Climbers Hang “Stop the Genocide” Banner from El Capitan

Yosemite National Park was the site of a protest against Israeli intervention in Gaza this week. A team of four climbers hung a banner emblazoned with the words “STOP THE GENOCIDE” and the colors of the Palestinian flag on the iconic rock face of El Capitan.

The quartet positioned their 25-foot wide, 10-foot tall banner roughly halfway up the 3,000-foot Nose (VI 5.9 C2), between the ledge on El Cap Tower and Texas Flake. They unfurled it at 7:00 p.m. on Monday and kept it up throughout the night, rolling up the banner and rappelling down shortly before noon on Tuesday.

The four climbers—Miranda Oakley, Alix Morris, Alexa Flower, and Henry Whittaker—are part of a grassroots collective, “Climbers with Palestine,” which was formed in December of last year, two months after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel and the latter’s subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 37,000 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis have been killed since the conflict began last year, and over twice that number have been injured. The U.N. also estimates that more than 1.7 million Gazans have been displaced as a result of the fighting.

Climbers with Palestine initially organized to raise funds for nonprofits working to provide humanitarian relief in Gaza, such as Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund. But with no immediate end to the conflict in sight, they began brainstorming for other ways to draw attention to the conflict—including the idea of flying a banner off El Cap—and have spent the last month and a half laying the groundwork for their protest.

The climbers considered other slogans for the banner, including “Free Palestine” and “Let Gaza Live,” but ultimately chose “Stop the Genocide” due to its clear, distinct messaging. “We chose this wording because it’s unmistakable what we’re trying to say,” Morris told Climbing from the wall. “It’s powerful. It’s simple. It’s poignant. We need to stop killing people, today.”

Oakley, who is half Palestinian, is a professional climbing guide who, in 2016, became the first woman to rope solo El Capitan in a day. Asked about her goals for the banner, she said her wish is simply for people to do what they can. “I’m not an activist,” she said. “I’m a climber, that’s why I’m up here. Do what you can do to end this madness. Maybe it’s calling your representative, maybe it’s boycotting brands that profit from the apartheid, talking to friends and family, whatever. We’re just up here doing what we can do.”

The Israel–Hamas conflict, and the outsized impact it’s had on Palestinian civilians, has become perhaps the most hot-button issue in international politics, with no shortage of vitriol on all sides. Morris and the others said the issue is simple, however. “You don’t need to go into the context too far,” she said. “There is pain and human suffering in Gaza. That needs to end. We have to take care of each other and support each other. Not destroy each other. What is happening in Gaza is a very clear destruction of human life, and it has to stop.”

Climbers with Palestine didn’t notify the National Park Service in advance of their protest, but they researched the laws and looked at past instances of groups flying banners and flags from El Capitan, including an eight-year-old boy who flew a banner that read “I love you, Mom,” and the late “El Cap Pirate” Ammon McNeely, who flew a Jolly Roger from his portaledge nearly every time he was on the wall. Climbers with Palestine do not believe they’ll be fined or charged with a crime.

Another of Climbers with Palestine’s co-founders, Emily Meg Weinstein, is an American Jew. She spoke to Climbing from the valley floor, where she was providing ground support for the protestors on the wall. “To put this message [Stop the Genocide] on El Capitan—the biggest stage that we have climbers have—is so meaningful,” she said. “And as a Jewish person, to do it with my dear friends who are Palestinian and American feels not just right, but really important in this moment.”

Climbers with Palestine also feel the climbing community is uniquely positioned to protest the situation in Gaza, due to the sport’s diversity and cross-cultural nature. “Climbing brings people together from communities all over the world,” Morris said. “So more climbers need to speak up about this shit.”

Climbers with Palestine encourages readers to donate to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, an organization providing medical and humanitarian aid for youth in the Middle East.

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