The Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI) comprised of its chair, Governor Tim Walz, along with State Auditor Julie Blaha, Secretary of State Steve Simon, and Attorney General Keith Ellison, manages investments for state retirement plans and pensions, state trusts, and agency cash accounts—funded, in part, by taxpayer dollars.
As of the SBI’s June 2024 “Public Markets Asset Listing” report, the Minnesota Anti-War Committee has identified approximately $5.4 billion (of the SBI’s managed $146 billion total) invested in public assets belonging to entities complicit in and/or profiting from Israel’s apartheid regime.
Of that amount, $105 million are in Israeli bonds, banks, and corporations; over $711 million are invested in non-Israeli weapons manufacturers that sell to the Israeli occupation; over $725 million are in non-Israeli corporations providing the occupation with heavy machinery and equipment used to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure; and roughly $3.9 billion are invested in non-Israeli corporations that continue to do business with the occupation and/or that operate within Israel’s apartheid state.
The movement for divestment from apartheid is not new in Minnesota. Today, we follow calls from the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, largely modeled on the successes of the South African anti-apartheid movement. In 1985, Minnesotans demanded divestment until the SBI passed a resolution to divest from Apartheid South Africa.
In the resolution, any corporation found to be “operat[ing] in a manner which directly supports Apartheid”, which included providing “goods or services to … any … governmental agency responsible for the enforcement or maintenance of Apartheid”, “technology or facilities … that tend to make the Republic of South Africa less dependent on international trade and thus less susceptible to outside pressure for change”, and “... financial services to, the government of the Republic of South Africa”, or corporations that were otherwise “deemed by the SBI” to be “egregious for other reasons,” were on the chopping block and risked divestment so long as they continued to do business with the apartheid government.
The SBI’s criteria, along with the Sullivan Principles, laid the groundwork to begin divesting from South African apartheid.
We’ve applied the SBI’s historical standards for divestment from apartheid South Africa to today’s apartheid state of Israel. We demand that the SBI takes immediate steps to divest Minnesotan taxpayer dollars and public employee pension funds from apartheid Israel, just as it did with South African apartheid in 1985.
Referencing the databases of Who Profits, AFSC Investigate, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and NASDAQ, we’ve compiled and categorized the following entities that the SBI must incorporate into a resolution to divest from apartheid Israel.
As of December 2023, the SBI held $12.3 million in Israel Bonds that directly fund the State of Israel.
The SBI also invests $1.4 million in Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer that not only produces cluster bombs and illegal white phosphorus munitions but also develops surveillance technology used to oppress Palestinians in the West Bank. Elbit has also been contracted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to build similar militarized surveillance equipment as part of the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
A variety of Israeli businesses, including banks, software companies, mining operations, pharmaceuticals, and energy firms, are essential to Israel’s colonial apartheid system and economy. Banks are integral to the apartheid system, as they finance and incentivize settlements on stolen West Bank land, which in turn rely on power from Israeli energy companies. Additionally, Israel benefits from mining operations that extract bromine from the occupied Dead Sea region, which is distributed globally.
The SBI invests $91 million in these corporations, thereby sustaining Israel’s economy, which profit not only off of apartheid and stolen land, but also Palestinian labor. By investing in these businesses, the SBI endorses the apartheid regime and contributes to the maintenance of the apartheid system.
Since October 7, over 40,000 Palestinians have been murdered in Israel’s genocide. The so-called Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claim to do “everything possible to limit civilian casualties in Gaza,” while continuing to systematically target civilians, journalists, aid workers, and critical infrastructure.
The Minnesota SBI has over $711 million invested in non-Israeli weapons manufacturers actively selling to Israel.
The Israeli occupation annexes Palestinian territory by destroying Palestinian structures and building illegal settlements in their place. This has been the primary way Israel has displaced Palestinians since the 1948 mass ethnic cleansing known as The Nakba. The SBI has over $725 million invested in companies whose complicity ranges from the supply of heavy equipment and building materials, to the planning, construction, and maintenance of illegal Israeli settlements.
The SBI has nearly $3.9 billion invested in companies that profit off Israel’s criminal occupation in less direct ways, ranging from surveillance technology to logistical support of apartheid law. All of these companies have a vested interest in seeing Israel’s occupation of Palestine continue and expand. Following the precedent used during its divestment from apartheid South Africa, the SBI has an obligation to divest from these companies until they end their complicity in Israel’s system of illegal occupation and apartheid.
The instability caused by Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine has led to a shrinking, unstable economy. Over 46,000 Israeli businesses have closed and several major US credit rating agencies have called Israel’s economic outlook “negative”. Israel Bonds are openly marketed as a way to support the State of Israel, not as a sound investment decision, yet the SBI holds $12.4 million of these bonds.
A pension is an employer-sponsored retirement plan, where the employer provides fixed benefits for the entire lives of retired workers. Pensions provide much stronger benefit guarantees for retirees than other types of retirement plans like 401ks.
Sadly, many employers have replaced pensions with weaker retirement plans that shift financial responsibilities onto individual workers. But labor unions have fought hard to keep pensions in many sectors, especially public sector jobs.
Many of us behind the DivestMN campaign are public sector workers ourselves and have SBI-managed pensions. We unequivocally support pensions and the unions that fight for them. We believe it’s the civic duty of Minnesota residents not only to ensure these state-managed pensions are adequately funded, but that these public funds are invested ethically.
Talk to your community about divestment! Print out our pamphlet for easy literature to hand out at your local org’s actions, union meetings, etc., sign the petition to demand the SBI divests from Israeli apartheid, and follow @AntiwarMN on socials to catch upcoming protests and call-in actions.
