San Jose educational “Genocide and the Climate Crisis”

San Jose, CA – On Saturday, June 28, anti-war activists filled a classroom to learn about the U.S./Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people and the climate crisis. The presentations shed light on U.S. corporations that support Israeli genocide, including Alphabet, Caterpillar and Microsoft.

Activists are demanding the San Jose City Council pull its investments from corporations aiding Israel’s war machine or doing business there. In addition, activists are demanding Santa Clara County divest from oil company Chevron for its role in fueling the genocide in Palestine and the climate crisis.

Hamza Mahmoud said, “During the first 60 days of aggression after October 7, 281,000 metric tons of CO2 were emitted from Israel’s jets, tanks and bombs alone. This is the equivalent of 150,000 tons of coal burned.” Mahmoud is a member of Bears for Palestine, a UC Berkeley student organization, and presented on the destruction of buildings and the environment in Gaza and the West Bank.

“Chevron is the largest producer of fossil fuels for Israel and the largest multinational corporation with a significant stake in Israel’s energy sector,” said Drusie Kazanova, a member of San Jose Against War. They also highlighted how Chevron pollutes the Bay Area with their Richmond refinery.

Serena Myjer, also with San Jose Against War, made the connection between Microsoft’s pursuit of AI and its contribution to the Bay Area’s environmental destruction. Microsoft is proposing to build extremely energy and water intensive data centers at the cost of the local burrowing owls’ natural habitat.

“Cloud and AI are the bombs and bullets of the 21st century and Microsoft has a footprint in all major military infrastructure in Israel,” said Abdo Mohamed with No Azure For Apartheid. Mohamed explained how these services accelerate the targeted killings of Palestinians and cement Microsoft as a war profiteer.

San Jose Against War’s divestment campaign also targets Alphabet and Caterpillar. Alphabet works directly with the Israeli military, through Project Maven, offering cloud services and data centers to monitor the West Bank and Gaza. Caterpillar provides construction equipment for Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign in the West Bank.

Sign the petitions for these divestment campaigns at bit.ly/sjdivest and bit.ly/sccdivest.

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