Participants displayed banners protesting the contract.
Dozens of Minneapolis residents and community advocates filled the City Hall rotunda early Sept. 12 to deliver a stack of petitions demanding Mayor Jacob Frey end the city’s contract with Israeli surveillance company Zencity. The City of Minneapolis signed a $500,000, three-year contract in October of 2023 with an Israeli tech firm called Zencity, a developer of surveillance technology.
The contract calls for Zencity to design a digital survey to measure community perception of the MPD and public safety and analyze the response data to ‘improve’ police-community relations. Residents rallied in the City Hall Rotunda to express opposition to the contract before delivering a stack of more than 2,000 petition signatures to Mayor Jacob Frey. Residents believe it is unacceptable for the City to contract with a company that is associated with apartheid Israel, a state found by the International Court of Justice to be committing a ‘plausible’ genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Petitions are delivered to the mayor’s office
Jo Manu of Jewish Voice for Peace Twin Cities stated, “Thousands of people have made it clear that we don’t want the city of Minneapolis contracting with an Israeli tech company that emerged out of Israeli military intelligence. We demand Mayor Frey use his power today to cut the contract with Zencity.”
