St. Paul, MN – On Thursday, March 26, 20 members of the MN Anti-War Committee (AWC)turned out to a midday rally outside Minnesota’s Retirement Systems Building, where Minnesota’s State Board of Investment (SBI) was holding its quarterly meeting.

Members of the AWC gave public testimony at the meeting. AWC members demanded divestment from apartheid Israel and weapons companies, but focused particularly on Palantir, a company whose AI surveillance software has directly facilitated human rights violations in Palestine, Iran, and Minnesota itself. As of June 2025, the book value of the SBI’s investments in Palantir was $55 million.

This marked the board’s first open quarterly meeting in nearly a year, and the first attendance of the AWC since 11 of its members were arrested during a sit-in at the Retirement Systems Building last fall — a sit-in prompted by the board declining to hold in-person, public hearings over many months. Public admittance to the meeting room was limited to just eight members of the community, not including speakers.

As of the 2025 fiscal year, Minnesota SBI managed a total of $161 billion in assets. It is funded by Minnesota public employees’ salary contributions and taxpayer dollars, and serves workers in the Teachers’ Retirement Association, Minnesota State Retirement Association, and many of the union members of AFSCME, SEIU, Education Minnesota, and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE), among others.

The board emphasizes their fiduciary responsibility to pension holders and evaluates what is an “acceptable risk” investment. Governor Tim Walz serves as the board’s chair, along with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, State Auditor Julie Blaha, and the Secretary of State Steve Simon. The SBI currently invests over $586 million in weapons companies, including Elbit Systems, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

“This board has defended its continued investment in death-dealing companies like Palantir with the claim that it is a wholly apolitical body that merely does its financial duty to the state. But I have to ask, in what sense is funding the Trump administration’s agenda an apolitical act?” questioned Andrew Josefchak, union member and organizer with the Anti-War Committee. During the meeting Josefchak submitted into the record thousands of physical signatures collected from constituents who agree that Minnesota must divest from Israel and companies that facilitate war and genocide.

Public employee and MAPE member Kevin Snyder testified during the meeting and asked how the board could claim to be taking into account the interests of Minnesotans while ICE actively weaponizes Palantir tech against residents of the state.

While the AWC’s DivestMN campaign specifically demands that the SBI divest from entities and companies complicit in Israel’s crimes of genocide and apartheid in Palestine, its researchers have found that many of the same companies are complicit in ICE violence in Minnesota and across the country. Palantir is contracted by Israel’s Ministry of Defense, ICE and the U.S. military. Palantir’s products track populations on a massive scale and maintain large databases of intrusive personal information. Its software can be integrated into surveillance and weapons systems, including drones, and company executives have told concerned staff that Palantir places no restrictions on client use of its tools.

Even before October 7, the AWC’s DivestMN campaign demanded that the SBI divest from Israel (in the form of Israeli stocks and bonds) and weapons manufacturers that directly enable Israel’s destruction and genocide in Palestine. The same corporations are now profiting off of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which commenced with the bombing and murder of at least 175 school children in Minab.

AWC member Naveen Borojerdi, who testified before the SBI, is an Iranian American public employee and a member of MAPE. Borojerdi urged the board “to do better,” adding, “My people have a right to self-defense against joint American/Israeli terrorism, and I have the right to not have my own money facilitating that same terrorism against my own people.”

Jill Schurtz, the executive director of the SBI and its chief investment officer, admitted during the March 26 meeting that the “conflict in the Middle East” is “eroding gains” in their portfolio. “War destroys the working class,” Andrew Josefchak said as he took the mic outside the building and shared this information with demonstrators who had not been allowed into the meeting.

Throughout the meeting, members who were refused entry were heard and seen chanting from outside the first-floor windows. The silence and order in the room, maintained by the presence of no less than a half dozen police and state patrol officers, was broken by continuous calls directed at the SBI from outside: “Money for murder? No! Money for workers? Yes! Money for schools? Yes! Money for Palantir? No!”

