Ohio State University uses Caterpillar Inc. machinery for construction purposes on the corner of College Road and Annie and John Glenn Avenue this summer. By investing in a company that profits off of demolishing Palestinian homes, OSU is complicit in their oppression. Caterpillar has been listed as one of the companies to boycott in order to show solidarity for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli apartheid.
The BDS movement is launched and supported by 170 Palestinian-led organizations. It demands an end to the occupation of all Arab lands, dismantling the apartheid wall and the checkpoints, ending racial discrimination of Palestinians living in Israel, and promoting the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their land. Israel profits of colonizing Palestine as it experiments with weapons of war on Palestinians and makes money off of the military industrial complex.
Caterpillar sells its D9 armored bulldozer to Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Tamara Nassar reports for The Electronic Intifada on July 22nd that Caterpillar and Hyundaidemolished about a 100 homes in occupied East Jerusalem. Demolition of houses is a tactic of IDF to continue the colonization of Palestine by aggravating displacement. If homes are demolished then the chance of the return of the Palestinian refugees to their land diminishes. Caterpillar machines also destroy farms, olive trees, water wells, and cause irreversible ecological damage. Israel engages in ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
The College of Engineering at OSU has partnered with Caterpillarto let students work for the company while still in classes. Ohio State cannot feign ignorance at the human rights abuses and atrocities of Caterpillar in Palestine because student activists, leftist groups, and Palestinian students have lead a sustained resistance to OSU’s investment in apartheid for at least four years. The groups, Students for Justice in Palestine, Palestinian Women’s Association, and OSU Coalition for BDS, hosted Israeli Apartheid Week in the 2019 spring semester. Ohio State teaches students about promoting diversity and multiculturalism while in the shadows supporting war profiteering companies that treat Palestinian lives as disposable.
The BDS movement started in 2005 and 14 years of continued activism have seen its popularity increase worldwide. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are two congresswomen who publicly express support for the movement. Nora Barrows-Friedman reports for The Electronic Intifada on July 17 that Omar proposed a resolutionto let people have the right to boycott Israel. Tlaib freely discusses being part of the Palestinian diaspora with Jake Tapper on CNN. The grassroots resistance of Palestinians for decades, the rise of awareness about BDS tactics, and the growing global solidarity from people on the left for Palestine’s freedom allowed politicians to voice their opinions freely. Despite setbacks like the House of Representatives passing an anti-BDSresolution, the two Muslim congresswomen are able to continue to raise national debates about Israeli settler-colonialism.
Ohio State will continue to be on the oppressors’ side of history as long as it keeps any relationship with Caterpillar and other companies that partner with Israel. Denying individuals and entities the right to boycott and divest is denying them the right to civil disobedience. Israel has no right to exist as a state because existing has meant to displace, murder, maim, torture, and dehumanize Palestinians.
