Genocide Companies - Part Three - The Company That Destroyed the Gaza Strip "Caterpillar"

Caterpillar Inc.'s Operations in Israel and the Palestinian Territories: A Comprehensive Analysis

This report provides a detailed examination of Caterpillar Inc.'s presence and operations in Israel and the Palestinian territories. It reveals a long-standing engagement characterized by deep integration with the Israeli military through equipment supply and support.

The report documents Caterpillar’s role in large-scale demolition and land-clearing operations in Gaza and the West Bank, raising significant challenges related to human rights and legal accountability. These activities prompt questions about balancing commercial interests, military objectives, and international law.

Additionally, the report addresses the company’s general employment policies regarding veterans, focusing on the specific operational ties of Zoko Enterprises, Caterpillar’s exclusive distributor in Israel, with the Israeli military’s combat engineering units.

Overview of Caterpillar Inc.

Caterpillar is a global leader in manufacturing construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. The company’s operations rely on a global business model supported by a network of independent distributors. In this report, its activities in Israel are analyzed within this framework, emphasizing how its global model adapts to the region’s unique geopolitical dynamics.

Caterpillar’s Presence and Operational Capabilities in Israel

Establishment and Local Representation

Caterpillar’s primary and exclusive distributor in Israel is ITE—Israeli Tractors & Equipment CAT-ZOKO, also referred to as Zoko Shiluvim/ITE and Zoko Enterprises. This arrangement establishes a single, dedicated channel for Caterpillar’s products and services in the region.

Records show some variation regarding Zoko Enterprises’ founding date. One source indicates it was established in 1984, while another, derived from Hebrew Wikipedia, suggests 1948. This discrepancy is significant. If Zoko’s origins indeed trace back to 1948, the year modern Israel was founded, it implies that Caterpillar’s primary distribution channel in Israel has existed since the state’s inception.

This represents not merely a commercial relationship but a deep historical connection, suggesting that Caterpillar’s equipment (via Zoko) may have been integral to Israel’s infrastructure development and nation-building efforts from the outset. Even if 1984 marks a restructuring, the continuity of operations of a predecessor entity dating back to 1948 indicates a long-standing and deeply rooted presence.

This enduring presence means Caterpillar’s operations in Israel are not a recent market entry but a decades-long partnership that evolved alongside the state itself. Such deep integration complicates any potential disengagement or significant operational changes, as it would require dismantling decades of established commercial and operational ties.

This also reflects a profound understanding of local market needs, including military requirements, developed over an extended period. Zoko operates seven branches across Israel and employs between 501 and 1,000 individuals, indicating a significant operational footprint and workforce in the country.

While Caterpillar Lift Trucks lists Israel as a distributor location, its operational capacity inquiries are directed to its headquarters in the Netherlands, suggesting that sales of heavy equipment and broader military equipment are primarily managed through Zoko’s network.

Caterpillar’s Extensive Collaboration with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)

Historical Context of Equipment Use

The Caterpillar D9 bulldozer was introduced globally in 1954 and was quickly adopted for civilian engineering in Israel before being “enlisted for military service” by the IDF. Its use by the Israeli military dates back at least to the 1967 occupation of Palestinian territories.

D9 bulldozers have been utilized in nearly every major IDF military operation, including road clearing during the 1982 Lebanon War, minefield removal, and widespread use during the Second Intifada (2000-2005) to demolish over 3,000 Palestinian homes.

During the 2002 Battle of Jenin, armored D9 bulldozers cleared explosive traps and improvised explosive devices, ultimately leveling homes from which militants fired on Israeli soldiers or that were suspected to contain explosives.

Armored Caterpillar D9 Bulldozer in IDF Service

Nickname and Operational Units

These bulldozers are known as “Doobi” (Hebrew for “little bear”) and are operated by the IDF’s combat engineering units, specifically the “Tzamah” (mechanical engineering equipment) units.

Technical Specifications and Modifications

The D9R, the latest model in IDF service, boasts 405–410 horsepower and a drawbar pull of 71.6 metric tons. Weighing 53.8 tons, it stands 3.96 meters tall and measures 8.13 meters long, comparable to a double-decker bus in height and a tank in weight, enabling it to demolish buildings with ease.

Once supplied by Caterpillar, the bulldozers undergo significant military modifications by Israel Military Industries, the Ramta division of Israel Aerospace Industries, and Zoko Shiluvim/ITE. These modifications include custom armor kits, machine gun mounts, smoke launchers, grenade launchers, bulletproof cabins, and gunner positions. The D9R entered service in the early 2000s with new armor, and slat armor was introduced in 2005/2006 to counter anti-tank missile threats.

