Caterpillar Campaign
Read the NW SUSTAIN statement following the
murder of Rachel Corrie using a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer.
Caterpillar Corporation supplies the
Israeli Occupation Forces with specially built armored bulldozers. These
bulldozers are used in the execution of war crimes by bulldozing Palestinian
houses as a collective punishment.
SUSTAIN is campaigning to expose
Caterpillar's complicity in Israel's war crimes and to pressure them to meet our
demand of stopping all sales to the IDF.
For NW-SUSTAIN this is a
particularly important campaign as Caterpillar is headquartered in Peoria,
Illinois with regional offices in the Chicago area. It is our state that is
being tarnished by this dirty trade in misery and we have a great
opportunity to convince our neighbors not to be party to oppression.
Why
Caterpillar?
Caterpillar supplies equipment used for war crimes. Indeed, little so vividly
captures the brutality of occupation like the bulldozing of homes by the IDF
with Caterpillar equipment. While there are many products that in one way or
another support the occupation, one that is directly used in attacks on
civilians is particularly likely to have an effect on world opinion.
Caterpillar's business with the IDF is a small part of their worldwide business.
As a result, a demand that they publicly refuse any more sales to the IDF is one
they can accept without doing substantial damage to their bottom line. Indeed, a
large part of their business is with the Arab world. Caterpillar has far more to
risk in losing business in the Arab world, than it does in losing IDF business.
Unlike military contractors, Caterpillar is vulnerable to public pressure. The
majority of their business is to civilians, both in construction and
agriculture. For this reason, Caterpillar is more susceptible to public
pressure.
Why the limited demands?
There are many ways one could expand this campaign: by demanding that all sales
to Israel and Israeli companies be halted (after all, Caterpillar equipment is
used for settlement construction also), by including other companies, etc. Our
goal, however, is to keep the campaign simple and limited so as to maximize the
number of groups that can join and to maximize the chance of a victory. Of
course we do not intend to stop there. If we can win on this limited campaign,
we will have forced a major corporation to acknowledge its role in supporting
Israeli war crimes. Such an admission will have a profound effect on public
opinion and make the next campaign that much easier.
What are we asking
What are we asking people
to do ?
For more information and resources on the Caterpillar campaign please visit:
The national SUSTAIN Website:http://www.sustaincampaign.org
or
The Chicago are StopCAT coalition site :
www.stopcat.org
National StopCAT Coalition: www.CATdestroysHomes.org
US StopCAT Coalition
Declaration Regarding Caterpillar Violations of Human
Rights
WHEREAS
The Caterpillar Corporation's machinery is directly implicated in grave abuses
of human rights and humanitarian law by the Israeli army;
The Israeli army has used Caterpillar equipment to uproot hundreds of thousands
of olive trees as well as orchards of dates, prunes, lemons and oranges, causing
widespread economic hardship and environmental degradation in rural areas of
Palestine;
Since 1967, the Israeli army has used Caterpillar equipment, including specially
modified D9 and D10 bulldozers to destroy over 12,000 houses in the West Bank,
Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, leaving tens of thousands of men, women and
children homeless;
Since September 2000, the Israeli army has used Caterpillar equipment to destroy
more than 3,000 homes, hundreds of public buildings and private commercial
properties and vast areas of agricultural land;
Home demolitions are usually carried out without warning, often at night, and
the occupants are forcibly evicted with no time to salvage their belongings.
