BDS and its Allies are Exposing the Companies Fueling the Genocide in Gaza
New research is helping anti-genocide activists identify and target the corporations enabling and profiting from the war in Gaza.
The spokesperson also explained that they were acting in solidarity with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, which advocates economic opposition to the Israeli genocide and occupation. In addition to the action in Herzliya, there were nearly two dozen more documented by BDS in the United States alone during the week of action against Chevron for its ongoing business with Israel amid the genocide.
Since Palestinian militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, including 16,000 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The true toll of the genocide, obscured by the continued Israeli attacks and blockade, may top 330,000 deaths by the end of the year, according to estimates published in The Guardian.
Activists’ efforts to pressure the U.S. government, Israel’s principle weapons supplier, to institute an arms embargo continue to be ignored, so many have been searching for other points to wrench the Israeli war machine. As Kelly Hayes has reported, activists with Dissenters, Palestine Action U.S., and Resist and Abolish the Military Industrial Complex, or RAM INC, have blockaded and otherwise disrupted weapons manufacturers in the United States that continue to supply the Israeli military, including Raytheon, Boeing, Woodward and Elbit. RAM INC has also mapped the locations of those weapons manufacturers across the country to empower other activists to do the same
Yet other activists are focusing on the companies fueling the Israeli war machine, such as Chevron. They hope that the combined movements for Palestinian liberation and climate justice will finally bring the genocide to an end.
‘Profit over peace’
From October 2023 to July 2024, Israel imported 4.1 million tons of crude oil, according to a report published by Oil Change International, which is dedicated to driving the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. As Andy Rowell, a contributing editor at Oil Change International explains, that crude oil is refined in Israel and — along with other petroleum products — fuels Israeli military vehicles, aircraft and other equipment necessary to continue the genocide in Gaza.
“Oil companies and countries that supply oil bear the bloodstains of conflict on their hands, as they prioritize profit over peace,” Rowell said. “These countries and companies could turn off the tap and levy pressure to end the genocide against the Palestinian people.”
International oil and gas companies supply 35 percent of Israel’s crude oil. Among those companies are not only U.S. ones — such as Chevron, which supplies 8 percent of Israel’s crude oil — but others with consumer-facing businesses in the United States, including BP (also 8 percent), ExxonMobil (6 percent) and Shell (5 percent). Chevron, Shell and Exxon all hold stakes in the Caspian Pipeline, which delivers oil from Kazakhstan to Israel via Russia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. And BP holds a stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline, which delivers oil from Azerbaijan to Israel via Georgia, Turkey and the Mediterranean. The understanding of such supply chains can aid activists in disrupting them, according to Rowell.
“For example, the U.S.-registered tanker Overseas Santorini, which supplies U.S. jet fuel to Israel, faced increased protest from communities and activists en route when it docked in Israel’s Ashkelon port in early August,” Rowell said, referencing another report on Israel’s fuel supply chain published by Oil Change International and Data Desk, a research agency. “These reports help bring data and up-to-date information to those movements. We are also now working with other partners on related research projects on fuel to Israel, which will be published later this year.”
In March, Oil Change International and Data Desk identified two U.S. ships, Overseas Santorini and Overseas Sun Coast, as likely responsible for transporting jet fuel from the United States to Israel. In response, activists from around the world successfully prevented the Overseas Santorini from docking at ports along its route, including in Spain, Gibraltar and Malta, either by appealing to local governments to prohibit it or dock workers to refuse it service. While the ship eventually reached Israel, its arrival was successfully delayed, according to Progressive International.
“BDS,” Digital, Midjourney / PS Express/ Crop2Comic, 2024.
BDS has further singled out Chevron for its investment in Israel. In 2020, Chevron acquired Noble Energy, another U.S.-based international oil and gas company with holdings in fracked gas fields in the Mediterranean offshore from Israel, as well as the Arab Gas Pipeline, which delivers fracked gas from Egypt to Israel. More recently, researchers with the Gastivists Collective, who focus on the intersection of climate and oppression, reported that Israel is also exporting fracked gas to France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Greece and Belgium via Egypt. Although the report concedes that it is unknown how much gas from Egypt is Israeli in origin (rather than Egyptian or from elsewhere), Chevron has previously publicized transferring gas from offshore Israel to Egypt.
