STOP Caterpillar!

Stop Caterpillar 

The Basics

Jewish Statement Against Caterpillar Human Rights Abuses

An Israeli speaks up: Regarding the Presbyterian divestment process

War on Want: Caterpillar, the alternative report

A fact sheet on the CAT D9 armored bulldozer

Send CAT Board a letter: Stop selling bulldozers to Israel


CAT Charged with War Crimes in Lawsuit in US Federal Court

The parents of Rachel Corrie today filed a federal lawsuit against Illinois-based Caterpillar, Inc. on behalf of the parents of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year old American Peace activist and student who was run over and killed by a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer.
Official Complaint

Parents of Peace Activist Killed by Israeli Bulldozer Target Caterpillar
by Maxine Frith


Look at the Israeli Bulldozing of the Palestinian Home that Killed Rachel Corrie
Listen to Segment

Videos on Home Demolitions

Rare amateur footage of Cat bulldozers from the gaza strip

Media coverage of Gaza demolitions

UN footage of demolition aftermath



This woman was attempting to save her olive grove
being destroyed by a Caterpillar Bulldozer 

Arab boycott warns Caterpillar not to sell equipment to IDF
By The Associated Press

DAMASCUS - The Damascus-based Arab office for the boycott of Israel warned the U.S. company Caterpillar Inc. on Thursday that Arab states will blacklist it if it keeps selling bulldozers to the Israel Defense Forces.

In a letter sent to the Illinois-based company, the boycott office accused Caterpillar of selling Israel equipment used to destroy Palestinian property in the 'Israeli-occupied territories.'

"Your insistence to go on supplying the Israeli army with bulldozers and other equipment that helps it to destroy Palestinian lands and houses ... would eventually lead to halting any dealing with your company by all Arab countries," according to the letter, the contents of which were made available to The Associated Press on Thursday.

Caterpillar has come under fire for its sale of equipment that Israel uses to destroy Palestinian homes. The company has repeatedly disputed protesters' arguments, saying it has "neither the legal right nor the means to police individual use of that equipment."

"We have compassion for all those impacted by political strife around the world, but the facts remain that we don't have the legal right to police the use of our equipment," Caterpillar spokesman Ben Cordani told AP.

Cordani said his company has sales agents throughout the Arab world, including the Gaza Strip, but he refused to provide information on machinery sold to Arab buyers. He said he was unaware of the Arab boycott office's letter.

American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death in March 2003 while trying to block an Israeli army bulldozer destroying a row of Palestinian homes in a refugee camp near the Gaza-Egypt border.

In April, Corrie's parents, along with hundreds of Americans, demonstrated outside Caterpillar's offices, demanding that it stop selling equipment to the Israeli army to destroy Palestinians' houses.

In its letter, the Arab boycott office said that since 1967, Israel has used Caterpillar bulldozers to destroy 9,000 Palestinian houses, leaving 50,000 Palestinians homeless. It said the Israeli army also used the company's bulldozers to uproot around 200,000 olive trees since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000.

The boycott office official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said if the company does not respond within several months, its name will be placed on the boycott list.

In its heyday, the Arab boycott office blacklisted more than 8,500 companies, including Coca-Cola and Ford Motor Co. But its influence has waned considerably as major players in the Arab world such as Egypt and Jordan made peace with Israel.


After Effects of demonstration against bulldozers 



US Soldiers Bulldoze Farmers Crops

Americans accused of brutal 'punishment' tactics against villagers

- bulldozing also begins in Kabul, Afghanistan


Israeli armoured bulldozer levels orange groves near the village of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. The common excuse is these areas harbor terrorists or snipers that shoot at the occupying forces. Then stop occupying the people and you won't be shot at. The tactic of destroying areas of vegetation that harbor the enemy was grossly dealt with in Viet Nam when whole forests were stripped with Agent Orange.
 


By Patrick Cockburn in Dhuluaya | 12 October 2003

US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops. Read more...