Hewlett Packard Protest: The People's Shareholders Meeting

Today, on the grassy lawn in front of Hewlett Packard headquarters, demonstrators held a "virtual" meeting dubbed "The People's Shareholders Meeting". Board members in silk-screened HP insignia ties joined a Meg Whitman character in blonde wig. CEO Whitman fielded questions about the company's complicity in Israel's oppression of Palestine from a group on lawn chairs portraying shareholders. Testifiers, including two Israeli citizens, spoke to the shareholders from a mock podium.

Following Hewlett-Packard’s February 4 announcement that it would replace its in-person annual shareholder meeting with an online meeting, a coalition of organizations for Palestinian rights decided to take their protest directly to HP in Palo Alto, California. Last year shareholders who objected to Hewlett Packard's aid to Israel spoke at the annual meeting held at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

HP facilitates both the illegal Israeli occupation and apartheid in Palestine/Israel. Its technology and equipment aid oppression through the development of its biometric system used for population and territorial control. HP's Basel system is installed at the Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank... checkpoints that deprive Palestinians of freedom of movement in violation of international law.

Some of the members of the coalition for this action, which was counter-protested by a small group of zionists, include:
American Friends Service Committee; Ecumenical Peace Institute; Friends of Deir Ibza; Friends of Sabeel, NorCal; International Solidarity Movement; Peninsula Peace & Justice Center, Jewish Voice for Peace –Bay Area, Santa Cruz, and South Bay Chapters; Queers United Against Israeli Terrorism; Rossmoor Voices for Justice in Palestine, San Jose Peace & Justice Center, and American Muslims for Palestine.

The Raging Bubbes for Divestment (the Raging Grannies) led the group in protest songs before the mock shareholders meeting.