Activists risk arrest to break up with dirty banks in Cambridge & Jamaica Plain

Climate activists disrupt business-as-usual at Bank of America on Massachusetts Ave.near Harvard Square in Cambridge and Chase Bank on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, where they painted evidence of these banks' crimes on their windows while demanding that consumers break up with these toxic banks. Extinction Rebellion Boston demands that Bank of America, Chase, and other banks divest from ICE, private prison companies, fossil fuel companies and infrastructure, and the Israeli war machine.

CAMBRIDGE & JAMAICA PLAIN, MA — On Saturday February 14, climate activists from Extinction Rebellion Boston (XR) disrupted business as usual at the Bank of America in Harvard Square in Cambridge. Meanwhile, other protestors gathered in Jamaica Plain beside Citizens Bank, across the street from Chase Bank and Bank of America. Both groups of XR Boston activists were protesting the banks’ funding of ICE/private prison companies, fossil fuels, ecocide, and the genocide in Palestine. XR activists risked arrest by writing in washable paint on the windows of the buildings, calling out the banks' complicity in human rights abuses and the climate crisis and demanding that consumers break up with these toxic banks this Valentine's Day.

At the start of the demonstration, members of Extinction Rebellion Boston (XR Boston) gathered in front of bank buildings and sang along to breakup anthems while passing out flyers to passerby to educate them on the harm these banks cause. Several activists then gave speeches and read "breakup letters." In Harvard Square, activists painted words and slogans from the breakup letters on the windows of the banks in washable, non-permanent paint. This was done in a nonviolent and peaceful protest against Chase Bank and Bank of America's funding of fossil fuels, private prison companies like Geo Group and CoreCivic, and genocide.

In 2024, Chase Bank and Bank of America clocked in as the #1 and #3 largest fossil fuel funders in the world.(1) Both banks have reneged on their promises to cease funding coal mines, and Bank of America has abandoned its exclusion on Arctic drilling.(2) Bank of America and Chase have collectively underwritten more than $4.2 billion in war bonds to Israel since the start of the genocide in Gaza.(3)

The Greater Boston area has seen numerous protests against the genocide and ecocide in Palestine since October 2023. Student protestors took a stand in encampments on the campuses of Emerson College, Northeastern University, Boston University, and Tufts University, among many others. Earlier this year, protesters demonstrated outside a Capitol One cafe in Cambridge, with signs condemning Israel and calling for a free Palestine. Banks have, globally, underwritten more than $19 billion in Israeli war bonds,(4) which have funded the genocide that has, to date, killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, a third of whom were children.(5) Israeli forces have destroyed 87.7% of schools in Gaza,(6) and they have damaged or destroyed at least 94% of hospitals in Gaza. (7)

When asked why she was protesting at the bank, Miranda Dotson, a sociologist and activist with XR, said “I cut up my Discover card the day I learned that its parent company, Capital One, is a major lender to Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems. Children like Hind Rajab are martyred because banks like Capital One fill the coffers of genocidal war machines. I’m with XR Boston to ask people to break up with their banks this Valentine’s Day because moving our money from top US banks that write loans for pipelines, bullets, and prisons is the most direct way that we can live up to our values and throw a wrench in the systems that are killing us. I’d like to see everyone who considers themselves worthy of any positive adjective in the dictionary to take their money out of top US banks. Now."

Bank of America and Chase aren’t just funding a genocide; they’re also funding the climate crisis. Despite pledges in 2022 to stop financing coal mines, coal-burning power plants and Arctic drilling projects, Bank of America and Chase have both gone back on these promises. Both banks remain the #1 and #2 coal industry funders, with Bank of America contributing $6.8 billion and Chase contributing $5.1 billion.(8) In 2022, burning coal contributed 19% of total energy-related C02 emissions in the US.9 And coal is far from the only fossil fuel funded by Bank of America. Last year, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey said, “This year’s report is clear - banks are gambling our future on risky investments that fuel the climate crisis. In 2023 alone, banks invested more than $700 billion in fossil fuels despite having net-zero commitments. Let’s keep these big banks accountable, not just counting on fossil fuels. Instead, we should invest in our future.” However, US banks have only continued to double down on their fossil fuel investments.

