Hundreds of Hawaiians still plan to march in protest on Saturday along the six-foot-high wall that Mark Zuckerberg built in Kauai, despite the Facebook CEO’s decision to drop lawsuits that would compel some of them to give up ownership of their land.
The protest’s organizer, a local hibiscus farmer named Joe Hart, told Business Insider on Friday that “the march is on” because “the Kupuna Elders won’t accept him dropping the suit while his partners continue on his behalf.”
Kupuna is a Hawaiian term for elder. Hart is encouraging people who attend the march to blow conch shells and bang drums in peaceful protest.
“People are furious down here with him,” Hart told Business Insider in an earlier interview on Thursday. He explained that Zuckerberg’s move to file so-called quiet title action lawsuits wasn’t the only reason locals had become enraged.
Neighbors of Zuckerberg like Hart have said the Facebook CEO’s security team has used intimidation tactics to keep them off the public beaches and trails that intertwine with Zuckerberg’s mostly undeveloped property. Hart said he was recently confronted by security guards while walking along a public beach adjacent to Zuckerberg’s property. Similar encounters have been reported by other locals.
According to Hart, another source of contention is the location of Saturday’s planned protest: the six-foot-high wall Zuckerberg built last year. He said that the wall had cut off access to an inherited parcel of land, or “kuleana,” that the original owner’s family members had been able to access.
Representatives for Mark Zuckerberg declined to comment.
