Political education and awareness campaign targeting institutions such as churches, school boards, city councils, university student bodies, and municipalities and encouraging them to pass resolutions condemning CAT sales to Israel and declaring that as a CAT FREE ZONE the institution will not use CAT equipment or products in any of its projects.

The CAT Campaign is part of the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement called for by over 180 Palestinian grassroots civil society organizations. Focusing on CAT should not divert attention away from the primary target of BDS efforts, which is the Israeli government itself. Instead the CAT Campaign provides a tactical entry point into the growing international movement that seeks to use morally responsible investment as a non-violent strategy to uphold international law.

We can respond to the Palestinian Civil Society call by encouraging our own institutions—church, synagogue, temple, mosque, union, association, city council, university, school board, student body, and/or municipality to pass a resolution:

1) Condemning CAT sales to Israel;
2) Declaring itself a CAT Free Zone;
3) Pledging not to use CAT equipment in its development; and
4) Divesting its holdings in Caterpillar stock

If you and/or your institution are interested in starting a local institutional CAT Campaign initiative, you should:

Send an e-mail to organize@endtheoccupation.org that includes your organization’s name; your organization’s mission in 1-2 sentences; your city, state, and your contact information. This information will be placed on our “Local CAT FREE ZONES” map enabling organizations to contact one another nationally and/or enabling interested parties to join your efforts.

To help you organize a local institutional CAT Campaign, we have provided a number of resources for you.

1) To encourage your institution to consider declaring itself a CAT FREE ZONE and divesting its holdings in CAT stock, you can:

a. Draft a petition and collect signatures amongst your institution’s constituents; and

b. Present it to your institutional leadership along with a resolution calling for divestment from CAT stock holdings

2) To educate members of your institution, you can ORGANIZE A TEACH-IN:

a. Show the CAT power point presentation that we’ve prepared. This power point presentation is meant to help you spread the word about the mounting campaign to hold CAT accountable for its complicity in human rights violations committed by Israel with the use of CAT bulldozers. Use this resource to hold a teach-in, tell a friend, or to empower yourself to speak out.  Click here to download the CAT power point presentation.

b. Provide informational fliers about the National CAT Campaign for the teach-in audience. This will give the attendees a better idea of the scope of the national campaign. Click here to download the CAT information flier.

c. Provide CAT fact sheets to everyone who attends. Use this fact sheet to answer the question, “Why CAT?” Click here to download a CAT Fact Sheet.