Roughly two dozen pro-Palestinian protesters on Monday
blocked the entrance to Valero Energy Corp.’s headquarters off the Loop 1604
access road on the Northwest Side, snarling traffic for nearly two hours as
they chanted against the oil refining company selling fuel used by the Israeli
military.
“Not another nickel, not another dime,” the group yelled, as
some sat cross-legged by the headquarters’ entry road, “no more money for
Israel’s crimes.”
The protest, which included a 25-person blockade, was done
in coordination with other major cities across the U.S. to coincide with Tax
Day and what activists call the U.S. government’s “complicity in funding and
arming genocide.” The local group was part of the “A15 Action” — for April 15 —
to coordinate choke points and create economic blockages in support of
Palestinians in cities such as San Antonio, Chicago and San Francisco.
In 2006, Valero secured a contract worth about $94 million
through a foreign military sales program that brought its fuel to Israel. In
2013, federal officials announced that Valero won a $330.9 million defence
contract that would result in jet fuel being provided to the Israeli military.
In 2017, a similar deal was made worth over $157 million.
Late last year, Valero was awarded a contract worth more
than $900 million for fuel with the Defense Logistics Agency, which has
provided fuel to Israel in the past, as well as to the U.S. Department of
Defense.
Anti-war protesters, especially at city functions, have
sprouted up in San Antonio since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that
killed nearly 1,200 people. Israeli warplanes and ground troops have conducted
a scorched-earth campaign on the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli offensive has killed more than 33,700
Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The ministry does not
differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but it says women
and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
As protesters gathered at San Antonio’s Valero offices,
others set up human-chain blockages outside Chicago O’Hare International
Airport that halted traffic and created a headache for travellers.
Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area, meanwhile, was held
up for four hours Monday morning as demonstrators shut down traffic on the
Golden Gate Bridge and stalled a 17-mile stretch of Interstate 880 in Oakland.
Several protesters were arrested at the Golden Gate Bridge
demonstration, according to the California Highway Patrol. Chicago police said
that “multiple people” were taken into custody after a protest where people
obstructed traffic, but law enforcement officials there did not have a detailed
count.
https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/valero-headquarters