St. Paul, MN – Palestine solidarity advocates vowed to press ahead with demands for Minnesota divestment from Israel’s crimes after the State Board of Investment (SBI) released data showing it held just one remaining Israel Bond after a series of bond sales and non-renewals. At a Monday, November 10, press conference at the State Capitol rotunda, speakers from local organizations explained the significance of the disclosure and outlined next steps for divestment.

The press conference was organized by local groups Minnesota BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] Community and the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC).

Israel Bonds are debt securities that function as loans to the state of Israel. The SBI – chaired by Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, State Auditor Julie Blaha and Secretary of State Steve Simon – manages assets worth around $150 billion on behalf of state pension systems and other public funds.

In late October, the SBI responded to a months-old Data Practices Act request submitted by MN BDS Community for information on the SBI’s Israel Bond holdings. It provided data showing Israel Bond transactions dating back to 2009, culminating in the non-renewal of a recurring $10 million bond that matured in July 2025, and a flurry of bond sales beginning in 2021. The most recent bond sale was dated October 9, 2025.

The data showed the bond sales totaled at a loss of around $810,000. The agency that issues Israel Bonds, the Development Corporation of Israel (DCI), states on its international sales website that “Israel Bonds are intended as a long-term investment […] investors should expect to hold Bonds to maturity,” explaining that there is no secondary trading market for Israel Bonds.

The SBI did not explain the unusual bond sales nor its decision not to renew the $10 million bond in July – which itself had been renewed from a previous ten-year maturing bond in 2015.

Instead, after the press conference, the SBI emailed reporters claiming that it had “not changed its investment policy.” Oddly, the email included outdated data dated September 30 – omitting the more recent Israel Bond sale on October 9.

“They chose to do it quietly. They chose to do it cowardly. Because they didn’t want to publicly confess to the power of our movement,” said Sana Wazwaz, a Palestinian American organizer with American Muslims for Palestine – Minnesota. “They didn’t want to testify to how much civic pressure that we can leverage over them.”

Wazwaz explained that in 2024, she had been part of a Palestinian families delegation that was set to meet with Governor Walz, but the governor’s office canceled the meeting just before it was set to take place, after the Palestinian families made clear they would be calling for divestment.

“Governor Walz, this is my message to you: stop hiding. Just admit you messed up,” Wazwaz said. “We call on you to publicly condemn Israel’s genocide. Stop with this quiet, coy divestment.”

Karen Schraufnagel is a financial analyst and an organizer with Minnesota BDS Community. “While the SBI was losing money on these investments, they continued to argue publicly that fiduciary responsibility required them to make and hold these investments,” Schraufnagel said. “The revelation of substantial and repeated losses seems to indicate that buying and holding these bonds was never about fiduciary responsibility.”

The Development Corporation of Israel’s website openly markets Israel Bonds as a way to “stand with Israel.”

Organizers at the press conference emphasized that the reduction in Israel Bond holdings was just the beginning of their demands, pointing to the Minnesota SBI’s sweeping divestment policy in 1985 that targeted not only South Africa itself, but companies around the world that enabled its racist apartheid system.

The DivestMN.com website shows ongoing SBI investments worth $5.6 billion in companies that human rights monitors deem to be profiting from or complicit in Israel’s crimes. These include banks that fund illegal West Bank settlements, and weapons manufacturers and big tech companies that equip the Israeli occupation.

A joint statement released Monday by the AWC and U.S. Palestinian Community Network – Minnesota said, “We call on the Palestine solidarity movement to seize this moment, sharpen our demands and fight for complete divestment from apartheid Israel – just like Minnesota did with apartheid South Africa. As Israel continues to conduct horrific war crimes, and as more institutions across the country and world pull pensions and public funds out of Israel, the risks of Minnesota’s investments in Israel will only grow.”

The SBI’s Israel Bond disclosure follows two years of unprecedented protests by public pension holders and pro-Palestine community members at the SBI’s quarterly board meetings. Steps taken by the SBI to avoid protesters – including postponements and legally dubious virtual meeting formats – prompted an all-day sit-in held by the AWC on October 21 that led to eleven arrests.

“We know the truth. Israel is the aggressor and the occupier. The veil is lifted, and we in Minnesota have had enough,” said Chelsey Sondeland of the AWC. “Take our money out of apartheid and genocide. We do not support it, and our money should not fund it.”

The next meeting of the State Board of Investment is set to take place on Wednesday, December 3, at 10 a.m. The SBI has yet to announce a venue or format for the meeting, though SBI board member State Auditor Julie Blaha recently told the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, “I expect we’ll be back in person.”

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine

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