In a letter to union membership, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers president Marcia Howard said that the MFT and logo name would not be on the flyer of an event on Friday featuring Taher Herzallah.
The event came under fire as a decade of statements from Herzallah – the Associate Director of Outreach & Community Organizing for American Muslims for Palestine – questioning Israel’s legitimacy, calling for martyrs, and calling for the bombing of Israel came to light.
“After Wednesday’s Joint Executive Board meeting, we were informed that the [Educators 4 Palestine] group would not have the event at our hall and will not use the MFT moniker while having outside members in their group,” Howard wrote. “The change of name and venue does not change the concerns of Jewish members and families that members of the affinity group may not be properly vetting who is informing some of the educators in our community. It also does not allay the concerns from many members that incidents like these detract from the work that we are doing as a union.”
Educators 4 Palestine is a non-sponsored affinity group made up of members of MFT Local 59
“We are not sure where the E4P group will have their event(s) going forward,” Howard wrote. “What we know for sure is that Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Educational Support Professionals condemns antisemitism and other pernicious forms of discrimination and bigotry. Not in our house, not in our union, not in our schools. Not us.
“We are saying that with our whole chest.”
Ethan Roberts, the deputy executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said he appreciated the message from Howard and the union.
“It was clear they did their homework and brought people together and they listened,” he said. “When Jewish educators said he is antisemitic, she heard that and it’s reflected in the message. It’s important that it’s not happening in the MFT space and it’s not an MFT program.”
On Oct. 17, 2023, Herzallah said: “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.”
The 17-second segment of the video was distributed by Canary Mission, a non-profit organization that documents individuals and organizations that “promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond.”
Herzallah, in a blog post on Wednesday afternoon, claimed that the video at the center of the controversy was “doctored,” but also apologized for misspeaking.
“Clearly, I misspoke and did not mean Jewish people but meant Jewish Zionists which is evidenced by the context of what I said before and after that comment,” Herzallah wrote. His blog post included a longer video that includes the “enemy number one” quote, but also speaks out against “Muslim normalization with Zionists,” and about the anti-Zionist Jews working with Palestinians.
Howard said she spoke with Frey before his video post began making the rounds. She wrote: “[Frey] thought that the most incendiary rhetoric was the out-of-context video clip circulating, but there was some more indisputably charged language from the speaker that could not be glossed over by even a generous interpretation. The E4P group were going to have to consider if they were willing to stand by every utterance of their invited guest or not.
“I was calling it ‘rhetorically sloppy’ but during the meeting, one member made sure to name it how she saw it: indefensibly antisemitic.”
In May 2024 at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit, Herzallah said that “the Palestinian diaspora in North America has committed its martyrs for this cause.”
“There are people among us today who might not be with us next year at this conference. And this is a reality, because the liberation struggle requires sacrifice, and I know everyone here is prepared to make that sacrifice,” he said.
“The long tentacles of Zionism have always reached deep into the American heartland like no other place in the world. Zionism has penetrated the depths of American society, economics and politics for decades. At its core, the Zionist settler colonial project is based on the white European settler colonial project of North America.”
Roberts said that Herzallah is a “skilled operator.”
“He knows how to speak the language of progressives and come across as far more reasonable than his actual career demonstrates,” he said. “He’s been a leader of [Students for Justice in Palestine] and AMP for a decade. His entire career has been based on destroying Israel. The entire goal of the work of SJP and AMP is anti-normalization.”
While speaking at a San Diego mosque in December 2023, he said that his organization is clear about their objective of a free Palestine “from the river to the sea,” which is a statement the American Jewish Committee and others say is antisemitic.
“Don’t let anybody make you feel uncomfortable about saying that, because we don’t follow their moral authority,” he said. “But when we rule Palestine, we go by a different moral code, and so therefore it’s incumbent upon us to rule Palestine again. We’re Muslims. We believe in Allah. We will enforce…we will bring the rules that Allah gave us to this earth because that’s what we were sent for.”
Roberts said Herzallah has an Islamist mindset.
“He wants rivers of blood. That’s the end game,” he said. “There’s no possible room in his ideology for a two-state existence. This is violent. It’s extreme. It could not lead to any peaceful co-existence.
In 2014, when Herzallah was the national campus coordinator for AMP, he told the organization’s national conference that “The State of Israel is a lie.” He ended his remarks at the conference calling for violence against Israel.
“Israelis have to be bombed, they are a threat to the legitimacy of Palestine, and it is wrong to maintain the State of Israel,” he said. “It is an illegitimate creation born from colonialism and racism.”
Roberts said that Howard’s email indicated that she looked at more of Herzallah’s rhetorical history than just the one clip.
“It was was really thoughtful email, and it’s clear that she was looking at more than just this one speech,” he said. “She looked at all the other instances and they see him for who he is. For who he’s always been.”
Much of Herzallah’s post was dedicated to hitting back at Frey, who is Jewish, for his social media video calling out the MFT for their decision.
Students should be learning about love, not hate.
The MFT Educators for Palestine should cancel their seminar with Taher Herzallah, who has openly expressed anti-Semitic views, including calling Jewish people “enemy number one.”
Schools must be spaces for unity, not division. pic.twitter.com/SzbW0OEXK3
— Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) November 20, 2024
“I am most disappointed that Mayor Frey, instead of doing some soul-searching, chose this misquote as an opportunity to attack the incredibly principled teachers and organizers at MFT,” Herzallah said. “Their commitment to objective facts and justice will strengthen their ability to teach students how to become upright global citizens. Educators are not the enemy; they are the backbone of our society.”
Roberts said Frey – a former JCRC board member – should be commended.
“He stuck his neck out, and a lot of hate has been directed at him,” Roberts said. “He’s standing up for himself, his family, and our community. That’s so important right now. He’s modeling what it means to be a Jewish elected official in this time. We’re very grateful.”