"As a parent to two young kids, there is no better way for me to demonstrate what it means to love our world than to stand up to the banks financing ecological destruction in the name of profit. I wouldn't want my kids in relationships where their partner's behavior is toxic to life in all forms, and yet we give our money to institutions that fund fossil fuel extraction, ICE, war, and genocide. We can't keep enabling this behavior, we need to break up with these toxic banks!" said Anna Pancoast, an artist and rebel with XR Boston.

When Josh B, also with XR Boston, was asked why they demonstrated at Bank of America, Citizens and Chase, they said, "When a relationship, whether between two people or between you and your bank, becomes toxic, it's time to break up! I want people to see that moving away from toxic banks is one of the most impactful things an individual can do to stop the chaos of climate change. We can create healthy relationships only when we have the best interests of our partners at heart, and these toxic banks are bad partners!"

The country has also seen protests, most notably in Minneapolis, against ICE and their unlawful kidnapping and murder of immigrants and US citizens alike. Private prison companies CoreCivic and Geo Group operate most of the immigrant detention facilities in the US and are integral to ICE's work. Chase Bank enables and profits from these private prison companies. Since Donald Trump took office, Chase has increased its stockholding in these companies by over 15,000% and has provided at least $167.5 million in debt financing to these companies, which rely on borrowed money to operate.10 Other banks, such as Citizens Bank, fund these actions even more directly.(11) Money is power, and banks have been wielding that power with impunity, with no care for the planet or people's lives and rights, for far too long.

Olivia B is an XR rebel who holds a masters degree in Human Rights. She said "it's unconscionable that ICE is allowed to kidnap and murder our neighbors and occupy our cities. Immigrant or citizen, it doesn't matter. We're all humans deserving of basic human rights, and it's our job as good neighbors to stand up for each other. There is no reason for CoreCivic and Geo Group to even exist. I'm supporting XR today to demand that banks break up with ICE."

Extinction Rebellion Boston demands that Bank of America, Chase Bank and Citizens Bank divest from fossil fuel companies and infrastructure, private prison companies, and the Israeli war machine. Two years of student encampments and ardent protests, in Boston and across the country, have shown that Americans want a livable future with clean air and water, and they want that for Palestinians and immigrants too. Bank of America and Chase’s so-called support for the Paris Agreement, with a goal to “achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in our financing activities, operations and supply chain before 2050,” simply hasn’t been enough. Both have withdrawn from a bank consortium that supposedly was addressing the looming climate catastrophe.

2025 and the start of 2026 have been stark years for climate news, and for news out of Palestine and Minneapolis. On October 10th, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza, but there have already been signs of the ceasefire crumbling, and even in the absence of violence Israel refuses to let in aid.(12) And it comes after two years of utter devastation in Gaza. In November, the UN held COP30 - the climate change conference, which came on the heels of President Trump once again removing the US from the Paris Agreement and refusing to participate in COP, hamstringing the process before it even began. Minneapolis has been under siege for a month, with no end in sight. We are fighting to make the rest of 2026 a better year for the climate and the world.

Banks exist to serve the people - they are funded by our hard-earned money, and that money shouldn’t be used for anything we don’t approve of. Extinction Rebellion’s protests outside Chase Bank and Bank of America sent a clear message - the people don’t want to fund fossil fuels, ICE, or genocide.

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1. https://www.bankingonclimatechaos.org/?bank=JPMorgan%20Chase#fulldata-panel
2. https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2024/05/top-6-us-banks-financed-fossil-fuels-18-trillion-paris-agreement-chase-citi
3. https://www.banktrack.org/news/seven_underwriters_of_war_bonds_instrumental_in_enabling_israel_s_assault_on_gaza_new_research_finds
4. https://www.banktrack.org/news/seven_underwriters_of_war_bonds_instrumental_in_enabling_israel_s_assault_on_gaza_new_research_finds
5. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-many-palestinians-has-israels-gaza-offensive-killed-2025-10-07/
6. https://www.savethechildren.net/blog/education-under-attack-gaza-nearly-90-school-buildings-damaged-or-destroyed
7. https://www.who.int/news/item/22-05-2025-health-system-at-breaking-point-as-hostilities-further-intensify--who-warns
8. https://www.banktrack.org/article/three_years_after_glasgow_banks_global_coal_financing_on_the_rise_again
9. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/coal/coal-and-the-environment.php
10. https://inthesetimes.com/features/ice-abolish-immigration-child-detention-private-prison-profiting.html
11. https://www.boycottcitizens.org/
12. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/10/23/live-un-urges-israel-to-allow-medical-evacuation-from-gaza-amid-ceasefire