NEW YORK (Dispatches) – 
Protesters have been gathering outside the Citigroup Headquarters in New York City to demand the company cut ties with the Zionist regime, as well as fossil fuel and weapons manufacturing industries.
Activists say the protests are a sure sign that the movements for Palestinian liberation and climate justice are fast intersecting as the Zionist regime continues its war on Gaza with the full support of the U.S. political and business elite.
Titled “Summer of Heat on Wall Street”, the 12-week-long campaign against Citigroup, including its subsidiary, Citibank, that began on 10 June, calls on the institution to stop funding fossil fuels, exponentially increase financing for renewable energy, respect human rights and indigenous sovereignty, and issue climate reparations.
“We understand that there is no climate justice without a free Palestine,” Liv, an organizer with the Summer of Heat on Wall Street campaign, told Middle East Eye.
“Palestinians will be the first people to experience the harshest impacts of climate change,” Liv, who provided only their first name, added.
The campaign has been endorsed by over 100 organizations, including ANSWER Coalition, Extinction Rebellion United States and the Sunrise Movement.
Earlier in June, the local chapter of the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation (PAL-Awda-NY/NJ) launched its own campaign against Citibank over the institution’s self-proclaimed “leadership and commitment to Israel”.
The group is calling on Citibank customers to close their accounts and cancel their credit cards.
According to its website, Citibank “boasts the largest presence of any foreign financial institution in Israel and offers corporate and investment banking services to leading Israeli corporations and institutions and global corporations operating in Israel”.
In 2013, Citi established its “Innovation Lab” in Tel Aviv, which works closely with Citi’s accelerator program and cybersecurity lab and supports Israeli start-ups specializing in financial tech.
According to PAL-Awda, in 2021, Citibank loaned Israel $2.5bn to buy 25 F-35 fighter jets.
A 2023 congressional report on U.S. foreign aid to Israel corroborates this claim, citing the Zionist regime’s war ministry’s use of Foreign Military Financing (FMF) from the U.S. to secure a loan from “a small consortium led by Citibank” to purchase F-35 fighter jets from U.S. contractor Lockheed Martin.
“Those jet fighters are now waning death and destruction on Gaza, on hospitals, on schools, on churches, on homes, on people living in tents,” Bill Dores, an organizer with PAL-Awda-NY/NJ, told MEE.
Climate activists say that Citbank is not just funding the current destruction in Gaza and ongoing occupation of Palestine, it is also the largest financier of fossil fuel expansion worldwide.