Jewish leaders ask City Council to rescind Gaza ceasefire resolution

     

       BRIDGEPORT REPORT

 

     By Reginald Johnson

 

   BRIDGEPORT --- Reversing a previous stand, leaders of Bridgeport’s Jewish community have come out against the City Council’s recently passed Gaza cease-fire resolution and are demanding that the resolution be rescinded.

 On January 2 when the resolution calling on Congress to work for a cease-fire in Palestine was passed by the council, Jewish leaders present at that time indicated that they were satisfied with the statement, after language criticizing Israel was removed.

 However, a coalition of Jewish groups and synagogues that came together after that have now issued a statement saying that the City Council had no place taking up an international issue and have asked Mayor Joseph Ganim and the City Council to withdraw the resolution.

 Some leaders are claiming that the resolution is fueling anti-Semitism.

“The resolution you passed has divided our community and promoted anti-Semitic vitriol,” said Carin Sevel, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County, speaking at the City Council’s public forum Monday night, “Hate crimes against Jews are up 400% since October 7… There is too much hate and division in our community and I think you can do better,” she said.

  Deborah Boles president of the Congregation Rodeph Sholom on Park Avenue, said “We learned about the resolution 2023 (ceasefire resolution) the day it was reported on the front page of the Connecticut Post and read that there was Jewish input. We knew nothing about it.”

  Boles maintained that the council appears to been “misled” by the group Jewish Voice for Peace. She said that her research showed that Jewish Voice for Peace is “anti-Israel” and “don’t represent the mainstream Jewish community.”

Pro-Israel supporters attended the City Council meeting to oppose the ceasefire resolution. (Reginald Johnson photo)

  A number of opponents of the resolution showed up at the City Council on Monday to voice their disapproval and wave pro-Israel placards and signs.

  However, a much larger crowd of resolution supporters were on hand, many of them wearing the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh and waving Palestinian flags. A number of speakers from this group stepped forward to thank the city’s legislative body for passing the resolution and urge that the council hold firm in keeping the ceasefire statement in place.

 The Rev. Anthony Bennett, pastor of the Mount Aery Baptist Church in Bridgeport, was one of those.

  “I’m encouraging you to stand your ground in keeping this resolution which calls for an immediate cease-fire, humanitarian aid, and a return of all hostages in exchange for the previously negotiated release of Palestinian political prisoners,” he said.

   The president of the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center, Dr. Khaled Elleithy, said he was proud of the City Council for adopting the cease-fire resolution, making Bridgeport the first city in Connecticut to do so.

  “With the understanding that the City Council has no power to enforce such a resolution or investigate any claims of wrongdoing,  it remains a historic statement by the City Council. It is a call for peace. Just a call for peace. Nevertheless, some cannot digest a call for peace,” he said.

                                      

Palestinian supporters tell the City Council to stand firm against attacks on the Gaza ceasefire resolution. (Reginald Johnson photo) 

  There was no indication Monday that there is any serious move afoot on the council to rescind the resolution. The original vote on the statement was a decisive 13 to 2 in favor. Council Members who voted for the resolution said that while it is true that the city does not typically take up international matters, occasionally there are issues that are so important on a moral level that a statement by the council is in order.

Council Member Maria Pereira, a vociferous critic of the resolution, maintained the body had “zero authority” to take up the matter.

Pereira, who is known as an outspoken elected official who is often blunt in her criticisms of other people, was punished by the council Monday night for reportedly using derogatory language to describe Palestinians and the city police chief.  She was also criticized for gesturing with her middle finger toward a member of the audience at the January 2 meeting.

  The council voted 13 to 1 to hold Pereira in contempt and strip her of her committee assignments. She will still be able to attend council meetings and take part in votes, according to the Connecticut Post.

 Members of the Palestinian community have been outraged by Pereira’s comments and were calling for her resignation or expulsion from the council.

   The cities of New Haven and Windsor in Connecticut are also considering passing cease-fire resolutions. Several other cities around the country have passed the resolutions including Detroit, Michigan, Atlanta, Georgia and Oakland, California. The resolutions are aimed at pressuring Congress and the Biden administration into taking steps to bring about an end to the brutal Israel-Hamas war, which has now taken 30,000 lives and left 2 million people displaced.

  The International Court of Justice recently found that there was evidence that Israel was a committing genocide in Gaza.

 

 

 

   

Bridgeport passes Gaza ceasefire resolution

        

       BRIDGEPORT REPORT 

         By Reginald Johnson

   

 

    BRIDGEPORT, CT --- In a historic vote, the City Council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the brutal Israel-Hamas War, which has taken the lives of 29,000 people, a majority of them civilians.

   Rejecting the views of a few council members who said that city legislators had no business taking up an international issue, others on the council said it was not right to sit by and say nothing as a slaughter of innocent men, women and children goes on in Gaza.

  “You know I watch the news, I watch the news a lot. And what I have seen on Oct. 7^th was one of the most horrible acts, of violence perpetrated against the Israelis,” said Council Member Jorge Cruz. “I saw what happened afterwards, how the Israeli military acted. That was also harsh. I see the news everyday. And when I see the massive amount of children in Gaza being slaughtered, being killed, being dug out from under collapsed buildings, it breaks my heart, absolutely. I’m human. This resolution is simply calling out, ‘stop the damn violence, stop the killing.’ ”

   Council Member Mary McBride-Lee was another supporter. “I’m not taking sides tonight. I will be voting yes on this, because I don’t want anyone suffering --- Jewish people, African-Americans or anyone else,” she said. “This is what I want to see. No more war!” she said, as a packed City Council chambers erupted in cheers.

  The ceasefire resolution passed 13-2.

  The statement calls on members of Congress and President Biden to work to facilitate a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and make sure that humanitarian aid is promptly delivered to the area.

  Bridgeport is the first city in Connecticut to pass a ceasefire resolution. New Haven is now considering one.

  Other cities around the country that have passed resolutions are Atlanta, Ga., Detroit, Mich, and Oakland, California.

   The vote to approve the resolution came after some last-minute negotiations between leaders of the Jewish and Muslim communities and some councilmembers. Wording of the original resolution was apparently softened at the request of Jewish leaders who objected to phrases  relating to such things as the number of civilian deaths in Palestine, to Palestinians living in "apartheid," and even to the term “Occupied West Bank.”

 According to Aziz Seyal, a board member of the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center, the backers of the resolution agreed to the changes because the key point about requesting a ceasefire was retained.

                                 

Supporters of the Gaza ceasefire resolution in Bridgeport (Reginald Johnson photo) 

  Maria Pereira, one of the council members who has opposed the resolution all along, said she objected to the manner in which the last-minute changes were made. “This was a secret meeting not open to the public. None of the people there were elected representatives,” she said. “That’s our job. We are the legislative branch. We are elected by the people of Bridgeport.”

  Pereira reiterated her position that the City Council had “zero authority” to pass an official resolution on behalf of the city which took a position on international affairs.

  Council Member Jazmarie Melendez, who originally authored the resolution,  countered Pereira by saying that the meeting to revise the resolution was not a secret meeting and both she and another council leader were present for the discussions.

Bombing kids not acceptable. (Reginald Johnson photo)

  And Councilman Ernie Newton said that it is appropriate for the Bridgeport City Council to weigh in on such a critical issue as the war in the Middle East. He said things come up from time to time that do not directly tie in with Bridgeport affairs but are nonetheless important enough to take a stand on.

 “We have the right to voice our opinion,” he said

   Many of those who attended the Tuesday council meeting were Muslims and Arab-Americans. But members of the Jewish community also attended to show their support for the resolution.

 One of those was Stephanie Carrow of Fairfield.

 Carrow decried what was going on in Palestine and called it a “genocide.”

 She said that Jews have experienced considerable prejudice in their history and she was raised to believe that as a result of that prejudice “we stand up for all people and we would never oppress anybody and we always speak out against oppression. That’s the Jewish ethic that I was raised with and that’s what I believe in.”

 She also said,  “I’m also very upset, in addition to the horrors of what’s happening there, that it is being done in my name as a Jew.”

                              

Members of Jewish Voice for Peace back the Bridgeport ceasefire resolution
(Reginald Johnson photo)

 Others, from the group Jewish Voice for Peace came down from New Haven  to the Bridgeport Council meeting to show their support and held a banner in the back of the room which read, "Another Jew for a Free Palestine."

 Hanan Abdulwahid, one of the organizers behind the ceasefire resolution and someone whose 16-year old nephew was killed by an IDF soldier in the West Bank, said after the resolution passed that she was “very, very happy and pleased with the City of Bridgeport for doing this. We really thank them for this. They gave us so much hope.”

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  Prior to the council session, there was a public forum where a number speakers made powerful statements about the terrible situation in Gaza and the need for council action.

 Mohammed Shaham began his talk by saying, “The silence speaks for itself.”

After a long pause, he said, “28,000 slaughtered, yet you remain silent.”

After another period of silence he said, “More than 10,000 innocent children, yet you’re silent.”

He continued making statements, interspersed with long pauses.

“Bombs are dropping yet you’re silent.”

“New Year. Same genocide.”

“Day 88, yet you’re silent.”

Then he said, “We the people will not be silent until you take action.”

 Another speaker was Seyal, of the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center. He said that he was a journalist, lawyer and human rights activist in Pakistan before moving to the United States in 1984.  Seyal said he was very happy coming to America because America was in his words the “champion of human rights” in the whole world.

   “I never thought that one day the political leadership of this great nation will go against basic human values and will help a foreign nation with our tax dollars to kill innocent children of Palestine,” he said. “Today the whole world is crying for peace but only our country America is using its veto power in the UN and has become the main hurdle in stopping the genocide. The champion of human rights has become the main financier and supporter of a nation that has crossed all limits of humanity,” he said.

  Seyal described atrocities he says Israeli forces have carried out in Gaza such as bombing refugee camps, killing innocent children and shooting pregnant women on their way to the hospital. He further maintained that “more than 7000 bodies are still under rubble.”

   He said, “Palestinians cannot bury their loved ones. The dead bodies have become pieces, scattered. Have you heard of these types of atrocities in human history?”

   Seyal continued, “This is definitely not a war between two armies. This is a genocide of the oppressed. Israeli former head of Security Council Giora Eiland wrote in an Israeli paper last week that we must kill every Palestinian to win the war yet Netanyahu is already working on this barbaric plan. We’re all watching this with their own eyes in the 21^st century yet are being threatened to stay quiet?”

    Seyal then said, “I know with your resolution this genocide will not stop. But it will bring us closer, and you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren that you did your part and tried to save children of God.”

 

Council committee in Bridgeport approves Gaza ceasefire resolution

 

      BRIDGEPORT REPORT

     By Reginald Johnson 

 

    BRIDGEPORT --- A City Council committee has voted to approve a resolution calling on congressional representatives to pressure the Biden administration to facilitate a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

  The Miscellaneous Matters committee voted overwhelmingly with only one dissenting vote to approve the statement which will now be sent to the full council for a vote on January 2.

 If approved, Bridgeport will join a number of other cities around the country to pass such resolutions aimed at building support for ending the conflict in Gaza which has left 21,000 people dead and nearly 2 million people displaced.

  The proposed resolution states that the City Council of Bridgeport calls upon congressional representatives in both the House and Senate “to join us in urging the Biden administration to immediately call for and facilitate immediate de-escalation and a permanent cease-fire to urgently end the current violence in Gaza, Israel, and the Occupied West Bank” and facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance to Gaza and the Occupied West Bank.

  The resolution makes note of the long and bloody history of the Israel/Palestinian conflict and then says, “Hundreds of thousands of lives are at imminent risk if a permanent cease-fire is not achieved and humanitarian aid is not delivered without delay.”

  It further states that “All members of the Bridgeport City Council have a duty and a responsibility to speak up in times of injustice and to also center the voices, experiences and realities of the most directly impacted in a given situation, including Bridgeport residents.”

  In arguing for the resolution, Council Member Jazmarie Melendez said “I think we’re setting a precedent in the City of Bridgeport for moving this forward and taking a stand…We have a responsibility. We do.”

