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Palestinian American scholar and human rights attorney Noura Erakat was arrested on charges of trespassing Tuesday at a Palm Beach County budget hearing in West Palm Beach, Florida. Erakat attended the meeting of the county’s board of commissioners alongside former local candidate for the U.S. House Oliver Larkin, former U.S. State Department Official Charles Blaha, and dozens of residents to give public comment against the county’s ballooning investments in Israel Bonds. Palm Beach County currently holds $1 billion in the bonds, making it the world’s largest investor.
“To uphold these investments in Israel, it’s a degradation of civil rights, of human rights, to the point where if we want to go and put our name on a public comment card, and stand in line, and give our little comment for two minutes, we have to expect to get beaten by cops,” said Lydia Ghuman, executive director of the Internationalist Law Center.
That firm is spearheading the Our Taxes, Our Needs campaign alongside other local partners, calling for Palm Beach County to stop investing in Israel Bonds. The Internationalist Law Center is also suing Palm Beach County, arguing that its Israel Bonds holdings violate Florida’s constitution and laws governing the investment of taxpayer dollars.
While Erakat was being arrested on Tuesday, more than a dozen police officers forced other attendees to leave the building where the hearing was being held. Many held signs reading “Fund Transit, Not Genocide” or “Fund Housing, Not Genocide.” Organizers said on social media that when they tried to congregate outside to continue speaking, police threatened them with use of force. Erakat was released around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, according to a statement she published on Instagram. “The whole scenario was absurd and a glimpse into how protecting Israel requires the sabotage of democratic norms,” Erakat said in the statement.
The Development Corporation for Israel sells Israel Bonds to raise foreign funds for the Israeli treasury. Bondholders maintain no oversight of their funds once invested. johann c. muñoz-tapasco, a lead organizer with the Our Taxes, Our Needs campaign, characterized the investments as a “slush fund [that] can be used in the Israeli treasury in whichever way they please, which means that money goes to fund the war economy.”
Israel has killed at least 70,000 Palestinians since it invaded Gaza almost three years ago, though experts expect the real toll could be much higher. People in the enclave still lack basic infrastructure, sufficient food and water, and other necessities. Israel continues to carry out strikes on the territory despite a supposed ceasefire agreement that came into effect last October. Violence has also ramped up in the West Bank, where armed and uniformed settlers are seizing land and attacking Palestinians with near-total impunity.
Divestment campaigns targeting Israel Bonds as well as companies complicit in human rights violations in Palestine are gaining momentum nationwide. I have previously covered campaigns in Ohio, Rhode Island, New York, and California.
Currently, the Our Taxes, Our Needs campaign in Palm Beach County is focused on stopping an anticipated November 1 reinvestment of funds from maturing Israel Bonds. Ghuman said the crackdown at Tuesday’s budget hearing will not deter organizers, who plan to speak next at three meetings in October. But she added, it sends a worrying message.
“What is allowed to happen to Palestinians and those advocating for Palestine will spread to everyone else,” Ghuman said. “The lack of being able to just even speak yesterday is a really dangerous sign — not just for the Palestine movement, but for every resident in Florida.”
The Palm Beach County Board of Commissioners and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. This is a developing story.
This story was updated with additional details about Erakat's arrest and quotes from Ghuman at 2:30 pm UTC.
