LOUISVILLE – A recommendation that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) denounce Caterpillar, Inc., for continuing to profit from “non-peaceful” use of its bulldozers and other equipment in Israel-Palestine has passed its first review.
The Justice Committee of the General Assembly Mission Council approved the recommendation on Feb. 25 – passing it on to the full council for review on Feb. 26.
Brian Ellison, a minister from Missouri and chair of the denomination’s Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee (MRTI), told the Justice Committee that attempts to negotiate with Caterpillar in recent years have not brought “any changes in policy.”
Caterpillar continues to sell bulldozers and other equipment that are being used to demolish homes of Palestinians and to build the separation barrier between Jerusalem and the West Bank, Ellison said.
“For many years, Caterpillar declined to meet” with MRTI or with other ecumenical groups working on issues of socially-responsible investing, Ellison said – in part because legal action was pending involving the death of Rachel Corrie, a young American woman who was killed in 2003, after being struck by a bulldozer operated by the Israel Defense Forces while protesting a home demolition.
Eventually, Caterpillar officials did meet twice with MRTI, he said. But “they have not acknowledged responsibility for the end use of their products,” Ellison said. The company’s position is “they sell tractors. What people do with them is not their responsibility.”
The decision on the MRTI recommendation regarding Caterpillar is one of a series of measures being considered by the PC(USA) that are drawing attention from Jewish groups. Close attention is being paid to the report of the General Assembly’s Middle East study group, which is due to be completed March 5, and which, while still not complete, already has drawn criticism.
The council also is considering sending two theological reports – one called “Christians and Jews: People of God,” and a second with the title “Toward an Understanding of Christian-Muslim Relations” — to the General Assembly.
The council’s Discipleship Committee approved both of those Feb. 25. The full council will vote on those, and the MRTI recommendation involving Caterpillar, on Feb. 26.
There is, of course, a long back-story involving the PC(USA) and divestment in companies doing business in Israel. In 2004, the General Assembly was hit with a blast of controversy when it voted to have the PC(USA) begin the process of phased, selective divestiture in five companies – Motorola, Citigroup, ITT Industries, United Technologies and Caterpillar.
In 2006, the assembly passed a statement that the denomination’s investments in Israel-Palestine be invested “in only peaceful pursuits,” and saying that MRTI should use a process of corporate engagement to achieve that.
In June, 2007, satisfied with the progress, MRTI removed Citigroup from the focus list for corporate engagement. It recently added Hewlett-Packard to the list – equipment it produces is used at checkpoints along the separation barrier, Ellison said – and MRTI has continuing engagement with Motorola, ITT, United Technologies and Hewlett-Packard, Ellison said. The techniques of engagement include sending letters, holding meetings, filing shareholder resolutions and working ecumenically, he said.
But with Caterpillar, “we have not seen the progress we would like to see,” Ellison told the council’s Justice Committee. “We’re running out of options within the regular corporate engagement process.”
Not all Presbyterians agree, however, with the MRTI recommendation – which Ellison described as a step short of the PC(USA)’s divestiture in Caterpillar.
Some want the PC(USA) to do more.
Newark presbytery, for example, has submitted an overture asking the 2010 General Assembly to begin the process of divesting from Caterpillar, and not to reinvest unless MRTI “is fully satisfied that Caterpillar, Inc. no longer engages in the selling of equipment to Israel that is used to build illegal Israeli settlements, construct walls that illegally encroach upon Palestinian lands cutting Palestinians off from their own property and natural resources, destroy Palestinian life and property, and otherwise continue to support the occupation of Palestinian territories.”
The overture states that denouncing Caterpillar won’t change the company’s corporate behavior. “Now that corporate engagement is no longer a realistic option, the only option left is divestment,” it states in the rationale. “It is no longer a question about how long we can wait, but rather, whether we will do the right thing, or even anything at all.”
Others, however, think the MRTI recommendation goes too far.
Some Presbyterians from Great River Presbytery, located in central Illinois near Caterpillar’s corporate headquarters, sent the council a letter in which they state that divestiture could have “devastating consequences” for Presbyterian churches in the area. That letter – on which the presbytery has not formally voted – states that Caterpillar makes construction and mining equipment, which often is used in humanitarian response in times of disaster.
“Caterpillar, Inc. is a valued and valuable member of the Peoria, Illinois, community,” the letter states. “For many people in Central Illinois, Caterpillar is not only a corporate giant, a good investment, and a source of the kind of heavy equipment that is needed to do work in times of stability and times of instability. It is also the employer that provides the income for many families, including many Presbyterian families . . . In one of our largest and fastest growing churches in Peoria, thirty per cent of the members are currently employed by Caterpillar or its subsidiaries. The other two large PCUSA congregations in Peoria would reflect the same kind of numbers.”
The letter states that “if the PC(USA) divests from Caterpillar, they are considering `divesting’ from the denomination.”
Near the close of its plenary session on Feb. 25, the full council had a preliminary discussion about the MRTI recommendation.
“It’s mind-boggling to me” that the council would consider such a recommendation, said Steve Tonissen of Illinois, an at-large member of the council’s Stewardship Committee, because so many companies do business with Israel and could be singled out for scrutiny. “I’ll bet you could find Campbell’s Soup cans in the Israeli Army” – so why not add hundreds of firms to the scrutiny list, Tonissen asked.
“Don’t limit yourself,” he said. “Go after everybody.”
Ellison responded that “the General Assembly initiated this process,” not MRTI. “We’re being responsive to the General Assembly.”
The council is expected to vote on the MRTI recommendation on the morning of Feb. 26.
