Church of England pulls out of Caterpillar

War on Want welcomes the Church of England's decision to divest from Caterpillar, the construction company that has supplied Israel with bulldozers and other equipment used to sustain the occupation of Palestine.



The Church of England has recently revealed it has divested its holdings of £2.2 million pounds from construction company Caterpillar, a company exposed by War on Want for supplying the Israeli army with bulldozers for the construction of its illegal Separation Wall. In our landmark report, Profiting from the Occupation, War on Want also revealed how Caterpillar equipment has been used in the demolition of Palestinian homes. The United Nations has singled out Caterpillar for its complicity in the violation of Palestinian human rights.

In addition, in January 2009 the transport company Veolia lost a contract worth £3.5 billion Euros from the Stockholm Community Council after a sustained campaign by members of the public over Veolia's work in Israel. Veolia is currently building a tramline in East Jerusalem which, like the Separation Wall, is an integral component of Israel's appropriation of East Jerusalem. The tramline will link illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem to the Israeli side of the city, slicing across occupied Palestinian territory.

War on Want believes that companies supporting the occupation must be brought to account for their complicity in Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people. In the wake of the Israeli onslaught against Gaza at the beginning of the year Palestinian civil society groups, including our partner Stop the Wall, have called for an escalation of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. They have called for a global day of action on BDS on 30 March 2008. (War on Want will be posting more information about our partner's activities over BDS and how you can support them in the coming weeks.)