Chase Bank Smashes Its Own Windows

This week, multiple locations of Chase Bank in Oakland had their operations temporarily halted in a coordinated effort to push for full divestment from Israel's genocidal occupation in Palestine. Bank employees and customers found door locks and ATMs disabled, and statements permanently fused to glass doors and windows. These actions were undertaken in order to expose and indict Chase for its financial participation in genocide through its remaining investments in military contractors, including Elbit Systems and Israel's economy.

The statements were adhered to glass doors and windows using a quick drying epoxy, resulting in a bond that cannot be removed. This caused Chase to have to remove and replace their own windows and doors. The method is similar to wheat-pasting: Glass is coated with epoxy, the message is applied, and then another layer of epoxy is added. Additionally, a thick layer of epoxy was applied over the buttons of the ATM, disabling the machine. Using this method is more discreet than breaking windows and results in the same amount of repair needs and financial damage to Chase. We value human lives over the capitalist's private property and see these damages as a justified response to Chase's complicity in genocide.

In the last 75 years, Israel has leveraged economic backing from the European and North American capitalist class to commit atrocities and the theft of 93% of Palestinian land. With 61% of the West Bank under brutal Israeli colonial control and Netanyahu laying waste to 74% Gaza, killing directly or indirectly up to 514,000 besieged, innocent people, we are witnessing Palestine enduring the Second Nakba (lit. catastrophe). As people of conscience and people of consequence, it would be obscene to remain neutral and complicit. Now is the time to act and escalate. We can no longer engage in civil entreaties with the so-called leaders of our own colonial governments or capitalists engaging in economic imperialism. Their affinity with fascism and genocide is clear.

While our actions this week are small, we seek to be at the least a stone in the shoe of the IOF soldier, and aspirationally a monkey wrench in the gears of war. We will continue to haunt the homes and businesses of those who politically back and bankroll genocide so that they know they are not beyond the people's reach. We do not sympathize with the inconvenience of Chase customers. They've been prompted to divest and move their money for months and if their inability to bank with Chase is a vulnerability to exploit, so be it.

We are on the side of resistance to colonial oppression and fascism here, in Gaza, and the global south. Any and all acts of defiance from rockets bound for Jerusalem to a child brandishing a slingshot and a rock are justifiable self-defense.

It is clear that these actions targeting banks which are engaging in economic terrorism are working, as Chase recently divested 70% of its investment in Israeli owned Elbit Systems under the influence of public scrutiny. But we know that they continue to invest $1.44 billion, 5% of their overall portfolio in arms contractors that are sending weapons of mass destruction to ethnically cleanse Gaza. These contemptible ventures must be exposed and sabotaged in the name of human rights and the dignity and self-determination of the indigenous population of Palestine who deserve to stay on THEIR land: from the river to the sea.

We act in unequivocal solidarity with Palestine, which is under threat of total annihilation through military force, elimination of infrastructure, and engineered famine. We recognize that it's up to us as Americans to take on the institutions that are enabling the subversion of Palestine's sovereignty and very existence.

With congressional witch hunts and fascist pro-Zionist legislation marching forward, the period for open demonstrations seeking to sway public opinion has expired. The subjugation of Gaza and the West Bank is self-evident and anyone who remains undecided in the face of this modern Holocaust is complicit beyond redemption. Now is the time to focus on direct action to foment political and economic crises that force the hand of those in power to cease perpetuating massacre after massacre.

While a single stone in a slingshot or a shoe does not halt an army, enough of us acting as stones by being willing to risk our safety in taking a more direct approach can become a landslide. This is your invitation to get creative and start acting in ways that those in power will not anticipate. You can draw inspiration from indigenous-led action that seeks to sabotage and subvert operations like pipelines and clearcutting. We have so many tools at our disposal. We need but sharpen them and build affinity with those who hold similar convictions but have been ensnared in the trap of marching around in peaceful protest.

We honor the countless martyrs by fighting for the living and future of a free Palestine. Huriya Falastine.