Registry · CAT

Does Caterpillar support Israel?

Caterpillar Inc.

Statement on recordupdated 2026-09-26

Caterpillar has publicly expressed support for Israel, but we found no record of donations or aid. Every claim below links to its source.

Filed under: Car & automotive brands · Companies that support Israel

Background

Caterpillar is one of the most prominent and best-documented cases in the boycott debate, and a named corporate divestment target of the BDS movement. The key distinction: Caterpillar's civilian equipment is sold commercially in Israel through an independent authorized dealer (Zoko Enterprises/ITE), while the military-spec D9 bulldozers reach the Israeli army as defense articles through the U.S. government's Foreign Military Sales program, largely paid for with U.S. military aid, and are armored in Israel. On March 16, 2003, American activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an armored D9 in Rafah while trying to block a home demolition; her family's lawsuit, Corrie v. Caterpillar, was dismissed by U.S. courts — the Ninth Circuit affirmed in September 2007 under the political question doctrine, expressly without ruling on whether Caterpillar aided abuses. Human Rights Watch asked Caterpillar to suspend military bulldozer sales in 2004; the company declined, saying it cannot control how products are used after sale. The controversy has driven institutional action: MSCI dropped Caterpillar from its ESG indices in 2012, citing in part the use of its equipment in the Palestinian territories (prompting TIAA-CREF to sell $72 million in shares); the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted 310-303 in June 2014 to divest about $21 million from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions; and Norway's largest pension fund, KLP, divested its $69 million stake in June 2024 over the equipment's use in Gaza and the West Bank. On 25 August 2025 Norges Bank excluded Caterpillar from Norway's Government Pension Fund Global — a 1.23 percent stake worth NOK 24.4 billion, about $2.4 billion, at the end of 2024, and the largest of the divestments listed here — under the fund's conduct criterion on serious violations of the rights of individuals in war or conflict. Its Council on Ethics, recommending exclusion on 2 July 2025, found that Caterpillar bulldozers are used by Israeli authorities in the widespread unlawful destruction of Palestinian property and that the company had implemented no measures to prevent such use.

Center for Constitutional Rights — Corrie v. Caterpillar BDS Movement — economic boycott targets Times of Israel (MSCI delisting) Religion News Service (PCUSA divestment vote) Al Jazeera (KLP divestment) Norges Bank — Decisions on exclusion, 25 August 2025 Council on Ethics — recommendation to exclude Caterpillar Inc. (PDF) Al Jazeera Arabic (Norwegian fund exits Caterpillar over the Gaza war)

Timeline of documented records

200420072010201320162019202220252004-11 — Government contract: Israeli military (via U.S. government Foreign Military Sales)Government contract2004-112004-11 — Public statement: Human Rights Watch (response to call to suspend Israel sales)Public statement2004-112023-10 — Operations in Israel: Israeli military D9 fleet (service and armoring in Israel)Operations in Israel2023-102024-09 — Operations in Israel: Israeli military (West Bank and Gaza operations, per Who Profits)Operations in Israel2024-092025-02 — Government contract: Government of Israel — D9R/D9T bulldozers (via U.S. Foreign Military Sales)Government contract2025-022025-07 — Public statement: Council on Ethics, Norway's Government Pension Fund GlobalPublic statement2025-072025-07 — Government contract: Israeli Ministry of Defence — 134 Caterpillar D9 bulldozersGovernment contract2025-072025-10 — Government contract: Government of Israel (via U.S. Army Security Assistance / Foreign Military Sales)Government contract2025-102026-04 — Operations in Israel: Israeli military and its civilian demolition contractors — southern LebanonOperations in Israel2026-04

