Activating our levers
My remarks in response to an ATX city resolution in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, an immediate release of the hostages in Israel, and call to combat antisemitism + Islamophobia.
A few weeks ago a friend of mine who sits on the Austin Commission for Women texted me asking me to show up and speak to a resolution that the Commission was considering recommending that would support a ceasefire in Gaza and a call for the immediate release of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas. This friend did not ask me to speak towards a specific call, in support or not, she just asked me to speak based on my perspective and experience. THAT is allyship.
While I was preparing my remarks and considering how I truly feel about this new trend of city councils, committees, etc , I found my own perspective on this kind of action, activism, shifting. I am SO grateful for that experience in and of itself; an opportunity to interrogate my own values. What a gift.
Here is what I wrote + the final resolution language. I am sharing this because I think it’s essential to encourage, hype up, call IN folks to use the levers that they have access to towards safety for all. It took me a few days to get to this perspective and as for today, it is where I am perched.
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I am here today as a Jew who wants an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate release of the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas. I am here as Jew who is a tenured humanitarian professional with three decades of work behind me who has worked in Israel and Palestine in service of health and safety for all. I am here as a voter in the US, in the state of Texas, in the city of Austin, who wants my tax dollars to support the values that my family champions; health, access, safety, beauty, joy, and justice. I am here as a mother.
I am lucky enough to have lived and worked in the Middle East, off and on, since 2004. My first trip there was at the request of the leaders in a village in the West Bank as they created a plan to provide emergency obstetric care to the women living there as Israel was in the process of building a wall that would cut them off from access to life saving health care. My last trip there was in April of 2022 for my oldest son’s Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem. There were many trips in between, including living in the region for three years, through three wars that included active shelling in my neighborhood and the death of a dear Palestinian friend’s family at the hands of the Israeli military.
Over the last twenty years my Jewish heart has increasingly opened, expanded to center the safety of Palestinian families in my work and activism as I do Israeli families who also want peace. I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in coexistence work between Palestinian and Israeli women since the early 2000’s, knowing first hand the courage, commitment, and compassion that those relationships require. They have been my daily inspiration since October 7th, and long before, when I consider what is MY role in working towards peace in that region.
In the last 10 years since my children started to attend AISD schools I have been called to deal with numerous anti-semetic actions against my kids by other students. I share this information with the committee because, it is my opinion, that all of this harm is linked, connected, and we cannot address one without also addressing the other. Our liberation as Jews is bound to the liberation of all, most importantly, the liberation of Palestinians. I am grateful to see the inclusion of combating anti-semitism in this resolution. Thank you for that.
In moments of terrible violence and harm, it is up to each of us to consider the levers for justice that we have accessible to us that prioritize those at risk. I applaud this commission for activating the lever you have available to you. A lever to write a resolution, host a public conversation, and then put your names on it in support. I encourage you to pass this resolution today. And then I invite you to do more.
I am lucky to have several levers to activate when I feel the need to do something, to actively engage, to show my support for Palestinians. It is my belief that those of you on this committee have access to a few more levers, as well, and it is imperative that you continue to engage with them.
As a humanitarian health professional, I know the horrors that are being visited upon Palestinians and Israelis during this horrific violence. I know what the soul shattering howls of mothers who’ve lost their children sound like. I know the despair in the eyes of a physician who cannot save the life of a child not because they lack the skills but because they lack the electricity, clean water, and medicines. I know what the disassociation looks like in the body of someone who has survived a sexual assault as they try to find their way back to themself. I know what PTSD feels like in a body triggered by missile warnings followed by a sprint to a bomb shelter, repeat, repeat, repeat. There aren’t words to describe these experiences adequately and they are not fair, just, or deserved by anyone.
I have focused my efforts since Oct 7th on caring for the Palestinian and Israeli and Jewish people that I know, personally, in Austin. For example, I organize a bread baking effort in ATX where we gather, to both feel our feelings and to bake challah and taboon, and then we deliver fresh bread to Palestinian, Israeli and Jewish community members as we check in on them. We do this because we cannot fix the terrible violence in Gaza but we can show up and care for each other here, in Austin.
As an American Jew I believe that I have a responsibility to express my disappointment and anger over the way that the Israeli government is behaving. That said, I do not vote or pay taxes in Israel, and I do not think that my opinion matters very much on this matter to anyone outside of my immediate circles. While I feel that I should be vocal about my sentiments over this terrible violence, as a Jew, I feel that my efforts are most useful when I reach out to the Palestinians in my community here in Austin to care for them. On their terms.
I believe that is the actual intent of this resolution: to demonstrate your commitment to community care for Palestinians, Israelis, and Jews. I believe that what you are intending to signal to those who are directly involved in this violence and their allies, through the passing of this resolution, is that you have their back. If that is your goal then I recommend that you pass it.
However, sometimes our intent does not meet the mark it is intended to and I want to offer some caution here. If your intent with the passing of this resolution is to stop the violence in Gaza and secure the release of the hostages, the passing of this resolution will not stop the violence in Gaza or bring the hostages home. As gorgeous and loving as your intentions are in crafting this thoughtful messaging, it will not keep Palestinian families in Palestine safe or Israeli families safe in Israel.
The only thing that will keep Palestinian families in Palestine safe and Israeli families safe in Israel is a ceasefire and release of the hostages and those of us in this room have no influence over when that will happen. That is hard. That is uncomfortable.
