We are not here to negotiate with apartheid!

Speech given by Kane Widlicka in front of Gov. Walz’s mansion on 9/16/2019

Hello, fellow anti-imperialists! I Kane, on behalf of the AWC, Thank everyone for coming out here this evening to show concern and support for why we are here. 

We did not gather here to plea. We gathered here to demand. We are here to abolish it! Our leaders are supposed to represent us, so we are here to make it very, very, clear. We refuse to support Elbit Systems, Israelʼs largest weapons company, a company that provides the means to brutally attack unarmed civilians in Gaza and at the US/Mexico border. The Anti- War committee sees a particular connection in the war being waged by US funded Israel against Palestinians and the war being waged against refugees from U.S.-caused economic and violence crises in Mexico. We see the connection between the war on Palestinians, and the refugees on the Mexico border because the systems that cause both is funded by and benefits the US govt. 

Elbit sells cluster bombs and white phosphorus weapons to the IDF, who refuse to abide the international bans on these weapons of slaughter, using them indiscriminately on Palestinian civilians. Why is our state board of investments (SBI) holding shares of an estimated $1.25 million in such atrocities? 

Why are we paying our elected representatives to pay Elbitʼs US subsidiary over 150 million taxpayer dollars in government contracts for the militarization of the US-Mexico border? They are currently under contract with the U.S. 

Department of Homeland Security to build a 53-tower “Integrated Fixed Towers” security project on the US- Mexico border. Nationalist militarization has caused death by the thousands at the border! Deaths caused by the creation of refugees, from our policies, forced to migrate from wartorn environments! Innocent people searching for safety! 

These officials were elected on promises to oppose Trumpʼs dehumanizing and racist immigration policies! Keep your word and promise, Tim Walz, Kieth Ellison, Julie Blaha, Steve Simon! Divest from Elbit! Divest from Death!