Often the only warning is the rumbling of the Israeli army's US-made Caterpillar
bulldozers beginning to tear down the walls of their homes;
The Israeli army has continued bulldozing homes even when notified that
residents were still inside the targeted homes;
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in such instances, such as Nabila
al-Shu'bi, who was seven-months pregnant, as well as her three young
children and four additional members of her family, left to die under the rubble
of their Nablus home when it was bulldozed on April 6, 2002;
On March 16 2003, 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel
Corrie was murdered by Israeli soldiers driving a Caterpillar D-9
bulldozer, while she was standing in non-violent protest of a home demolition in
Rafah;
All these home demolitions and civilian deaths are illegal under international
law, specifically violating the Hague Regulation of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva
Convention;
The Israeli army uses Caterpillar bulldozers to build a separation wall with
significant portions of it inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
The International Court of Justice considered the construction of such a wall to
be contrary to international law-specifically violating the
Hague Regulation of 1907; the Fourth Geneva Convention; the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the
International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child;
The sale of Caterpillar bulldozers to the Israeli army is carried through the
U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program and is in violation of the U.S.
Arms Export Control Act, U.S. Public Law 90-829, which prohibits the
use of U.S. weapons against civilians and for anything outside of "internal
security" or "legitimate self-defense";
The sale of the Caterpillar bulldozer to the Israeli army contravenes the United
Nations' Norms
on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business
Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, which stipulate that
transnational corporations "shall not engage in nor benefit" from war
crimes or other violations of human rights and humanitarian law (article C3);
and that transnational corporations "shall refrain from actions which
obstruct or impede" the realization of basic human rights, such as the
right to development, adequate food and drinking water, adequate housing, and
the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (articles E11 and
E12);
Caterpillar's involvement in the above-described abuses has attracted the
attention of the United Nations and leading human rights organizations;
The
Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has written to
Caterpillar CEO James Owens that "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...";
Amnesty
International has issued a call to Caterpillar to "take measures
- within the company sphere of influence - to guarantee that its bulldozers are
not used to commit human rights violations, including the destruction of homes,
land and other properties";
Human
Rights Watch has called on Caterpillar to suspend the sale of its D9
bulldozers, parts or maintenance service to the Israeli army, so long as the
military continues to use the bulldozers to violate international human rights
and humanitarian law;
The Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly voted July 2, 2004 to
start a process of a phased and selective divestment of its nearly eight billion
dollar portfolio from select companies that profit from sales of products or
services that cause harm to Palestinians or Israelis or both. The Presbyterian
Church (USA) researchers are working to determine which companies profit most
"from building settlements, from constructing the wall and from selling
machinery that destroys Palestinian homes, vineyards and orchards." The
case of Caterpillar is currently being considered by the group's Mission
Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) Committee;
The
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions supports divestment from
companies that profit from involvement in the Occupation, including Caterpillar
whose bulldozers demolish thousands of Palestinian homes;
All of the facts described above are a matter of public knowledge;
The sale of the Caterpillar bulldozer to the Israeli army contradicts
Caterpillar's own Code
of Worldwide Business Conduct, which states that "Caterpillar
accepts the responsibilities of global citizenship" and recognizes that
Caterpillar's "commitment to financial success must also take into account
social, economic, political, and environmental priorities";
Spokespeople for Caterpillar, Inc. have acknowledged that Caterpillar
is aware of the Israeli army's use of Caterpillar equipment to destroy civilian
homes, infrastructure and agricultural resources but Caterpillar has,
nevertheless, refused either to condemn these practices or to take actions
necessary to halt the sale or transfer of Caterpillar equipment to the Israeli
army;
THEREFORE
We call on Caterpillar to stop selling bulldozers to Israel until Israel stops
using these machines to destroy Palestinian lives and livelihoods in
contravention of human rights and humanitarian law;
We call on Caterpillar to establish transparent and credible mechanisms for
independent monitoring and verification, with the assistance of human rights
ngos, to establish when these conditions are met;
We further call on Caterpillar to adopt a code of conduct which complies with
the UN Human Rights Norms for Business and ensures the application of Article
11, which states that Trans National Corporations and other business enterprises
should take stringent measures to prevent any products or services they produce
or supply from being used to commit violations of international human rights or
humanitarian law.
We further call on civil and human rights activists, faith-based organizations,
peace activists, Arab-American organizations, Jewish groups, students, and
others who promote peace and justice in Israel and Palestine to join us in our
efforts.
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