Corporate Greed

Caterpillar: Making a Killing in Palestine?

By Nick Dearden & Joe Zacune

Without selling a single bomb, gun, or F16 fighter, Caterpillar has been supplying the Israeli military with its “key weapon,” in the words of one Israeli commander, in the illegal and brutal occupation of Palestine. In the words of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Caterpillar’s D9 bulldozers have been responsible for destroying “agricultural farms, greenhouses, ancient olive groves… numerous Palestinian homes and sometimes human lives.”

The toll of human lives destroyed with these machines is horrifying. During the last 4 years the Israeli army has flattened over 4,000 homes—rendering tens of thousand homeless, traumatized, and impoverished. Israel claims that these demolitions are punitive actions against suspected terrorists. While such punishment is illegal under international humanitarian law, a recent report by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem found that in half of all cases there was nothing linking the houses to terrorism.

Palestinians are currently suffering from poverty levels comparable with some of the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa—the UN reports that it bears the “effects of a terrible natural disaster,” though one created by people and politics. A key source of this poverty is the destruction of agricultural land, the only possible source of livelihood open to many Palestinians. Caterpillar bulldozers have been used to rip up extensive areas of cultivated land, destroying thousands of olive and citrus trees. The destruction of wells, storage tanks, and water pumps has severely limited access to drinking water.

In Jenin camp, home to 14,000 refugees, Caterpillar’s D9 bulldozers were a key component of Operation Defensive Shield, the “most extensive and severe” human rights violation since 1967 (B’Tselem). The Hawashin district of the camp was leveled; many residents had no advance notice. Many were buried alive, including paraplegic Jamal Suliman. According to his mother, “The bulldozer wouldn’t wait even one minute so that we could take Jamal out of the house.”

During a May 2004 raid on a refugee camp in Rafah, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights John Dugard noted, “Homes have been destroyed in a purely purposeless manner. Bulldozers have savagely dug up roads, including electricity, sewerage, and water lines, in a brutal display of power.” A total of 298 homes were destroyed in Rafah in a single month.

But perhaps the bulldozers are best described by the experiences of two young people on either side of the Occupation. Israeli Army D9 -operator Moshe Nissim describes his experience of Jenin: “I had no mercy for anybody. I would erase anyone with the D9…. When I was told to demolish a house, I took the opportunity to bring down some more houses.” His unit was cited for outstanding service.

On the other side was 23-year- old U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie. At an International Solidarity Movement demonstration Rachel stood in front of a Palestinian home, trying to prevent its demolition. The D9 driver initially dumped sand on Rachel, later driving over her as demolition proceeded. Rachel died of her injuries.

Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens is not driving the bulldozers carrying out these grave breaches of international law. But he is fully aware of the uses Caterpillar machines are being put to by the Israeli army. Indeed a group of Caterpillar shareholders raised the issue in a resolution in April 2004 that questioned whether “Caterpillar’s directors can reconcile acquiescence” with the end use of these bulldozers with the company’s Code of Worldwide Business Conduct.

The answer is, apparently, yes. It seems incredible that a company tarnished by accusations can continue to maintain in public remarks that it is “doing well by ‘doing good’ around the world.” Among the gems of irony lifted from Caterpillar’s Code is that “We believe that our success should also contribute to the quality of life and the prosperity of communities.”

Such is the fantasy world of “corporate social responsibility,” a multi-million dollar industry in its own right, which attempts to replace social consciousness with public relations. So concerned is Caterpillar with “doing good” that when UN Special Rapporteur Jean Ziegler wrote to Jim Owens in May 2004 expressing his concerns that Caterpillar may be complicit in violating the Palestinian’s right to food enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Owens did not bother to reply.

Little wonder he was unperturbed when Caterpillar openly advertised its bulldozers in military conflict zones such as Afghanistan and Iraq. Indeed many bulldozers sent to Israel are actually paid for by U.S. taxpayer as part of the U.S.’s substantial contribution to Israel’s military.

Ultimately corporate complicity in the sort of grave human rights violations witnessed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories will only halt when corporate behavior is regulated, not by voluntary Codes of Conduct written by over- paid PR consultants, but by an international system of laws, accoun- table to people.

Nick Dearden is senior campaign officer at the radical anti-poverty charity, War on Want (www.waronwant.org). Joe Zacune works as a researcher and campaigner on issues surrounding Palestine, corporations, and the arms trade. War on Want was founded 50 years ago to support grassroots groups fighting long- term poverty across the Third World.