West Coast Demonstrators Demand Boycott of Chevron Gas Stations

In a coordinated action to call for consumers to boycott all Chevron gas stations until the company cuts ties with Israel, demonstrators held banners and signs and waved the Palestinian flag at certain highways on Aug. 29 across Los Angeles and the West Coast. 

Each location where protestors gathered was organized by a different organization. The Broadway Bridge over the I-5 Freeway in Lincoln Heights, for instance, was hosted by Chevron Out Of Palestine – a Southern California community organization rising up with the Palestinian Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) Movement. The Whittier Boulevard I-5 Overpass, meanwhile, was hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America – LA (DSA-LA). 

Other locations in LA, like Burbank and Sun Valley, were organized by different organizations, but multiple demonstrations occurred throughout the West Coast, including at Sacramento, San Diego, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, Washington. 

The regional action was called for by West Coast Boycott Chevron, an autonomous coalition that acts in solidarity with the the Palestinian Boycott, Divest and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) and the United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), which has spearheaded the national campaign against Chevron.

The Chevron Corporation co-owns and operates two Israeli-occupied fossil gas fields in the Mediterranean and is currently the largest multinational player in Israel’s fossil gas industry. Just in 2023, gas sale revenues from the two fields totaled $1.5 billion. That same year, Chevron paid $820 million in taxes and royalties to Israel for its extraction activities. 

Additionally, the corporation supplies 70% of Israel’s energy consumption needs for electricity generation. 

A recent report from the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Franchesca Albanese, specifically mentioned Chevron by name and concluded that it may be criminally liable for several crimes including genocide and apartheid under international law.

While Chevron has thousands of locations across the globe, corporately-owned, Chevron-branded gas stations are only located in California, Oregon and Washington, and a boycott in the West Coast would directly affect the company. 

The corporation has faced increased pressure from the movement, both in the country and internationally. Chevron was dropped as a sponsor from the Denver marathon, while the Swiss National Bank recently sold its last share in the company. 

In a statement from the coalition: “Chevron reported its greatest quarterly loss in years for the first quarter of 2025. Chevron entered the Israeli market in 2020, and it can exit at any time.”