Social Responsibility and Walking the Talk

Caterpillar, Inc. plays a lethal role in strengthening the Israeli Apartheid, perpetuating injustice against Palestinians, in addition to violating international law, the US Arms Export Control Act, and its own corporate code of conduct.

Caterpillar supplies heavy equipment, militarized tractors used to demolish Palestinian homes and to build the Apartheid wall that annexes Palestinian land. Caterpillar knowingly sells D9 and D10 bulldozers to the Israeli government for these purposes.

In 2003 while attempting to block the destruction of a family’s home in Gaza, 23 year old peace activist Rachel Corrie was brutally killed by a Caterpillar D-9 military bulldozer. Her family has since filed suit against Caterpillar charging that the company knowingly sold machines used to violate human rights. Since Rachel's death at least three others have been killed in their own homes by bulldozer demolitions.

"...Allowing the delivery of your. . . bulldozers to the Israeli army. . . in the certain knowledge that they are being used for such action, might involve complicity or acceptance on the part of your company to actual and potential violations of human rights...",
So said The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights in a letter to Caterpillar’s CEO.

There have been four decades of marches and protests and diplomatic efforts at inducing Israel to end it apartheid policies yet the continued occupation of Palestine grows more violent and repressive each day. In December 2008, Israel launched an attack on the civilian population of Gaza killing nearly 1400 including over 300 children constituting war crimes judiciously documented in the UN Commission’s Goldstone Report. Homes, olive groves, and farmland; people's livelihoods and commercial structures are being demolished today with Caterpillar help.

Due to these decades-long human rights violations world opinion is turning against the Israeli government. Citizens from around the world, many here on campuses across the United States are joining the global movement to end Israeli Apartheid through boycott, divestment and sanctions.

Just as we did to end Apartheid South Africa so we must end Apartheid Israel. Do you invest in Caterpillar? If you don't know, FIND OUT.