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NEWS & LETTERS, May-June 2005Caterpillar's machines of death protestedMemphis, Tenn.--Two dozen activists from SUSTAIN-Memphis (Stop U.S. Tax-funded Aid to Israel Now), the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center and other local organizations in the Memphis area staged a protest in April outside of a Thompson Machinery dealership, one of the largest distributors of Caterpillar equipment in the Mid-South. The demonstrators were opposing Caterpillar’s continued business relationship with the Israeli military, two years after American student and peace activist, Rachel Corrie, was murdered by the Israeli army using a D-9 Caterpillar bulldozer. Over the past 37 years, Caterpillar bulldozers have been used by the Israeli military to commit atrocities against the Palestinian people, ranging from the construction of illegal settlements and barriers to collective punishment--destruction of farmlands and homes, often while people were still in them. The international human rights community is unanimous in its condemnation of Caterpillar’s continued sales of bulldozers to the Israeli Military. Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch said, "Caterpillar betrays its stated values when it sells bulldozers to Israel knowing that they are being used to illegally destroy Palestinian homes. Until Israel stops these practices, Caterpillar’s continued sales will make the company complicit in human rights abuses." For more on the campaign against Caterpillar’s human rights violations, visit: www.stopcat.org or www.catdestroyshomes.org. --Omar |
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