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Nearly 50 pro-Palestine demonstrators returned to the Harvard Square Capital One Bank on Saturday for the first time since August to protest the bank’s ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer.
The protest was organized by BDS Boston, a group that calls for boycott of, divestment from, and sanctions on Israel. BDS Boston has regularly protested the bank’s loans to the manufacturer, Elbit Systems, and has called on Capital One to immediately divest from the company.
The group staged weekly protests at the bank during the summer until three demonstrators were arrested by Cambridge police in August. Roughly an hour into the August demonstration, a protester began pushing outward on a metal barrier that had been used to contain the protest and ensure participants did not block the entrance to the bank, resulting in a clash between protesters and police. Officers used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
Saturday’s demonstration marked the first time that BDS Boston protesters returned to the Harvard Square Capital One since the August incident. But this time, the protest remained peaceful.
Protesters gathered on the street outside Capital One inside metal barriers set up by the Cambridge Police Department outside of Capital One, similar to that of August’s protest. Demonstrators passed out flyers, waved signs, and chanted “intifada,” “free free free Palestine,” and “Gaza is under attack” through megaphones.
In a statement after the demonstration, Liza J. Behrendt, a member of BDS Boston, wrote that the group feels that “CPD has been particularly aggressive towards us.”
Capital One did not respond to a request for comment on the bank’s investments in Israel.
CPD did not respond to requests for comment on the protest.
A small group of pro-Israel counterprotesters also gathered outside of the bank on Saturday. They played loud music from several speakers, passed out small Israeli flags, and purchased coffee from the cafe inside the bank. At one point, a counterprotester approached CPD officers and offered them coffee from the cafe, which they declined.
Counter protesters repeatedly approached the barriers and recorded the demonstrators. CPD officers encouraged the counterprotesters to return to the opposite end of the barriers.
A member of the group, Gidon Ben Rivka, denounced BDS Boston’s demonstration in a statement after the protest.
“Their celebration of terrorism is morally repugnant. If they genuinely cared about Palestinians, they would also speak honestly about Hamas’s brutal treatment of its own people,” Ben Rivka wrote.
Several people who were walking past the protests stopped to observe the scene.
Michael Kanter was walking to meet a friend, but paused to take in the protests.
“What made me stop is that it’s one of the issues of our times. It’s an issue that deals with how Palestinians get treated. It’s an issue that actually has to deal with, in its own way, the future of Jews in this country, and I do believe that what Israel is doing in Palestine is a genocide,” he said.
“And I’m Jewish, and I think Israelis don’t want to think of Palestinians, or won’t allow themselves to think of Palestinians as humans,” he added.
The protesters dispersed peacefully after nearly two hours.
—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.
—Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at [email protected].
