Minneapolis, MN – On November 11, leaders from the Minnesota Free Palestine Coalition (FPC) held a post-election press conference to demand that future Governor Amy Klobuchar use the governor’s seat on the State Board of Investment (SBI) to divest from companies complicit in Israel’s crimes. The press conference was held in downtown Minneapolis outside of Klobuchar’s office.
Following recent Israeli elections, with both leading prime minister candidates Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot opposing the creation of a Palestinian state—and as Minnesota nears the one-year anniversary of Operation Metro Surge—advocates say that one of the biggest issues at stake for Minnesota is the governor’s response to both the genocide in Palestine and deportations at home.
Speakers at the press conference urgently demanded that Governor Klobuchar direct the SBI to divest from weapons and surveillance companies complicit in ICE and Israeli militarism, and shift from her decades-long unconditional support for Israel and funding of ICE.
The Minnesota SBI—comprised of the state auditor, secretary of state, attorney general, and chaired by the Minnesota Governor—invests over $5.5 billion in companies complicit in Israel’s genocide in Palestine, many of which also enable ICE’s violence at home. Such companies include Palantir, which provides AI-powered surveillance technology to ICE and the IDF, and Israel’s Elbit Systems, whose weapons systems are marketed as “field tested” on Palestinians and used to surveil immigrants at the U.S./Mexico border.
Advocates across Minnesota have been calling on the SBI to divest from these companies for over a decade. In 2025, the SBI responded to the wave of public pressure by dropping 96% of its Israel Bonds. Palestine activists are now calling on future-governor Klobuchar to demand the SBI divests from its one remaining Israel Bond, as well as the other companies complicit in the genocide.
Sana Wazwaz, the chapter lead of American Muslims for Palestine – Minnesota stated, “People across the political spectrum are now recognizing, for all sorts of reasons, that investment in Israel is a dying and futile project. It is a terminal project,” said Wazwaz. “These are bad investments not only from a moral standpoint but from a fiduciary perspective.”
Wyatt Miller, a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) speaking on behalf of the People’s Action Coalition Against Trump, said to the press, “Just as the United States uses Israel’s occupation of Palestine as a testing ground for new technologies of oppression, the Gaza genocide served as a testing ground for a new politics of callous inhumanity. Trump reasoned that if Israel could murder upwards of 70,000 Palestinians with impunity, then a dark new politics becomes possible in the U.S.”
“Turning this situation around only starts with last week’s election,” Miller added. “The popular will demands that we demolish Trump’s politics of inhumanity, and that means starting at the source: Israel’s system of occupation, apartheid and genocide—armed, funded and greenlit by its American masters.”
Addressing Governor-elect Klobuchar, Wazwaz said, “We remember when you posed for a photo with Prime Minister Netanyahu even when over 20,000 Palestinian children had been slaughtered by his hands. We remember when you sat in a room with Muslim constituents and wouldn’t even dare utter the word ‘ceasefire’ in December 2023.”
“For three years, Palestinian constituents have been requesting a meeting with the governor-elect, and she has refused,” Wazwaz explained.
Members of local chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Jewish Voice for Peace also spoke at the press conference.
“Our newly elected officials in Minnesota need to take heed. Politics has changed forever,” said Miller. “People want an end to a politics of sadism and cruelty, and they understand that U.S. support for Israel has been fundamental to those politics. We are not going back.”
The AWC plans to teach members of the pro-Palestine movement how to testify at the next SBI meeting, on Sunday, November 22, 3 p.m. at the Springhouse Center at 610 W 28th St. in Minneapolis.
The next SBI meeting itself is slated for Thursday, December 3. The SBI has not yet announced a time, location or format for that meeting.
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