The United States oil corporation Chevron is fuelling genocide, ecocide and apartheid, attendees of a national webinar were told on September 25.
The event was hosted by Australian Palestine Action Network (APAN) before its month of action for Gaza to observe the one-year anniversary of October 7.
The panel was chaired by APAN’s Nassar Mashni and featured founding Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) member Omar Barghouti, as well as Elyse Cunningham from Friends of the Earth and Rand Khatib from BDS Youth.
The BDS movement first called for divestment from Chevron in 2022. This year, they launched a global campaign calling for activists to escalate pressure on the multinational by boycotting gas stations it owns around the world.
In Australia, the boycott targets are Caltex and Puma branded service stations.
Barghouti discussed how BDS is partnering with climate justice groups and human rights activists to raise awareness of the oil giant’s support for genocide and apartheid in Palestine, as well as its huge role in environmental devastation globally.
Chevron rakes in billions of dollars a year from exploiting Israeli-claimed fossil gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. These operations generate hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue every year for Israel.
The Zionist state uses this money to fund its apartheid regime and military occupation as well as the ongoing genocide of 2.3 million people in Gaza.
Cunningham highlighted the intersectionality of climate, genocide, ecocide in the campaign to boycott Chevron and Caltex.
She quoted from Dr Nan’s Greer’s 2021 report Chevron’s Global Destruction which shows that it is among the most destructive oil companies on the planet, responsible for “destroying land and ocean ecosystems, poisoning rivers and streams…ravaging communities, and financing paramilitary violence”.
Chevron has been involved in litigation around the world for its involvement in violence against indigenous communities, bribery, corruption, and severe human rights abuses including torture, slavery, rape, and murder.
The BDS movement was inspired by an international campaign launched against Shell Oil for its complicity in South Africa’s apartheid regime. In the late 1980’s, supporters in Britain took part in pickets of gas stations and led divestment campaigns against the company.
Khatib cited the importance of targeting Chevron’s companies in a language they understand by hitting them economically.
The #BoycottChevron campaign is calling on people to join a National Day of Action on October 5 by protesting outside Caltex and Puma service stations.