The transformation of the D9 from a civilian construction tool to a specialized, armored, and even remotely controlled “primary weapon” demonstrates a deep and evolving strategic partnership between Caterpillar (via its distributor) and the IDF. This goes beyond mere equipment sales, involving ongoing adaptation, co-development, and direct operational support.

The IDF’s continuous investment in modifying and upgrading the D9, combined with Zoko’s direct maintenance support in battlefields (including personnel serving as reserve units), indicates that the D9 is not just a purchased product but a central military asset actively developed and maintained.

This level of integration suggests that Caterpillar, through its exclusive distributor, is deeply embedded in the IDF’s combat engineering capabilities, effectively acting as a partner in developing and deploying military technology rather than just a commercial supplier.

This deep integration challenges Caterpillar’s claims of lacking control over how its products are used post-sale. The company, through its authorized distributor, actively participates in maintaining the military utility of these machines, implying a level of complicity beyond initial sales. This ongoing relationship means Caterpillar continuously enables and adapts to the IDF’s military needs, making it subject to ongoing ethical and legal scrutiny.

Remotely Controlled Variants

The IDF has deployed remotely controlled variants, known as “Panda” (D9T) since 2018 and “RoboDozer,” increasingly used in large-scale wars since October 2023. These unmanned systems can perform tasks “better than humans” and reduce risks to troops.

Procurement Mechanisms

D9 bulldozer sales to Israel are often funded through the U.S. government’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. A significant proposed deal for D9R and D9T bulldozers, valued at an estimated $295 million, was approved by the U.S. Secretary of State in February 2025, with deliveries expected to begin in 2027.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD) also made urgent requests for additional bulldozers in November 2023 and January 2024, with approximately 100 D9 units expected to arrive, some of which will be converted for autonomous use.

The ongoing funding of D9 sales to Israel through the FMS program creates a direct link between U.S. foreign policy, military aid, and Caterpillar’s commercial activities. U.S. courts have cited this arrangement as a basis for dismissing lawsuits against Caterpillar under the “political question doctrine,” effectively shielding the company from accountability for alleged human rights violations. The FMS program positions the U.S. government as the direct purchaser from Caterpillar, which then transfers the equipment to Israel.

This government-mediated transaction allows Caterpillar to claim no direct control over end-use, and U.S. courts interpret this as a matter of foreign policy under executive branch jurisdiction, not judicial oversight. This legal interpretation effectively insulates Caterpillar from direct liability in U.S. courts for how its products are used by a foreign military, even when those uses are widely condemned as human rights violations.

This occurs despite the U.S. State Department itself raising concerns about Israel’s use of D9 bulldozers in demolitions. This highlights a systemic challenge in achieving corporate accountability for human rights violations in complex geopolitical contexts.

Caterpillar benefits from a legal framework that prioritizes state-to-state relations and foreign policy objectives over direct corporate accountability for the downstream impacts of its products.

This means legal avenues for redress against Caterpillar in the U.S. are highly limited, shifting the focus of accountability efforts to other mechanisms, such as international law, divestment campaigns, and direct pressure on the U.S. government to reconsider military aid policies and legal doctrines enabling such outcomes.

Maintenance and Operational Support

As Caterpillar’s sole distributor, Zoko Enterprises provides “specially trained personnel” to service D9 bulldozers directly in battlefields. This support extends to enlisting Zoko personnel in the IDF as a “reserve unit” to reinforce military D9 maintenance crews during combat operations. This was documented in December 2023 during the Israeli assault on Gaza and was part of an agreement during the 2014 Gaza attacks.

Zoko Enterprises’ practice of enlisting its personnel as IDF reserve units for D9 maintenance in battlefields represents a unique and profound level of operational integration between a civilian corporate entity (Caterpillar’s exclusive distributor) and a national military.

This goes beyond a general corporate policy of hiring veterans; it involves the direct deployment of a company’s workforce in a military capacity during active conflict. This arrangement indicates deep operational interdependence. The IDF relies on Zoko personnel to keep critical D9 bulldozers operational in active war zones. This means Zoko’s workforce, responsible for maintaining Caterpillar equipment, effectively becomes an extension of the IDF’s combat engineering support structure.

This level of integration suggests that Caterpillar, through its distributor, not only supplies equipment but also provides essential human capital and technical expertise that directly enables and supports military operations during conflict. This deep operational integration amplifies Caterpillar’s ethical and legal challenges.

It makes it difficult for the company to claim detachment or neutrality regarding the military’s actions, as its personnel are directly involved in maintaining equipment used in those actions. This level of integration can be interpreted as a form of active complicity, raising questions about corporate responsibility in sustaining military capabilities used in ways that attract international condemnation.

