The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., canceled a Sept. 14 ceremony honoring Caterpillar after pressure from a foundation named for activist Rachel Corrie.
“We feel the environment for the 2011 Henry C. Turner Prize has become politicized and this will divert attention from innovation in construction technology, which is the purpose of the prize and central to the Museum’s mission,” wrote Chase Rynd, the museum’s director, in a letter sent Sept. 2 to Corrie’s parents, who run the foundation.
The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice launched a petition seeking the withdrawal of the prize; Caterpillar has long resisted pressure from pro-Palestinian groups not to sell its bulldozers to Israel.
Corrie was protesting in front of an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in 2003 when she was killed. The bulldozer was made by Caterpillar. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by her family against the Israeli army in an Israeli court is pending an outcome. — jta