Living in the North Country doesn’t mean we can ignore human rights abuses perpetrated internationally and, specifically, within Israeli-occupied Palestine when corporations in our back yard and our legislature are complicit.

By Lucia Wilkes Smith
Women Against Military Madness Vol. 38  Num. 4  Fall 1 2020

General Mills

Rally at General Mills Headquarters September 21, 2020 (see details below).

Now it’s Cheerios, Froot Loops, Betty Crocker, and that cute Pillsbury Doughboy! In February, the United Nations named Minnesota-based General Mills among companies doing business in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

General Mills bought Pillsbury in 2001 and manufactures frozen baked goods in the Atarot Industrial Zone. The factory was built on land belonging to the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina, located in the area of East Jerusalem. The Atarot, like other Israeli settlements, is illegal under international law according to UN Security Council Resolution 2334.

ACTION:

Rally at General Mills Headquarters
Join a peaceful bannering, protest General Mills HQ, Golden Valley, MN, at surrounding park-light grounds that welcomes visitors. Visible from Highway #394, east of #169,  Monday, September 21, 4:30-5:30 p.m. (a day before General Mills shareholder meeting scheduled Tuesday, September 22, 8:30 a.m.)  Wear masks and plan on social distancing.

Rally at General Mills Headquarters on Facebook.
Directions: Parking available west of stoplight, General Mills Blvd. at Betty Crocker Drive, Golden Valley. Exit Highway #394 (about 3 miles west of Highway #100); drive north on General Mills Boulevard to 2nd stoplight at Betty Crocker Drive. Turn west (left) to nearby parking. (Or, turn south onto General Mills Blvd. from Highway #55.)

Note: Anyone holding shares in General Mills is welcome to submit a question for corporate officers during that meeting to express their concerns.

Also, Watch for updates on “No Dough for the Occupation!” a wintertime bannering, holiday baking campaign.

For additional information about Atarot Industrial Zone and General Mills, check the American Friends Service Committee website: American Friends Service Committee investigation: https://investigate.afsc.org/company/general-mills.

Elbit Systems

The Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI), which handles pension funds for all state employees and public-school teachers, holds stock in Elbit Systems, that Israeli weapons manufacturer renowned for “field testing” weapons – with intensity – on the Palestinian people of Gaza.

Elbit Systems also is under contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for surveillance equipment installed along the U.S./Mexico border. Indigenous organizer Nellie Jo David drew parallels between the cruel nature of walls and checkpoints in her own borderland Tohono O’odham Nation and in Occupied Palestine. (See the Women Against Military Madness Annual Meeting, June 2020: tinyurl.com/y489vw8k on Youtube.)

ACTION & INFO:

Lobby Minnesota State Board of Investment to divest from Elbit (continuing). FFI: WAMM calendar or contact the office at 612-827-5364.

See for background: “Minnesota Not Nice! State’s Role in Violating Human Rights at the U.S. Southern Border and in Palestine,” by Lucia Wilkes Smith, Women Against Military Madness Newsletter, Vol. 37, Number 4, Fall I, 2019. tinyurlcom/y674up3q
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