Around 50 Bay Area protesters blocked the entrance to Chevron’s headquarters in San Ramon ahead of the company’s annual meeting Wednesday morning to draw attention to the company’s involvement in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
As shareholders and company officials gathered to discuss financial results for the oil and gas giant, chants from the crowd rang out: “Chevron, Chevron, you can’t hide! Blood for oil is a crime!”
A group of pro-Palestine protesters block an entrance to Chevron offices on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, in San Ramon, Calif. Over 50 protesters gathered at the San Ramon office park to disrupt Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Wassim Haj, a member of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, said the aim of the protest was to “demand an end to Chevron’s complicity in the ongoing war in Gaza.” Haj said the protesters demanded that Chevron completely withdraw from their holdings from Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and encouraged people to boycott Chevron until a full divestment was reached.
“We see here the ties between resource extraction from here all the way to the Bay Area that has negative impacts on our country, on the Middle East, about the environment in a moment of acute climate crisis that is only getting worse and these these massive spikes in violence against people, indigenous people in the Middle East, particularly in this case, the Palestinians in Gaza,” Haj said.
The protesters argued that Chevron corporation supplies Israel with light and power for their attacks in Gaza due to their co-ownership and operation of deep-water gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Reuters reported last year that the energy corporation retains 25% ownership in the Tamar gas field and operates and produces form the Tamar, Dalit and Leviathan gas fields, located off the coast of Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. In February, The Times of Israel reported that the fossil fuel giant intended to invest $24 million to producing natural gas from the Tamar gas field.
“Chevron has a considerable profit, motive and stake in offshore drilling in Gaza. A significant majority of Israel’s energy is powered by stolen oil that Chevron is actually the main provider of,” Haj said.
The protesters chanted to the beat of performed by 10 drummers, most of whom where wearing keffiyehs draped over their shoulders or tied around their heads. Some walked in circles, holding signs that read “Chevron out of Palestine” colored in the Palestinian flag’s red, black and green colorway. A banner in front of them read, “Chevron stop fueling genocide in Gaza.”
Six protesters sat in front of the buildings’ doors, chained together in a line and to two large oil drums with signs saying “Chevron out of Palestine” plastered on it. People young and old gathered to protest, including the Thousand Grandmas, a climate justice organization. A few elderly protesters sat along the edges of the group.
“The grandmothers have tended to stand up when it’s scary for others to stand up because in some ways, we feel we have less to lose than others,” said Nancy Feinstein, a member of the Thousand Grandmas.
Shelley Seola, another member of the Thousand Grandmas, said Chevron was complicit for polluting both the air and water in the U.S., and the destruction of life of Palestinians. She pointed out the Chevron’s hand in the injustice, saying Israel cut off fuel and electricity for the people in Gaza, while Chevron was supplying 70% of Israel’s energy needs.
“I would like the genocide to end. I would like there to be peace. I would like everyone to be able to breathe clean air, have fresh water,” Seola said. “Not just here, but around the world and certainly in Palestine.”
During the protest, a shareholder attending the meeting noted that the CEO acknowledged the protesters’ presence. They wrote that Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said that the company is deeply concerned with this issue in the Middle East, but their goal is to safely deliver natural gas to Israel and Jordan, and their operations in the area have increased recently. The shareholders’ annual meeting was virtual, but some shareholders attended in-person.
One of the protesters said, “We know they have seen us. We know they have heard us,” acknowledging the CEO’s message to them. The protest ended around 9 a.m.
A spokesperson from Chevron provided a statement from the company on the protest.
“Chevron respects the rights of people to express their views peacefully and lawfully, and we expect a similar level of respect for our employees,” they wrote in an email to Bay Area News Group.
A group of pro-Palestine protesters block an entrance to Chevron offices on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, in San Ramon, Calif. Over 50 protesters gathered at the San Ramon office park to disrupt Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Matt Leonard, a member of Oil and Gas Action Network and Chevron Out of Palestine, criticized Wirth’s response to their protest.
“They are talking out of both sides of their mouth. They claim concern for the communities they operate in while using those atrocities as a way to profit,” Leonard said.
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Leonard is part of the the global Boycott Chevron campaign, which is led by the Boycott Divestment Sanctions committee. He said the group has collectively sent 10,000 emails to the CEO, and said the CEO’s response shows that they are making an impact.
““I’ve already heard from dozens of allies around the world who were really inspired and excited to see what’s happening here, trying to figure out how to carry that energy back into their communities to continue the campaign,” Leonard said.
Haj, who is Lebanese, told a Bay Area News Group reporter about witnessing an Israeli bombing campaign in 2006, which caused a large oil spill that had environmental effects. Haj said that these wars and resource extraction from powers involved in these wars militarizes their homelands and creates these environmental effects, brutalizing the people who live there.
“The shareholders are just very calmly, very normally meeting amidst one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the 21st century with the complicity in their back pocket,” Haj said.
