By Lawrence Maushard
Disgusted by the disproportionate US-funded Israeli war crimes on Gaza in response to the October 7, 2023 Palestinian uprisings, Peorians quickly came together to rally and march on Main Street by October 15.
Then, in response to the Israeli attack on the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City – killing hundreds of innocents at a hospital – Peorians returned three days later mid-week to the same streets in horrified outrage, again demanding a ceasefire.
Before long, our ad hoc group of grassroots activists coalesced into something we call Peoria For Palestine (PFP), which organized at least eight rallies in our conservative-leaning downstate city of more than 100,000, anchoring a metro region of more than 350,000.
More than once, our peaceful demonstrators emptied into Main Street in loud and boisterous unpermitted marches, blocking traffic for at least an hour in broad daylight on Sunday afternoons on a busy thoroughfare in Peoria, Illinois, home to Richard Pryor, Bradley University, & Caterpillar bulldozers.
Even though its official headquarters now is in Texas, Fortune 500 multi-billion dollar Caterpillar, Inc. grew into a manufacturing giant in and around Peoria, Illinois, a CAT town if ever there was one. CAT remains one of the largest employers in the region and statewide. CAT remains so ubiquitous here that the minor league baseball Peoria Chiefs play in Dozer Park, and Bradley University’s nationally acclaimed engineering program is housed in the Caterpillar College of Engineering and Technology. Many PFP members, in fact, work for Caterpillar or its many suppliers.
Caterpillar has knowingly for years made profits from sales of bulldozers and heavy equipment to Israel used as illegal weapons of war, and turned the D9 & D10 models into infamous,1 worldwide symbols of war crimes used in the home demolitions of innocent Palestinians.
The issue first gained wide attention when Israel military murdered US activist Rachel Corrie in 2003 in Rafah by crushing her beneath a weaponized D9R CAT bulldozer as she attempted to block the demolition of a Palestinian home.
Caterpillar remains a top industrial target of the international Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement in this time of ongoing genocide.
No less than the late anti-apartheid Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 2018 called out Caterpillar and Motorola by name.
Recently, Norway’s largest private pension fund announced it was divesting from Caterpillar: “Around 100 Caterpillar D9R bulldozers were reported to be used in Gaza at the beginning of the latest war, after October 7. In December 2023, the Israeli forces were accused of using bulldozers to bury alive civilians outside the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in Gaza following a nine-day siege. The NGO Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has demanded an investigation into the allegations.“
Presbyterian Church USA, Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation and The United Church of Christ have all divested from Caterpillar. TIAA-CREF removed Caterpillar from its socially responsible investment portfolio and sold its Caterpillar shares.
Peoria Mayor Rita Ali intentionally blocked attempts last year to bring a PFP-sponsored cease-fire resolution to a vote at city council, claiming the need for “neutrality”. No one among our 10 elected council members had the political courage to bring the resolution to a vote themselves, even though a majority privately indicated support for the symbolic measure.
This political cowardice was galling, especially when Israel carried out an airstrike on Aitou, Lebanon in October 2024 killing at least 24 civilians. Aitou is an official Sister City to Peoria, Illinois. But no one at City Hall publicly said a word in response to the massacre. Nothing.
In addition to the rallies and marches, PFP organized a vigil at City Hall to read the names of thousands of Palestinian dead, sponsored a major bridge lighting with red, green and white Palestinian floodlights, hosted a “die-in” outside City Hall, held a free seminar at the community college featuring a physician and critical care nurse who recently volunteered in Gaza, screened documentaries “Israelism” and “Where Olive Trees Weep” free of charge at the public library, held monthly Palestine book club meetings, and more.
The phrase “Does it Play in Peoria?” goes back to vaudeville touring acts and later national marketing schemes that tried out their shows and services first here in this prominent Illinois River city. Peoria was considered an accurate middle America testing ground of their potential nationwide popularity, even in reference to politics. John Ehrlichman in the Nixon era reportedly noted, “In some conversation or another in the White House…I said, ‘How is this going to play in Peoria?’”
So we believe our votes and attitudes and activism mean just a little bit more here in Peoria.
Pressures real and imagined from the zionist-oriented Jewish Federation of Peoria and Caterpillar, Inc. undoubtedly got the best of Mayor Ali — our rust belt city’s first Black and first female mayor — when she blocked our cease-fire resolution last year. She is now running for reelection after earning the city’s top leadership position four years ago. I will not vote for Mayor Ali again, or vote for her two opponents, just like myself and other former Democrats refused to vote for Biden or Harris or Trump.
Though we did not win many public battles on behalf of Palestine, our local peaceful human rights movement continues.
Two of our PFP members are now running serious multi-issue campaigns for Peoria city council. They are officially on the ballot for upcoming elections later this month and April.
Lawrence J. Maushard is a Peoria-based author and journalist and a founding member of Peoria For Palestine. He reported from occupied Palestine in 2018. More of his work at www.maushard.com
