Activists are to step up a campaign against the US-based construction equipment company Caterpillar in an attempt to persuade it to stop selling bulldozers to the Israeli military.
The US pressure group Jewish Voice for Peace and two of its partner organizations say they will employ a variety of methods, including internet activism and a shareholder resolution at next year’s annual meeting, to put pressure on the company over Israeli use of its bulldozers to flatten Palestinian homes.
They are also aiming to persuade 30,000 individuals to write to Caterpillar demanding that it halt sales to the Israeli army.
Liat Weingart of Jewish Voice for Peace claimed that ‘turning a blind eye to the end use of its equipment is inconsistent with Caterpillar’s code of worldwide business conduct.’
Last year activists from an organization called Sustain (Stop US Tax-funded Aid to Israel Now) disrupted an executive meeting in the Caterpillar boardroom by trying to perform citizens’ arrests on executives.
Caterpillar business operations have also been disrupted in Houston, Seattle and Washington DC, and there have been protests in Italy and the UK.
Caterpillar, which had a turnover of $20billion (£12bn) in 2002, with more than half of all sales outside the US, says the protests are unreasonable.
‘We share the world’s concern over unrest in the Middle East and we certainly have compassion for all those affected by the political strife’, it said. ‘However, more than two million Caterpillar machines and engines are at work in virtually every country and region of the world each day. We have neither the legal right nor the means to police individual use of that equipment.
‘We believe any comments on political conflict in the region are best left to our governmental leaders who have the ability to impact action and advance the peace process.’
Caterpillar is the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment.