A Palestinian speaks out

 

 

   By Reginald Johnson

      Johnny Sakakini knows the suffering of the Palestinian people. He’s lived it.

  On October 23, 16 days after the Israel-Gaza War broke out, he got a call from his mother with some devastating news. Describing what had been told to her by relatives, his mother said 12 members in their wider family in Gaza had been killed by an Israeli rocket attack against a Christian church in Gaza City.

  “They came to the church that Sunday, mothers, fathers and their kids,” said Sakakini. “The parents told the kids, ‘go to the hall (next to the chapel) and play with the other kids.’ They went and moments later, there was a sound --- Psst! --- a missile came in and took out the whole hall.”

   In total, 80 people lost their lives in the attack on the hall, which was part of the Greek Orthodox St. Porphyrius Church, which dates to the 1100s and is one the oldest Christian churches in the world.  Many of the people killed were refugees who had fled more war-torn areas and were seeking shelter in the church. Sakakini said he used to go to the church when he was a boy.

  No explanation or apology was offered by Israeli authorities for the strike.

 “They went to the church thinking they were safe,” said Sakakini. “But they weren’t safe. They weren’t safe...” he said, his voice trailing off.

  Sakakini is a Palestinian-American who came to the United States to escape the Israeli Occupation from the West Bank city of Ramallah in 1988. He now runs a restaurant called “Abi’s Falafel” in Trumbull.

  He sat down recently to talk about the tragic incident at church, the war in  Gaza and the Occupation in Palestine.

  Our talk took place as the war in Gaza raged on with over 30,000 people killed. (3000 more people have been killed since the interview took place). Another 1.5 million people have had to leave their homes and find shelter somewhere away from the violence.

 The war began when Israel retaliated for an attack Oct. 7 in southern Israel by Hamas extremists which killed 1200 people attending a concert.

  Israel has been accused of using disproportionate force in its military campaign and committing a number of war crimes, including carpet bombing residential neighborhoods and bombing churches, mosques and hospitals. The IDF has also bombed food centers,  refugee camps and schools. Israel is also being criticized for blocking the delivery of food supplies into Gaza. There’s now growing concern about famine engulfing the region.

  On April 1, the Israeli military fired missiles at aid trucks from World Central Kitchen, killing seven workers. Israeli authorities said the attack was a mistake.

 Officials of the UN and human rights organizations claim that there is substantial evidence showing Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza.

 Israeli officials deny the charges of war crimes, saying the military is “precise” with the bombing attacks and efforts are made to avoid civilians. And in general, they stress that Israel has a right to self-defense in the wake of the horrific October 7 attack.

 “I understand that Israel has a right to self-defense,” said Sakakini, “but this is way beyond self-defense, way beyond. You know when we went into Afghanistan, did we bomb everybody that lived there? No, we didn’t. We went there and took out the guys we needed to take out… Killing 35,000 civilians is not justified under self-defense.”

  Often Israeli officials maintain that if civilians were killed in an attack, it was either a mistake, Hamas rockets had been fired from the area or there were Hamas terrorists mixed in with the civilians and the killing of the civilians was unavoidable.

   Sakakini responds,  “Israel will use anything as an excuse. If the bird flies the wrong way, they’ll use that as an excuse to target civilians.”

  He added, ”The funny part is, in the United States people will believe everything Israel says. Nobody believes what other people say like Amnesty International, the United Nations or other human rights groups --- what their reports show.”

       Johnny Sakakini at his restaurant in Trumbull. He immigrated to the United States to escape the Israeli occupation of Palestine. He said living under occupation was like being in a "concentration camp." (Reginald Johnson photo)

  Since the Gaza war began, passions have been running high in the United States with widespread demonstrations taking place in support of the Palestinians. But there’s also been considerable support voiced for Israel.

  A number of cities around the country have seen efforts by pro-Palestinian groups to pass cease-fire resolutions to stop the war, but there's been fierce pushback by advocates for Israel.

In Bridgeport, a cease-fire resolution was passed by the City Council after weeks of debate. Passionate speeches were made both for and against the resolution at the public forums prior to the council meetings. One night, a heated argument erupted at the end of the forum, and police had to be called in to keep it from getting out of hand.

   Sakakini was asked if there had been any problems at his restaurant as a result of ongoing anger over the war.

  “In the beginning after October 7 happened, there were some issues,” he said. “One guy came in and shouted, ‘I don’t support Palestine!’ and then spit on the floor and walked out.”  There were other people, as well, who walked out after seeing the Palestinian flag by the door.

