We are heartbroken by the ongoing conflict in Palestine and Israel. We send our deepest condolences to everyone affected by this tragic situation.
We condemn all forms of violence unequivocally. That includes the recent attacks from Hamas and Israel, and the ongoing Israeli occupation and apartheid of Palestinians for the past 75 years. What we are witnessing in Gaza is an evolving humanitarian atrocity, and we remind all that collective punishment is a war crime. We do not support U.S. funding of Israel’s current genocide in Gaza.
We must come together as a community in Cambridge to protect and hold each other as the situation continues to escalate. We denounce all doxxing, intimidation, hate speech and silencing of individuals in our city. We specifically call on Harvard University to protect its students from racist attacks and threats.
We urge everyone in our community to spread love, not hate, to treat each other with empathy and support, to acknowledge all the suffering that is happening overseas and locally and to lean on our shared humanity and desire for peace. We must all do what we can to alter the course of history toward peace, justice and freedom for Palestine.
Quinton Zondervan, Ayah Al-Zubi, Vernon K. Walker and Dan Totten
Quinton Zondervan is a Cambridge city councillor, and Ayah Al-Zubi, Vernon K. Walker and Dan Totten are candidates for the office.
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Odd to see this letter from Dan Totten–his last appearance in Cambridge Day was with the Democratic Socialists of America as he sought to intimidate and silence others in the City Council race. This would be the same Democratic Socialists of America who cheered the Hamas murders, beheadings, and kidnappings of innocent Israelis, according to The New York Times. Totten, Zondervan, and others need to denounce the Democratic Socialists of America before we can take them seriously
Do we still have people repeating the beheading story that has already been debunked? And this in the context of over 1000 palestinian children already killed by the missile and bomber attacks on Gaza, with undoubtedly a few thousand more to come if the promised invasion actually starts. Let us not forget that Israel with a modern and substantial army and airforce, funded by the US, has been bombing civilian infrastructure in Gaza for 75 years, causing 10s of thousands of deaths. Do those lives not count for as much?
In recent days, the idea that Israel is committing genocide has taken hold on the left. This is insane rhetoric.. Israel is not deliberately trying to exterminate the Palestinian people. More than a week has passed since Hamas started its war on Gaza. Still, the ground counterattack on the northern half of Gaza hasn’t even begun, so that Gazans have time to get out of harm’s way. If Israel were truly interested in genocide, this wouldn’t be happening.
Yes, innocent people are dying. It’s AWFUL. But Israel has a right to defend itself and its people, which includes half the world’s Jewish population.
I’m glad Dan says here that he’s condemns all forms of violence unequivocally. I had—and still have—my doubts after he retweeted a post celebrating the horrifying pro-Hamas rally in front of City Hall last Monday.
This letter makes it clear that Zondervan and the three candidates want to see Israel destroyed. “Justice and freedom for Palestine” clearly means a one-state solution. Israel would no longer be a homeland for the Jewish people. And anybody who believes the Palestinian and Jewish people can live side by side in a harmonious multiracial democracy is out of their mind.
While I know they Hamas doesn’t represent the Palestinian people, they nevertheless have a stranglehold on power in Gaza. Were that power to be expanded into Israel, we’d see the horrific slaughter of October 7 multiplied by thousands. Hamas exists to kill Jews. If the chant “From Israel to the sea, Palestine will be free” became reality, Hamas would kill as many Jews as it could.
Of course, city councillors are extremely far removed from foreign policy, so these candidates’ opinions on this issue don’t matter much in that sense. But the thoughts expressed here do say something about how they think. And that does matter.
@Dan Eisner
There is a HUGE difference between “defending” ones self and leveling entire city blocks where the majority of the victims are women and children.
It is exactly this kind of callous attitude and ham-fisted approach which allowed the cancer that is Hamas to grow in the first place.
Israel is making all the same mistakes America made after the September 11th attacks.
As the grandfather of the DSA recently said, “The targeting of civilians is a war crime, no matter who does it” … or why.
It’s not insane rhetoric. It’s a textbook case of genocide. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s an Israeli Holocaust scholar saying the same thing. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/16/raz_segal_textbook_case_of_genocide
Israel’s response also violates numerous principles of international law including (a) it obligation to protect civilians population of occupied territories, (b) prohibition of collective punishment of civilian populations, (c) prohibition of forced transfers of civilians population out of occupied territories, and (d) use of military force against civilian population disproportionate to any legitimate military objective.
The intentional targeting of innocent civilians for violence can never be justified, full stop. But does that mean we should ignore the crimes committed by the other side in this terrible conflict?
Dan Eisner, you point out that Israel has a right to defend itself. I agree, but at the risk of stating the obvious, I want to remind you that Israel has been waging war against the Palestinian people for over fifty years. The government of Israel has also targeted innocent Palestinians for torture and death. Israel has occupied Palestinian lands, and administered a regime of brutal apartheid for decades. And the Gaza Strip, home to over 2 million people, has become the world’s largest open-air prison – with Israel and Egypt conspiring to maintain a complete blockade of the region, controlling everything that goes in and out. This is common knowledge, but most Americans choose to ignore it because it is politically inconvenient for them. (See Human Rights Watch for more information: https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/14/gaza-israels-open-air-prison-15)
And with their announced ground invasion of Gaza, Israel has essentially promised to commit war crimes on an even larger scale than Hamas committed on Oct 7th. Are we supposed to thank Israel for that?
@Dan Eisner: The notions that we are advocating for the destruction of Israel, a one state solution, or that peace is not possible are ridiculous and in no way implied/inferable from our statement. If you must engage the statement, please engage what it actually says and do not invent stuff. Thanks! FYI, 21% of Israeli citizens today are Palestinians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_citizens_of_Israel
I happen to come from an incredibly diverse country, Suriname, where many cultures mix and live side by side, including Muslims, Hindus, Jews and Cristians. Our capital city is unique in the world in that it hosts a major house of worship for each, all four adjacent to each other in a single square city block. Perhaps that gives me a different perspective on what’s possible.
@Dan Eisner, there are a lot of racist sentiments being expressed in your post that i hope you reconsider. Maybe you are unaware of this but two of the friendliest cafe’s in Central Sq – Andala and Brookline Lunch – have Palestinian owners. In my experience Palestinians in general are pretty chill, I see no evidence they would not be willing to live side by side in a single, democratic secular state where everyone has equal rights and is treated the same. Of course it’s very hard to do that when one side has been violently oppressing and displacing the other for 75 years. You mention Hamas but you fail to acknowledge that they are largely a product of the Israeli government itself, who have propped them up for decades and are now using them to justify this current policy of extermination. More children alone have already been killed in Gaza than Israelis on Oct 7th, and that number will continue to climb. Your post is presenting the idea Palestinian lives as having less value than Jewish lives. Surely you do not actually think that, and again, I hope you reconsider the racism and white supremacy inherent some of the things you’ve written.
“We denounce all doxxing, intimidation, hate speech and silencing of individuals in our city.” ??? OK Does that mean Cambridge Councilors denounce Doxxing of Conservatives?? Washington Post internet culture reporter Taylor Lorenz came under fire for revealing the identity of a woman who has been cowering behind her computer screen to share anti-LGBTQ content anonymously. The woman, Chaya Raichik, is, according to The Post, responsible for Libs of TikTok. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/doxxing-libs-tiktok-creator-justified-rcna25280