Louis
Schmittroth, Ph.D.
P.O. Box 1226
Athabasca AB
T9S 2B1
Tel 780 675 4408
Glen Barton
Caterpillar Chairman and CEO
c/o Benjamin Cordani
cordani_benjamin_s@cat.com
Caterpillar Inc.
100 N.E. Adams St.
Peoria, Illinois 61629
Dear Mr. Barton:
I am writing to you to suggest that Caterpillar stop sales of equipment to Israel.
One of the most terrifying nights I have ever spent was in Balata Refugee Camp in the Occupied Territories of Palestine in June of this year. An armored D9 bulldozer and a tank came rumbling down the narrow main street of the camp about 1 A.M. toward the front of the house I was sleeping in. This house was scheduled to be demolished. The International Solidarity Movement had asked for volunteers to stay in the house to try to prevent it from destruction. There was an Israeli volunteer, an American, and me (an American-Canadian dual citizen) there with the family. The lights went out. The Israeli Army of Occupation had knocked down a power pole. We sat there on the second floor by candle light in solidarity with the family. The floodlights of the D9 kept coming closer, and we all piled into a back room waiting for it to stop and start the demolition. The tank with it keep firing rounds at random into the buildings and shooting an occasional sound stun bomb just to make sure the whole camp was awake.
The little parade passed us by, then the D9 and the tank parked at the end of the camp for a couple of hours revving motors and doing some dozing. At one point we heard shots from the tank, although none from the camp. I was afraid of leaning out of the window to see what they were doing, and eventually they came back through the camp and we could "relax" for a few hours.
In the morning I walked out by myself to the site of the dozing. They had piled another mound of dirt to block a possible vehicle access to the camp. Later I was taken to the place one street over where a young man of 17 had been shot from the tank. He also had been curious, and had gone down to street level to look at the dozer. The first shot severed his head and sent it flying up onto a ledge on a building near where he had looked out. His body was then riddled with bullets as it lay there headless. His blood was still on the ground where he had been shot. He had no gun. He had no grenade. No weapon at all. He had never been an activist. The Israeli Army of Occupation murdered him about 3:00A.M. July 27, 2002. There wasn't even a mention of this in the U.S. media.
As you are aware by this time, there is a worldwide campaign to boycott Caterpillar sales because of the use of Cat equipment by the Israelis to commit war crimes. All over the West Bank there are thousands of homes that have been demolished using Cat equipment. What a shame that the proud name of Caterpillar has been dragged into the dirt this way, making thousands of innocent people homeless. There are also thousands of roadblocks, piles of rubble, to prevent travel. Cat equipment has strangled the economy of Palestine.
I urge you to stop all sales to Israel. Please issue an apology to the families made homeless by the criminal home demolitions carried out by the Israeli military. The case has been made more eloquently that I have, on a hundred web sites, but you should listen to the voice of a World War II veteran and admirer of Cat products. For the time being, however, I say, "Full steam ahead with Komatsu, Hitachi, …"
Sincerely yours,
Louis Schmittroth, U.S. Army WWII serial number 39464394.
http://schmittroth.tripod.com