Fight over Gaza ceasefire resolution continues

    

      BRIDGEPORT REPORT

 

     By Reginald Johnson 

 

 BRIDGEPORT --- There’s no ceasefire in the battle over the ceasefire resolution.

 After hearing emotional testimony by Palestinian-Americans about the terrible human toll resulting from the Israel-Gaza conflict, the City Council voted overwhelmingly on January 2 to  pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the fighting and asking members of Congress to press the Biden administration into facilitating a peace.

 The final resolution that was agreed to was a stripped-down version from the original one which had put Israel in a negative light, referencing the forced removal of Palestinians from their ancestral homeland in 1948 to create Israel and the “apartheid” system Israel had set up in the Occupied Territories.

  The latest version is more neutral in tone, with the historical references about Israel’s founding removed, the line about “apartheid” taken out and the term “Occupied West Bank” changed to simply “West Bank.”

 The statement calls for an “immediate de-escalation and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza, Israel and the West bank; calls for the release of both Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners; and the provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

 And the resolution adds,  “The community in Bridgeport across all faith groups and backgrounds supports an end to the continued violence in hopes for a solution where Palestinians and Israelis can live side-by-side with a two state solution in enduring peace, safety, justice and dignity. Every human being deserves a dignified, peaceful life regardless of religion race or color.”

 Some Jewish leaders were present at the January 2 meeting and they reportedly supported the statement, after the language changes were made.

  After the vote was taken to pass the resolution it appeared the issue was settled. Bridgeport became the first city in Connecticut to pass a Gaza cease-fire resolution and it seemed that calm would finally return to City Hall, after a number of stormy meetings.

  Not so fast.

Within 10 days after the resolution passed, other Jewish leaders came out and denounced the statement saying it was unfair to Israel and criticized the process in which the resolution was passed. That same group, reportedly a coalition of Jewish groups, has called for the rescinding of the cease-fire document.

  As a result of the backlash, City Council meetings have continued to be as packed as they were before the resolution was passed, with both supporters and critics of a ceasefire vying to speak at the public forum prior to the regular council meetings. Supporters come in waving Palestinian flags and showing pictures of people who’ve  been killed in Gaza, while critics show up with Israeli flags and pictures of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7th.

                           

Bridgeport City Council meetings are packed as the debate over a Gaza ceasefire resolution continues. (Reginald Johnson photo) 

  

Carin Sevel, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County, has been leading the charge to get the resolution withdrawn.

 Sevel claimed that the resolution spreads anti-Semitism and in essence calls for “the destruction of Israel.” Sevel said she’s very troubled by the fact that the resolution does not mention the fact that the miltant group Hamas, which is the governing authority for Palestine, conducted the brutal October 7^th attacks against Israel which resulted in the killing of 1200 people.

“Hamas has said repeatedly that their goal is to kill Jews and get rid of Israel,” she said.

Sevel told News 12 after a recent meeting that she considered the Bridgeport resolution a “hate bill.” Asked later to explain that, Sevel said that while there is no mention of what Hamas did on October 7, “it mentions Israel fighting. So that in my opinion is blaming the victim.”

 Sevel, as well as other Jewish leaders in Bridgeport, have also charged that the Bridgeport bill was rushed through without getting enough input from the wider Jewish community.

 She disputed the reports that Jewish leaders who were present on January 2, when there was a large crowd in the council chambers, had agreed to support the bill after the language changes were made. Actually, Savel maintained, the rabbis that were on hand the night the bill was passed were frightened into supporting the bill.

  “They were coerced,” Sevel said.

 She claimed that one of the rabbis that was there was  “terrified.” and “left out of there afraid for his life because it was a mob mentality.”

 Commenting on the situation going forward, the federation leader said, “They thought when they passed this resolution that the Jewish community would say ‘well okay, no big deal.’ But it is a big deal. And we are not going away and we will not stop fighting no matter what happens with this. We will not stop. It’s anti-Semitism.”

 Several attempts were made to get comment on Sevel’s remarks from City Council officials who were key players at the January 2 meeting. Both Aidee Nieves, president of the City Council and Councilwoman Jazmarie Melendez, who authored the cease-fire resolution, were called and emailed but could not be reached.

 However, a top official of the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center, which promoted the resolution, pushed back strongly against Sevel’s comments.

 “They’re lying. They’re trying to scare people,” said Aziz Seyal, a member of the center’s Board of Directors.

  About Sevel’s comment that the resolution amounted to a call “for the destruction of Israel” and was a “hate bill,” Seyal said “There is nothing in the resolution which talks about destroying Israel or taking any action against Israel.”

 He added, “They’re just wasting time. They don’t believe in peace. They just want to see the destruction of Palestine and the Palestinian people.”

                 

A billboard on I-95 in Bridgeport calling for a halt to the bombing of Gaza. (Reginald Johnson photo)

Seyal also said that the Jewish federation official was wrong in claiming that Jewish leaders did not have enough input in the resolution’s development. He said that the entire day before the meeting a group of three people representing the Muslim faith the Jewish faith and the Christian faith were working on the resolution to develop something that they could all agree on.

“There was a consensus, he said.

 Further, he said, in the evening more input was sought from other Jewish leaders and they too, agreed to the changes and support the resolution.

 Sevel and other resolution critics also attacked the group Jewish Voice for Peace which supported the Bridgeport resolution.

Deborah Boles, president of the Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Bridgeport, said that Jewish Voice for Peace was an organization that didn’t represent the “mainstream” of the Jewish community. Boles claimed that the group “misled” the people crafting the Bridgeport bill.

Sevel went even further and labeled Jewish Voice for Peace a harmful organization bent on the “destruction of Israel.”

 Jewish Voice for Peace nationally is one of the organizations that is working hard to get a truce in the Israel-Gaza conflict and has sponsored a number of demonstrations.

 Leaders of Jewish for Peace in Connecticut issued a statement responding to the comments by Boles and Sevel. It said in part: “The Jewish Federation is not an accurate representative of Connecticut’s diverse Jewish community. Although groups like the federation often attempt to speak for all Jews, no single organization can do that,”

 It added, “Far too many Jewish people have had the painful experience of being dehumanized or having their Jewishness called into question by those who seek to conflate Jewishness with unconditional support for the state of Israel. We know that the attempt to silence or discredit anti-Zionist or non-Zionist Jewish speech only serves to distract from the Israeli government’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people.”

  “The political beliefs and policies of states such as Israel and the United States must be subject to critical debate. Our Jewish values give us the imperative to speak up against the unconscionable violence and human rights violations perpetrated by the state of Israel,” the statement said.

  A proposed resolution which would rescind the current Bridgeport cease-fire resolution has been offered by Councilman Scott Burns of Black Rock.  It will be the subject of a review and possible vote by the council’s Miscellaneous Matters Committee on Thursday, March 14 at 6 PM in City Hall, 45 Lyon Terrace.

 Meanwhile, the war in Palestine continues unabated, despite some occasional talk by President Biden of forging a ceasefire agreement. Since October 7, when the war began when Israel responded to the Hamas attacks, some 30,000 people have been killed. A majority of them are women and children. Another 2 million people in Gaza have been displaced. UN officials say that food shortages are acute and many people may starve.

  The International Court of Justice recently found that there was a “plausible case” for concluding that Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza.