AP is reporting:

The family of a woman killed trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in 2003 asked a federal appeals court panel to reinstate its lawsuit against Caterpillar Inc., saying the company knew bulldozers it sold to the Israeli government were being used to commit human rights violations.

"Caterpillar sold this product knowing - or it should have known - it would cause exactly this harm," one of the family's lawyers, Duke University law professor Erwin Chemerinsky told the three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday.

But lawyers for Caterpillar and the U.S. Justice Department, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Caterpillar's behalf, argued that letting the case proceed would require U.S. courts to improperly intervene in political issues reserved for the president and Congress. It would also require American judges to pass judgment on Israel's practice of demolishing Palestinian homes - "you can't aid and abet a legal activity," Caterpillar attorney Robert Abrams told the judges.

Abrams also said Israel purchased the bulldozers with U.S. aid, further complicating the issue.

"If your honors did look at the U.S. as paying for the bulldozer, the U.S. would be an aider and abettor as well," he said. "There is no conclusion that can be reached other than, it presents a political question."