A Jewish Voice for Peace: Caterpillar Kills

See if you can explain this… I can’t.

In reference to Caterpillar’s sales of bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian homes, orchards and olive groves, the company wrote a letter to the United Methodist Church last year. In the letter, CAT stated that it expects its customers to use its equipment in ways ‘consistent with human rights and the requirements of international humanitarian law.’ Good news, right?

And yet CAT’s own Israeli dealership acknowledged this year that it has ‘worked very closely’ with the Israeli army during the attack on Gaza and has further announced an unprecedented agreement, which allows the Israeli army to draft Caterpillar civilian employee.

You have to wonder how is CAT communicating its expectations to its own dealers, let alone the Israeli government.

We know how you communicate yours. In less than 48 hours, we have gathered 4,000 letters to CAT. Thanks! We will hand-deliver them to the CAT Board of Directors next Wednesday but we are not sure if we can cope with schlepping even more paper to that meeting. So we are going to go a bit easier on trees from now on: If you did not get a chance to send an email to CAT, please sign this petition instead. We will collect your signatures on June 9 and deliver it to the Caterpillar Board as well!