The AWC will maintain their presence at SBI meetings until total divestment is reached.

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #AWC #AntiWarCommittee #SBI #DivestMN #Palestine #Palantir

St. Paul, MN – On Tuesday, February 24, 15 activists led by the MN Anti-War Committee (AWC) confronted the Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI) to demand that the Board divest Minnesota public pension funds from Palantir, a Peter Thiel-founded tech company that works directly with ICE and the IDF.

The action was organized as part of an ongoing campaign to pressure the SBI to divest Minnesota state pension funds not just from Palantir, but from all companies complicit in the apartheid state of Israel.

It was a cold and slippery morning, but energy was high as the dedicated crowd shouted slogans like “No more money for Israel's slaughter!” and “All they sell is death and fear: divest from Palantir!” 148 paper poppies covered the snow in front of the office, each representing 1000 of the roughly 76,000 people held in ICE detention in the U.S. and the minimum estimate of 72,000 Palestinians murdered by the Israeli regime during its ongoing genocide.

A major theme of this action was “hypocrisy.” In the wake of the notorious ICE murder of Renee Good, Tim Walz initially had some harsh words for the agency. But, according to AWC member Yossi Aharoni, this raises questions: “if Walz really believes the things he said on his national press tour, then why is he investing 55 million taxpayer dollars in Palantir, the company that designed ICE's surveillance infrastructure?”

Aharoni continued, “Israel's attacks across the Middle East, and ICE's occupation of the Twin Cities, would be unthinkable and impossible in their scale and horrific efficiency without Palantir.”

Walz has not addressed the board's investments in Palantir. In fact, the SBI has been stifling public comment, or avoiding it entirely, for over a year now. At this time, the board has not even announced if or when it will hold its next mandated quarterly meeting.

AWC organizer Andrew Josefchak stated, “How many people, and which people, are the board members willing to sponsor the execution, illegal detainment, and surveillance of?”

Josefchak continued, “Minnesota is just getting the barest taste of what it's like in Palestine – the barest taste of what Palestinians have been dealing with for decades – and we're discovering how absolutely fucking wretched it is. People are standing up in droves saying 'This must end. This is completely unacceptable!'”

It is in this spirit that, despite any obstacle, the fight to divest Minnesota from apartheid Israel will continue.

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Palantir #MNAWC

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.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Palantir

Denver, CO – On January 31 over 100 protesters gathered at James Manley Park in Denver for a rally against the tech and AI surveillance company Palantir, which has been headquartered in the state since leaving their Silicon Valley location in 2020. This spring, the company plans to move from their downtown Denver office to the Cherry Creek Financial House just four miles away.

Crowds began gathering at the park around 10 a.m., rallying with signs demanding “No AI for war crimes!” and “No AI for ICE!”

Palantir has been involved closely in contracts and deals with both the Israeli Defense Force and ICE. Their technology has enabled these forces to carry out operations in Palestine and the U.S., aiding and exacerbating both the ongoing genocide in Gaza and Trump’s war against immigrants.

The march kicked off with musical accompaniment by Denver protest marching band Notes of Dissent and then the crowd took to the streets of Cherry Creek. People followed the emcee in chants and passed out flyers with a link to a petition calling on the city of Denver and MarketOnce to cancel Palantir’s lease.

Approaching the Financial House, protesters took the main intersection of a busy shopping area where the crowd heard from Lucy Blick of Denver Anti-War Action, who spoke about Palantir’s role in the genocide in Palestine, stating “When our tax dollars are funding genocide and ICE murders, and the AI technology of war is made right here in our city, there is no other choice than to stand against this company.” She also criticized Colorado Governor Jared Polis for inviting Palantir and its CEO Alex Karp to the state with the promise of lower median wages and corporate taxes.

Participants followed the emcee in chants like, “No ICE! No Palantir! The people do not want you here!” Some nearby workers and passersby joined in chanting, with a number signing the petition.