  Normally, a City Council committee meeting would draw only a few observers but on this night there were 35 to 40 people in attendance who appeared to be supporters of the measure. When Melendez first proposed the resolution in early December at a City Council meeting the council chambers were packed with Palestinian-Americans and others who backed the proposal and a number of them spoke passionately in favor of the resolution.

  There was pushback, however, at the committee meeting to the proposal --- most notably from Council Member Maria Pereira, who ironically is from the same East End district as Melendez.

 Pereira said that the issue of policy related to the conflict in Gaza is a federal matter and it’s not something that is in the purview of the Bridgeport City Council.

  “This is not in our wheelhouse,” she said. “This is not what we’re elected for in a municipal government.”

 Pereira also said that “I’ve knocked on 2,000 doors in my district, and not one constituent raised the issue of Israel and Gaza.”

 She said that her constituents care about issues like public safety, road paving and schools.

 Pereira also maintained that the conflict in Palestine and Israel is a “complex issue” and city council members do not have the expertise to weigh in on it.

  Melendez responded that “when you’re saying that the people of Bridgeport don’t care about this, you’re completely ignoring the room full of people that are behind you” as well as the scores of people that attended the December 4 council meeting when the resolution was first proposed and what she said were the “countless signatures” of people in the city who signed an on-line petition calling for a cease-fire resolution.

 Melendez also commented that “You said this is a complex situation. It is not. This is not a legally binding document. We are speaking up and saying we are watching people die and that is not OK. ”

 

One of the persons attending the City Council committee meeting discussing the proposed ceasefire resolution for Gaza. More than 21,000 people have been killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, mostly civilians. (Reginald Johnson photo)

The resolution proposal got support from Council Member Tyler Mack of the West Side who said that even though the Israel-Hamas war is an international issue local governmental bodies around the country “have been taking stands like this” and Bridgeport can do the same.

 The co-chair of the committee, AmyMarie Vizzo-Paniccia, sounded reluctant to go forward with the resolution and suggested to Melendez that as an alternative she put a letter together outlining her concerns and then gather signatures from other council members send it out to the appropriate congressional and federal officials to consider.

 But Melendez wouldn’t budge and said she wanted to proceed with the City Council resolution.

 Committee member Aidee Nieves, who is also president of the City Council, then indicated that she supported the resolution in general but had a problem with some of the language. She specifically suggested that the wording about the “targeting of civilians” and the violations of international humanitarian law was too harsh and should be taken out.

 A motion was passed to amend that wording as well as to make other small changes in the resolution.

 A motion was then made to pass the resolution proposal with amendments and send it on to the council. The motion passed with only Pereira voting no.

   Aziz Seyal, a board member of the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center, which has backed the resolution, said after the meeting that there’s no reason to object to the statement.

   “The resolution is so clear that it’s not favoring anybody. It’s in favor of bringing the peace back,” he said. “It’s part of humanity to stop the killing of innocent people.”

    Detroit, Atlanta and Oakland, California have approved ceasefire resolutions and New Haven is considering one.

  The City Council will take up the ceasefire resolution at its meeting on Tuesday, January 2, at 7 pm in the City Council chambers, City Hall, 45 Lyon Terrace. A public forum will precede the meeting at 6:30.

 

The "antisemitism" cudgel

              (Joe Lombardo, the coordinator for the United National Anti-war Coalition, recently posted an excellent piece on Facebook in which he described how the charge of “anti-Semitism” is being used as a weapon to discredit the movement to bring about a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War. He also says that while pro-Palestinian demonstrators are falsely attacked for advocating a genocide against Jews, it is the Palestinians who are suffering from an actual genocide at the hands of Israel. Joe’s full article is reprinted here.)  

   By Joe Lombardo

   The weaponization of antisemitism is simply an attempt to shut us up and allow the genocide to continue.

 The corporate media and western governments have been calling the massive Palestinian solidarity demonstrations “antisemitic,” if they report them at all. In the words of Malcolm X, they “Make the criminal look like the victim and make the victim look like the criminal.”

