MINNEAPOLIS — A planned professional seminar hosted by a subgroup of Minneapolis Public Schools teachers has led to controversy after Mayor Jacob Frey publicly criticized the event's speaker, human rights activist Taher Herzallah.
The scheduled Friday seminar is focused on informing teachers how to best discuss Palestine and Israel.
The seminar, hosted by Minneapolis Educators for Palestine, an affinity group within the teachers union, has drawn scrutiny after Herzallah's past online comments surfaced, which some Jewish organizations and the mayor claim are antisemitic.
In his criticism, Frey pointed to an online forum last year where Herzallah was quoted as saying, "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."
"I don't want someone who hates Jews to be teaching our teachers on how they should teach our students," Frey said in a video posted to X.
Herzallah, a Palestinian activist known for criticizing the Israeli government's actions in the war against Hamas, acknowledges making the statement but claims he misspoke.
"If you watch the video before the quoted video that's been disseminated and you watch after what I said, it's very clear that I misspoke," Herzallah told KARE 11 News. "It's very clear that I meant Jewish and Christian Zionists, not Jewish people."
While the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers was not responsible for inviting Herzallah as an official speaker, the union plans to hold a meeting with the subgroup and those affected by Herzallah's comments to determine next steps.