“It’s funny,” said Johnny.  “I’ve had that big flag by the door for six years. All those years it didn’t bother anyone. After October 7 it becomes an issue for some people. But it is what it is. I am a Palestinian. I support my country. If you want to support Israel and the soldiers, go to the McDonald’s up the street and support them.”

  (McDonalds has been criticized for supporting the Israeli government by advocates of the movement to boycott Israeli goods and disinvest in Israel.)

 But Sakakini noted that many people have come to his business and expressed support for the Palestinians. He recalled one day when a lady came in with her children and sat down.

  “I went over, thanked her for coming in and asked if she was Palestinian. She said ‘No, I’m American.’ I said, ‘Thank you for supporting us,’ Suddenly, she started crying.  I said, ‘What’s the matter?’ She said, ‘I’m 35 years old and I never knew the struggle the Palestinians are going through until now. Why wasn’t I told?’ “

  “So people are opening their eyes,” Sakakini said. “People are seeing what is happening and they can’t ignore it anymore.”

  Sakakini, who wears a wrist band which says “Free Palestine,” runs the restaurant with his wife Simone. They have two children, both in college. So far they haven’t encountered any problems. “But they told me they don't want to look at any of the pictures of destruction in Gaza. It gets to them," he said.

Palestinian flags and a picture of Palestine at Abi's Falafel in Trumbull. (Reginald Johnson photo)

 Johnny, 50, came to the United States alone before his parents arrived and at one point worked at a Subway in downtown Bridgeport. Later he opened the restaurant.

 He recounted the difficulty of growing up in the occupied West Bank. While Israel technically does not have sovereignty over this area they control many aspects of life there. In particular, the military has checkpoints at many locations. Palestinians have to go through those checkpoints and answer questions before they can go on. In some cases, people are subjected to strip searches.

 When Johnny and his friends were growing up and going to school, Israeli soldiers would frequently harass them.

  Sakakini said he was jostled by soldiers one time coming home from school. Another time he saw a soldier slam a boy with the butt of his rifle.

 “When you live under military occupation it is not a piece of cake," he said. "They control your water, they control your electricity, they control where you can walk where you cannot walk, they control the schools, when they open when they close, they control when you can open shops. They can put you up against the wall for 20 hours and you can’t move and God forbid you make a move they'll shoot you or they’ll say 'you're trying to resist' and they’ll charge you.”

  Sakakini likened Palestine under occupation to "a concentration camp."

  The bitterness felt by many Palestinians for living under military control sparks random violence, such as kids throwing stones at soldiers. Some kids have been shot and killed for doing this.

 “People don’t understand international law gives you the right to fight occupation,” said Johnny.  “So if you think shooting kids who are throwing stones is the right thing, something is wrong with the whole picture… You know this whole thing did not start with October 7. This has been boiling since 1948."

 (In 1948, the UN created Israel out of the old Palestine controlled by the British.   Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to leave their homes and many were killed. Palestinians call that period the "Nakba," meaning catastrophe).

  “Imagine five generations of Palestinians who've been living under occupation,” Johnny said.

   Under the UN Partition Plan, Israel received 56 percent of the land from the British Mandate. A second state was envisioned for the Palestinians but no agreement was reached on setting it up.

  In the 75 years since then there has still been no agreement on a second state and now much of the land that Palestinians nominally have, has been chipped away at as the Israeli government has allowed Jewish settlers to take over Palestinian areas to build homes. Now Israel has full control over about 80% of what was the British Mandate and have occupying forces in the remaining Palestinian areas in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

  “It’s a landgrab. No matter how you look at it, it’s a landgrab,” said Johnny.

“People accuse the Palestinians of using the slogan ‘from the river to the sea Palestine will be free’ but in reality it is the Israelis that used that term in the beginning. It was in the Israeli Likud Party charter of 1970 where it is stated that Israel should be on the land ‘from the sea to the river,’ you know.”

  One of the things that most bothers Sakakini is the way the media portrays Palestinians --- likening them to terrorists due to the actions of extremist elements of Hamas or other militant groups.

 “Nobody knows it, but you see how the media dehumanizes us and makes us look to the world like we’re terrorists," he said.  “Customers don’t even know that Jesus was Palestinian. I said, how could you not know where Jesus was born?  Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Where is Bethlehem? It’s in Palestine. Jesus was a Palestinian Jew, just like  there are Palestinian Jews today, Palestinian Muslims and Palestinian Christians.”

  Sakakini said he does not justify the attacks by Hamas last October. “There should not be violence used by either side. There should be peace for us and peace for the Israelis.”

  He was asked what the solution is to the long-running Palestinian-Israeli dispute.

