC indymedia center and various independant photographers,
as well as copies of the press releases will be posted
on the SUSTAIN website as soon as possible. You can
view them and get more information on the campaign
against Caterpillar at
www.sustaincampaign.org.
This
was forwarded to Sam Bahour by:
Fred Schlomka
Operations Manager
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
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