Haitians and Palestinians have both suffered immensely and continue to suffer, as a result of violent occupations facilitated by Citibank.
Citibank has never publicly acknowledged its role in the occupation of Haiti or the extraction of wealth from Haitians — and as the largest and oldest U.S. bank in Israel, Citibank plays a key role in bolstering an occupation that a majority of human rights groups deem to be apartheid.
The horrific catastrophe in Haiti today could not be more urgent, or more dire. There is effectively no Haitian government, with no parliament, Prime Minister, or Mayors. (The last elections of any kind were held in 2016.) Daily life in Haiti is defined by multiple intersecting disasters: nearly half of the Haitian population facing hunger daily; violent gang control of much of the country, including most of the capital city; complete economic collapse; a fragile medical system in freefall. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called daily life in much of Haiti “a living hell.”
This is no accident. Haiti has endured 200 years of constant sabotage, theft, and violent occupation, in which Citibank has played a key role.
Meanwhile, in Israel, a new ultra-far-right government, somehow more unashamedly racist against Palestinians than past administrations, has brought Israel’s long-simmering domestic and global political crisis to a boiling point. Tel Aviv’s streets have been taken over by hundreds of thousands of protesters for nearly half a year, spurred by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s legal battles and his attempt to end judicial oversight of politicians. Facing constant scandals, like a senior cabinet member’s call for a Palestinian village to be “wiped out,” Israel’s apartheid government has been rocked by signs of instability: a downgrade in the country’s credit rating explicitly citing “deterioration in Israel’s governance”; freefall in domestic and international investment amidst urgent warnings from economists; US politicians proposing conditions on military aid. As other important actors move to censure or even divest from Israel, Citibank lends legitimacy to an anti-Palestinian government in which it is already heavily invested.
Citibank was once forced by public outcry to leave another apartheid state, South Africa — there’s no reason that can’t happen again.