 On November 25, three Palestinian students were shot in Burlington, VT, while in Chicago a six-year-old Palestinian boy was stabbed 26 times and killed while his mother was also attacked and hospitalized. In California a car tried to run down several Muslim families and Muslim and Palestinian groups have reported a sharp upturn in incidences of attacks on Muslims and Palestinians. Yet there is no outcry from the corporate media or the government about these anti-Palestinian and racist attacks. But “antisemitism” is today a constant theme in the corporate media.

 Last week the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Magill, was forced out of her position because of her support for the right of freedom of speech on her campus. She was asked by right-wing congresswoman, Elise Stefanik if calls for genocide of Jews would be termed harassment under the schools’ codes of conduct.

 Magill had to speak carefully to let Stefanik know that she does not support calls for genocide but does support free speech. Similar questions were asked of the presidents of Harvard and MIT. This type of questioning is reminiscent of the McCarthy hearing in the 1950’s.

 It is the Palestinians in Gaza who are facing genocide, not Jews in Israel or the US. Why don’t they ask politicians and others if they support that genocide? If they did, they might get a response such as “I give full support to Israel” and they likely would vote for more money and weapons to Israel to kill more Palestinians. Or they might get an answer like that from Florida State representative Michelle Salzman when asked how many Palestinians should be killed, she answered “all of them.” But she has not been forced to step down.

 Today in the US we find that we not only have to fight for the right of Palestinians to live, but we have to fight for the right to even express that or say we are for a cease fire in Gaza.

 The slogan chanted on every Palestinian solidarity action, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” has especially been criticized as antisemitic by the corporate media and politicians. One wonders what part of Palestine they think should not be free. It should be clear from what is happening in Gaza right now that it is the Israelis who are trying to drive the Palestinian people into the sea or the desert, not the other way around.

 In fact, this slogan was first used by Zionists not Palestinians. It is in the founding document of the Likud Party, the party of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and they have used it in their political campaigns in the form of “between the sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.” I don’t remember the corporate media or the politicians ever criticizing this as anti-Palestinian or racist.

 The campaign to characterize those of us who support Palestinian rights as being antisemitic is simply a campaign to shut us up so they can carry out their genocide against the Palestinian people without hinderance.

 When Palestinians and their supporters say “Palestine will be free,“ the politicians and corporate media try to deny that they are not free. But in their own land there is a separate set of laws for Palestinians and Jews. Palestinians can be arrested without charges and held indefinitely. Many children have been arrested in this manner.

 There are some roads that only Jewish people can drive on or walk on. Palestinian homes are often bulldozed so that illegal settlements for Israeli Jews can be built, or just for punishment. Sometime the Palestinians are only given minutes to leave. There are check points for Palestinians where they sometimes must wait for hours, just to move around in their own land. And there is so much more that can be said about the lack of freedom and equality for Palestinians in their own traditional land.

 Of course, it is far worse in Gaza. There, Israel controls who can leave and who cannot. In most cases people are not allowed to leave. Israel determines what gets into Gaza and what doesn’t. Construction material to rebuild the bombed buildings are often denied. They only allowed a certain amount of food into Gaza, limiting the number of calories per person per day. This they mockingly call the Palestinian diet. This is why Gaza is referred to as an open-air prison. But it is much worse than a prison because prisoners don’t routinely get bombed and shot or have their electricity or water turned off.

  This is why Palestinians want to be free in their own land. “From the River to the sea, Palestine will be free!” That is not antisemitic, it expresses a reality that all Palestine must be free for Palestinians to survive. Those who claim it is antisemitic are only showing their racism and anti-Palestinian sentiment and are themselves being complicit with the genocide against the Palestinians.

Israel’s stated goal in Gaza is to wipe out Hamas. This is impossible. To end resistance from the Palestinians, you must end their repression. Instead, the Israelis are increasing the repression. Even if every member of Hamas was killed, each bomb the Israelis drop and each Palestinian they kill just creates more anger towards the Zionist state and will cause more and more resistance until Zionism is ended. The next generation of Palestinian freedom fighters are being born amid the rubble of Gaza.