Minneapolis, MN – A small crowd gathered in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood on August 10 for a press conference celebrating the passage of the National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants (NO BAN) Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bill would repeal President Trump’s racist travel ban that has prevented immigration from a list of Muslim-majority and African countries. It would also strengthen prohibitions against discrimination on visa applications, permanently barring the executive branch from banning people from entering the United States on the basis of religious affiliation. Approved by the House in late July, the NO BAN Act now requires Senate passage to be enacted into law.

The Twin Cities has been a hotbed of protest against the Muslim ban since Trump’s election in 2016. At the press conference, Kent Mori of the Anti-War Committee explained: “Part of this celebration should be to remember the earlier steps that have brought us these steps toward victory. Protests like on January 31, 2017, when 15,000 folks protested Trump’s initial Muslim ban in downtown Minneapolis, and the hundreds of thousands that protested at airports across the country around the same time. Protests like on October 10, 2019, when 20,000 weathered a rainstorm to surround Trump’s racist rally at the Target Center.”

The event was put on by the Council of American Islamic Relations-Minnesota (CAIR-MN) and among several speakers, featured an appearance by U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, who represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District.

#MinneapolisMN #Antiracism #TwinCities #IlhanOmar #CouncilOfAmericanIslamicRelationsMinnesotaCAIRMN #NationalOriginBasedAntidiscriminationForNonimmigrantsNOBANAct

Minneapolis, MN – On July 4, more than 200 protesters took the streets on wheels for a new type of march calling for an end to a fundamentally racist criminal justice system and “#Justice4All.” Protesters were on bikes, rollerblades, roller skates, skateboards, as well as in a car caravan as they rolled through various neighborhoods in Minneapolis. The protest was organized by Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) along with co-hosts Native Lives Matter, CAIR-Minnesota, LatinoAltRock, and Asamblea de Derechos Civiles. Messaging included slogans such as: “Abolish ICE,” “Prosecute the police,” and linking the struggles with: “The whole damn system is guilty as hell.”

The protest began downtown at Minneapolis City Hall where protesters gathered and were led in some chants before hitting the streets to roll through Minneapolis. The route was about five miles long, and many protesters joined along the way as the group could be heard chanting and rolling to music that played from the lead car. The protest ended at a lake, Bde Maka Ska, where there was a rally and speeches from organizers such as Ashley Quinones from Justice for Brian Quinones, various immigrant rights organizers and DACA recipients, as well as a surprise guest appearance from Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

In her speech, Omar made it clear that she was attending this rally as an organizer and not as part of her campaign: “I know this isn’t my space as an elected, it’s the space of organizers and so I don’t show up as your representative in congress today, I show up as an organizer, as an activist.” In her speech, she asserted that she is not satisfied with the status quo: “We are living under a system that continues to brutalize and victimize Black and brown bodies. We are living under a system that continues to cage children and separate families. We are living under a system that puts working people, the people in the need of the most support on the frontlines of a raging pandemic and refuses to provide the medical and the economic support they need.”

The speeches concluded the event’s emcee and organizer from MIRAC, who reminded that crowd to hold elected officials like Ilhan Omar and the Democratic Party accountable for their actions and called attention to the immigrants and activists who fought for DACA and continue to fight today. She also brought attention to the location of the rally, in the wealthy, mostly white Uptown neighborhood: “I appreciate that we are here in a white space, in a gentrified area. We need to make privileged people feel uncomfortable.”

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #immigrantRights #MIRAc #IlhanOmar

Minneapolis, MN – The Twin Cities Anti-War Committee sent a letter to Minnesota’s Representative Ilhan Omar, May 6, urging her to withdraw her support for a letter that furthers AIPAC’s lobbying efforts to continue sanctions against Iran.

The letter states, “We strongly urge you to unsign AIPAC's statement and to stand with Representatives Betty McCullom, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and the few others brave enough to reject AIPAC’s roadmap to an increase in sanctions against Iran.”

“In the face of the world superpowers’ saber-rattling, we should defend Iran’s desire to protect itself and its people against the horrors and calamities inflicted on Iraq, Libya and dozens of other countries invaded in the name of ‘human rights’. The AIPAC letter claims that Iran is responsible for destabilizing the region, but the U.S. government has been the one invading countries, propping up dictators, and flooding the region with weapons. We emphatically detest the notion contained in the AIPAC letter that Iran is responsible for destabilization in the Middle East,” the Anti-War Committee’s letter declares.

