Pro-Palestine protestors have again assembled outside of the Boeing plant in St. Charles to rally against the company’s weapons manufacturing — this time with a much larger crowd.
About 150 people gathered outside of Boeing Building 598’s main gate this afternoon for the second attempt in two weeks to disrupt operations at the campus. There, protesters say Boeing manufactures missiles, fuel for missile engines, warheads and other weapons used against Palestinians in Gaza.
On November 6, about 75 protestors blocked all entrances to the facility for nearly three hours. The protest ended peacefully.
Boeing’s connections to the Israel-Hamas war has come under increased scrutiny as the conflict carries on. After Hamas’ attack on October 7, reports (including this one from Bloomberg) say Boeing sped the delivery of 1,800 bomb kits to Israel. The kits convert free-fall bombs into “smart” munitions that can be guided.
In St. Louis, Boeing also manufactures F-15 fighter jets, which are used by the Israeli military.
More than 13,000 civilians in Gaza have died in the last five weeks of war, according to the United Nations in Palestine. The accuracy of the death toll is becoming difficult to ascertain, as the Associated Press reports today that Gaza health officials have lost the ability to accurately count the dead as their healthcare system collapses.
Sara Bannoura is a Palestinian who has lived in the U.S. since 2013, and in previous years contributed to the RFT as both an intern and a freelance photojournalist. She describes the bloodshed in Gaza as “genocide” and “a massacre” of unprecedented magnitude — one she says the American public forgets the U.S. plays a role in supporting.
“I’m outside of Boeing today because the people in these neighborhoods, the people driving by, the people who work here, need to know what we’re manufacturing in our own backyard,” Bannoura says. “It’s being used to kill my people, to destroy buildings and lives and dreams.”
Bannoura says she is joined by a crowd made up of a collective of different groups and cultures, including Palestinians, Jewish people, Muslims and Christians.
Spokespeople for the protestors sent out a release prior to the start of the protest Tuesday afternoon.
“As organizers, people of conscience, and neighbors of the fifth-largest military company in the world, we will not sit idly by as we watch a genocide unfold,” the statement read, in part. “In the face of their inaction, we must disrupt business as usual — if they won’t block the bombs, we will.”
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