Saint Paul, MN – On August 23, more than 40 protesters gathered outside the governor’s mansion, home to Governor Tim Walz, to demand Minnesota’s State Board of Investment (SBI) sell off its shares in Israeli corporations. The SBI is tasked with investing taxpayer money for public funds, largely state pensions.

The action was initiated by the Anti-War Committee (AWC) and held the evening before the August meeting of the Minnesota SBI in order to raise awareness of the state of Minnesota’s holdings in a variety of Israeli companies, most notably Elbit Systems.

Elbit Systems is a weapons manufacturing and cybersecurity firm which advertises its products as “field-tested.” They are “field-tested” on Palestinians in occupied Palestine, where the Israeli Occupation Forces deploy them against protesters, civil rights organizations, families whose land is being illegally seized by the occupation, and against children in the open-air prison of Gaza. In only the last week, Israel has conducted military raids on seven civil society organizations in Palestine.

An AWC representative said, “These seven humanitarian groups advocate for Palestinian women, children and farmers; document human rights offenses, and strengthen democracy. In pillaging and outlawing these organizations, Israel is frantically trying to dismantle Palestinian society. By investing the pension funds of Minnesotans in Israel bonds, banks and companies, the Minnesota State Board of Investments is complicit in Israel’s cowardly assault on and oppression of the Palestinian people.”

Elbit Systems is also the chief architect of the Israeli apartheid wall in Palestine and is now being contracted to build the racist Mexico-U.S. border wall initiated by Donald Trump and finished by Joe Biden. As Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee member Mari Hernandez said in a speech, when immigrants approach the border, one of the first things they see “is an Elbit Systems security tower looming 160 feet above them.” Minnesota’s SBI currently owns 10,396 shares in Elbit Systems, which are worth $1,170,705 at current market value.

Minnesota and Israel are tied by more than investment and finances. Activists also drew connections between the struggle for the liberation of oppressed nations in the U.S. and the national liberation of struggle of Palestinians fighting to reclaim their land.

Jess Sundin of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar brought attention to the program of “deadly exchange” between the U.S. and Israel: “If Black lives really do matter in 21st century America, then the deadly exchange programs with Israel should be brought to an end without delay. I’m talking about the direct training of thousands of police forces, including hundreds from here in Minnesota, by the Israeli Occupation Forces.” These programs teach U.S. police to use the same racist, lethal strategies that are used in Israel, and vice-versa.

Six members of the Anti-War Committee attended the state’s SBI meeting the next day. Meredith Aby-Kierstaad of the AWC presented the State Board of Investment, chaired by Governor Walz, with petitions bearing the signatures of over 1000 Minnesotans demanding that their taxpayer dollars no longer be used to bankroll Israeli apartheid. She told the board, “For years, when peace activists, Palestine solidarity activists, and related groups have called upon to divest from Israel, you have used the excuse of ‘fiduciary responsibility.’ However, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, the SBI issued a statement reassuring Minnesotans that they would do everything in their power to divest from Russia.

“Since the SBI issued that statement, the Israeli Occupation Forces shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy at point blank range. They assassinated prominent Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and terrorized Gaza with yet another bombing campaign that killed 44 Palestinians, one third of whom were children.” She went on to raise the issue of the seven Palestinian civil society organizations which were raided by the IOF in the past week and ended by stating “The Minnesota State Board of Investment is complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses,” and demanded divestment.

Many other local activist organizations signed on to the protest’s demands, including American Muslims for Palestine-MN, Youth for Palestine, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar Clark, Students for Justice in Palestine-UMN, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace-Twin Cities, Middle East Peace Now, Women Against Military Madness, Climate Justice Committee, Veterans for Peace Chapter 27, Students for a Democratic Society-UMN, and Minnesota Peace Action Coalition.

#SaintPaulMN #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #BDS #StateBoardOfInvestments

This was part of an ongoing campaign to press the State Board of Investments on this issue. Activists from MIRAC, the Anti-War Committee and other organizations have spoken at several previous SBI meetings, have presented thousands of petitions, and have protested in front of Governor Walz’s mansion to demand divestment from Elbit System because of their profiteering off of border militarization at the U.S.-Mexico border and also by Israel against the Palestinians.

