Pro-Palestine activists in MN mobilize for Purge Palantir week of action

Minneapolis, MN – The Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) and other organizations took part in an international “Purge Palantir” week of action September 26 to October 1. Led by the American Friends Service Committee, the week of action sought to pressure public institutions, universities, state pension investment entities, and hospital systems to end contracts with Palantir.

Activist groups and human rights organizations from the U.S., UK, Australia, South and Central America, and beyond organized to disrupt business as usual for Palantir Technologies.

As part of Purge Palantir actions, the AWC held a rally on September 26, “From Minnesota to Palestine: No Deadly Surveillance! Divest from Palantir!” in Martin Luther King Jr. Park during the well-attended Open Streets festival on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.

The rally was co-hosted by Minnesota 50501 and endorsed by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), Twin Cities Coalition for Justice (TCC4J), and others.

Earlier in the week, the AWC and other community members testified at the State Board of Investment (SBI) at its quarterly meeting on September 22, demanding it divest from Palantir as part of a broader longstanding call for divestment from companies that profit from Israel’s genocide and apartheid system.

The September 26 rally hosted speakers who addressed the many ways that Palantir weaponizes AI-powered tools for large-scale data collection and mass surveillance and violates human rights globally and locally. Speakers demanded the Minnesota SBI divest from Palantir.

AWC member Carter Steinhagen told the crowd, “The Minnesota State Board of Investment currently has $57 million invested in Palantir,” adding, “SBI chair Governor Walz has stated that ‘ICE operations are a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government’ – but [the governor] refuses to divest from Palantir.”

Another speaker highlighted the connection between deadly surveillance and kill-chain targeting in Palestine and the local impact of Palantir’s surveillance of Minneapolis citizens, observers and protesters, during Operation Metro Surge, allowing ICE agents to identify people by name and follow them home.

“Palantir created the ELITE facial recognition software system that allowed ICE agents to automatically obtain personal information of anyone that they can scan in public,” said Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee member Yann Chen. “If you were out in the cold this winter and you thought agents were taking photos of your face, know that they were definitely illegally collecting information and targeting us, the regular people that stood up in the face of tyranny.”

Chen added that Palnatir’s “ImmigrationOS is what all dystopian movies originate from – one database that can obtain passport records, Social Security records, IRS data, license plate information, biometric data, and even our utility bills. This is what Minnesota leaders refuse to stand up against.”

“It is heartening to see more and more folks starting to learn and speak out against what these AI-fueled surveillance technologies are doing to our communities here in Minnesota in particular. We’ve seen mass demonstrations against Flock cameras here and across the U.S. We’ve also recently had successful campaigns against Skydio drone contracts with Minneapolis and Saint Paul police departments, and growing coalitions to oppose data center construction plans,” said Khrys Wetzel of Women Against Military Madness.

“We are deeply concerned about Palantir’s complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and ICE violence here at home,” said rally emcee Ulysses Dolan of the AWC. “We have massive human rights concerns about this company. These investments are not only financially volatile, but Minnesotans do not want our tax dollars funding this dystopian violence. We demand that the SBI divest now!”

For information about the AWC and its calls for divestment, visit DivestMN.com.

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Source: https://fightbacknews.org/pro-palestine-activists-in-mn-mobilize-for-purge-palantir-week-of-action?pk_campaign=rss-feed