Role in Demolition and Land-Clearing Operations in Gaza Post-2023 War

Scale and Nature of Destruction

Caterpillar D9 bulldozers were used “extensively” in the IDF’s ground invasion of Gaza between October 2023 and May 2024, leading ground forces and performing “complex and prolonged engineering tasks.” This resulted in “massive destruction of roads, buildings, private property, and infrastructure.” A soldier described demolition operations in Rafah as “60 homes a day,” noting that the southeastern part of the city was “completely destroyed” and the “horizon is flat.”

Estimates suggest a significant portion of the destruction in Gaza and southern Lebanon was not due to airstrikes or direct combat but to bulldozers or Israeli explosives, indicating deliberate and planned actions.

Even during a period without intense fighting (September to December 2024), over 3,000 additional buildings in Rafah and approximately 3,100 new buildings in northern Gaza were destroyed by bulldozers or explosives.

Specific instances of destruction include Gaza’s courthouse, Palestine Square in Gaza City, and severe damage to Al-Shifa Hospital during a military raid in March 2024. D9 bulldozers were also used in February 2024 to build a new road, “Highway 749,” in northern Gaza, effectively bisecting Gaza City.

The sheer scale, systematic nature, and documented intent behind the destruction in Gaza post-2023, often occurring outside direct combat, suggest it is not mere collateral damage but a deliberate military and possibly demographic strategy.

The central role of Caterpillar D9 bulldozers in this process makes the company’s equipment integral to what critics describe as “urban destruction” and “demographic engineering.” The systematic leveling of entire neighborhoods, construction of new military roads bisecting cities, and continued destruction during ceasefire periods point to a deliberate strategy to render areas uninhabitable, displace populations, and reshape Gaza’s urban and demographic landscape.

This goes beyond tactical military necessity in specific engagements. The term “domicide” (deliberate destruction of homes to cause human suffering and displacement) underscores this intent. By providing the essential tools for such systematic destruction, Caterpillar directly enables a military strategy widely condemned under international humanitarian law and human rights law.

This implicates Caterpillar as a critical enabler of alleged war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity, significantly increasing its exposure to international scrutiny and calls for accountability.

Involvement in the Destruction of Rafah, Northern Gaza, and Khan Younis

• Rafah: By early April 2025, reports indicated that Israeli forces destroyed over 50,000 residential units in Rafah, representing 90% of its residential neighborhoods, turning the city into a buffer zone and severing its only border crossing with Egypt.

• Northern Gaza: Systematic destruction of areas like Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia was reported, with claims that some commanders ordered unnecessary destruction.

• Khan Younis: Israeli soldiers were documented operating in Khan Younis on July 31, 2024, indicating the presence of D9 bulldozers in the area.

Documented Incidents Involving Civilian Casualties and Human Rights Concerns

Caterpillar D9 bulldozers have been implicated in incidents resulting in civilian deaths, including the widely publicized killing of American activist Rachel Corrie in Rafah in 2003. More recently, D9 bulldozers were involved in incidents concerning civilians sheltering outside Kamal Adwan Hospital in 2023 and 2024. United Nations reports cite eyewitness accounts alleging that Caterpillar equipment was used to “crush Palestinians to death.”

The destruction of homes, schools, wells, olive groves, and agricultural lands by Caterpillar bulldozers has been a long-standing concern since 1967. Over 18,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished by the IDF since 1967, with more than 4,000 demolished after September 2000.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing has called for investigations into the use of bulldozers for home demolitions and urged recognition of “domicide” (massive and deliberate destruction of homes to cause human suffering). Such destruction is often deemed punitive and illegal under international humanitarian law, particularly Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the destruction of property unless absolutely necessary for military operations.

Deployment and Impact of Remotely Controlled D9 Bulldozers

The IDF’s combat engineering corps has deployed the “Panda” (remotely controlled D9T) since 2018. The “RoboDozer,” a robotic D9 variant, has been increasingly deployed since the October 2023 war in Gaza and Lebanon. These unmanned vehicles are operated remotely and can perform tasks “better than humans” and are primarily used to enhance field operations and reduce risks to Israeli troops.

The increasing deployment of remotely controlled D9 bulldozers (“RoboDozer,” “Panda”) represents a significant shift toward automated combat engineering. While this innovation reduces direct risks to IDF personnel, it raises profound ethical and legal challenges regarding accountability for widespread destruction and civilian harm.

Removing the human operator from the immediate scene of destruction creates a layer of psychological and physical detachment. This detachment can facilitate more expansive or less restrained demolition activities, as direct exposure to consequences is reduced.