#DenverCO #CO #AntiWarMovement #Palantir

Denver, CO – On December 21, protesters gathered at the Cherry Creek Financial House in Denver for a noise rally to protest at the new headquarters of Palantir. The tech and AI surveillance company has plans to move into the new Cherry Creek location after months of community organizing have made their downtown headquarters untenable.

Palantir, whose technology is widely used by ICE to track immigrants and by Israel to facilitate genocide in Gaza, was invited to place its headquarters in Denver by Colorado Governor Jared Polis, after protests drove them out of California in 2020.

The crowd, armed with drums, pots and pans, trumpets and even a saxophone, followed the emcee in chants before hearing a speech from Denver Anti-War Action member Andrew Marquetalia, who said, “We’ve made it clear that Palantir is not welcome here in Denver. We’re out here making noise and we’ll be back again and again until Palantir cancels their planned move into this building.”

And make noise, they did. Streets away the drumming and chanting could be heard amid a busy shopping area just days before Christmas. Attendees and passersby were encouraged to sign a petition for the cancellation of Palantir’s lease and to demand Palantir out of Denver and out of Colorado.

In a speech, Terry Burnsed of the May Day Club said of Palantir, “They target all of these communities. Terror is both a commodity making profits, and an enforcer of the profit making regime. They target those who resist and those who don’t alike.”

Kacey Hicks with Freedom Road Socialist Organization highlighted U.S. attacks on Venezuela, explaining, “We need to continue to stand strong with the people of Venezuela. We need to stand firm in opposition to cowardly acts by Trump, like stealing an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. The threat of Palantir using their AI technology on the people of Venezuela is real.”

In another speech, Brandan Gehrke with Aurora Unidos CSO told the crowd, “Palantir’s founders talk about defending freedom while building tools to destroy it. They claim to see the world clearly, but all they see is targets. We see a different world, a better world, a world where families are able to go to school without fear, a day where everyone has access to healthcare, and a day where the end of the genocide of Palestinians comes.”

Crowds circled the block with their chants and drums, demanding the attention of shoppers passing by with chants like “Palantir, can’t you see? Time to pack it up and leave!” and “Palantir, can’t you hear? Denver doesn’t want you here!”

#DenverCO #CO #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Palantir

Denver, CO – On July 26, Coloradans gathered outside Denver’s Union Station in a rally against software development company Palantir, which is complicit with apartheid Israel.

Palantir develops artificial intelligence used both by ICE to facilitate mass arrests and deportations and by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), with programs like “Lavender” and “Where’s Daddy” used to target and slaughter innocent Palestinian civilians and families by identifying targets, tracking them back to their homes, and deploying bombs.

The protesters took aim at the Tabor Center, a skyscraper located in downtown Denver which leases out the 15th floor to Palantir to use as its headquarters. The event began with attendees painting signs with demands, which would later be taped to the sides of the building, with slogans such as “Palantir out of the Tabor Center.”

Protesters rallied around banners and handmade signs demanding an end to the forced starvation of civilians in Gaza, decrying Palantir’s role in facilitating war crimes, and denouncing the complicity of the Tabor Center in giving this genocidal company a place to call home.

During the event, speakers from local and national organizations spoke out about the evils of Palantir.

Feven Nebiyu with Students for a Democratic Society stated, “Where other companies provide advanced weapons for the IDF to attack innocent men, women, and children in Gaza, Palantir takes it a step further and removes the need for a human assailant at all, promising Israel the luxury of committing a handsfree genocide.”

After speeches, people hit the streets, marching from Union Station up the 16th Street Mall to Palantir’s headquarters. Once there, people took to the sidewalks with brightly colored chalk; arrows pointed to the building with slogans like “Palantir is watching you,” “Let Gaza eat!” and “ICE runs on Palantir and Palantir runs on genocide.”

