Israeli/Palestinian Conflict |
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Caterpillar bulldozers have been used to destroy some 12,000 Palestinian homes, often with only a few minutes' warning, leaving an estimated 70,000 people without shelter. Amnesty International has denounced Israel's razing of Palestinian dwellings as "a grave breach of international humanitarian law" and in May of 2004 recommended that Caterpillar "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 in October 2004 demanded that Caterpillar "immediately suspend" the sale of D9 bulldozers to the Israeli military since it is the "primary weapon to raze Palestinian homes, destroy agriculture and shred roads in violation of the laws of war." In May 2004, the UN Special Report on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, warned Caterpillar that the delivery of the bulldozers to the Israeli government "might involve complicity or acceptance on the part of your company to actual and potential violations of human rights, including the right to food." These machines, funded by U. S. military aid to Israel and paid for by U. S. taxpayers, have demolished large tracts of the most fertile agricultural land, roads, water and sewer systems in the West Bank and Gaza, and uprooted hundreds of thousands of Palestinian olive and fruit trees. They are being used to build Israel's separation Wall, in violation of the ruling by the International Court of Justice. And they are used to intimidate nonviolent Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists. The United States Arms Export Control Act prohibits the use of U. S. made machinery or weapons against a civilian population. In the Gaza Strip a 38-year old paralyzed man died when his home was bulldozed despite pleas from his mother and sister that he had been unable to get out. In a similar incident in 2004 an elderly man was found crushed to death in the rubble of his family's bulldozed home. In March, 2003 Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American peace activist was killed by a Caterpillar bulldozer as she tried to protect a Palestinian home from demolition. United Nations guidelines on the responsibilities of multinational corporations state that companies should not "engage in or benefit from" violations of international human rights or humanitarian law. Caterpillar's own corporate code of conduct declares: "our commitment to financial success must also take into account social, economic, political and environmental priorities." However, Caterpillar executives assert that the company has "neither the legal right nor the ability to monitor" the way customers, such as Israel, use its products. Calls for divestment, the municipal boycott of CAT machinery and a consumer boycott of CAT footwear and other products are intensifying. IHM Peacemakers encourage those concerned for justice to contact the corporate headquarters letting them know that we intend to hold Caterpillar accountable for the criminal use of its products by the Israeli army.
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