National Orgs. Launch Open Letter for U.S. Investigation of Israel’s Injuring & Killing of Americans

Dear Milena,

Rachel Corrie

Earlier this week, Cindy and Craig Corrie accepted the prestigious 2012 LennonOno Grant for Peace on behalf of their daughter, Rachel, who was killed by the Israeli military with a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer as she nonviolently attempted to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip in March 2003.

In accepting the award, Cindy stated that Rachel’s

“hope would be that it could somehow contribute to bringing people together to work passionately for justice, and to do so with the utmost respect for the rights and lives of all human beings.”

However, nearly ten years after Rachel’s killing, her family still has not received justice. In August 2012, a civil case against the Israeli military filed by the Corrie family concluded with the presiding judge not only absolving the State of Israel of any liability, but also blaming Rachel for her own death. This is unacceptable.

Together with our friends at the Center for Constitutional Rights(CCR), we launched last month a petition to the State Department calling on “the U.S. government to conduct thorough, credible, and transparent investigations into the death of Rachel Corrie and into each case involving the death or serious injury of an American citizen by the Israeli military since 2001.”

Already, we’ve collected more than 9,000 signatures.

But, Milena, we noticed that you haven't signed the petition yet. Please take a minute to sign it and then share it with your friends through email & social media.

You can also tweet the petition and share it on your Facebook page.

We plan on delivering these petition signatures to the State Department later this month. Be sure that we include your signature by signing today!

To bolster our efforts, the US Campaign and CCR have joined with prominent national organizations in our coalition, including theAmerican-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Muslims for Palestine, CODEPINK: Women for Peace, Friends of Sabeel—North America, Interfaith Peace-Builders, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Peace Action in launching a similar organizational sign-on letter.

You can read the full-text of the letter here. If you are authorized to endorse the letter on behalf of an organization, then we invite you to do so.

A U.S. investigation into Israel’s killing of Rachel Corrie, along with Israel’s injuring and killing of other Americans, would be the first step toward accountability and justice for these U.S. human rights defenders.

Help make this possible by taking action today.

Sincerely,