Don't profit from injustice. The Presbyterian Church USA has been considering divesting from the Israeli occupation since 2004. Every other year, they hold a General Assembly. There they address issues related to Israel/Palestine, and they discuss their desire not to profit from human rights violations and injustice. For six years, they have asked Caterpillar to ensure that the bulldozers it sells are not used to demolish Palestinian homes or uproot Palestinian olive trees. Unfortunately, Caterpillar has not changed its practices.
If you will be in Chicago on the 10th, the day of the shareholder meeting, join a street protest outside the shareholder meeting. JVP will be at the
shareholder meeting for the sixth consecutive year. Our resolution is
sponsored by an interfaith coalition that includes the Sisters of
Loretto, the Mercy Investment Program, and over 10 additional Catholic
congregations. This year, our resolution calls for CAT
to issue a comprehensive report on its foreign sales of weapons-related
products. We were stunned to find out that these sales to Israel and
every other foreign government comprise only a negligible 0.06% of
CAT's 2008 sales and revenues of $51.324 billion.
The company
knows well how much suffering that small percentage really buys in
Palestine, in terms of homes demolished, trees uprooted, and lives
ruined.
The use of
Caterpillar equipment to violate Palestinian human rights has been
extensively documented in human rights reports (by Human Rights Watch, War on Want, Amnesty International and others) and has been conveyed to Caterpillar in different ways over the years: 6 annual shareholder resolutions, a letter from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a lawsuit
on behalf of the family of activist Rachel Corrie and four Palestinian
families whose homes were demolished by Caterpillar bulldozers, and
countless street protests around the world.
Caterpillar has so far been deaf to these concerns. As a consequence, the Presbyterian Church USA and United Methodist Church have seriously considered divesting from Caterpillar. The Church of England and Hampshire
College have already divested more than $3 million in Caterpillar
stock. More recently, a group of 20 Israeli human rights
organizations have petitioned
the Norwegian government to divest its pension fund from a list of companies
providing support for Israel’s military occupation, including Caterpillar.
