Saint Paul Board of Water Commissioners’ meeting shut down by Palestine solidarity
St. Paul, MN – On August 12, the Saint Paul Board of Water Commissioners meeting was adjourned just minutes after it started when Nathan Phillips, an anti-Zionist Jew with the Palestine Solidarity Committee of WAMM, stood up and loudly proclaimed, “I am Jewish, and I stand with the Palestinian people! There’s no time to be ‘reasonable’. Gazans are being starved and massacred!”
At first the board tried to ignore Phillips and carry on with business as usual. But Phillip’s voice only grew louder as he chastised the board for its failure to act on the request to terminate a contract with the Israeli cyber security firm, Waterfall Security Solutions.
When Phillips could no longer be ignored, the chair warned the audience that further disruption would result in adjournment of the meeting. That seemed to suit the crowd just fine as they then began to chant “Free Palestine! Free, free Palestine!” The meeting was adjourned, and the members of the Board of Water Commissioners left the room.
Palestine solidarity activists then marched through City Hall chanting “Board of Water Commissioners you should know, Waterfall has got to go!” as their voices echoed through the atrium.
Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) organized for over 30 supporters to pack the Board of Water Commissioners meeting to show their opposition to Saint Paul’s contract with Waterfall Security, a company based in Israel. WAMM has organized multiple call-in days this summer to show its opposition to Waterfall’s contract. Activists also attended the last water board meeting on July 15 with signs reading, “Cut the contract.” No activists were allowed to speak to the board.
Waterfall Security is an Israeli tech company which secured a contract with Saint Paul last year for $74,000. The international Palestine solidarity movement is championing boycott, divest, sanctions (BDS) as the main tactics to challenge Israel’s apartheid and genocide. WAMM members want the city of Saint Paul to secure contracts with companies that do not facilitate or profit from human rights abuses.
The BDS Movement says the “tech sector is a pillar of the apartheid economy that feeds Israel’s war chest, making up 20% of Israel’s GDP (in 2023) and 53% of its exports (2023). In addition to being a pillar of the Israeli economy, tech companies knowingly provide Israel with weaponized technologies of oppression (including spyware) used to commit grave human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.”
The Waterfall contract, despite pressure from the Palestine solidarity movement, was automatically renewed by the board to continue for another year.
Members from Veterans for Peace (VFP) tried to get on the board’s agenda for the August meeting but were denied. VFP member Dan Wall approached the commissioners’ table and asked if testimony on the Waterfall contract would be taken from the audience. When told it would not, he asked “Why?” The chair gave the unsatisfactory answer, “It’s not the way it’s done.” Wall insisted on a better answer. The official gave a couple more non-answers before settling on “It’s not on the agenda.”
Activists have not been given any way to get to give public comment at the public Water Board Commissioner meetings.
At the end of the meeting, the Palestine supporters gathered outside the Saint Paul City Hall and committed to continuing to call and to give public testimony, regardless of whether it was allowed, on the need to cut the Waterfall Security contract.