Mansfield told the SBI members:

“Last year I went on a human rights delegation to the border of Tucson and Mexico with MIRAC. The horrors I witnessed made me truly disgusted to be an American. I heard the stories of people who crossed the border, people fleeing violence leave their homes and families in the middle of the night, telling no one. They travel thousands of miles to make it to our southern border. There they encounter the wall that pushes them into the smoldering oblivion of the desert. When the desert becomes too treacherous for construction of the wall, mountains force you further in, then in the distance you see the Elbit surveillance towers. Their towers can spot people from miles away, so you travel further into the desert, and only travel at night to avoid being seen by the towers. With only the moonlight to guide you, you hike through miles of lethal darkness. Inevitably, someone trips and falls, breaking their leg, unable to continue the journey. There is nothing you can do for them, and if you stay with them you will die too so you walk away from your brother, your sister, your mother or your best friend leaving them to die slowly and painfully all alone in the desert. This is the system of Prevention Through Deterrence that our government assures us is working very well, and you have made the conscious and informed decision to fund this system of death, using my money. You must break ties with Elbit or live the rest of your life knowing you are a merchant of death.”

The State Board of Investments is comprised of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, State Auditor Julie Blaha, Secretary of State Steve Simon, and is chaired by Governor Tim Walz. All are Democrats who have vocally opposed President Trump’s immigration policies. In 2018 while campaigning for governor, Walz tweeted, “President Trump wants to blow $18 billion of taxpayer funds on his border wall? Give me a break.” Ellison appeared at 2018’s May Day Parade in Minneapolis wearing a “Yo no creo en fronteras” (I don’t believe in borders) t-shirt, and has stated that Trump was “unable to persuade Congress and the American people that a wall is necessary.”

Yet when presented with the fact that Minnesota has more than $1 million invested in border militarization profiteers Elbit Systems, they have thus far not taken the simple step of selling off those investments.

Activists will continue to demand that the State Board of Investments divest Minnesota’s funds from border militarization corporation Elbit Systems.

#SaintPaulMN #PeoplesStruggles #MIRAc #borderMilitarization #Elbit #StateBoardOfInvestments

St. Paul, MN – The Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI) held its quarterly meeting at the State Capitol December 2 and got sharp criticism from immigrant rights and anti-war activists, as new documents revealed a nearly $1 million increase in investment in a controversial military technology company. Youth climate strikers also highlighted the SBI’s inaction over state ties to environmental destruction. Both groups were met with vacillation and excuses from the board which is tasked with the responsible investment of public pensions and related funds.

At issue was Elbit Systems, an Israel-based manufacturer of white phosphorus and cluster munitions used in Gaza and contracted by both the U.S. and Israeli governments for border militarization. Documents published on the SBI’s website showed state investments in Elbit worth over $2.1 million, up from around $1.25 million from the previous reporting period, despite years of calls for divestment. In 2017, the Saint Paul-based public Metropolitan State University partnered with Elbit to build a cybersecurity training center.

“Our state cannot continue to invest in a company like Elbit. With our investment, we are complicit in human rights abuses committed by Elbit’s weaponry. Why is this even a debate?” asked Austin Jensen of the MN Anti-War Committee, one of the action’s co-sponsors. Other endorsers included Women Against Military Madness, American Muslims for Palestine, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Minnesota BDS Community, and No Cages MN.

“I personally am implicated in these violations of human rights because I receive a state pension as a retired public school teacher,” said Lucia Wilkes Smith of WAMM. “I need those pension dollars to live month to month, yet I personally have travelled to Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Gaza, where I have learned directly from people living in dire circumstances.”

Wilkes Smith added, “I’m remembering the anti-apartheid movement that successfully called upon U.S. institutions, decades ago, to divest from holdings in South Africa. I know that individuals in this room were arrested for non-violent action taken as they demanded divestment.”

The State Board of Investment includes self-styled progressives like Attorney General Keith Ellison and State Auditor Julie Blaha, and is chaired by Governor Tim Walz.

Activists from Minnesota Youth Climate Strike also addressed the board. “The SBI must proceed toward divestment. The risk assessment must include the unequal health and safety threats posed by climate change to communities of color and underprivileged communities,” said Juwaria Jama, who called for litigation against fossil fuel companies such as Enbridge and Koch Refineries. The strikers also criticized a climate investment report, prepared for the SBI by a private firm, for diminishing the importance of divestment.

The SBI, for its part, lauded that report, with Ellison calling it “a good piece of research” and Chief Investment Officer Mansco Perry championing the report’s claim that “divestment of fossil fuels ... does not directly impact carbon emissions.”

Governor Walz went even further, claiming that the SBI lacks the authority to divest based on social considerations, insisting, “The process matters...the process of how we come up with where we’re investing and how we’re investing.”

Undeterred, the Minnesota Youth Climate Strike plan to rally at the State Capitol on Friday, December 5 at 3 p.m.

The MN Anti-War Committee, along with Women Against Military Madness, American Muslims for Palestine, and other progressive organizations, have called for a protest outside Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office at 1200 S Washington Avenue, Minneapolis, for International Human Rights Day, December 10, at 4:30 p.m.

#SaintPaulMN #AntiwarMovement #Elbit #StateBoardOfInvestments