An Open Letter from Capital One Associates Against Genocide

Published August 12, 2025

For nearly two years, the world has continued to bear witness to the mass slaughter and blockade of Palestinians in Gaza. While the people of Gaza live-stream their own annihilation, Capital One continues its policy of silence and remains complicit in financing the wanton destruction of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people.

As associates of conscience, we call on Capital One to divest from its commercial relationship with Elbit Systems, a deal that provided half a billion dollars of liquidity for this arms dealer (Paling, 2023) whose weapons are used to commit war crimes (International Criminal Court, 2024), along with any other undisclosed weapons manufacturers arming the Israeli regime.

Crimes

Here are just a few of the events of 2025 which should have immediately halted any involvement with the Israeli military:

• On March 23rd, Israeli forces killed and buried in a mass grave 14 emergency responders and a UN worker who were en route to assist civilians (Tondo, 2025). Israel has killed over 1,500 humanitarian workers and first responders since the genocide began (Palestine Chronicle, 2025).

• Starting in March, Israeli authorities began deliberately blocking all humanitarian aid, including food, from entering Gaza, starving the entire population of 2 million people (Shurafa et al., 2025, Amnesty, 2025). Thus far, Israel has starved to death over 200 people, including 100 children (TRT Global, 2025).

• In May, Israel implemented a militarized aid distribution system where they’ve killed over 1,000 Palestinians, described as “sites of orchestrated killing” (Doctors Without Borders, 2025).

• On August 11, Israel assassinated 6 journalists in Gaza via targeted airstrike on their tent in Al Shifa hospital complex, raising the death toll to 238 journalists killed by Israel in Gaza (Sabbah et al., 2025).

And to our resounding horror, some of the news has special significance for Capital One and introduces extreme risk to the company for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity:

• Starting the week of April 21st, the Israeli military began deploying SkyStriker “suicide drones” manufactured by Elbit Systems to strike Palestinian refugees in tents, killing at least 30 civilians, including 15 children (Kouddous et al., 2025).

• Elbit Systems reported earnings for the full year 2024, reporting $2B in revenue from their largest customer Israel, on top of $1.1B from Israel in 2023. The Israeli Ministry of Defense awarded over $5B in contracts to Elbit Systems in 2024 alone (Elbit Systems, 2025).

Throughout the commercial banking relationship with Elbit Systems, Capital One should have been aware of prior allegations of illegal activity by the arms dealer:

• Elbit Systems built the surveillance systems for the separation walls in occupied West Bank (Haaretz, 2002) declared illegal by the International Court of Justice (UN News, 2004).

• Elbit Systems sold tanks to the Philippine Army (Nepomuceno, 2022) despite accusations of crimes against humanity commited by then-President Rodrigo Duterte and the International Criminal Court investigation that led to his arrest this year (Lema, 2025).

• Elbit Systems’ drones were sold to Myanmar’s military despite an Israeli arms embargo put in place in response to the genocide of the Rohinyga ethnic minority (Beech, 2021).

Demands

We, the Capital One associates undersigned to this open letter, refuse to be complicit in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza (Amnesty International, 2024). It is our unwavering conviction that we must not profit from crimes against humanity and that doing so introduces significant liability for the company (Pietropaoli, 2024). Capital One must avoid further moral injury and legal risk by severing any commercial relationships which would enable or facilitate violations of international humanitarian law.

We welcome all employees to join our demands that Rich Fairbank and the Executive Committee disclose and divest from any and all weapons manufacturers supplying the Israeli military, beginning with the immediate termination of all financial services to Elbit Systems of America.