Minnesota Anti-War Committee protest demands divestment from Israel, ICE and Palantir
Minneapolis, MN — During rush hour, February 19, protesters rallied in the freezing cold beneath the Interstate 94 bridge to demand the divestment of Minnesota taxpayer money from Israel, ICE and Palantir, a corporation that abets both institutions’ violence.
The rally was organized by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) in response to the Anti-War Action Network’s (AWAN) call for a national week of action against Israel’s continuing U.S.-sponsored genocide in Gaza.
As attendees chanted, “No hate, no fear; divest from Palantir,” emcee Brian Chval of the AWC set the tone for the evening by highlighting the thematic and financial threads connecting Operation Metro Surge to Israel’s violent surveillance regime in Gaza and the West Bank.
Taher Herzallah, American Muslims for Palestine’s (AMP) director of outreach and community organizing stated, “We are standing here today, speaking in one voice – telling ICE to get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” Herzallah added, “And I don’t say that in the fake, performative way that [Minneapolis mayor] Jacob Frey says it on TV. Is Jacob Frey out there doing ICE watch?”
“He’s not doing shit!” crowd members shouted in reply.
Alvin Sheng of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) stated, “Both U.S. parties would gladly throw immigrants under the bus like they’re doing for the Palestinians, as seen by Walz’s kowtowing to the border czar Homan’s demand for greater cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement.”
Sonja Tomasko of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) spoke about WAMM’s grassroots campaign demanding that the Saint Paul Board of Water Commissioners divest from Waterfall, an Israeli cybersecurity firm. One of Waterfall’s directors, Ami Shafran, served in the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) for four decades.
Tomasko stated, “I want to pause on that number for a moment,” Tomasko said. “40 years working for the IOF! To the Saint Paul Board of Water Commissioners, we ask, ‘How could you do business with this man?’” Tomasko detailed WAMM’s success in pressuring the board to select a replacement for Waterfall without connections to apartheid and genocide, but she emphasized the importance of continued community pressure until the contract is officially terminated.
At the end of the rally, Maeve Aickin of the AWC spoke about Palantir’s active participation in war crimes and human rights violations across the U.S. and the Middle East as a consequence of its Forward Deployed Software Engineer model.
Aickin stated, “This year, we have all witnessed the human cost of Palantir’s technology firsthand—in our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and our schools. ICE terror has transformed the geography of our city so that we know intersections not by the dead presidents whose names they bear but by the names of our friends, neighbors, and students who were abducted in these places.”
Aickin continued, “Palantir technology constitutes the very fabric of the modern surveillance state, and it quilts Palestine and Minneapolis closer together as working people in both territories resist state violence and occupation while their neighbors are kidnapped and murdered.”
Aickin closed her speech by directing attendees to call Governor Walz’s office demanding that he use his power as chair of the Minnesota State Board of Investment to divest the $55 million in public worker pension funds currently invested in Palantir.