App-based Drivers Boycott Chevron for Complicity in Israel’s Genocidal Crimes

The International Alliance of App-Based Transport Workers (IAATW) announced a boycott of all gas stations linked to US fossil fuel giant Chevron for its complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. 

The IAATW represents over 100,000 drivers and couriers across six continents in countries including Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Mexico, Chile, Panama, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Argentina, the US, the UK, Canada, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Australia and France. 

“Inspired by the 1987 oil embargo against Shell for its role in South African apartheid, we, the app-based passenger transport sector for companies such as Uber, Deliveroo, JustEat, Free Now, Glovo, Lyft, Grab, DoorDash, Grubhub, Amazon, Ola, Gojek, Didi, Bolt, Careems, reiterate Palestinians’ calls for action and pledge to boycott the thousands of Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex [Chevron subsidiaries] gas and petrol stations worldwide,” the IAATW said in a statement. 

The Alliance stated that the decision, approved unanimously at its bi-annual conference in Colombo on February 25, was in line with its commitment to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and the “unprecedented call from more than 30 Palestinian trade unions.” 

On October 16 2023, weeks into Israel’s genocidal bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, Palestinian unions had raised a call for their “counterparts internationally and all people of conscience to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes—most urgently halting the arms trade with Israel, as well as funding and military research.” 

They called upon trade unions to take action including to refuse to build and transport weapons destined for Israel, to take action against companies complicit in the Zionist Occupation’s illegal siege of Gaza, and to pass motions within their unions to this effect, Trade unions and workers in different parts of the world, including Africa, Asia, and Europe have since heeded these calls and expressed solidarity with their Palestinian counterparts. 

According to the BDS Movement, “Chevron has been the main international actor extracting fossil gas claimed by Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean” since it acquired Noble Energy in 2020, “helping to fund the ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza,” the IAATW noted.

Natural gas extracted and supplied by Chevron from the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields has generated billions of shekels in revenue for Israel, boosting the occupation’s “energy security”. 

While colonizing and pillaging Palestine’s resources, including land and water, Israel has also sabotaged the ability of Palestinians to develop the oil and gas fields by enforcing its brutal and illegal land, air, and naval siege on Gaza for the past 17 years.

The ongoing assault on Gaza has in fact given Israel a further opportunity to perpetuate its looting of Palestinian resources, with Israel granting national and foreign companies gas exploration licenses for areas internationally-recognized to be within Palestinian maritime boundaries. 

“Chevron is directly involved in Israel’s policy and practice of depriving the Palestinian people of their right to sovereignty over their natural resources,” the IAATW emphasized. This complicity extends to Israel’s illegal transfer of extracted gas through a Palestinian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Chevron’s involvement goes beyond benefiting from Palestinian resources, to an active involvement in quite literally fueling the Israeli war machine. Research from Data Desk, commissioned by Oil Change International, has found that companies including Chevron, BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total Energies, and Eni have facilitated the supply of crude oil to Israel, which is used by its refineries to provide diesel and gasoline to the occupation’s military. 

Chevron has also been the target of protests by Palestinian solidarity and climate action groups in the US, condemning its role in enabling the genocide in Gaza. 

“IAATW stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian labor movement and their struggle for national liberation”, the Alliance stated. “We reiterate calls for an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israeli apartheid and military occupation and call on other labor unions to do the same.” 

The IAATW has also pledged to investigate and take action against app companies that have utilized Israeli technology that is complicit in the genocide against the Palestinian people, and to organize an international day of action to raise awareness and combat propaganda about the Palestinian struggle.