Speeches from Terry Burnsed, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and Democratic Socialists of America, as well as Eliot Howe, a member of Denver Anti-War Action, garnered huge support from the crowd as the emcee led enthusiastic supporters in chants like “Hey hey! Ho ho! These murderous tech bros got to go!” and “Palantir out of Denver!”

Howe stated, “The genocidal, military-outpost ethnic state needs money and weapons, after all! And the U.S. is a genocide profiteer through and through,” but ended on a note of hope, “We won’t let our city be the shelter for war profiteers like Lockheed and Palantir. We say Palantir, get out of here! Denver doesn’t want you here!” and, later, “Alone we can do very little, but together we can change the world!”

Moving to the other side of the building, demonstrators taped signs to the windows and added more chalk slogans to the sidewalks as they heard from Kacey Hicks, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, who stated, “We have to organize the wrath and the might of the people to make sure that the billionaires in the ruling class cannot keep killing Palestinians with our tax dollars.”

Returning to the 16th Street entrance, people were unsurprised to see the immediate removal of their chalk art, scrubbed away by security and building maintenance, but they didn’t let that stop them from adding more in its place.

Garnering people and support along the way, protesters again took to the streets in the return to Union Station, boldly chanting, “We’ll be back, we’ll be stronger, you can’t hide it any longer!” referring to the crimes committed by Palantir. The people of Denver show no sign of slowing down in their fight to get Palantir out of their city and aim to continue escalation and make business as usual at the Tabor Center untenable until their demands are met.

#DenverCO #CO #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Palantir #WeaponsIndustry #AI

Denver, CO – On July 4, dozens of Coloradans gathered outside the Tabor Center on 17th Street in a rally against Palantir, whose headquarters are located on the 15th floor.

Palantir, a tech company notorious for its links to both ICE and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), relocated to Denver in August of 2020. Their AI technology is used to expedite both the mass deportations of immigrants under Trump, as well as the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Palantir was recently given billions of dollars in no-contest contracts by the Trump administration with the passage of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” Palantir is spearheading the development of mass surveillance and drone warfare. They are in the process of developing a surveillance platform called “ImmigrationOS” to track the movements of immigrants all across the country.

Gina McAffe, a member of the Immigrant Protection Team stated, “Manufacturing systems to surveil us is not acceptable. Assisting ICE to arrest, detain and deport our neighbors is not acceptable. Not in our backyard!”

Palantir’s AI systems “Lavender” and “Where’s Daddy?” are used by the Israeli government and the IDF to target individuals on a “kill list.” The IDF attacks them in their homes, resulting in the reckless slaughter of innocent civilians throughout Gaza and Palestine. Profit margins for Palantir have increased since the escalation of the genocide on October 7, 2023.

“I’m here in part because of my nieces and nephew,” said Connor Posey of Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA), “I have seen what happens to children just as wonderful, beautiful, and innocent as them in Gaza and I cannot separate the two. Were things slightly different for them, Palantir wouldn’t hesitate to assist in their slaughter if it made them a dirty nickel!”

DAWA member Eliot Howe emceed the event and led the crowd in chants of “Palantir profiteers off of Palestinian tears!” and “Genocidal tech-bros get out of Colorado!”

Howe sang to the crowd, including Have You Not Heard?, a song taking aim at the hypocrisy of Christian Zionists. They sang:

“I was thirsty and had nothing to drink And you gave me not a drop I was naked and had nothing to wear And you did not give me clothes! I was hungry and had nothing to eat And you did not give me food Depart from me for you are cursed For you did not comfort me!”

Terry Burnsed, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, characterized Palantir as an inevitable outgrowth of imperialism, saying, “Palantir’s commodities are diligently identifying, targeting, filtering, prioritizing, assigning and firing. And Palestinians die. And die and die.”

DAWA passed out food and Palestina sodas to pedestrians, along with fliers about Palantir. Many drivers passing by honked in support of the demonstration, with a few waving keffiyehs and Palestinian flags out of their windows.

