"On March 28th, 2011, students and alumni at The Evergreen State College began a 62 hour Vigil for Human Rights by erecting an Israeli settlement. This is meant to demonstrate support for divestment from companies profiting off of the illegal occupation of Palestine, such as Caterpillar Inc. Former Evergreen student Rachel Corrie was run over and killed by an Israeli Army Caterpillar bulldozer while protecting a Palestinian home in Rafah, Palestine in 2003. The Corrie family is suing the Israeli government for damages in a civil trial commencing on April 3rd in Haifa District Court.
The Vigil for Human Rights follows a landslide electoral victory, in which divestment passed with 79% of the vote and a resolution to ban the use of Caterpillar Inc. equipment on campus passed with 71%. Both resolutions received unanimous support from the student union. The 62 hour vigil will continue through Wednesday, March 30th to commemorate Palestinian Land Day. Each hour represents a year since Palestinians first lost their rights to their ancestral homeland. Land Day recognizes Israel’s continued theft of indigenous Palestinian land. In the past 20 years settlements have doubled in size, while the US has blocked actions meant to cease this expansion. On February 18, 2011, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution, supported unanimously by the council’s 14 other members, calling Israeli settlements illegal."
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