Bernie Sanders is trying to end the shipment of US bulldozers to Israel—like the one that crushed my daughter, Rachel Corrie, to death 13 years ago.
A protester waves a picture of US peace activist Rachel Corrie in front of an Israeli tank during a demonstration held at the site where Corrie was killed, on March 18, 2003.
(Mohammed Abed / AFP via Getty Images)
Our daughter, Rachel Corrie, was killed in 2003 in Gaza, while trying to protect a Palestinian home facing illegal destruction by the Israeli military. She was 23 years old. The massive, armored Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer that crushed her was manufactured in the United States. It was the same type of militarized bulldozer that US presidents from George W. Bush through to Donald Trump have delivered to Israel.
Today, Senator Bernie Sanders will force a vote in the Senate to try to end this cycle of death by banning the transfer of D-9 bulldozers to Israel. We hope he will not take this stand alone.
In his final months in office, President Joe Biden blocked the shipment of militarized bulldozers to Israel, finally recognizing the role the machines play in Israel’s systematic destruction of Palestinian homes. But one of President Trump’s first acts upon taking office was to overturn that decision and resume the transfers. In the months since, Israel has only accelerated its destruction of homes, not just in Gaza but in the West Bank too, and now in its invasion of southern Lebanon.
What does it say about our country’s values when, in violation of international and US law, we continue to use taxpayer money to supply Israel with machines that kill, and that destroy homes halfway around the world—all while many Americans sleep on the street and young people have given up on one day owning a home for themselves? What responsibility do we bear to change this?
The word “bulldozer” may conjure images of construction, of building and rebuilding. But these machines are not being sent to Gaza for these purposes. Israel has blocked the entry of heavy machinery and construction materials into Gaza, even as the land lies in ruin from Israel’s genocidal, indiscriminate bombing campaign, and nearly 2 million displaced Palestinians have nowhere to live. The Rafah crossing into Gaza remains closed by Israel, blocking desperately needed supplies and equipment that could begin to rebuild homes, hospitals, and schools.
Caterpillar bulldozers are being used not to build but to destroy—to erase communities and deliberately make land uninhabitable. If Israel were serious about reconstruction, it would open the crossings and allow needed machinery in. Instead, it is importing American bulldozers to tear down what little remains.
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Rachel believed she had a responsibility to fight for change. She went to Gaza to act in solidarity with Palestinian families who were being thrown out of their homes illegally. In the weeks before her killing, she wrote about neighborhoods reduced to rubble, and the looming presence of bulldozers that could arrive at any moment to erase homes and entire families’ histories.
At about 5 pm, on March 16, 2003, wearing a brightly colored vest, Rachel stood to prevent another such home destruction. Witnesses say she was in plain sight of the 60-ton Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer in front of her. The two Israeli soldiers operating the bulldozer did not stop.
In the decades since, our family has sought accountability—not just for Rachel’s killing but for the system that enabled it. Since her death, over a dozen Americans have been killed by the Israeli military or Israeli settlers. But the Israeli government has never charged anyone—and successive governments have failed to open independent investigations into Rachel’s and other cases. The destruction of Palestinian homes has only become more commonplace, not to mention the horror of Israel’s genocide. And American taxpayers continue to fund it all.
No policy can bring back those taken from us by these actions—children and other loved ones. But the Senate now has an opportunity to honor the memories of our daughter, other Americans, and thousands of Palestinian civilians killed, and to show that their deaths, and all the destruction, will no longer be condoned and funded. We hope those elected to represent us, the American people, understand the message that voting to block these D-9 bulldozers will send. This will not be a symbolic gesture, but a concrete step toward the protection of human life.
Just weeks before she was killed in Gaza, Rachel wrote to us, “This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop…. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it.” Rachel embodied the conviction and courage that have continued to inspire her family and many others. We urge all of our elected officials to act with the same conviction and courage, and with devotion to the better country and world Rachel believed in and fought for. We call on all US senators to vote yes on Senator Sanders’s Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to block the transfer of Caterpillar D-9 bulldozers and other weaponry to the Israeli military.