  “A two state solution. Give the Palestinians the right to live as human beings with all the resources. Give the land back to us that we had. Give the land back so we're living in peace and have all the rights like anyone else”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

  

Bridgeport council stands firm on ceasefire resolution

 

           By Reginald Johnson

 

    BRIDGEPORT, CT --- The City Council voted overwhelmingly this week to keep in place the city’s historic resolution passed in January calling for a permanent ceasefire and military de-escalation in Gaza.

  There has been a major pressure campaign by some Jewish groups and others to overturn the resolution, saying it was unfair to Israel and the City Council had no business taking up international matters.

 But the council was not deterred and the final vote to retain the original resolution was 14-4.

  The statement is non-binding and is aimed at encouraging members of Congress and President Biden into backing a ceasefire in the bloody Gaza conflict, which has taken 32,000 Palestinian lives, a majority of them women and children.

   Another 1.5 million people in Gaza have been displaced and hundreds of thousands face starvation, since the Israeli military is blocking aid trucks from bringing food into the besieged enclave.

 This week, Israeli missile attacks destroyed aid trucks from the World Central Kitchen, killing seven people. Israeli officials said the attacks were a mistake.

  UN and world court officials have stated that there’s evidence a genocide is taking place in Gaza.

 Prior to the vote, Councilman Jorge Cruz said he knew there was suffering on both sides of the Israeli-Gaza conflict.

   “I’m with you,” he said. “But I cannot support rescinding the original resolution.”

   He went on, “I have seen the news and I see the kids with little cups and Tupperware lined up to get food in the Gaza Strip and that makes my heart break. I know the Israelites are suffering on the other side, too, for their loved ones still held in captivity…. So my prayers are that we can find common ground and come together.”

             

The Bridgeport City Council upheld its ceasefire resolution for Gaza, despite a campaign by some Jewish groups to have it rescinded. (Reginald Johnson photo)

      

  Cruz took issue with the fact that after the ceasefire resolution was approved both on the committee level and then by the full council on January 2,  another council member (Scott Burns) decided to offer a new resolution to overturn the document.

  “Never in my all my years on the council have I seen this,” Cruz said. “This was disrespectful and should not have happened.”

  Bridgeport and Windsor are the only municipalities in Connecticut that have passed Gaza ceasefire resolutions. Other cities such as Hamden, New Haven and Hartford are still debating ceasefire proposals.

 Ceasefire resolutions have been passed by 70 other cities and towns around the country.

  U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, who represents Bridgeport and southwestern Connecticut in Congress, has refused to support a Gaza ceasefire proposal.

  In fact, a majority of the members of Congress do not support a ceasefire and have consistently sided with Israel on the issue of the Gaza war. This is despite recent polling which indicates a majority of the American people favor a ceasefire.

  As this article was being written, President Biden was reported to have asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire.

  But many observers are skeptical as to whether the Israeli leader will take the request seriously, since Biden is not making further US aid to Israel conditional on acceptance of a ceasefire plan.

   Aziz Seyal, vice president of the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center, which spearheaded the effort to get the City Council resolution passed, commented that “the whole world should stand up against them (Israel), but the problem is our leaders are suggesting some things but are still providing the bombs to Israel, so that’s not happening.”

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The genocide must end

                                                 Commentary

    

            By Reginald Johnson

        

    How long will the world community stand by and do nothing?

   For five months, Israel has been conducting a brutal, some would say barbaric military campaign to punish the people of Palestine for the attacks of October 7, when Hamas extremists assaulted a music festival in Israel, killing over 1,200 people.

  Israel says their military operation in Gaza is only targeting individuals tied to Hamas (which is the governing authority for Palestine) but news reports say otherwise. Israel has carried out a carpet bombing campaign which has leveled apartment buildings, schools, and universities. There have been airstrikes as well on hospitals, churches, mosques, refugee camps, food centers and ambulances. All these attacks are war crimes under international law.

   At this point, more than 31,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed.  The real fatality figure is probably a lot higher because not everyone has been accounted for, including people whose bodies are under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

 Another 1.5 million people have been displaced from their homes.

 Israeli authorities have also blocked aid trucks from getting into Gaza, resulting in acute food shortages. UN officials say that more and more people are going hungry and cases of starvation have already been verified.

  A group of UN experts declared recently that “Israel has been intentionally starving” Gaza, and that “widespread famine” in the besieged enclave is “imminent,” according to a report in Mondoweiss.

  “We’ve never seen a civilian population made to go hungry so completely and so quickly,” said Michael Fahkri, UN Special Rapporteur. “Never in modern history.”

   Medical care in Gaza is also collapsing, as hospitals and health facilities have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli bombing. This has led to people dying from inadequate medical care and disease.

