Denver continues protests against Palantir for complicity with apartheid Isreal

Denver, CO – On July 26, Coloradans gathered outside Denver’s Union Station in a rally against software development company Palantir, which is complicit with apartheid Israel.

Palantir develops artificial intelligence used both by ICE to facilitate mass arrests and deportations and by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), with programs like “Lavender” and “Where’s Daddy” used to target and slaughter innocent Palestinian civilians and families by identifying targets, tracking them back to their homes, and deploying bombs.

The protesters took aim at the Tabor Center, a skyscraper located in downtown Denver which leases out the 15th floor to Palantir to use as its headquarters. The event began with attendees painting signs with demands, which would later be taped to the sides of the building, with slogans such as “Palantir out of the Tabor Center.”

Protesters rallied around banners and handmade signs demanding an end to the forced starvation of civilians in Gaza, decrying Palantir’s role in facilitating war crimes, and denouncing the complicity of the Tabor Center in giving this genocidal company a place to call home.

During the event, speakers from local and national organizations spoke out about the evils of Palantir.

Feven Nebiyu with Students for a Democratic Society stated, “Where other companies provide advanced weapons for the IDF to attack innocent men, women, and children in Gaza, Palantir takes it a step further and removes the need for a human assailant at all, promising Israel the luxury of committing a handsfree genocide.”

After speeches, people hit the streets, marching from Union Station up the 16th Street Mall to Palantir’s headquarters. Once there, people took to the sidewalks with brightly colored chalk; arrows pointed to the building with slogans like “Palantir is watching you,” “Let Gaza eat!” and “ICE runs on Palantir and Palantir runs on genocide.”

Speeches from Terry Burnsed, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and Democratic Socialists of America, as well as Eliot Howe, a member of Denver Anti-War Action, garnered huge support from the crowd as the emcee led enthusiastic supporters in chants like “Hey hey! Ho ho! These murderous tech bros got to go!” and “Palantir out of Denver!”

Howe stated, “The genocidal, military-outpost ethnic state needs money and weapons, after all! And the U.S. is a genocide profiteer through and through,” but ended on a note of hope, “We won’t let our city be the shelter for war profiteers like Lockheed and Palantir. We say Palantir, get out of here! Denver doesn’t want you here!” and, later, “Alone we can do very little, but together we can change the world!”

Moving to the other side of the building, demonstrators taped signs to the windows and added more chalk slogans to the sidewalks as they heard from Kacey Hicks, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, who stated, “We have to organize the wrath and the might of the people to make sure that the billionaires in the ruling class cannot keep killing Palestinians with our tax dollars.”

Returning to the 16th Street entrance, people were unsurprised to see the immediate removal of their chalk art, scrubbed away by security and building maintenance, but they didn’t let that stop them from adding more in its place.

Garnering people and support along the way, protesters again took to the streets in the return to Union Station, boldly chanting, “We’ll be back, we’ll be stronger, you can’t hide it any longer!” referring to the crimes committed by Palantir. The people of Denver show no sign of slowing down in their fight to get Palantir out of their city and aim to continue escalation and make business as usual at the Tabor Center untenable until their demands are met.

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