Dear John,

While CODEPINK has been joining Jane Fonda’s weekly actions for the climate, 11,000 scientists in 153 countries have just released a letter declaring a “climate emergency.” They warn that unless huge shifts are made in the way we live “untold human suffering” is imminent. 

As a Palestinian from Gaza, I know firsthand what it’s like to suffer from war and human-made environmental catastrophes. I have just joined the CODEPINK team to campaign for Palestinian rights, peace in Yemen, an end to the unconditional US-Saudi relationship, and divestment from war. In all these causes, the struggle for peace and the struggle for a livable climate are intimately connected. Today, I am inviting you to join me in another issue critical to uplifting human rights and protecting the climate: stopping U.S. companies from investing in Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil firm, Aramco.  Aramco, the single largest climate-polluting company in the world, has just announced it will sell shares in the company on the Saudi stock market. It will be a marriage of pollution and profiteering. The following banks have been chosen to underwrite the listing. Take action now to tell these financial giants—JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, HSBC and Credit Suisse—not to invest in Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil firm Aramco. 

Saudi Arabia wants to sell shares in Aramco to foreign investors as part of its Vision 2030 plan to rebrand the country as a modern, reforming state.  But Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) is no reformer. Human Rights Watch (HRW) just released a report this week documenting that since MbS came to power, he has been responsible for imprisoning and torturing women, dissidents, and rivals, as well as for brutally murdering Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 

By investing in Saudi’s oil firm, financial giants around the world will profit from the continued destruction of the climate at the hands of one of the world’s most brutal regimes. Please sign our letter to JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, HSBC and Credit Suisse urging them not to purchase shares in repression, murder, and environmental destruction. 

Numerous members of our team — Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin, Paki Weiland — have already been arrested with Jane Fonda during her weekly Fire Drill Friday actions to address the climate emergency. Given that I come from Gaza, a strip of land that, thanks to Israel’s 11-year-long siege and recurrent wars, has been declared unlivable by the United Nations, I am proud to be joining a team that puts their bodies on the line to end militarism and environmental destruction. If you are in the DC area, please join me, Jane Fonda, Jodie Evans, Ariel Gold, and more of the CODEPINK team at 11am on the capital lawn for this week’s Fire Drill Friday.

And don't forget to take action by telling JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, HSBC and Credit Suisse not to purchase shares in Saudi Aramco. 

Towards a more peaceful and sustainable world,