Pro-Palestinian Protesters Block Chevron Headquarters in San Ramon

About 50 pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the entrance to Chevron’s corporate offices in San Ramon during its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday morning, accusing the company of profiting from Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

Several people chained themselves to oil drums plastered with signs reading “Chevron Out Of Palestine,” blocking the building’s entrance. However, most shareholders attended the meeting virtually, and the protest did not impede it. Other signs read “Boycott Chevron” and “Stop Fueling Genocide.”

Chevron has significant economic ties to Israel – one of its natural gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea provides about 70% of the country’s energy, according to the company. Over the last decade, Israel has made billions of dollars from the export of surplus natural gas produced by Chevron, according to Chevron’s website.

“What we’re trying to do is leverage people power to put significant pressure on this corporation, to gum up the works of their profit-making machine,” said Wassim Hage of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, one of the groups that organized Wednesday’s action. “So they’re not able to profit off of this genocide. So that we can put a stop to that profit motive.”

The protest came days after an Israeli strike that killed at least 45 people in a tent camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which was densely populated by displaced Palestinians who had fled to what Israel designated a civilian safe zone. Horrific images and videos were shared online, including that of a child decapitated in the blast. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike a “tragic mishap.”

“People are waking up to what’s going on. It’s just truly indefensible,” Hage said. “The mass slaughter of children, of families. Watching kids being pulled out of the rubble, bodies completely charred by fire and entire families reduced to ash and bones by Israeli bombs.”

In response to Wednesday’s action, Chevron said in a statement that it “respects the rights of people to express their views peacefully and lawfully.” Chevron declined to comment on its ties to Israel.

Paul Paz y Miño of Amazon Watch, who attended Chevron’s shareholder meeting, said Chevron CEO Mike Wirth addressed a question from an attendee about employees working near Israel. Wirth said Chevron’s employees in the area were all safe and “our operation is to safely deliver natural gas to Israel and Jordan, and our operations have increased since we took over,” according to Paz y Miño.