Call Governor Walz: End MN Support for Border Militarization!
Call Governor Walz: End MN Support for Border Militarization!
Tuesday, October 1st – All Day! Gov. Walz’s office #: 651-201-3400
Join us in flooding Governor Walz’s office with calls demanding that Minnesota divests from Elbit Systems!In March, the US Border Patrol used the threat of Trump’s border wall to force the indigenous Tohono O’odham Nation to agree to massive, military-style “integrated fixed towers,” to be built by Elbit Systems on the tribal nation’s sovereign lands. The Tohono O’odham people live on both sides of the US-Mexico border, crossing between what are now Arizona and Sonora states for thousands of years.Combined with the growing presence of armed Border Patrol squads, the surveillance towers will make the Tohono O’odham reservation “the most militarized community in the United States of America,” according to the International Indian Treaty Council. Immigrant rights advocates have linked increased border militarization with thousands of deaths in recent decades. The Minnesota State Board of Investments (SBI), chaired by Governor Tim Walz, owns an estimated $1.25 million worth of shares in Elbit Systems, the company building the towers.Based in Israel, Elbit advertises its products as “battle-proven” on another occupied nation: Palestine. Elbit also manufactures white phosphorus, cluster bombs, and armed drones used in Israeli killings of Palestinians.We don’t think Minnesota’s retirement funds should be invested in a company that profits from border militarization and occupation! Investment funds in countries like Denmark and Norway have already divested from Elbit. Despite years of local Palestinian, Jewish and solidarity activists demanding divestment–including thousands of petitions we delivered at the SBI’s meeting in August–Governor Walz continues to ignore our concerns.
Social media hashtags: #WalzStopFundingWalls #MNDivestFromElbit
Sample call: “Hello, I’m calling to demand the State Board of Investments that Governor Walz chairs immediately divest from Elbit Systems and disqualify it from future state investments. Elbit Systems profits from the violent militarization of the US-Mexico border and sovereign Native lands. Governor Walz was elected on promises to oppose President Trump’s cruel immigration policies, not to invest in them! Elbit Systems is also complicit in human rights violations committed against the Palestinian people by Israel. I stand with Representative Ilhan Omar in demanding the US stops supporting the criminal occupation of Palestine. Divest from Elbit Systems now!”
Initiated by the Anti-War Committee.