Activism
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January 28, 2026
Minneapolis proper now jogs my memory of what I’ve seen throughout my time within the West Bank.
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Federal brokers push again protesters in the course of the “ICE OUT! Noise Demo” exterior a resort in Minneapolis, on January 25, 2026.
(Octavio Jones / AFP by way of Getty Images)
As somebody who has spent a major period of time within the West Bank of Palestine, I do know an occupation after I see one—and what’s taking place in Minnesota proper now’s an occupation.
I got here out to Minneapolis to hitch the Twin Cities group Multifaith Antiracism, Change & Healing (MARCH) in protesting the atrocities being dedicated by ICE in opposition to the individuals of their state.
Following a few days of nonviolent coaching, belief constructing, rallying, marching, and direct motion, discover got here on Sunday—sooner or later after the horrific homicide of Alex Pretti—that our help was wanted at one of many neighborhood’s dual-language (English and Spanish) church buildings. My accountability was to make it possible for parishioners, who have been continuously too afraid to go away their properties, may worship collectively in relative security.
With liturgical vestments — for myself, a tallit (Jewish prayer scarf) — draped over our many layers of winter clothes, plastic whistles round our necks, and gasoline masks at hand, simply in case, we buddied up for security and stationed ourselves on the assorted road corners across the church.
We hoped that our presence as white religion leaders may deter ICE from showing on this explicit day—or that we’d a minimum of be capable of warn the parishioners if we noticed ICE autos approaching the church. As providers concluded, we walked individuals to their automobiles or close by properties in order that if, God forbid, they have been snatched up, their households could possibly be instantly knowledgeable, volunteering attorneys activated, and video documentation of the kidnapping uploaded to the positioning created by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s workplace.
It wasn’t the primary time I had performed this type of “protective presence.” Staying for a month or two at a time within the West Bank metropolis of Hebron, I used to spend every weekday morning and afternoon accompanying youngsters to and from faculties to guard them from Israeli troopers. Just as in Minnesota—wherefive-year-old Luis Ramos was snatched out of his father’s automobile within the driveway of their house final week—the menace the occupying military posed to Palestinian youngsters was all too actual.
Current Issue
With me exterior the Minneapolis church on Sunday was an area pastor who had been doing protecting presence within the metropolis regularly. As we shuffled our ft to remain heat in below-zero temperatures, he relayed a dialog he had had along with his 5-year-old son the day earlier than.
They have been within the automobile when the information of Alex Pretti’s demise got here via the radio. His son, in a seemingly unaffected tone, stated, “They just killed another one, Dad.” It was tragic that the infant had come to see the violence as regular. My coronary heart sank as I assumed again to my experiences with Palestinian youngsters who had come to see the presence and actions of the Israeli army as a standard a part of their lives.
In 2017, whereas within the West Bank with a delegation of U.S. veterans, I participated in a nonviolent protest led by famend Palestinian human rights defender Issa Amro. His plan was for us to arrange a pop-up produce market on Hebron’s Shuhadah Street, which had been the town’s most important thoroughfare till 1994, when Israeli troops welded its outlets closed and completely shut all enterprise down.“Come and buy vegetables! Cauliflower for one shekel,” Issa’s voice boomed.
The military rapidly rolled up, and troopers jumped out, weapons cocked. Issa, with an intuition that I, as a white Jewish girl, have by no means wanted to have, acknowledged a very harmful look within the troopers’ eyes, instantly dropped to his knees, and bowed his head.
Two days after arriving in Minneapolis, I joined 100 clergy and religion leaders — nearly all of them white – who have been lined up one-by-one in an act of civil disobedience exterior the Minneapolis airport to protest Delta Airlines’ complicity in over 2,000 deportations. When my flip got here to be arrested, I positioned my cumbersome mittened arms out for handcuffing, however the officer didn’t trouble putting a zipper tie round them. They didn’t sort out me to the bottom, beat me, or strip-search me. Unlike the Minneapolis Somali neighborhood, roughly 95 p.c of whom are U.S. residents, the therapy I obtained was nearer to “Officer Friendly” than to the thuggish and violent conduct of ICE. In a lot the identical manner, Westerners offering protecting presence within the Occupied Palestinian Territories will typically (although not all the time) obtain much less harsh therapy than the Palestinians they’ve come to assist
As with the experiences I’ve had within the West Bank, my encounters with individuals on the streets of Minneapolis have been profoundly shifting. Everyday individuals — Uber drivers, resort clerks, restaurant workers — have greeted me with expressions of gratitude that I’m right here to assist their metropolis. “Stay safe,” every of my Uber drivers, the overwhelming majority of whom have been of African, largely Somali, origin, have pleaded with me as I exit their autos. Yet, it’s they who’re internet hosting me of their metropolis. The nourishment my soul is receiving from being of holy service to them is, undoubtedly, way over the influence my presence is having. “Please, YOU stay safe,” I reply every time. “May God spread over you and your family, and all of the people of Minnesota, a shelter of peace.”
Ariel Gold
Ariel Gold is a religion activist with Rainbow PUSH, on the Governance International of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, and a member of Ahavas Shalom synagogue in Newark, NJ.
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