Martin Luther King, Jr.: Turn away from war

By Reginald Johnson 

 

 

    NEW HAVEN --- Most people remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr as a great civil rights leader who helped end segregation in the South and bring about a greater level of racial equality in our society. 

 What is not as well known is that King was a peace advocate who spoke out strongly against the Vietnam War and militarism in general the last two years of his life.

  He expressed that opposition eloquently in a speech at the Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967. The address was entitled “Beyond Vietnam --- A Time to Break Silence.”

It was in that speech that King outlined why he decided to expand his focus from civil rights work --- for which he had won wide acclaim --- and take the risky step of  protesting a war which was backed by the media, the foreign policy establishment and most of the American people.

  “There comes a time when silence is betrayal,” he told the more than 3,000 people gathered at the church. “And that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.”

 In the speech King condemned the violence of the war in Southeast Asia which he said was harming both the peasants of Vietnam but also destroying the lives of young Americans, particularly black and brown youth. He also deplored the fact that so much money was being spent on war which could have been spent on rebuilding cities in the United States and improving the lives of the poor.

He called for a “revolution of values” ---  turning away from violence and military interventions.

 “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” he said.

 As they have done for many years, New Haven-area residents took part in a community reading of  the “Beyond Vietnam” speech at New Haven City Hall on Friday, Jan. 12, two days prior to the official observance of  Dr. King’s birthday.

  About 30 people attended the event, with 20 reading portions of the speech.

The community reading of "Beyond Vietnam" in New Haven.

 The reading took on extra significance this year because another violent war, also backed by the United States, is going on in Palestine. The nation of Israel, using billions of dollars in American aid, has been conducting a brutal attack against the people of Gaza, with an estimated 30,000 people now dead and residential buildings and schools lying in ruin.

 Nearly 2 million people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands are in danger of starvation, according to the UN.

 A number of human rights experts maintain that Israel is now conducting a genocide against the people of Palestine and that the United States is a party to this crime.

The nation of South Africa is now lodging charges of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

  “Martin Luther King said war is the enemy of the poor. He saw us engaged in endless wars and he talked about how if we don’t stop Vietnam we would continue fighting endless wars and protesting more wars” said Henry Lowendorf,  of the Greater New Haven peace Council, which helped sponsor the community reading.

  Lowendorf  added,  “There’s just so many aspects of this speech that resonate with what’s going on today and particularly because as we see this slaughter of Palestinians --- a real genocide that Israeli leaders are promoting, they talk about it, an ethnic cleansing … They are doing everything they can to drive them out of their homeland, continually, repeatedly. And we have a government (here) that is supporting them. We have a government that is making it possible.”

 Lowendorf continued, “Martin Luther King talked about the starvation of the poor. The poor in Vietnam, but also the poor in the United States. There are just too many ways you can map what Martin Luther King was talking about on today’s situation…You can take the speech transform a few words and it would be so appropriate.”

     

Twenty people took part in reading Dr. King's speech from 1967 in which he condemned the Vietnam War and US militarism

   Some notable excerpts of the “Beyond Vietnam” speech read in New Haven:

 “Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak of the the poor of America for paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: the great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.”

  Speaking about interventions by the US in various parts of the globe to maintain stability for economic investments, King said, “It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said  ‘Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.’ Increasingly by choice or by accident this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin to shift from a thing-oriented society to a person- oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives, and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme nationalism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

“A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say “this is not just.” It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, “this is not just.” The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.”

  At the beginning of the speech, King told his audience that when he began to speak out against the Vietnam War, he was questioned by many about the wisdom of his path.

  “At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: “Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King?” “Why are you joining the voices of dissent?” “Peace and civil rights don’t mix,” they say. “Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people?” they ask.

  Despite the critics, King would not be deterred and kept up his opposition to the war, which by 1967 had killed hundreds of thousands of people, both Americans and Vietnamese. It had laid waste to the Vietnamese countryside from constant bombing and the use of the deadly herbicide, “Agent Orange.”

