BootCAT: Caterpillar Shareholder Resolution Fact Sheet

Caterpillar Shareholder Resolution on Sales to Israel

Fact Sheet, January 2005

The shareholder resolution on Caterpillar sales to Israel in 2004 was filed by Jewish Voice for Peace. The Sisters of Loretto and Mercy Investment Group are co-filers.
According to the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC), the 2004 shareholder resolution in Caterpillar on its sale of bulldozers to the Israeli military was the first of its kind. This is the first time in US history that shareholders in a US company have filed a resolution to examine their company's relationship with violating human rights in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
The 2005 shareholder resolution on Israel-Palestine in the Caterpillar Corporation calls on Caterpillar, Inc. to investigate whether the sale of bulldozers to the Israeli Defense Forces meets the terms of the Caterpillar Code of Worldwide Business Conduct. The resolution does not call on Caterpillar to stop its sale of bulldozers to the Israeli military but to investigate their use by the Israeli military.
The Caterpillar Code of Worldwide Business Conduct says that Caterpillar "accepts the responsibilities of global citizenship. Wherever we conduct business or invest in our resources around the world, we know that our commitment to financial success must also take into account social, economic, political and environmental properties."
Caterpillar bulldozers sent to Israel are not sold as civilian equipment - they are sold explicitly as military equipment. According to James W. Owens, now CEO of Caterpillar, Inc., the company sells bulldozers to the US government under the US Foreign Military Sales Program, meaning that they are not sold as civilian equipment but as weapons.
Caterpillar has been the target of boycotts and negative publicity because of its sale of bulldozers as weapons to the Israeli military. Damage to Caterpillar's reputation intensified after Caterpillar equipment destroyed an entire neighborhood in the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002. Caterpillar bulldozers razed over 140 houses to the ground and severely damaged another 200 to the point of inhabitability. Human Rights Watch reported that a Caterpillar bulldozer buried a paralyzed man alive in his home during the raid, despite pleas from the family to stop in time to evacuate him.
Caterpillar's image came under further public attack when Rachel Corrie, an American human rights volunteer, was crushed to death by a Caterpillar bulldozer on March 16, 2003. She stood in front of the bulldozer attempting to prevent it from destroying the home of a pharmacist and his family in Gaza when the bulldozer ran her over and then backed up over her body. Though the driver claimed that he did not see her, she was wearing a bright orange vest and yelled at the driver with a bullhorn to stop.
The US government is violating US law by providing bulldozers as military aid to Israel. The US Arms Export Control Act [US Public Law 90-829] prohibits the use of US weapons against civilian targets.
According to the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, the Israeli military has used Caterpillar equipment to demolish over 8,000 buildings in the West Bank and Gaza, leaving over 50,000 Palestinians homeless. In the past two years alone, Caterpillar equipment has uprooted over 200,000 olive trees on Palestinian land, severely damaging the Palestinian economy.
According to Rabbis for Human Rights and Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, most Palestinian homes are demolished not for security reasons but for minor permit violations. Those same permit violations that earn Palestinians a demolished home earn Israeli Jews a slap on the wrist. Because almost all Palestinian applications for permits are refused, Palestinians live in a strange Catch 22 situation. Permits are impossible to get, but a home built without one will be demolished.
Printed Caterpillar Petition, Jan 2005 (PDF) - distribute, sign and mail to BootCAT

Updated: Jan 8, 2005