delegate writes letter to teargas manufacturer
Grand Rapids, MI 1/10/2011 Mr. Don Smith, CEO Combined Systems Inc. 388 Kinsman Rd. Jamestown, PA 16134 Dear Mr. Smith,
I visited the West Bank with Christian Peacemaker Teams to
learn and to promote peace. What I
experienced was quite different. Our group participated in a peaceful demonstration in the
town of Bidu. The demonstration
was intended to protest the Israeli demolition of buildings and olive orchards
on the edge of the town to prepare for building the wall through this
Palestinian community.
It didn’t remain peaceful. Suddenly we heard explosions and saw clouds of smoke. We did not see soldiers through the
trees and brush on the side of the road where the explosions were coming from. But we soon smelled the choking tear
gas. For a time it didn’t feel
survivable. Have you ever experienced
it? According to newspaper reports,
thirty-five people were injured.
Friends there send me videos almost daily of peaceful
demonstrations, with intense responses of gas from Israeli soldiers. This is on Palestinian land, by an
occupying army. Can you imagine
what life is like for those people?
The inhumanity of it is shocking, but then I learned that
you make the gas and canisters. How
can you possibly do that? People
are dying from being hit by the canisters or breathing the gas. These are human beings who are trying to
survive on land were their families lived for thousands of years.
If knowledge of what you are doing is not enough to make you
stop sending those canisters, PLEASE visit the West Bank to see and experience
it first hand. What you are doing
is inhuman and if you are not fully convinced of that, please go there to see
it yourself.
Sincerely
Jake Terpstra