In response to Chevron’s business with Israel, BDS called on supporters to boycott the company’s gas stations and products in 2022. But that call has been taken up with new vigor since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, according to Olivia Katbi, BDS’ North American campaign coordinator.
“In March of this year, for instance, the International Alliance of App-based Transport Workers — 100,000 members-strong in 20 countries — voted to boycott Chevron-branded gas stations,” Katbi said. “In May, activists organized an ‘Anti-Chevron Month’ to highlight Chevron’s human rights abuses in Palestine, Ecuador, California and beyond. The month of mobilization included … a kayak action at Chevron’s Richmond refinery, support for the launch of a ‘polluters pay’ tax in Richmond, and a disruption of Chevron’s annual shareholders meeting at the company’s former global headquarters in San Ramon, California.”
According to Katbi, the aim of such actions is simple: To pressure Chevron to cease doing business with Israel — and to serve as a warning to other companies that might consider entering the market. To that end, BDS continues to call on supporters to join its boycott by signing the pledge, sharing it with family and friends and connecting with local groups to organize further.
“Chevron entered the Israeli market in 2020,” Katbi said. “It can just as easily exit.”
Common enemies
But the influence of oil and gas companies like Chevron isn’t limited to fueling the Israeli war machine. Genocide Gentry, a recently launched online project, illustrates how executives from oil and gas companies also occupy leadership roles at weapons manufacturers and cultural institutions, implicating them all in the ongoing genocide.
For example, Chevron board member Debra Reed-Klages is also on the board of Lockheed Martin, which manufactures fighter jets, transport helicopters and transport aircraft for the Israeli military. She was also formerly on a board of councilors at the University of Southern California, where 90 anti-genocide student activists were arrested in May. Revealing such connections helps activists from both the Palestinian liberation and climate justice movements come together, says Lauren Parker, senior researcher with LittleSis, a public interest research organization behind Genocide Gentry’s methodology.
“We wanted to show that these struggles have common enemies, not only down to the corporations that are perpetuating the disasters, but down to the actual individuals — board members who both enable and are enriched by these industries of war and fossil fuels,” Parker said. “Also, we wanted to show how this contributes in meaningful ways to a culture of silence or repression at academic and cultural institutions that these board members are also part of.”
Activists from both the Palestinian liberation and climate justice movements have already begun to seize on such connections, as is evident in the case of Citigroup, one of the largest financial institutions in Israel and one of the largest investors in fossil fuels in the world. Furthermore, Citigroup board member James S. Turley is also on the board at Northrop Grumman, which manufactures fighter jets for the Israeli military, as detailed by Genocide Gentry. Parker says that these connections inspired a series of actions against Citigroup.
“Over the summer, we saw both Palestinian liberation and climate justice movements hold dozens of demonstrations and protests outside of Citi’s New York City headquarters,” Parker said. “They had this wave of coordinated action called the Summer of Heat. Activists are demanding that Citi end its financing of fossil fuel infrastructure, as well as its financing of Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the genocide in Gaza.”
In addition to connecting the dots between the fossil fuel industry, weapons manufacturers and cultural institutions, Genocide Gentry encourages activists to conduct their own research into the individuals and institutions in their areas who are benefiting from the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. Understanding the connections between local institutions and genocide profiteers can empower activists who otherwise feel they have little leverage, explains Sandra Tamari, executive director of the Adalah Justice Project, which advocates for Palestinian liberation and is also behind Genocide Gentry.
Genocide Gentry features two case studies: the South by Southwest music festival and the Human Rights Campaign, which both effectively illustrate Tamari’s point. In June, South by Southwest announced that it would be severing partnerships with both the U.S. Army and the weapons manufacturer RTX (better known as Raytheon) after more than 80 performers withdrew from the annual festival in protest, explicitly citing the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Similarly, Human Rights Campaign quietly removed weapons manufacturer Northrop Grumman from its list of corporate partners following a protest against the gay rights advocacy organization’s “pinkwashing of the war machine” in February.
“The main hope is that people will take a look at this list and see what’s local, what is happening in their city,” said Tamari, referring to Genocide Gentry. “There’s an opportunity with these secondary targets. A weapons company is probably not going to care that we’re calling them out. Their bread and butter is manufacturing weapons of death. Museums and universities have more diverse audiences. Students, families and community members are more sympathetic to the idea that their institutions should not be part of a death machine.”
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