The letter concludes, “We have rallied in your defense multiple times when you were threatened by right-wing opposition (including AIPAC), and when you were denied access to Palestine. In your re-election race, we anticipate being asked by our supporters what your positions are on foreign policy. Prior to this, we thought we understood your positions and were generally supportive of them, but now we are concerned that you might be willing to sacrifice your politics in order to be perceived as more ‘moderate’ on the campaign trail and more acceptable to Zionist voters. We request an online/virtual meeting to discuss your foreign policy positions within a month of receiving this letter.”

#MinneapolisMN #International #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Iran #US #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #AIPAC #TwinCitiesAntiWarCommittee #DonaldTrump #IlhanOmar

St. Paul, MN – On August 19, Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) held a press conference in the State Capitol in Saint Paul to a packed room, with an overflow of 100 people, on the human cost of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and travel restrictions.

On August 16, the Israeli government denied the representatives visas to visit Palestine. Their visas previously had been approved, but after a tweet by Donald Trump denouncing Omar and Tlaib’s visit, the approval was revoked. Congresswoman Stacy Plaskett, delegate to House for the Virgin Islands, was to join them on their trip to Palestine. At the press conference, the representatives were joined by four women who have experience with the occupation and the area’s travel restrictions.

As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Omar has a direct say in the over $3 billion worth of aid given to Israel every year. Omar asked if this aid should continue. “This is predicated on them being an ally and important democracy in the Middle East. Denying visits to duly elected officials and denying freedom of movement, expression or self-determination to millions is not consistent with being a good ally of democracy. We must ask Israel to stop building settlements on the West Bank and ensure the rights of Palestinians if we are going to give them aid.”

Omar added, “This is nothing less than an attempt by an ally of the United States to suppress our ability to do our jobs as elected officials,” and, “This decision to deny us entry might be unprecedented when it comes to members of Congress, but this is the Israeli government’s policy when it comes to anyone who holds views that threaten the occupation. The only way to preserve unjust policy is to suppress people’s expression, people’s freedom of association, and freedom of movement. The cruel occupation is real. Barring people from seeing it does not make it go away.”

Representative Tlaib gave a graphic and emotional account of her trip to Palestine as a young girl. The treatment of her mother at checkpoints horrified her, and she was terrified her grandmother would not receive adequate medical care after a car accident. She was very frightened when Israeli soldiers with guns and tanks suddenly appeared in the middle of the night in the village where she was staying. She added, “the outpouring of support from their districts as well as around the country shows how important it is to keep fighting for justice.”

Lana Barkawi, a Palestinian-American and Minneapolis native, has been unable to visit Palestine. She said that the human cost of occupation and travel restrictions for those involved in the BDS – Boycott, Divestment, Sanction – movement is unacceptable.

Amber Harris, a Jewish American woman who is married to a Palestinian, spoke of the harassment she has experienced when trying to go to Palestine. She was almost banned for ten years, for unknown reasons. She believes she was banned because she was involved in the uprising in Ferguson, at the time of murder of Michael Brown by the police. When she was finally let into Palestine, the Israeli government threatened her with surveillance. Harris denounces the Israeli’s government continued denial of entry into Palestine on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity and activism.

Carin Mrotz, of Jewish Community Action, spoke of the divide-and-conquer tactics employed to pit the Jewish community against the Muslim community on the false premise of security. “We must stand together for our own together and for justice everywhere.”

Rosa Drucker, from If Not Now, a Jewish organization which opposes the Israeli occupation of Palestine, said, “The situation is complex, but not complicated. It is a daily nightmare for those who live it, and a moral disaster for those who support it. We stand with the congresswomen.”

#StPaulMN #AntiwarMovement #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Palestine #US #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #Antifascism #DonaldTrump #IlhanOmar #RashidaTlaib

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following August 15 statement from the Twin Cities based Anti-War Committee.

The Minnesota Anti-War Committee condemns the Israeli government’s August 15 decision not to allow US Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering occupied Palestine, to which the Israeli state controls all access. Reps. Omar and Tlaib join the thousands of peace activists, human rights officials and people of conscience around the world who are denied entry over their support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel and its Zionist policies of occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism in Palestine. The two congresswomen also now share the experience of millions of diaspora Palestinians who live in forced exile, denied reentry to their homeland. Rep. Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, had planned to visit family in the occupied West Bank.

Representing Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, Rep. Omar continues to face both racist incitement by President Trump and his supporters as well as dishonest allegations of anti-Semitism from her own Democratic Party. We commend Rep. Omar for her courage and steadfastness in the face of these attacks. Principled criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism. We invite our supporters to join Rep. Omar in continued solidarity with the people of Palestine.

