Minneapolis mayor, Jewish group want teachers union to cancel event with anti-Israel speaker

Mayor Jacob Frey and others are calling on the Minneapolis teachers union to cancel an upcoming seminar featuring a speaker who has openly expressed antisemitic views.

Taher Herzallah is scheduled to speak at a Friday event called “being an educator in a time of war & genocide” at the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59 office. The event is sponsored by MFT Educators for Palestine.

Frey, who is Jewish, said on social media Tuesday night that the group should cancel the seminar with Herzallah, who has called Jewish people “enemy number one.”

“That is not the person I want teaching our teachers to teach our students,” Frey said in an interview. “The beautiful thing about kids is they want to be friends with everyone, not everyone but Jews. ... We all want to send our kids to a school where we know they will be safe and loved for who they are.”

Herzallah is the director of outreach and grassroots organizing for American Muslims for Palestine, which the Anti-Defamation League has called one of the most influential, active anti-Israel groups. He is also a member of the Columbia Heights Park and Recreation Commission and ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Anoka County Commission earlier this month. He is also a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities.

Herzallah said during a webinar last year that “Anybody who has any relationship or any support or identifies themselves as a Jewish person or as a Christian Zionist, then we shall not be their friend. I will tell you that they are enemy number one and our community needs to recognize that as such,” according to a video posted by Canary Mission, which documents “hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond.”

Herzallah said in an interview Wednesday that he misspoke during the webinar.

“I definitely did not mean Jewish people in the context of what I was talking about; I meant Jewish and Christian Zionists,” he said. “For me, it’s anyone who supports Israel genocidal policies, be they Christian, Muslim, Jewish — doesn’t matter to me — are enemy number one. I stand by that statement.”

He said nine of his family members have been killed in Gaza in the past year.

“It’s a terrifying, terrible situation,” Herzallah said. “He’s using this to attack ... a student at the University of Minnesota who’s gone through tremendous amount of hardship over the last year, as our family has endured this genocide.”

A Florida lawsuit alleges Herzallah has called for violence against Israel, saying, “Israelis have to be bombed, they are a threat to the legitimacy of Palestine, and it is wrong to maintain the State of Israel. It is an illegitimate creation born from colonialism and racism.”

Herzallah said he has challenged the Anti-Defamation League to prove he said that.

“I don’t even remember saying anything near that or close to that. Do I believe that Israel is a colonial state? Yes, absolutely. Do I believe Israel is a racist state? Yes, absolutely. Israel’s engaged in apartheid. Israel’s engaged in genocide. Israel’s engaged in occupation. All things illegal according to international law.”

The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers represents thousands of Minneapolis Public Schools teachers and support workers. The president of the teachers union, Marcia Howard, said the union plans to have members of the group and those with concerns to meet and discuss the issue Wednesday. The union has a joint executive board meeting Wednesday night, but Howard said leadership should empower them rather than come down like an iron fist.

“More incendiary rhetoric was found from that speaker,” Howard said. “They need to talk as union members about what we all are comfortable with in our house.”

Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said the teachers union is “platforming a notorious Jew-hater” and should “disassociate itself from this event and repudiate the speaker and everything that he represents.”

Last year, the union sparked controversy when it passed a resolution criticizing American support for Israel while condemning violence and calling for a cease-fire. Jeremy Cohen, a former school district parent, said the latest union event represents a deeply troubling but “unfortunately unsurprising escalation of dangerous rhetoric from a vocal minority within MFT.”

And although the school district has previously said it cannot limit MFT’s speech, Cohen called on the superintendent and school board to support Jewish students by “unequivocally denouncing this event and any actions within the MPS community that marginalize or endanger them.”

The St. Paul teachers union is scheduled to vote Nov. 25 on a resolution proposed by its progressive caucus urging the Biden administration to stop military aid to Israel and a cease-fire in Gaza. The resolution reads, in part, ”The amount of money in the entire US Department of Education budget has been eclipsed by the federal subsidies and contracts with the arms supplier, Lockheed Martin, essentially starving our schools of much needed funding.”

The U.S. on Wednesday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas because it was not contingent on the release of the hostages held in Gaza.

Staff writer Anthony Lonetree contributed to this report.