Simon Peña of DAWA gave an impassioned speech lamenting the passage of the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” a bill that gives billions of dollars to ICE, guts Pell Grants, and strips away Medicaid. Peña emphasized the importance of organizing and collective action, and the connection between Donald Trump, Palantir and ultimately all of our struggles.

Peña told the crowd, “The price of this bill is our brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, mothers, fathers, grandparents and grandchildren dying sooner, and suffering more, all so companies like Palantir and egomaniacs like Trump can keep playing their game.

“You alone might be able to move a mound. The people in this courtyard could probably move a hill. But the people? The people can move mountains. The people can topple empires. The people can free Jeanette [Vizguerra]. The people can free Palestine. The people can and will free them all!” Peña concluded.

As chants of “Free Palestine” and “Palantir Out” rang in the Tabor Center Plaza, the anti-war activists of Denver repurposed the Fourth of July. They made it a day to speak out against the war machine and corporations. The groups united to rally urged the crowd to get organized in the fight against Palantir and in the larger fight against Trump and the Republicans.

#DenverCO #CO #AntiWarMovement #DAWA #Palantir #JVP #Palestine

Denver, CO – On the afternoon of May 15, in honor of Nakba Day, several dozen pro-Palestine and anti-war activists held a rally at the headquarters of Palantir in downtown Denver. The rally condemned the technology company, which develops artificial intelligence programs to assist Israel in the surveillance and mass slaughter of Palestinians.

On the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, protesters heard speeches describing the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. The group marched through Denver, carrying bundles of sheets to represent the tens of thousands of Palestinian martyrs. Protesters arrived at the Tabor Center, which houses Palantir, to lay down the sheets in front of the building and support the approximately 20 protesters who had recently occupied the building’s lobby.

Despite the empty threats of imminent arrest from the building security, the activists occupied the lobby for almost an hour, with their calls for accountability echoing through the building.

Protesters chanted “Palantir profiteers off of Palestinian tears” and “Palantir profiteers off of immigrants’ fears,” highlighting the fact that Palantir contracts with not only the Israeli’s to murder Palestinians, but also the Department of Homeland Security to facilitate the mass deportations.

Eliot Howe, the emcee of the protest, read Denver Anti-War Action’s demands of Palantir, namely that Palantir cut all ties with Israel and cancel all contracts with the Israeli government, and that Palantir end all contracts with government agencies that use its technology to violate human rights.

When over a dozen police officers arrived in riot gear, the activists on the inside exited the building to join the outside crowd, where speeches highlighting Palantir’s complicity in the modern day Nakba in Palestine continued.

The group stood firmly in the Tabor Center’s Plaza, undeterred by the police’s attempts at intimidation. They chanted “AI WMD: Threat to all humanity” and “From Palestine to Mexico, these border walls have got to go” before marching back through downtown to close out with a call to get further organized against the Zionist entity and ongoing genocide.

The rally was called by the Colorado Palestine Coalition, and several organizations supported the event, including Denver Anti-War Action, the United States Palestinian Community Network, Denver Democratic Socialists of America, Denver/Boulder Jewish Voice for Peace, Colorado May Day Club, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Andrew Marquetalia, representing DAWA, emphasized the reason for protesting Palantir, saying, “The software written here is the architecture for the modern-day Nakba. It puts the names of countless people on lists and marks them for death!”

Marquetalia continued, “We must fight back by jamming a wrench in the gears that are churning out the latest iteration of genocidal technology.”

Denver Anti-War Action recognizes the importance of Palantir in facilitating and expediting the genocide in Palestine and is ready for a fight to get Palantir out of their city and ultimately to challenge militarized AI in general.

It is clear that DAWA aims to disrupt business as usual until Palantir’s work is untenable in the mile high city.

#DenverCO #CO #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Nakba #Palantir #DAWA