Anti-war activists in Minnesota: 'Governor Walz has refused to meet Palestinian families'

It's been 10 months since Israel's war on Gaza began, and Governor Tim Walz, the newly appointed vice-presidential nominee on Kamala Harris' ticket, has yet to meet with Palestinian families from his home state of Minnesota, anti-war activists have told Middle East Eye.

The accusations are in stark contrast to the public image being conjured up by the Democratic Party establishment to present Walz, along with presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, as more sympathetic and empathetic towards the carnage suffered by Palestinians over the past 10 months.

In March, Walz lauded the "uncommitted movement", describing the initiative to pressure President Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire as "engaged". 

"These are voters that are deeply concerned as we all are. The situation in Gaza is intolerable. And I think trying to find a solution, a lasting two-state solution, certainly the President’s move towards humanitarian aid and asking us to get to a ceasefire, that’s what they’re asking to be heard. And that’s what they should be doing," Walz said.

"We’ve gone through this before. And we know that now we make sure we’ve got eight months [to the election]. We start bringing these folks back in. We listen to what they’re saying," the governor added.

But according to several activists in Minnesota, not only has the governor refused to meet with Palestinian families who have lost relatives in Israel's war on Gaza, he has barely acknowledged their concerns and and demands. 

Sana Wazwaz, the chapter lead and education coordinator for American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) Minnesota, told MEE the Palestinian community had been trying for months to arrange a meeting with the governor to talk about the devastating losses in Gaza and their demands for an arms embargo on Israel.

When they did manage to arrange a meeting with the governor for early July through the Council on Islamic American Relations (Cair), it was cancelled even before it began.

Wazwaz says when the six-person contingent, made up of activists and representatives of families who had lost relatives in Gaza, made their way to the governor's office on 9 July, they were first asked to meet with his staff.

When they explained to the governor's staff that they had come to discuss "material solutions" with the governor and not merely to narrate "sob stories" about the loss of their loved ones - given that it was now almost a year since the war on Gaza began - the two staffers abruptly got up and returned 15-20 minutes later to inform them the meeting had been cancelled.

"[We said] we want to talk about actual material solutions; how we can rectify the situation; how we can stop the horror; stop the genocide, and one of these mechanisms is divestment. We want to talk about like actually pulling materially out of the institutions that are complicit in the slaughter of our family," Wazwaz said.

When asked why the meeting had been cancelled, they were told that the governor "was prepared to listen to you tell your stories, but we weren't prepared to talk about divestment".

They were told there was a process and that it was a complicated discussion that required a different set of staffers, Wazwaz said.

"So, essentially, the way we interpreted the situation was that Walz wanted our tears and not our policy demands. Walz wanted us for the PR stunt and not for actual, genuine conversation about political change. He didn't want that.

"He just wanted to check it off the list that he met with another marginalised group that he's been ignoring for months upon months," Wazwaz said. 

Another participant at the meeting, Suleiman Adan, executive director of Cair-MN, corroborated Wazwaz's version of events.

Adan said it was made clear the meeting was not going to be a "trauma dump" and that the community instead had come to call on the governor to acknowledge the harm that continues to be inflicted on Palestinians, including those citizens belonging to the state of Minnesota.

Adan said it was already irregular to have been made to wait months for a meeting, but to have taken a Palestinian who had lost 40 members of their family to a meeting only to be snubbed was especially disheartening.

Governor Walz's press office did not immediately respond to MEE's request for comment.

Call for an arms embargo

Anti-war and pro-Palestinian activists in Minnesota have been routinely calling for divestment and an arms embargo on Israel. 

Moreover, activists have been calling on the state to repeal the anti-boycott legislation installed in 2017.

But Walz has shown little to no intention to repeal the law.

Pro-Palestine activists have also been urging the state of Minnesota to divest from its financial stakes in Israeli companies and bonds, said to be an estimated $119m.

In December, a group of 1,000 Palestinian solidarity activists in Minnesota interrupted the governor's Christmas party, in which they called on him to divest from Israel.

“Governor Walz has ignored our calls for the divestment of taxpayer dollars and public pension funds from Israeli apartheid. But he will never stop hearing from us or seeing us until he finally ends Minnesota's complacency in genocide,” Christine Hauschildt of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, said at the time.

Wazwaz, from AMP, said it was inconceivable that Walz or his staff could claim to have been unprepared for a discussion on divestment or an arms embargo.

"We have been trying for months to arrange a meeting. Phone calls have been made, but Governor Walz has refused to show up for any of the Palestinian families; has refused to sit down and meet with them, has refused to, you know, visit a single mosque or a single Palestinian institution to check in on our families," Wazwaz said.

Following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October, Walz ordered state flags across Minnesota to be flown at half-mast to mourn the victims. He also criticised those who did not condemn the attack.

“If you did not find moral clarity on Saturday morning, and you find yourself waiting to think about what you needed to say, you need to reevaluate where you’re at,” Walz said at the Beth El Synagogue in St Louis Park, Minnesota.

Activists also point out that Walz's nomination has also garnered praise from liberal pro-Israel lobbying groups in the US.

“We know the Harris-Walz team will stand up for our shared values, protect our community, and pursue smart, pro-Israel, pro-peace leadership abroad. We’re all in,” the liberal Zionist lobbying group, J Street, said.

Likewise, Mark Mellman, chair of the PAC affiliation with the group, Democratic Majority for Israel, described Walz as a "proud pro-Israel Democrat with a strong record of supporting the US-Israel relationship".

On Wednesday, Asma Mohammed, campaign manager for Vote Uncommitted Minnesota, told Democracy Now the Governor "has been pretty clear in his support for Israel in the past, and we know that".