{"id":235991,"date":"2026-01-13T18:01:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/235991\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T18:01:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:01:06","slug":"campaign-against-capital-one-targets-partnership-with-elbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/235991\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaign against Capital One targets partnership with Elbit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real journalists wrote and edited this (not AI)\u2014independent, community-driven journalism survives because you back it.\u00a0Donate<\/a>\u00a0to sustain Prism\u2019s mission and the humans behind it.<\/p>\n

Organizers in cities across the country have launched Eject Elbit<\/a>, a coordinated campaign against Capital One\u2019s partnership with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems<\/a>. Founded in 1966, Elbit Systems supplies<\/a> 80% of the weapons and equipment for the Israeli military\u2019s land forces and 85% of the combat drones used by the air force, according to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, three activists locked themselves to ladders and a wheelchair outside the Capital One headquarters in McLean, Virginia, chanting and blocking the office entrances, according to social media posts<\/a> by the Eject Elbit campaign.<\/p>\n

Capital One is within a consortium of six banks<\/a> collectively extending a $545 million line of credit to Elbit that is set to expire in late March, according to a source familiar with the deal. Activists are demanding that the American bank cancel its share of the loan and commit to not renewing it.<\/p>\n

Elbit has also helped serve as the architect of the apartheid wall surrounding the West Bank. Its involvement in such architecture mirrors its role in building similar surveillance infrastructure outside of Palestine as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As previously reported by Prism<\/a>, Elbit has, through its subsidiary Elbit America, helped craft surveillance infrastructure at the U.S. southern border. In 2024, the Department of Homeland Security requested over $101 million to fund the installation of 307 new surveillance towers across the U.S.-Mexico border within the next decade. Elbit was awarded $23.9 million of those funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot of campaigns over the past years, where the goal is really to isolate Israel and Israel\u2019s institutions from American financial aid,\u201d said Gayatri Girirajan, an organizer with the Eject Elbit campaign based in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. \u201cThis is part of that, like cutting off the heads of the hydra.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capital One did not respond to Prism\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Local connections\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is not the first time that supporters of Elbit have been targeted. In October 2024, Palestine Action launched a campaign against Elbit insurers Allianz and Aviva. Organizers engaged<\/a> in protests as well as physically occupied Allianz\u2019s London offices last March. In November and September, Allianz and Aviva, respectively, terminated their coverage<\/a> of the arms manufacturer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prism recently reported that activists in North Carolina are claiming victory against Elbit subsidiary Logos Technologies, which they say apparently vacated its Raleigh offices<\/a> after sustained pressure against the surveillance technology maker and its landlord. That comes after BDS Boston forced Elbit out of its Cambridge offices in 2024 after hosting weekly protests and canvassing outside of the building. A year later, the group led a successful campaign demanding that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology end its partnership with Elbit through the university\u2019s \u201cIndustrial Liaison Program.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

BDS Boston has now brought that sustained focus to protesting outside of local Capital One Cafes. The persistent action has led to some pushback, but also opportunities for public education.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people don\u2019t want to be bothered, but some people are very curious why we\u2019re making a bunch of noise outside of a seemingly harmless cafe,\u201d said BDS Boston member David Berkinsky. \u201cWe\u2019re at a point now the community sees us out there, recognizes us, and they are starting to draw the connection that Capital One is an unethical bank that is profiting off genocide and deportation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to spanning across a host of cities, including New York, Philadelphia, and Seattle, Eject Elbit has also utilized an inside-outside strategy, as some campaigners are Capital One employees themselves. The presence of employees has helped provide campaigners with a deeper understanding of how the company presents itself both internally and to consumers. It is also a litmus test on how executive leadership has responded to pushback around its partnership with Elbit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ross Burke, a current Capital One employee and member of the Eject Elbit campaign who is using a pseudonym to avoid retaliation at work, said that when news broke about Capital One\u2019s relationship with Elbit and Elbit\u2019s support of the Israeli military, a group of employees collectively drafted and shared an open letter, reviewed by Prism, to Pulse, the company\u2019s internal communications platform and directory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Capital One associates, we cannot in good conscience allow our work to benefit Elbit systems or any other weapons manufacturer who is supplying and profiting off of the ongoing violence in Palestine,\u201d wrote the employees. \u201cWe believe our relationship with Elbit Systems represents an unacceptable compromise on Commercial\u2019s policy for Higher Risk Banking Relationships which restricts \u2018firearms or ammunition manufacturers or distributors\u201d and that continuing our relationship poses a severe reputational risk to Capital One.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter resulted in a meeting with Capital One\u2019s head of diversity, inclusion, and belonging.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe basically told us, \u2018I\u2019m here on behalf of the company to let you know that we see you and we hear you, but we will not be discussing this any further,\u2019\u201d Burke said. \u201c\u2018We see you and hear you\u2019 is a phrase we\u2019ve been getting a lot internally as they censor and shut down conversation about Palestine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burke said it became clear that while some topics, such as the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 or the killing of George Floyd in 2020, were permitted for discussion on the company\u2019s Slack channels, those openly critiquing genocide were shut down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been really disillusioned with the ability to convince anybody based on shared humanity or values or morals within the corporate world,\u201d Burke said. \u201cSo, where I\u2019ve been particularly motivated to lean in has been with the external organizing and trying to get people to effectively vote with their dollars. BDS works, and I want Capital One to be a BDS target.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in your wallet?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among the host of campaigns against Elbit in recent years, the Capital One campaign perhaps differs the most because of the nature of the target. Not only is the company one of the largest banks in the United States\u2014its 2024 acquisition<\/a> of Discover added 305 million customers to its base of over 100 million cardholders\u2014but its public image has been crafted in ways that organizers argue stand in stark contrast to its involvement in war and genocide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Organizers have highlighted the company\u2019s progressive image and marketing strategies designed to attract young consumers. Its celebrity endorsements include Samuel L. Jackson, Taylor Swift, and Jennifer Garner, and the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., has secured the bank\u2019s position in the entertainment space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The primary public call to action for the Eject Elbit campaign is for those banking with either Capital One or Discover to cancel their card. The campaign has released guidelines<\/a> for how to identify alternative banks, switch finances over to a new bank and card, and close accounts with Capital One. The campaign site also allows participants to send a letter directly to Capital One notifying them of why they are canceling their account.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For those who may not be Capital One or Discover members but are still interested in taking action, Burke said there are a host of digital actions that can help work toward the goal of toxifying Capital One\u2019s brand and bring greater awareness to its partnership with Elbit. That includes calling Capital One and flooding its phone lines or posting about its partnership with Elbit online and within the comments section of its social media posts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[Capital One] is a national mass media marketing machine,\u201d Burke said. \u201cThey had the Vikings commercials, the \u2018What\u2019s in your wallet?\u2019 stuff, and now they\u2019re investing big in cafes and lounges. I think what really matters to this company is their brand, and so making their brand toxic and associating them with genocide is a really powerful thing. They want to be everywhere, and so everywhere where they are, their reputation of genocide should follow them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real journalists wrote and edited this (not AI)\u2014independent, community-driven journalism survives because you back it.\u00a0Donate\u00a0to sustain Prism\u2019s mission…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11722,5461,1296,5576,127894,63821,97833,85,46,127895,43,48,127896,127897,9815,50181,3803,127898],"class_list":["post-235991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-banking","tag-banks","tag-bds","tag-boston","tag-boycott-divestment-sanctions","tag-capital-one","tag-elbit-systems","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israeli-weapons","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-pro-palestine","tag-pro-palestine-activism","tag-protest","tag-virginia","tag-weapons","tag-weapons-manufacturing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}