Documented records

TypeDateAmountRecipientSources
Government contract2004-11—Israeli military (via U.S. government Foreign Military Sales)
Caterpillar manufactures the D9 bulldozer to military specifications and it is sold to Israel as a defense article through the U.S. government's Foreign Military Sales program — a government-to-government channel largely funded by U.S. military aid — not as a direct Caterpillar-to-Israel commercial sale. The Israeli military has operated Caterpillar D9s since the 1950s (Sinai 1956, 1967, 1973, Lebanon 1982); the machines are armored in Israel by the IDF together with state-owned Israel Military Industries and Israel Aerospace Industries. Human Rights Watch documented the sales mechanism in November 2004 when it called on Caterpillar to suspend D9 sales, parts and service to the Israeli military over home demolitions carried out with the machines; the sales continued.
Public statement2004-11—Human Rights Watch (response to call to suspend Israel sales)
Responding to Human Rights Watch's October 2004 letter asking Caterpillar to suspend D9 bulldozer sales to the Israeli military, then-CEO James Owens declined, writing on November 12, 2004 that the company did "not have the practical ability or legal right to determine how our products are used after they are sold." This has remained Caterpillar's standing position: military D9 sales run through the U.S. government, and the company says it cannot police end use. The company has never suspended the sales.
Operations in Israel2023-10—Israeli military D9 fleet (service and armoring in Israel)
Roughly 100 armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozers were deployed in the opening stage of Israel's ground operation in Gaza after October 7, 2023, and Israel moved to procure about 100 more in urgent requests in November 2023 and January 2024. In Israel the machines are imported, retrofitted and serviced by Caterpillar's authorized dealer network — Zoko Enterprises and its Israel Tractors & Equipment (ITE) unit, an independent Israeli dealer, not a Caterpillar subsidiary — which upgrades commercial-market D9s for IDF use and maintains them, including under a 2009 agreement giving Zoko maintenance staff reservist status during combat. Caterpillar's role is as manufacturer and franchisor of the dealership; the armoring and battlefield servicing are done by the Israeli dealer and Israeli state-owned industry.
Government contract2025-02-28$295,000,000Government of Israel — D9R/D9T bulldozers (via U.S. Foreign Military Sales)
The U.S. State Department approved a Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Israel of Caterpillar D9R and D9T bulldozers, spare parts and support, at an estimated cost of $295 million, with Caterpillar Inc. (Irving, Texas) as principal contractor and deliveries expected from 2027. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress on February 28, 2025 using expedited emergency procedures that bypassed the standard congressional review period. The sale then survived an attempt to block it: on 15 April 2026 the U.S. Senate rejected resolutions of disapproval led by Senator Bernie Sanders against this sale and against a $151.8 million sale of 12,000 heavy bombs — $446.8 million of arms between them — turning down the bulldozer resolution by 59 votes to 40, with a record 40 Democratic senators voting to block it.
Government contract2025-10-14$29,420,055Government of Israel (via U.S. Army Security Assistance / Foreign Military Sales)
USASpending.gov records 10 U.S. Department of Defense (U.S. Army) delivery orders and contracts with Caterpillar Inc. between December 2017 and April 2026, totaling roughly $29.4 million, each explicitly tied to a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) case for Israel: spare parts, marine engines and generator sets. These are U.S. government procurement contracts, not company-to-Israel donations — Caterpillar sells to the U.S. Army under an FMS case, and the Army supplies Israel. The largest, delivery order W91CRB26FA009 (signed 2025-10-14, $23.35 million, sole-source, product code "earth moving and excavating equipment"), states its purpose is "to purchase Caterpillar spare parts for the country of Israel." Other orders (e.g. W56HZV-19-C-0027, W56HZV-18-C-0030) supplied Caterpillar marine engines and generator sets for FMS cases IS-ZWP and IS-ZEP; several smaller orders (FMS cases IS-BSP, IS-B-BRB, IS-B-BLN) covered naval engine spare parts and generators.
Operations in Israel2024-09—Israeli military (West Bank and Gaza operations, per Who Profits)
Who Profits, an Israeli advocacy research centre that tracks companies involved in the occupation, states in its Caterpillar company profile that Caterpillar D9 bulldozers took part in the Israeli military's March 2024 raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City while patients and staff were present, and that Caterpillar bulldozers and excavators were used in the Israeli military's August–September 2024 invasion of Jenin and Tulkarm in the West Bank. Who Profits does not cite external documentation for these two brand-specific claims, so they are attributed to Who Profits here. Independent reporting (CNN, Middle East Monitor, Democracy Now) confirms the Al-Shifa raid and the Jenin/Tulkarm operation involved heavy bulldozing that destroyed roughly 70% of Jenin's roads and extensive hospital-ground excavation, without independently naming the equipment brand; the IDF's documented D9 fleet (see the 2023-10 operations entry above) makes Who Profits' identification plausible but not independently verified for these specific incidents.
