Readers Write: Educators for Palestine, nonprofit bill, Sanders’ weapons resolutions

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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As a rabbi who has known Taher Herzallah for five years, I’m writing in response to “Mpls. teachers union event criticized over anti-Israel speaker” (Nov. 21). The attempt by Mayor Jacob Frey and the Jewish Community Relations Committee to censor education about Palestine by aligning with right-wing media groups that have taken Herzallah’s words out of context is disgraceful. I call on our community’s so-called leadership to apologize for their unprincipled denigration of Herzallah.

I first met Herzallah as part of a multifaith campaign to counter the antisemitic and Islamophobic group Christians United for Israel’s conference in 2019. I learned so much from his clarity on organizing for justice in Palestine, rooted in freedom and safety for all people. We have connected about how our religious practices inspire our work for justice. Herzallah and I are clear that Zionism — which claims Jewish safety requires a nation-state where Jews have more rights than others — is a political movement that must be condemned, that Jews are a politically diverse group and that we can work together across faith lines for justice. In November 2023, I had the honor of speaking on a panel with him. In the midst of grieving members of his family killed in Gaza, he was kind, connecting and steadfast in his commitment to working together for justice.

I applaud MFT Educators for Palestine for learning from a range of voices, and hearing from directly impacted people like Herzallah. The mayor’s callous and irresponsible parroting of the JCRC’s hateful rhetoric undermines Muslim-Jewish relations at a time when our solidarity is more important than ever. I look forward to working with Herzallah for years to come.

Jessica Rosenberg, Minneapolis

The writer is a member of the Rabbinical Council of Jewish Voice for Peace.

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As in everything concerning Israel, there are heroes and villains. So it is with Mayor Frey’s call to the Minneapolis teachers union to cancel an upcoming seminar that features a speaker who has accused Jewish people of being Muslims’ “enemy number one,“ and who has been called “a notorious Jew-hater.” The hero is Mayor Frey for opposing the union, something that could hurt him politically. The mayor’s comment, “We all want to send our kids to a school where we know they will be safe and loved for who they are,” should be the title of MFT Educators for Palestine’s next seminar. The villain in the piece is not the speaker himself, as Jew-haters are a dime a dozen. The real villain is MFT Educators for Palestine, which is giving this speaker a platform to spread his hate to our students. We have all seen the effect of poisoning young minds in the demonstrations and violence against Jewish students on our college campuses last summer. Those who seek to promote such violence understand that the most effective way to do so is through our schools — the “Get ’em while they’re young” method. So thank you, Mayor Frey, for standing up to this attempt to poison the minds of our young students, and for recognizing the danger it presents to Jewish students. Perhaps New York Times columnist Bret Stephens said it best when he wrote around the anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, “Few people are more dangerous than educated bigots.”

Ronald Haskvitz, Minnetonka

Six years ago I stood on the doorstep of a ranch house in Angie Craig’s congressional district, earnestly explaining to a nice but politically disengaged voter just how vital it was that she cast her vote for Craig in the midterms. At the time, I said that electing Rep. Craig was for preserving the rights of free Americans. Perhaps I spoke too soon.

It’s a bitter irony that today, when democracy faces worse threats than it did back then, Craig should choose to support HR 9495, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. This bill would give enemies of democracy powerful weapons to disempower any nonprofit organization that stands in their way, no questions asked.

At this moment we need our elected officials to fight for our freedoms, not undercut them by voting for terrible bills like HR 9495.

Angie, you’re better than this. Please do the right thing.

Jim Ryan, Minneapolis

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On Thursday, the U.S. House passed a dangerous bill that could be utilized to suppress dissent (”U.S. House passes antiterrorism bill,” Nov. 21). Should the proposed law pass, nonprofits that run afoul of the Donald Trump administration could be stripped of their nonprofit status as well as their access to banking services.

Civil liberties groups and many nonprofits themselves have sternly warned of the dangers this act could pose if enacted. We should listen, as this bill has very little to do with bolstering national security. The legislation’s real aim is to utilize fear to weaken our civil society and silence viewpoints on hot-button issues like Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

The incoming Trump administration will already face less institutional resistance than in Trump’s first term, with a friendly Supreme Court and a conservative majority in both chambers of Congress. Given that reality, we desperately need civic organizations that are unafraid of advocating for human rights and democratic values. Many media organizations doing important reporting have adopted a nonprofit model as a means of survival. This bill could put those newsrooms in grave danger.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith should vote against this proposed legislation, sending a message that Minnesotans will not be scared into giving our civil rights away to a man who has claimed he will only be a dictator on Day One.

Brian Wagenaar, Eden Prairie

Although the resolutions did not pass, I want to thank Sen. Smith for voting to halt the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel because of its actions in the war against Hamas, including Israel’s blocking U.S. humanitarian aid to Gaza.

This spring, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration provided an assessment to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which concluded that Israel was deliberately blocking deliveries of food and medical aid into Gaza. USAID also accused Israel of killing aid workers and bombing ambulances and hospitals.

And in June the global poverty organization Oxfam issued a news release titled “Famine risk increases as Israel makes Gaza aid response virtually impossible.”

More recently, in October a group of 99 U.S. medical professionals who volunteered in Gaza sent an urgent letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The letter asserts that conditions are so dire that malnutrition in pregnant women is resulting in spontaneous abortions, and that babies are starving to death daily because mothers are too malnourished to breastfeed, coupled with a lack of formula and clean water.

The letter also concludes that there is strong evidence of Israel’s “widespread violations” of international humanitarian law.

I encourage Sen. Smith, as well as other members of Congress, to meet with American health care workers who are signatories to this letter in order to obtain a firsthand account of what is occurring in the Gaza Strip.

Terry Hansen, Milwaukee

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Thank you, Sen. Smith, for your brave vote on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposal. Our unmitigated support of Israel in its Gaza campaign is pure insanity. The world is sick of U.S. hegemony and is turning away from the empire.

Mike McDonald, St. Paul

The writer is a member of Veterans For Peace.