The Anti-War Committee continues our longstanding call for the total end to US aid to Israel. We maintain that Israel acts at the behest of US ruling class interests, as demonstrated by Israel’s announcement of the ban against Reps. Omar and Tlaib coming soon after a tweet by President Trump calling for it to do so. Far from being the so-called “only democracy in the Middle East,” Israel in fact is a profoundly undemocratic country, premised on the denial of Palestinian self-determination and functioning as a strategic outpost for US imperialism in the entire Middle East.

We encourage our supporters to join us at the MN State Board of Investment meeting on August 22 where we will pressure the State of Minnesota to divest from Elbit Systems, an Israeli company which profits from Israeli apartheid and from building the wall on the U.S./Mexico border. Minnesota should not invest in companies that profit from human rights abuses, nor in a country that bans our own member of Congress from entering to investigate human rights abuses.

We join with the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Council on American-Islamic Relations – MN in saying #LetThemIn!

#TwinCitiesMN #International #AntiwarMovement #ImmigrantRights #Palestine #US #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #Israel #Antiracism #Antifascism #AntiWarCommittee #DonaldTrump #IlhanOmar

Minneapolis, MN – U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) have joined the ranks of thousands of human rights activists and millions of diaspora Palestinians who have been denied entry to Palestine by the occupying Israeli regime.

Reps. Omar and Tlaib had planned a congressional trip to the West Bank for next week, initially agreed to by the Israeli regime “out of respect for the U.S. Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America.” However, on August 15 Israel announced a reversal of its previous decision and banned the delegation’s entrance.

The announcement came immediately after President Trump wrote on Twitter, “It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib to visit. They hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds. Minnesota and Michigan will have a hard time putting them back in office. They are a disgrace!” [sic]

Since the Knesset’s March 2017 passage of the Amendment No. 28 to the Entry Into Israel Law, the Israeli state has denied entry to supporters of the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli occupation of Palestine. Millions of Palestinian refugees who fled Israeli invasion during the Nakba of 1948 and the Six-Day War of 1967, as well as their descendants, have been continually denied a right to return to their homeland by the Israeli regime. Both Omar and Tlaib had stated publicly their support for BDS. Representative Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, had planned to visit family members in the West Bank during the trip.

Representative Omar released her own statement in response to Israel’s decision. “It is an affront that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, under pressure from President Trump, would deny entry to representatives of the U.S. government,” she stated. “Trump’s Muslim ban is what Israel is implementing, this time against two duly elected members of Congress. Denying entry into Israel not only limits our ability to learn from Israelis, but also to enter the Palestinian territories.” Last week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) led a trip of 72 members of Congress, 41 of whom were also Democrats, sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, a branch of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). That delegation was allowed entry by Israel. Representative Tlaib’s delegation was organized as an alternative to the AIPAC trip, with a focus on meeting with human rights activists, including Hanan Ashrawi of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), as opposed to meeting with Israeli politicians.

The announcement of Israel’s ban on Representatives Tlaib and Omar was met by criticism from U.S. presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Jewish Voice for Peace released a statement connecting the ban to the treatment of Palestinians who try to return to their homeland, and to the BDS movement: “This morning’s announcement that Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar will be blocked from entry by Israel is consistent with their increasingly authoritarian policies toward Palestinians and all those who support Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). But for sitting Congresswomen to be prevented from entry is a new low that only serves to illustrate Israel’s racist and exclusionary practices. This is a situation all too familiar for Palestinians due to decades of exclusionary practices by Israel.”

International solidarity activist Sarah Martin told Fight Back!, “Trump chanted at rallies that Representatives Omar and Tlaib should ‘go back home’ and now he’s pressuring Israel not to let them in. And Tlaib, like Palestinians throughout the diaspora, is being denied the right to return. So many Americans are critical of Trump but then look the other way when we raise the reality of Israeli apartheid. We need to use this as an opportunity to draw attention to the $3.2 billion the U.S. sends in aid to Israel.”

Martin, a member of Women Against Military Madness, was denied entry into Israel in 2009 when she tried to participate in a human rights delegation to the West Bank. Martin met with Representative Omar on August 15, along with representatives from Arab arts organizations, religious groups and Palestinian solidarity groups in the Twin Cities to express solidarity.

Meredith Aby-Keirstead, a member of the MN Anti-War Committee, was also at the meeting with Representative Omar. She told Fight Back!, “It is outrageous that Omar – who is also on the House Foreign Affairs Committee – and Tlaib have been banned from entering Israel. They have the responsibility to investigate how U.S. tax dollars are spent. We need to increase our demands that the U.S. cut off aid to Israel. It is obvious that they want to hide the conditions they have created for Palestinians.”

