The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed a decision by Norway’s $2 trillion wealth fund, the world’s largest, to divest from construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar and from five Israeli banking groups over Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
That fund said the decision was made “due to an unacceptable risk that the companies contribute to serious violations of the rights of individuals in situations of war and conflict.”
SEE: Norway Wealth Fund Excludes Caterpillar and Five Israeli Banks – Reuters
In July, CAIR condemned the reported delivery of dozens of U.S. bulldozers to the Israeli military for use in its ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the illegally-occupied West Bank. CAIR called the bulldozers “tools of destruction, dispossession, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid.”
Last year, CAIR welcomed the reported freeze on the delivery of bulldozers to Israel as an “implicit admission” by the Biden administration that the far-right Netanyahu government is using that equipment in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Israel has weaponized bulldozers to destroy homes, flatten neighborhoods and displace civilian populations.
In a statement, CAIR said:
“We commend Norway’s sovereign wealth fund for taking a principled stand against genocide by divesting from Caterpillar and Israeli financial institutions that are actively supporting Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people. Bulldozers should be used to build communities—not to destroy them. This action sends a clear message to corporations and governments alike: complicity in war crimes has consequences.
“As Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues—with over 62,000 Palestinians slaughtered by Israeli terror forces, and famine now officially declared by the United Nations – the international community must end all support, funding and arms transfers to the far-right Netanyahu regime. It is long past time for our own government and governments worldwide to act, not with words, but with accountability.”
Yesterday, CAIR called the Israeli military a “terrorist organization” after Israel slaughtered at least 20 people, including five journalists, in a “double tap” strike on Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza in which one bombing was followed by another to kill first responders – the so-called “double tap.”
Israel has slaughtered more than 62,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children. The true figure is likely to be much higher. CAIR recently called on members of Congress to recognize Israel’s obvious and documented genocide in Gaza after data from a secret Israeli intelligence database showed that least 83 percent of Palestinians slaughtered in Gaza were civilians – not combatants.
Last week, CAIR said that the United Nations official declaration that a man-made famine is occurring in Gaza “must mark the end” of the complicity of the Trump administration and Congress in the Israeli government’s ongoing and escalating genocide.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com