  The Vietnam War, he felt, stood against everything that he had devoted his life to as a Christian pastor, to create a more loving and just society.

 In the spring of 1967 he was invited by “Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam” a group that was similarly opposed to the war, to speak at the Riverside Church.

  The “Beyond Vietnam” speech was not well received by major media at the time.

  According to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, “Both the Washington Post and the New York Times published editorials criticizing the speech, with the Post noting that King’s speech had ‘diminished the usefulness of his cause, to his country, and to his people.’ through a simplistic and flawed view of the situation.”

  But over time the address given at the Riverside Church has come to be viewed as perhaps King’s greatest speech, surpassing in importance the “I Have a Dream” speech given during the March on Washington in 1963.

 This year’s community reading of “Beyond Vietnam” honored Al Marder, a long-time peace and justice advocate from New Haven who passed away recently. Lowendorf  said Marder had been “one of the initiators of this tradition and many others.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For peace now, impeach now

                             

                   Commentary

           By Reginald Johnson

  I think impeachment is something that has to be talked about vis a vis Joe Biden.

 The unlawful and highly dangerous air strikes on Yemen are the last straw for me.

 Biden has enabled two major wars, one in Ukraine and the other in Gaza/Palestine that are creating massive death tolls and have the potential for becoming catastrophic regional or even world wars.

In so doing, he has endangered the safety not only of all Americans, but everyone in the world.

 He lied repeatedly about growing US involvement in Ukraine and spurned peace agreements. He has failed to get Congressional approval for our near direct involvement in Ukraine and for the Yemen attacks, though the Constitution says Congress, not the Executive Branch, makes war.

 His greenlighting continuous military aid to Israel while that nation carries out a genocide in Gaza, makes the US an accessory to genocide, a violation of the genocide treaty.

 I know people may say, "It's an election year, people can vote him out, so what's the point?" But do we have time to wait?

 Peace now!

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.

 

City panel to take up Gaza ceasefire resolution

 

   By Reginald Johnson

    BRIDGEPORT --- As the brutal Israel-Hamas War drags on --- with more than 18,000 people dead and 1.8 million people displaced --- more cities around the country are passing resolutions demanding the Biden administration support a ceasefire.

 Already, cities such as Oakland, California and Detroit, Michigan have passed resolutions calling for a ceasefire. Leaders in New Haven are considering one.

Now activists in Bridgeport are pushing the City Council to approve a resolution calling for an “Immediate de-escalation and permanent ceasefire in Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank.”  A number of pro-Palestinian supporters spoke at public forums prior to the last two city council meetings to urge passage of the statement.

 The council referred the proposed resolution, offered by Council Member Jazmarie Melendez, to the Miscellaneous Matters committee for review.

 The committee will take up the proposal at its meeting Tuesday, Dec. 26^th, at 6 p.m. in the Wheeler Room, City Hall, 45 Lyon Terrace.

  If the panel votes in favor of the resolution, it will go back to the full council for a vote.

  Melendez told fellow council members, “We cannot conduct business as usual here, because of what we are bearing witness to in Palestine….If we as a legislative body choose to remain silent, then we are complicit.”

  Peace activists in Bridgeport and elsewhere hope that passage of these resolutions will add to the pressure on both the Biden administration and members of Congress to take a stand and support a ceasefire.

 While officials in the Biden administration have recently been raising concerns about the level of civilian casualties in Gaza caused by the Israeli military, the administration is still pledging support for Israel and its continued military campaign against Hamas. Likewise, the vast majority of the members of Congress, both in the House and Senate, are backing Israel fully and have not signed on to the idea of a ceasefire.

  No one in Connecticut’s congressional delegation --- including five House members and two Senators --- is supporting a ceasefire.

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.