Your purview, as I understand it, is women in Austin. There are Palestinian, Israeli, and Jewish women in Austin who are scared. I want to encourage you to focus your efforts on those people. Islamophobia and antisemitism are the waters that we are swimming in and that, I believe, is where this committee COULD be positively directing its energy once you get through the public act of passing this resolution.
A Palestinian activist was stabbed in Austin recently. Let us turn our energies towards caring for him, his family, his community. THAT feels like something we can achieve together.
I trust that those of you in rooms like these around the world, sitting together with your courageous open hearts and big brains, pouring your word-smithing superpowers into resolutions like this one, who are not Palestinian, Israeli, or Jewish, are also voting. THAT, I believe, will get us closer to a ceasefire. I trust that some of you are also running for office, THAT, I believe, will get us closer to a ceasefire. But short of these two actions, and I know this is very hard to hear, there is not much we can do to force the violence to stop in Gaza.
I have some good news, though: there are other ways to show that we care for Palestinians, Israelis, and Jews. We can keep using our privilege + our microphones to encourage our people to learn, to love, and to vote in ways that promote Palestinian liberation. We can show up in places like this, where Palestinian women don’t often have a seat at the table, and we can advocate for Palestinian liberation even, and especially, when it is unpopular. We can call in (not out) our non-Palestinian friends and family members who aren’t able to see the harm being done to Palestinians for what it is and we can truly listen to them. And then we get up and do it all again.
As a Jew, it is not my place to speak on what it is to be an ally for Palestinians. I can speak only to what this Jew is desiring in allyship during these hard times. For me, what I crave in an ally is generosity, presence, a commitment to seeing me in my totality.
While it is not my intent to define allyship for Palestinians here today, I recognize that it may be felt by Palestinians as an overstep on my part. That is a risk that I am taking with the hope that if I have caused harm that I will be told that and that I will be offered the opportunity to do the work of repair. That is all that I can ask of those who have so much to loose as this terrible war rages on.
I recommend that you pass this resolution. And then I recommend that you call your Palestinian, Israeli, and Jewish friends and ask them what they need to feel cared for. Thank you for your intent and thank you for your attention.
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The resolution did not pass. Here is the language that was submitted:
Resolution of the City of Austin Commission for Women in support of the Human Rights Commission Recommendation on Combating Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Anti-Arab Sentiments in the City of Austin and Calls for a Ceasefire (Recommendation Number: 20240116-001)
WHEREAS, the Commission for Women was established to prioritize women’s quality of life so that Austin becomes the most equitable city in the nation for women and girls; and
WHEREAS, this Commission has continuously devoted advisory and critical focus on Austin’s efforts to foster a community that truly embraces diversity and upholds the principles of equality and human rights; and
WHEREAS, this Commission vigorously supports the creation and sustaining of communities locally and abroad where all residents can live free from fear and discrimination, with special focus on the experience of women and girls; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. State Department “support[s] and encourag[es] U.S. local leaders to engage internationally” and believes “cities and states can be amplifiers of democratic values”; and
WHEREAS, human rights organizations around the world have confirmed the use of gender-based and sexual violence primarily against women and girls in the October 7 Hamas-led attacks in Israel, prompting United Nations experts to call for full accountability in the face of “the growing body of evidence about reported sexual violence” that “is particularly harrowing”; and
WHEREAS, roughly 70% of the 27,000+ Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since October 7 have been women and children, with two mothers killed in Gaza every hour; close to 1 million women and girls have been displaced in Gaza; 5,500 women are expected to give birth in Gaza in the next month, of whom 840 are likely to experience pregnancy or birth-related complications, needing additional medical care that is not available; Gaza’s only two women’s shelters are now both closed; “lack of access to adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities for menstrual hygiene management, and a lack of sanitary supplies and facilities to dispose of them properly, affects women’s and girls’ dignity as well as their mental and physical health”; and
WHEREAS, polling of 12 women’s organizations and one youth organization in the Gaza Strip revealed a unified call to action to the international humanitarian community to “support the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire”; and
WHEREAS, there are still women and children being held hostage; and
WHEREAS, Austinites who identify as women understand that the struggles faced by women in the U.S. and those faced by women abroad are interconnected; and
WHEREAS, some 70 U.S. city councils have already called for an Israel-Gaza ceasefire; and
WHEREAS, more than 800 staff at Jewish organizations have signed an open letter to President Biden and Congress urging them “to work for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages, and a diplomatic solution that guarantees equality, justice, and a thriving future for all”; and
WHEREAS, many Jewish, Muslim, and Arab-American mothers in Austin fear for their children’s safety as acts of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab sentiments have escalated locally as a result of the conflict in Gaza;
WHEREAS, this Commission condemns gender-based violence and the destruction of families, and joins with the Human Rights Commission in condemning civilian kidnappings, mourning the loss of lives, and denouncing all acts of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab sentiments;
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Commission for Women echoes the Asian American Quality of Life Commission’s resolution on this matter and joins with the Hispanic/Latino Quality of Life Resource Advisory Commission in support of the Human Rights Commission Recommendation Number: 20231106_001, for the reasons provided herein, with a call for the Austin City Council to express its explicit support for a permanent bilateral ceasefire and the urgent initiation of a political process that prioritizes truth, reconciliation, restitution, and the recognition of the Israeli and Palestinian people to a future where they are equally safe and free of oppression. As stated in the Human Rights Commission recommendations, this includes a demand for the release of civilian hostages, resuming ongoing delivery of life-saving supplies, and condemning all acts of Islamophobia, antisemitism, and anti-Arab sentiment.