Educators for Palestine move event featuring controversial speaker from MFT’s union hall

A controversial guest speaker at a teacher’s seminar was moved Friday night as the teacher’s union said he’s made “concerning” comments.

Taher Herzallah spoke with an independent group of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) called Educators for Palestine but the speech was moved from a union hall to an undisclosed location.

Earlier this week, Mayor Jacob Frey called for the event to be canceled, saying some of Herzallah’s past statements were antisemitic.

Herzallah pushed back, saying he meant zionists and not all Jewish people when referring to “enemies.”

Marcia Howard, president of the teacher’s chapter of the MFT, said a deeper review of Herzallah’s record found more concerning statements. “There was some indisputably charged language that cannot be glossed over … One member at our meeting named it as she saw it: indefensibly antisemitic.”

Herzallah responded to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS with the following statement:

“Its not very clear to me which statements they are referring to as they have not mentioned anything to me. In either case, I’ve been attacked and smeared by pro-genocide groups such as the ADL for the better part of my adult life. I am vocally against the structures of Jewish supremacy that Israel has imposed on Palestinians through its settler-colonial project. My opposition to Zionism is rooted in anti racist and anti imperialist principles. The same principles that led the UN General Assembly to determine that Zionism is racism in 1975.”