 

 

City leaders pressed to back Gaza ceasefire

   

BRIDGEPORT REPORT 

  By Reginald Johnson

      BRIDGEPORT ---- The City Council here voted to take under consideration a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza War and a de-escalation of the conflict, after hearing several speakers at a public forum demand that Israel stop its attack on the Palestinian people and end the carnage.

  The council chambers were packed with pro-Palestinian supporters for its Monday meeting and a number of them spoke passionately about the devastation that the Gaza war has created for residents there and said it was imperative that elected representatives in Bridgeport take a stand and follow the lead of other cities and call for an end to the conflict.

  “We call on the Bridgeport City Council to support a resolution conveyed to Connecticut representatives, Congress, and the administration to advocate for a cease-fire, allowing humanitarian aid to Gaza, and only issue responsible, balanced, and constructive public messages,” said Khaled Elleithy, president of the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center.

 . He added, “We demand that the Biden administration immediately stop Israel’s massive bombardment of Gaza. Should the White House once again fail to act to restrain Israel and to provide authentic leadership in the search for peace this tragedy will continue to grow. Palestinian suffering and bitterness will deepen, Israelis will remain insecure, and extremism will be further fueled by anti-American anger.”

   Jazmarie Melendez, a member of the City Council from the East End, proposed the resolution for council consideration.

  “We cannot conduct business as usual here, because of what we are bearing witness to in Palestine --- a death toll of 15,600 civilians, 6,600 of them children,” Melendez told her fellow council members.

 In the face of this mass killing, she said, “If we as a legislative body choose to remain silent, then we are complicit.”

 A young Palestinian-American boy testified at the public forum that he had attended major rallies on behalf of the Palestinians in both Bridgeport and in Washington DC. He said there were people of all faiths at these rallies --- Christians. Jews and Muslims.

 “You don’t have to be a Muslim to know that what is happening in Palestine is wrong, you just have to be human,” he said.

 The boy continued, “There is a genocide of the Palestinian people going on in both Gaza and the West Bank.”

               

Hanan Abdulwahid holds up a photo of her cousin, who she said was shot and killed in the West Bank without provocation by an Israeli soldier. (Photo by Reginald Johnson) 

  Lou Biafore, a resident of Lafayette Street in Bridgeport said she was not only deeply concerned about stopping the catastrophe in Palestine but also redirecting the nation’s priorities away from war spending and towards domestic needs.

 “Since the beginning of the year, I’ve paid $4,781 in federal taxes. Roughly 20% of that has gone into the defense budget and millions of that have gone to fund the Israeli military in this conflict and $966 of my taxes have gone towards that funding,” she said.

 “That money could have paid for one month’s rent or for a loan forgiveness, or used for  healthcare or for the municipal education budget. But it isn’t.”

  Prior to the forum, Hanan Abdulwahid stood and held a sign aloft which showed the picture of a boy in Palestine, Emad, who was killed by Israeli forces.

  Above the photos, the poster said, “For what sin was he killed?”

 Hanan said Emad, who was her cousin, was 16 and a sophomore in high school. “A regular teen-ager,” she said.

 On October 8, a day after Hamas attacked an Israeli town in southern Israel and killed 1300 people, the boy went outside for a walk with a friend in a town in the West Bank. Suddenly, she said, he was shot by an IDF soldier. Hanan said Emad was not engaging in any kind of protest at the time.

 “What was the purpose of this? There is no Hamas in the West Bank. I don’t know what the reason was,” she said.

 “He was shot in cold blood for no reason.”

 The cease-fire resolution was referred to the council’s miscellaneous matters committee which will review the proposal in the near future and if approved, will send it on to the full council for a vote.

  If approved, Bridgeport will be the latest city to pass a cease-fire resolution on the Gaza War. The resolutions are aimed at putting pressure on local congressional delegations and the Biden administration to work towards a cease-fire and stop funding for Israel’s war machine. Detroit, Michigan, Oakland, California and Atlanta Georgia have adopted these resolutions while New Haven is considering one.