More critically, it complicates the chain of command and responsibility for actions taken by the machine. Determining accountability (e.g., operator, programmer, commander, manufacturer) for alleged war crimes or human rights violations becomes significantly more challenging when the direct agent of destruction is an unmanned system.

This “unknown future of warfare” suggests the potential for increased destruction with reduced direct human oversight and immediate accountability. Caterpillar, as the manufacturer of the core platform for these robotic systems, indirectly enables a new paradigm of warfare that raises serious questions about human control, ethical decision-making, and accountability for harm.

This places a unique burden on the company to consider the broader implications of its technology when adapted for autonomous military use, especially in contexts with documented human rights concerns.

Employment Practices and Military Connections

Caterpillar’s General Policy on Hiring Veterans

Caterpillar explicitly expresses its commitment to hiring and supporting veterans and their spouses. The company highlights the numerous benefits of employing veterans, including their strong work ethic, discipline, leadership skills, ability to prioritize, process creation, multitasking, and communication skills.

Caterpillar maintains an employee resource group called the “Armed Forces Support Network (AFSN)” and offers mentoring programs to help veterans transition their military skills into corporate roles. The company also participates in partnerships with programs like “Heroes MAKE America” to assist military service members and veterans in transitioning to manufacturing jobs. This demonstrates a global corporate policy of valuing and integrating military expertise into its workforce.

Specific Practices Regarding Hiring Former IDF Personnel in Israel

While the provided excerpts do not explicitly detail Caterpillar’s direct hiring of former IDF personnel in Israel, they provide critical information regarding the operational integration of its exclusive Israeli distributor, Zoko Enterprises, with the IDF. Zoko Enterprises provides “specially trained personnel” to service Caterpillar D9 bulldozers directly in battlefields.

More significantly, Zoko personnel are “enlisted in the IDF as a reserve unit” to reinforce military D9 maintenance crews during combat. This occurred in December 2023 during the Israeli assault on Gaza and was part of an agreement during the 2014 Gaza attacks. This arrangement indicates a direct and operational connection between Zoko’s workforce and the IDF’s combat engineering units, effectively integrating civilian personnel into military support roles during conflict.

Zoko Enterprises’ practice of enlisting its personnel as IDF reserve units for D9 maintenance in battlefields represents a unique and profound level of operational integration between a civilian corporate entity (Caterpillar’s exclusive distributor) and a national military.

This goes beyond a general corporate policy of hiring veterans; it involves the direct deployment of a company’s workforce in a military capacity during active conflict. This arrangement indicates deep operational interdependence.

The IDF relies on Zoko personnel to keep critical D9 bulldozers operational in active war zones. This means Zoko’s workforce, responsible for maintaining Caterpillar equipment, effectively becomes an extension of the IDF’s combat engineering support structure.

This level of integration suggests that Caterpillar, through its distributor, not only supplies equipment but also provides essential human capital and technical expertise that directly enables and supports military operations during conflict. This deep operational integration amplifies Caterpillar’s ethical and legal challenges.

It makes it difficult for the company to claim detachment or neutrality regarding the military’s actions, as its personnel are directly involved in maintaining equipment used in those actions. This level of integration can be interpreted as a form of active complicity, raising questions about corporate responsibility in sustaining military capabilities used in ways that attract international condemnation.

Conclusion

This report demonstrates that Caterpillar’s presence in Israel is not merely a standard commercial operation but a deeply rooted, long-term relationship characterized by a dual-use product line critical to both civilian infrastructure and military operations. Its extensive collaboration with the IDF, including the co-development and battlefield maintenance of the D9 bulldozer, underscores the pivotal role Caterpillar’s equipment plays in Israeli military operations.

The evidence documents the role of Caterpillar bulldozers in large-scale demolition and land-clearing operations in Gaza post-2023, as well as their ongoing involvement in settlement projects and separation wall construction in the West Bank. These activities raise serious concerns regarding human rights and international law violations, leading to accusations of complicity in potential war crimes and “genocide economics.”

Caterpillar’s official responses, claiming an inability to control product use post-sale, stand in contrast to the documented level of operational integration of its local distributor with the IDF. These arguments, combined with U.S. courts’ reliance on the “political question doctrine,” have hindered direct legal accountability for the company in the United States.

In conclusion, this analysis highlights the complex interplay between Caterpillar’s commercial interests, Israel’s national security interests, and the profound human impact in a highly contested region. The continuation of Caterpillar’s operations in this context keeps it under intense international scrutiny regarding its corporate responsibility and the ethical and legal implications of its activities.

Sources used in the report

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