Cambridge, Massachusetts

Over 100 activists, including members of Workers World Party Boston, gathered on June 29 at Harvard Square to shut down Elbit Systems. Organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement and BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement) Boston, Saturday’s action expands the campaign targeting the Israeli-owned arms maker, which continues to supply the weapons and surveillance tech Zionist occupation forces are using in their ongoing genocide of Palestine.

Since these actions began, Elbit stock has fallen by over 30%. JPMorgan Chase, a major shareholder, has reduced its investment by 70%, from $54 million to $16 million. Asset management giant Scotiabank, another major investor, has halved its stake. (tinyurl.com/466jc3k3)

As speakers at Saturday’s action stressed, not only does Elbit provide almost 90% of the Zionist army’s ordnance, the company also supplies the surveillance towers used by the U.S. settler state to terrorize migrants at the Mexico border. Elbit continues to arm other U.S. client regimes, including the Philippines.

At the rally an organizer called for further direct action in the U.S. imperial core: “We are here, because we absolutely have to be, because this genocide is being carried out with our dollars, in our name, by entities, by companies that we do not have to let keep operating, that we can close down.”

As the speaker emphasized, this campaign is no humanitarian “rescue mission,” but rather praxis in support of the Palestinian resistance, which has galvanized the global struggle against imperialism and settler colonialism. He said: “We are not here to free Palestine. The Palestinian people are freeing themselves, and more than that, the Palestinian people are freeing all of us. … They are making revolution irresistible!”

Another organizer gave an update on the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where Zionist forces have killed over 40,000 Palestinians and decimated the health care infrastructure: “To manufacture an environment of death and starvation and then subsequently and deliberately deny health care to a population with the intention of ethnically cleansing this population is the textbook definition of genocide. … Stay informed, stay motivated, stay steadfast and free Palestine!”

From Harvard Square, protesters marched through Cambridge’s gentrified suburbs to the home of Peter Palandjian, the billionaire CEO of Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation—the landlord for KMC Systems, Elbit’s Cambridge subsidiary. Taking over the street in front of Palandjian’s mansion, the demonstrators condemned his complicity in the Zionist genocide and demanded he evict Elbit from Intercontinental’s property.

Organizers led the crowd in chants, including “From Gaza to the Rio Grande, No Elbit Towers on Stolen Land!” “Peter, Peter you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” and “Elbit, Elbit your hands are red! 40,000 people dead!”

Addressing the Cambridge cops who guarded Palandjian’s front gate and his irate neighbors who had come outside to gawk at the commotion, the activists promised to return and continue to shame Palandjian for taking Elbit’s blood money.

The march ended back at Harvard Square, where organizers pledged more actions to shut down Elbit in solidarity with the movements for Palestinian liberation worldwide.