Dear Chicago Public Library Foundation Board Members and Leadership,

We are Cultural Workers for Palestine Chicago, a collective of over 75 members who represent many of the vast cultural institutions in Chicago, including the Chicago Public Library. We are committed to using our power to end the genocide in Gaza, combat censorship against Palestinian voices, and to support the movement for a free Palestine. We are writing to ask that you join us in this mission by refusing donations from the Crown family, the Boeing Company, BMO Harris Bank, and any of your other donors who profit from war. As library workers and patrons, we are opposed to our vital programming being funded by people and corporations who are profiting from genocide.

You have received at least $40,000 from the Crown family. The Crown family has made their money from General Dynamics, the fifth largest military contractor in the world, third largest for the United States, and a major weapons and warplane supplier for Israel. In an earnings call on October 25, 2023, Chief Financial Officer Jason Aiken bragged about the profit potential off of the genocide in Gaza. 

You have received $10,000 from The Boeing Company. The Boeing Company supplies the planes that drop bombs on Palestinian children, and have a “reciprocal procurement partnership” with Israel through which Boeing expects to sell $10 billion in military products in the next decade. 

You have received $250,000 from BMO Harris Bank. BMO Harris Bank has loaned $90 million to Elbit Systems Limited, a weapons and tech surveillance manufacturer headquartered in Israel and the primary provider of the Israeli military’s land-based equipment and unmanned aerial vehicles. Other global banks have refused to loan or invest in Elbit because of its many human rights violations, including the manufacture of cluster munitions and drones that target civilians, including children.

The Chicago Public Library Foundation must use its powerful position to take a stance on the genocide in Gaza and refuse funding from these corporations, people, and any others who profit off war. Accepting these donations makes the library and foundation complicit in charity washing. 

We are allowing these companies to use donations to cultural institutions to cover up their role in genocide. The programs that we provide for children here should not be at the expense of children’s lives elsewhere.

We hope that you will join us in agreement that not all money is good money and create a screening and funder approval mechanism to ensure that our program funding aligns with your mission to truly “transform lives and communities.” We are interested in meeting with CPLF leadership to discuss this matter further and hope to soon become partners in ensuring that our treasured public spaces aren’t used to clean the image of those profiting off of death, destruction, and war.

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