Government contract2025-07-09—Israeli Ministry of Defence — 134 Caterpillar D9 bulldozers
Israel's Defence Ministry ordered and paid for a shipment of no fewer than 134 Caterpillar D9 bulldozers, which then sat at Caterpillar's plants in the United States awaiting an export permit from the U.S. State Department, two Israeli security sources told ynet in a report published on 10 November 2024. ynet said Washington had frozen the shipment for several months amid protests in the United States over the machines' use to flatten buildings in Gaza, and that the bulldozers were to be armoured at plants in Israel. The freeze was lifted at the end of January 2025, days after Donald Trump took office, and on 9 July 2025 the Defence Ministry said dozens of D9s and other engineering equipment had been unloaded at Haifa port and taken away to have armour fitted; its director general, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, called the shipment part of a wider armament effort worth billions of shekels that the U.S. administration had released. Neither report says whether the order ran through the government-to-government Foreign Military Sales channel or as a direct commercial sale, and the shekel figure is Baram's for that wider effort, not for the bulldozers alone.
Public statement2025-07-02—Council on Ethics, Norway's Government Pension Fund Global
Caterpillar gave its own account of the D9 trade in two meetings with the Council on Ethics of Norway's Government Pension Fund Global, recorded in the Council's recommendation of 2 July 2025 that the fund exclude the company. On a teleconference on 19 November 2024 Caterpillar said it had never sold the bulldozers in question directly to the Israeli military but sold them to the U.S. authorities through the Foreign Military Sales programme; asked, it confirmed that it knew the vehicles were transferred to Israel and that — with the possible exception of a couple of vehicles previously delivered to Egypt — Israel was the only nation receiving D9 bulldozers through that programme; and it said the machines were supplied as civilian heavy machinery and modified for military purposes by other parties. Asked what it did to keep its products from being used in violation of international humanitarian law, the company said it was difficult to keep oversight of how equipment was used once delivered and pointed to the U.S. authorities' own evaluations; it said it was unaware of any moratorium on D9 sales but had noted that no new orders had been placed under the programme. At a follow-up meeting on 28 May 2025 it confirmed it had received a new Foreign Military Sales order for D9 bulldozers, with deliveries due to begin within months. The Council sent Caterpillar a draft of its recommendation on 12 June 2025 and invited comments; the company did not respond.
Operations in Israel2026-04—Israeli military and its civilian demolition contractors — southern Lebanon
The Guardian, in an investigation published on 17 June 2026, geolocated and verified photographs and video showing the Israeli military using excavators made by six manufacturers — Caterpillar, Volvo, Hyundai, Doosan, Hitachi Construction Machinery and Komatsu — to destroy homes, shops, public utilities and other structures across southern Lebanon, inside the 608 sq km "yellow line" area occupied by Israel along the border. Associated Press photographs taken in the border town of Mays al-Jabal on 12 and 15 April 2026 show machines from all six makers among flattened houses, with Hyundai, Caterpillar and Komatsu excavators actively destroying homes; a Bellingcat satellite analysis cited by the Guardian found at least 46 villages in south Lebanon heavily damaged, most of it from demolitions carried out after the 17 April Lebanon–Israel ceasefire. The machines were operated by the Israeli military and by the civilian contractors it hires for demolition work, not by Caterpillar. Amnesty International's head of business, security and human rights, Mark Dummett, told the Guardian that businesses contributing to the extensive destruction of civilian property in Lebanon may expose themselves, or their individual directors and managers, to prosecution for complicity in war crimes. Caterpillar did not reply to the Guardian's request for comment; Volvo, Komatsu, Hitachi Construction Machinery and the company that operates the Hyundai brand said they had internal human-rights policies, several adding that they had little control over what customers did with equipment once it was sold.

Frequently asked questions

Did Caterpillar donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?

We have no records of donations. What is on record is a public statement of support — see this page for the wording and its source.

Where does this information come from?

Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 28 distinct sources are cited for Caterpillar. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-09-26

More companies