MERIP Media Resource List, April 7, 2005

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topic:
- International Day of Action Against Caterpillar, Inc., April 13

On April 13 shareholders of Caterpillar, Inc. will vote on a resolution calling on CAT to investigate whether its sale of bulldozers to Israel for demolition of Palestinian houses, orchards and roads violates its own Worldwide Code of Business Conduct. On the same day, groups in over 40 cities -- including Chicago, Washington, DC, Dallas, Memphis, New York City, Stockholm, and Boston -- will hold demonstrations at Caterpillar dealerships and board member offices.

Currently, CAT is facing a lawsuit from the parents of a young American woman, Rachel Corrie, who was killed by a Caterpillar bulldozer while trying to protect a Palestinian home in 2003.

Press information: http://www.catdestroyshomes.org/article.php?id=288

Experts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

DEBORAH J. GERNER
Deborah J. Gerner is professor of political science at the University of Kansas and co-director of the Center for International Political Analysis. Gerner is editor of Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (2004), author of One Land, Two Peoples: The Conflict over Palestine (1994) and an editorial committee member of Middle East Report . Her work focuses on Middle East politics, US foreign policy and human rights.

JEFF HALPER
Jeff Halper is director of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD), a non-violent, direct-action group established to oppose Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories.
- ICAHD -- http://www.icahd.org/eng/
- "Destroying Houses and Lives: an interview with Salim Shawamreh and Jeff Halper" in Middle East Report Online -- http://www.merip.org/mero/mero040500.html

Speakers who will be present at the Chicago Caterpillar, Inc. shareholder meeting:

HATEM ABUDAYYEH – Stop CAT Coalition Chicago
Hatem Abudayyeh is the executive director of the Arab American Action Network, a community-based organization that serves Arab Americans and Arab immigrants in the Chicago area and a national steering committee member of Racial Justice 9-11 and the National Network for Arab American Communities.
- Stop CAT: http://www.stopcat.org/

CHERYL BRODERSON – Rachel Corrie's aunt
Cheryl is a nurse at a small rural hospital and is seeking, along with other members of Rachel Corrie's family, an independent investigation into Rachel's death. Corrie was killed on March 16, 2003 while attempting to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian family's home in Gaza.

VALERIE HEINONEN - Mercy Investment Program
Valerie Heinonen, osu is a consultant on corporate social responsibility for the Mercy Investment Program and the Sisters of Mercy of Detroit. Formerly at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, she served for 19 years as program director on human rights issues. She is a member of the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk-US Province and based in New York City.

MARY ANN MCGIVERN – Sisters of Loretto
Mary Ann McGivern, coordinates and represents the Sisters of Loretto Investment Committee. She founded and was the first director of the St. Louis Economic Conversion Project, which tracks military manufacture and foreign arms sales. Sister McGivern is a columnist and public radio commentator. She will soon be working as director of an NGO office at the United Nations.

ALISON PARKER - Human Rights Watch
Alison Parker is an attorney and Human Rights Watch's senior researcher in the US Program.  Previously she was Human Rights Watch's acting director of refugee policy, where she documented and advocated against violations of the rights of refugees and internally displaced persons.
- Human Rights Watch on Caterpillar: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/11/22/isrlpa9711.htm

MARTY ROSENBLUTH - Amnesty International
Marty Rosenbluth has been the country specialist for Israel, the Occupied Territories and the Palestinian Authority for Amnesty International USA for almost ten years. He coordinates their work on human rights violations in the region by all parties to the conflict. He travels extensively to speak on human rights issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

LIAT WEINGART - Jewish Voice for Peace
Liat Weingart, an Israeli Jew and the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, is the co-director of Jewish Voice for Peace, which initiated the shareholder resolution at Caterpillar, Inc. She recently visited Israel and the West Bank, where she worked with Israeli peace activists and Palestinian farmers whose land was confiscated by Israel's security wall.
- Jewish Voice for Peace: http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

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