Caterpillar Inc. is a United States based corporation headquartered in Peoria, Illinois. Caterpillar is, according to their corporate website, "the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines."

Famous for their products featuring the caterpillar track, Caterpillar produces a wide range of heavy equipment, mainly engineering vehicles, including the Caterpillar D9 bulldozer.

Caterpillar is one of the companies whose stock is tracked in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Caterpillar was one of the "excellent" companies featured in the 1982 best-selling management book In Search of Excellence by business management guru Tom Peters.

History

Caterpillar was formed in 1925 with the merger of Holt Manufacturing Company with the C. L. Best Tractor Company, forming the Caterpillar Tractor Company. Holt Manufacturing had earlier pioneered the use of the caterpillar track during World War I.

In recent years, Caterpillar has also been a brand of clothing, particularly shoes and boots.

Controversies

Israeli use of Caterpillar

Caterpillar tractors have been bought and used by the Israel Defense Forces (the Israeli military) for use in its occupied territories.

A coalition of groups[1], is calling on people to protest Caterpillar's sales of D9, D10, and D11 bulldozers to Israel. They cite:

• the use of Caterpillar equipment to demolish Palestinian homes, "leaving more than 50,000 people homeless";
• the use of Caterpillar equipment to "uproot 200,000 Palestinian olive trees", on which many Palestinians rely for their livelihoods;
• the use of Caterpillar D9s to destroy "an entire neighborhood in the Jenin refugee camp";
• the death of American International Solidarity Movement volunteer Rachel Corrie, who was killed by a Caterpillar D9 while trying to obstruct what she believed was the demolition of a home in Rafah;
• Caterpillar's "profits from" the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier.

Caterpillar refused to do so, stating that

"Caterpillar shares the world's concern over unrest in the Middle East and we certainly have compassion for all those affected by political strife. However, more than 2 million Caterpillar machines and engines are at work in virtually every region of the world each day. We have neither the legal right nor the means to police individual use of that equipment."

Pro-Israeli and Jewish human right groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League, have criticized these boycott campaigns as a cynical effort to hamper Israel's self-defense against Palestinian terrorism. Some have even denounced these campaigns as antisemitic, noting that the boycotts primarily target Jews, as they single out the Jewish state in their boycotts. [2], [3], [4]

On April 14, 2005, on the annual meeting of Caterpillar shareholders, a proposal raised by four Roman Catholic orders of nuns and the group Jewish Voice for Peace, which calls for an investigation committee to examine whether the sales of D9 bulldozers to Israel violate human rights and CAT's business code, was rejected with overwhelming majority (97% vs 3%). The proposal raised by groups calling for boycotting Caterpillar and demanding it to stop sell equipment to Israel. Only 3 percent of shareholders voted in favor of the proposal, which mean that the prosposal failed to meet the 6% level, which is required by law in order to allow the proposal be resubmitted next year. [5]

For a more detailed discussion of Israeli use of Caterpillar bulldozers, see IDF Caterpillar D9.

See also

Noteable Products

• Track-type tractors (bulldozers):
  • Caterpillar D6
  • Caterpillar D7
  • Caterpillar D9
  • Caterpillar D10
  • Caterpillar D11
• Front-loaders:
  • 950E
  • 955E
  • 966E
  • 966G

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

• IDF Caterpillar D9
• Israeli Engineering Corps
• Battle of Jenin 2002
• Rachel Corrie

External links

• Caterpillar.com
• Caterpillar news

Links regarding involvement in Israel

• Stop Caterpillar, a website run by Jewish Voice for Peace to promote the case against allowing Caterpillar products in Israel
• Letter to Caterpillar CEO James Owens, from Human Rights Watch, calling on Caterpillar to cease sales of the D9 to Israel
• Pictures of a protest against Caterpillar organised by London & Brighton ISM
• Shareholder resolution press release, from Jewish Voice for Peace, about a shareholder resolution asking Caterpillar to investigate whether sales its equipment to Israel violate the company's Code of Worldwide Business Conduct (PDF, 2.2MB)
• Caterpillar rejects proposal to block bulldozer sales to Israel, Haaretz, April 15, 2005
• Caterpillar shareholders reject motion to review Israel sales, Globes, April 14, 2005
• AJCongress Applauds Caterpillar Stockholders for Acting Morally Under Immense Pressure to Participate in the Economic Destruction of Israel, press release of American Jewish Congress reported at Yahoo!News