A coalition of Minnesota Palestine solidarity and immigrant rights groups are planning to bring up the ban on Representatives Omar and Tlaib, along with Israel’s apartheid policies, at the Minnesota State Board of Investment meeting on August 22, where they will pressure the state of Minnesota to divest from Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons technology company that profits from Israeli apartheid and has been contracted as part of the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border.

#Minneapolis #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #AntiWarCommittee #IlhanOmar #RashidaTlaib

Minneapolis, MN – Both Donald Trump and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke in Minnesota, April 15, and both were met with protest and disruption upon arrival. Trump spoke outside of a truck equipment company in the Twin Cities suburb of Burnsville and was met by activists denouncing his anti-immigrant policies and defending progressive Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

Jeff Sessions was met with even larger crowds as protesters outnumbered attendees at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus, where he was slated to speak to a “sold out” crowd, but which ultimately had fewer than one-third of its seats filled.

The Sessions event was hosted by Minnesota Students for Liberty, CFACT, and the Minnesota Republic as part of their annual “Conservative Awareness Week.” He was scheduled to discuss the topic of “promoting conservative economics.”

In response, members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at the University of Minnesota organized a protest of the event. The protest was endorsed by the Anti-War Committee, Women Against Military Madness, and the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee.

Protesters began to gather outside the entry gate of the Sessions event roughly 30 minutes before his scheduled speaking time. The University of Minnesota Police Department guarded the venue and had an extensive presence.

The protest began with a speech detailing the reactionary policies and actions that Jeff Sessions had taken as attorney general, as well as his earlier actions within the judicial system and Senate. A member of SDS stated, “We gather here today to show that we will not tolerate Jeff Sessions’ appearance, and we reject his reactionary agenda! We stand in solidarity with everyone who has been targeted by his bigoted, inhumane, and draconian policies.”

Roughly half way through the protest, demonstrators began a march that circled the surrounding Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and the Carlson School of Management in which Sessions’ event was occurring. Protesters chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, Jeff Sessions has got to go,” and “No cops, no KKK, no racist USA.”

As the protest continued to grow outside, activists inside the auditorium began to disrupt his speech. One by one, disruptors would read portions of a statement written by a member of MIRAC and would continue doing so until escorted out by the police. This tactic effectively prevented Jeff Sessions from speaking. Disruptors were greeted to congratulatory cheers from the protest as they were kicked out.

In total, roughly 100 protesters participated, dwarfing the actual attendance of the Sessions event.

#MinneapolisMN #ImmigrantRights #AntiWarCommittee #MinnesotaImmigrantRightsActionCommittee #Antiracism #IlhanOmar #JeffSessions

Minneapolis, MN – A group calling itself Patriots United put out a racist, anti-Muslim call for Minnesotans to come out on February 17 to protest U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar at her office near Target Field in Minneapolis. Jewish Voice for Peace-Twin Cities called for a counter-protest and over 80 people came out strong with signs like “Jews for Ilhan” and “Minnesotans against Islamophobia” against Patriots United’s contingent of six people, holding three signs and two American flags.

Newly elected Representative Omar, of Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, which includes Minneapolis, started a national conversation on February 11 about the role of AIPAC, the American-Israel Political Action Committee, when she tweeted in response to the influence of Zionist lobbyists in Washington DC, that Congress’ stance on support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins.”

Since her tweet, both Democrats and Republicans, including the Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, have denounced her as anti-Semitic. However, the Wall Street Journal reports that AIPAC raises over $100 million a year to influence American politics in favor of Israel.

Omar is a Somali refugee and is now one of the first two Muslim women ever elected to Congress. While leaders of both parties have falsely accused her of promoting anti-Jewish tropes, they have been silent as racists have used this controversy to make racist and anti-Muslim attacks on her.

After rallying for an hour, several people spoke to the crowd gathered in front of Omar’s office. Joe Norcross, representing Jewish Voice for Peace, declared, “We in Jewish Voice for Peace Twin Cities deplore the false accusations of anti-Semitism against Representative Ilhan Omar and support her in calling out the undue influence of AIPAC in U.S. politics. Omar need not apologize. AIPAC is an organization dedicated to maintaining Israel’s apartheid regime of occupation and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and Gaza. It spent $3.25 million in 2018 lobbying numerous congressmembers of both parties.”

Norcross continued, “Unrelenting and dangerous attacks on Omar promote a false stereotype that Muslims unequivocally hate Jews and that Palestinian solidarity is motivated by anti-Semitism rather than by the belief that colonized people deserve justice!”

CJ McCormick spoke for the Anti-War Committee: “The American political establis