Caterpillar and the Goldstone Report

Prepared by Peter Miller

October 29, 2009

In September 2009, a U.N. fact finding mission headed by the widely respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone released its report on Israel's attack on Gaza entitled "

Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.

" The Israel's military operation, codenamed "Operation Cast Lead" occurred from December 27, 2008 to January 21, 2009.

The U.N. Human Rights Council has formally adopted this report over the strenuous objections of the United States and Israel.

The report found that both Israel and Hamas had committed serious war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the conflict. However, as reflected in the report, the vast majority of the crimes were perpetrated by the Israeli military. Not only did Israel attack civilian populations with the report finding that "that the conduct of the Israeli armed forces constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of wilful killings and wilfully causing great suffering to protected persons" but the Israeli military also destroyed civilian infrastructure in a "wave of systematic destruction" : homes, factories, water treatment facilities, government buildings, farms, schools, mosques, hospitals, and orchards.

Prominent in the report is the mention of the use of bulldozers, armoured bulldozers and D-9 bulldozers in the commission of a number of Israel's war crimes. The specific model of bulldozer is mentioned in paragraph 331 of the report, which indicated that the Israel forces attacking Gaza included "engineer troops equipped with armoured D-9 bulldozers."

The D-9 is a bulldozer produced by the Caterpillar Corporation which manufacturers a version designed to be armour plated by the Israeli military. D-9 is the only specific model of vehicle mentioned in the report and it is safe to presume most or all mention of bulldozers in the report are referring to armoured Caterpillar D-9 bulldozers, designed explicitly for use by the Israeli military in these situations. The word "bulldozer" is mentioned twenty five times in the report; the word "D-9" is mentioned nine times. In contrast, the possible use of controversial "DIME" munitions by the Israeli military is mentioned thirteen times.

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