Minnesota’s investments in apartheid Israel
Published on 5/14/2023
What is the Minnesota State Board of Investment?
The State Board of Investment (SBI) manages assets for state retirement plans and pensions, state trusts, and agency cash accounts, using Minnesota taxpayer money. It is responsible for the investments of Minnesota state employee retirement and pension funds.
How does the SBI invest in Apartheid Israel?
The Anti-War Committee has identified over $800 million invested by the SBI in entities carrying out or complicit in Israel’s Apartheid system.
$25 million in Israeli bonds, direct loans to the government of Israel.
$23 million invested in Israeli banks which are the financiers of illegal land-grab settlements on Palestinian land. The settlement system couldn’t function without their financing.
Tens of millions invested in Israeli companies engaged in and profiting from the mass theft of Palestinian resources (water, mining, minerals, agriculture, etc.) in the West Bank.
$1.2 million invested in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company, whose weapons and surveillance systems are deployed in occupied Palestine and at the southern US border.
Hundreds of millions invested in multinational companies ranging from booking companies like AirBnB, which aid Israeli tourism industry inside Palestinian territory; to tech companies like HP and Motorola, which aid the Israeli Occupation Forces in repression and surveillance of Palestinians; to Caterpillar, which has built armored bulldozers deployed against Palestinians.
What is BDS?
The Palestinian-led call for the international community to apply economic pressure on Israel to end Apartheid and occupation through a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction strategy.
This draws inspiration from the successful international campaign to end Apartheid in South Africa. The Minnesota State Board of Investment itself divested from its holdings in South Africa, contributing to the end of the Apartheid regime. This is part of how we can fight for a free Palestine!
*figures are based on the most recent SBI asset listing, June 2022
