To stop Israeli crimes, we must cut off its fuel. here’s how

This week, Israel took control of the Rafah border crossing – the only escape route for Gazans – and marched military tanks into the depths of the city, dressed as “Obhorrent Israeli flags”. A new cycle of massacres has begun in a city already populated by orphaned children living among mass graves.

The violence is indescribable and sends shock waves across the world. Students are building protest encampments and the UN Human Rights Council has made new calls for an arms embargo. But is it enough?

The Palestinian justice movement relentlessly pursues new strategies to target the Israeli genocidal machine and dismantle its occupation. Last month, a coalition of Palestinian organizations, workers and activists identified a new target: fuel.

Ending the Israeli war machine

Their call builds on previous demands made by Palestinian unions, the BDS campaign and human rights organizations, focusing on four key demands: stop all energy exports to Israel, stop all Israeli energy imports, divest from Israeli extractive projects and Israeli energy companies, stop all energy exports to Israel’s imperial partners. In short, a global energy embargo for a free Palestine.

There are compelling reasons why these requests may have an impact. The Houthis’ decision to impose a partial naval blockade in solidarity with the Palestinian people has hit the most important artery of the global oil and gas trade, with undeniable impact. It forced major oil and gas companies, including BP and Shell, to suspend all shipments through the Suez Canal and tightened the global market by keeping 35 million barrels of oil at sea.

The intervention carried an economic and political cost to support the genocide. This proved that well-chosen choke points in the global supply chain can have major results, even with relatively “low-tech” disruptions.

But what might a disruption of trade routes or an “energy embargo” look like from below? Colombian trade unionists are already calling on their government to refuse coal mining for Israel, and port workers are refusing to load goods destined for Israel.

In Turkey, activists are calling for the “closure” of Turkish ports transporting 60% of Israeli crude oil from Azerbaijan to Ashdod. If Brazil – another key supplier of crude oil during this genocide and Israel’s most vocal critic – imposed an oil embargo, Israel’s supplies could reach critical levels.

Likewise, climate activists can intercept energy exports to Israel and thereby kill the lifeline of the Israeli military. Israel’s war machine runs on fuel imports – particularly diesel and jet fuel – that power the Israeli army’s fighter jets and Apache helicopters that are wiping out Gaza.

Historically, jet fuel was refined and shipped by oil and gas companies, such as ExxonMobil or Valero Energy, to Israel before being injected into military equipment used in operations in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, killing dozens of thousands of people.

We know that in 2020, US defense contracts for fighter jet fuel were awarded to the Israeli military at a total cost of $3 billion for one billion liters of JP-8 jet fuel. A recent DataDesk report found that three U.S. tankers carrying JP8 jet fuel have been shipped to Israel since October 2023. The supplier is a Valero Energy refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas. As we write this, another shipment called: Overseas Sun Coast is crossing the Mediterranean to Israel.

Disrupting this jet fuel supply and its transportation route is essential to throwing sand into the cogs of the Israeli war machine. Mobilizing activists to block ports, dockworkers to refuse to handle the ship, and unions to prevent the ship from docking will help end the violent assault on Rafah.

On a structural level, Palestinian calls to disengage from Israeli energy projects attack the central role of gas extraction in Israel’s expansionist project.

Over the past decade, Israel has become a major gas producer and exporter, supplying Egypt, Jordan and now the European Union with gas extracted from stolen Palestinian waters.

These projects – heavily sought after by the United States – are being used to make Israel a strategic partner for global energy security, strengthen its geopolitical position, and generate significant export revenues for its economy – most likely intended for its budget annual military budget of $23.4 billion.

Existing gas infrastructure – operated by BDS target Chevron – is directly implicated in the violence of colonial occupation. Before the genocide, Palestinian fishermen were shot with live ammunition and detained by Israeli warships – which illegally patrol near the Gaza coast to “protect” pipelines and platforms owned by Chevron. These shootings can take place even 1.6 km from the coast of Gaza, even if infrastructure is at least 24 km away.

Raise the stakes

The divestment targets are expected to include the 12 companies that were granted gas exploration licenses off the coast of Gaza in October 2023 – licenses considered in Palestinian maritime zones under international law.

Thus, companies – including BP, Eni and Dana Petroleum – have not only channeled “unprecedented investments” into the settlement economy, but are directly participating in violations of international law that have cost Palestinians billions of dollars in revenue. linked to natural resources.

This is why divestment demands that reveal this corporate complicity are crucial and could have a major impact. Groups like UK Energy Embargo for Palestine (targeting BP) or Chevron Out of Palestine are now operating at the local level – increasing the political cost of partnering with Israel and Israeli energy companies. As these actions multiply, they will serve as public education tools that uncover the hidden, structural relationship between oil, gas and colonial occupation.

The European movement must replicate similar campaigns against Italian state-owned companies Eni, TotalEnergies and Greek Energean – the latter having hired the notorious Elbit Systems to secure its gas platforms in stolen Palestinian waters.

Even more, activists must target the European Union itself, which buys “significant” exports of Israeli gas and received deliveries during this genocide. LNG ships carrying Israeli gas regularly dock in Belgium, Wales, Marseille, Tuscany and Revanthussa – where is the public pushback?

If European activists raise the stakes by accepting Israeli gas and block these LNG ships, they can impose an energy embargo “from below” and create an economic cost to prop up the Israeli war machine. They can build on new calls for an arms embargo and demand its extension to oil products and the revenues that fuel and fuel the weapons themselves.

What seems clear is that Palestinian calls to disrupt and cut off energy and jet fuel must be taken seriously and massively as the assault on Rafah intensifies. We cannot take energy resources away from Israel’s ability to perpetrate genocide, finance it and continue it with impunity. Fuel could be our essential gateway to ending genocide and dismantling the colonial occupation of Palestine.

Charlotte Rose is a researcher and activist at Disrupt Power, a Palestinian and pro-Palestinian collective investigating and disrupting global energy supplies, fueling the Israeli genocidal war machine and occupation of Palestine. Disrupt Power is a member organization of the Global Energy Embargo on Palestine coalition, which is building a global front to impose an energy embargo from below.

Follow Disrupt Power on Instagram: disruptpower.ps

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The views expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.