DIVEST MINNESOTA FROM APARTHEID ISRAEL

Minnesota state investments in Israel fuel ICE terror.

Palantir tech is used by ICE to stalk and kidnap our neighbors. Israel uses the same tech to track and bomb Palestinians. Why are Tim Walz and the Minnesota State Board of Investment funding it?

Why does the connection between the enablers of ICE and Israeli violence matter?

It illustrates that our struggles are literally connected. Working class and oppressed peoples here have more in common with Palestinians than with the US government and tech oligarchs. The weapons used and developed on one group will be used and developed against another, and so on. So we must disarm them.

Palantir, founded by right-wing oligarch Peter Thiel, has become a household name in dystopian technology. Its AI models and database tools can be integrated into weapons and surveillance systems and are capable of compiling data, tracking targets, and taking independent action.

In January 2024, Palantir entered into a “strategic partnership” with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to provide services for “war-related missions,” which include products that can generate kill-lists and assign targeting tasks to drones.

ICE has contracted Palantir for hundreds of millions of dollars over the years for programs that harass immigrants and organize raids.

The apps ImmigrationOS and ELITE pull from databases, social media, and public programs including Medicaid to stalk immigrants. ELITE creates live-updating maps to generate kidnapping targets in real time.

ImmigrationOS decides who to prioritize for deportation, streamlines the deportation process, and monitors whether immigrants are leaving the US voluntarily.

Asked whether ICE could use Palantir’s products and data outside of their platforms, Palantir executive Akash Jain said, “Yes, we do not take the position of policing the use of our platform for every workflow.”

In other words, there are no limits to how ICE, the Israeli military, or any other customer can use these tools.

Israel uses vast surveillance networks to spy on Palestinians’ every movement. Israel feeds this data into AI targeting programs, such as Lavender and Where’s Daddy, which generate kill-lists and target Palestinians with bombs while they’re home with their families.

ICE uses similar surveillance networks to spy on immigrants and activists in the US and similar AI programs to generate lists of people to target. Agents have recorded the faces and plates of observers and protesters. Questioned on camera by an observer in Maine, one agent explained, “We have a nice little database, and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”

The SBI, chaired by Tim Walz, has invested over $57 million of public workers’ pension funds in Palantir. As ICE abducts and murders Minnesotans, Walz and fellow DFL board members Keith Ellison, Julie Blaha, and Steve Simon have the ability to take immediate action against Trump’s attacks on Minnesotans.

They must divest from Palantir NOW!

Call Governor Tim Walz and the SBI office and demand divestment from Palantir!

Governor Walz: (651) 201-3400

SBI Office: (651) 296-3328

Call-In script: Hello, my name is __________. As a Minnesotan, I’m calling to demand that the SBI divest from Palantir. This company provides tools of mass surveillance to ICE as it attacks our communities and enables war crimes against Palestinians. Our tax money and public employee pension funds should not be invested in companies that violate our privacy and harm vulnerable people.