 The death toll in Gaza could jump exponentially with the onset of famine and the spread of disease. Prof. Devi Sridhar, chair of the global public health division at the University of Edinburgh, predicts that a quarter of Gaza’s 2 million population --- close to half of 1 million human beings --- could die within a year.

 Almost on a daily basis, atrocities are being carried out against Palestinians, particularly in Gaza but also in the West Bank and East Jerusalem --- territories illegally occupied by Israel for the past 57 years.

 On Thursday, at least 21 Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of people waiting for aid in Gaza City in the same area that was targeted hours earlier, according to the Al Jazeera news service. In the earlier incident, the same food distribution point at the Kuwait roundabout, Israel forces shot dead at least six Palestinians, according to the report. Israeli officials claimed that it was actually Palestinians who were shooting at their own people.

 On Wednesday, Israeli forces attacked a food distribution center in Gaza killing one worker and injuring 22, according to the BBC.

 Also on Wednesday, in  East Jerusalem, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 12-year-old boy who was playing with fireworks. Eyewitnesses said the boy posed no threat to the soldiers and was using small fireworks.

 On February 29, UN officials reported that 112 people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on a group that gathered around a food supply truck in the early morning hours. In what is being called the "Flour Massacre,” a number of people were killed by gunshots while others died after being trampled by the crowd that went into frenzy after the gunfire erupted. Others died when they were run over by the truck that began driving away to escape the chaos.

 On February 15, dozens of doctors were detained and tortured after a raid by Israeli forces on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to the BBC. The doctors were forced to strip, were blindfolded, forced to remain in a kneeling position, and then were beaten, One doctor was set upon by muzzled dogs, the report said.

 Israeli spokesmen said the IDF raided the hospital because they had evidence Hamas fighters were hiding there.

  Also in February, two little Palestinian girls, sisters, who were putting water into a bucket in the courtyard of their home, were shot dead by an IOF tank. When their father came out and lay down next to them, he was shot dead, too.

The atrocities, the indiscriminate killings, the vast numbers of people being killed and the apparent attempt to engineer a famine, all point towards one conclusion: Israel is conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinians.

 The International Court of Justice reached a similar conclusion when it determined that there was a “plausible case” to be made that Israel was carrying out a "genocide" in Gaza.

 It's clear a great moral crime against humanity is taking place in Gaza.

What is happening in Palestine rivals the ethnic cleansing/genocidal campaigns that took place in the 1990s in Rwanda and Yugoslavia. 

The question is, what is the world going to do about this, if anything?

Certainly some in the UN are oriented to taking action. Fahkri and some of his other colleagues on March 5 called for an arms embargo against Israel until Israel ceases its military campaign.

 A majority of countries on the Security Council of the UN have also agreed to a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

                    

Backers of a ceasefire in Gaza lobby for support from the City Council in Bridgeport, CT  The council approved a ceasefire resolution. (Reginald Johnson photo)

 But every time a ceasefire resolution has been presented to the Security Council, the United States has used its veto to kill it, making clear that the United States is the major stumbling block for the world taking collective action against Israel to stop the genocide.

 President Biden has talked recently, as have other Democratic Party leaders about the need for Israel to control its military forces and avoid civilian casualties. However, talk is cheap. The fact is Biden has not gotten tough with Israel to really back up his words. He could threaten the cutoff of aid to Israel to force that nation to stop the carnage, but he hasn’t done that. He could also ask the US ambassador at the UN to vote with the other nations on the Security Council in passing a resolution ordering Israel to stop its military operations. But he hasn’t done that either.

So until the United States changes its position on what Israel is doing that nation is going to continue with its grossly immoral and totally illegal ethnic cleansing campaign in Palestine.

The United States is the key. The policy here must change. This is why it’s so important that people on the local level continue to speak out and press their members of Congress as well as the White House to get on board behind a cease-fire and insist that Israel stop its barbaric operations. It should be noted that Congress has been as bad as Biden has been on the issue of Israel --- most members in Congress still oppose a cease-fire in Gaza, and that includes both Republicans and Democrats.

 It is somewhat of an indictment of our democracy that while a strong majority of the American people want a cease-fire in Gaza a strong majority in Congress are against it. This is almost entirely because of the huge contributions that are given by pro- Israel lobbies to members of Congress in both parties. The members of our national legislature are in Israel’s pocket.

People and voters have to make it clear to these members of Congress that they need to change their positions and get behind a cease-fire and in turn put pressure on the Biden administration to insist that Israel also agree to a cease-fire, or they will be voted out.

 The genocide in Gaza must be stopped.

 

 

 

 

 

   

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.

 

 

John Gomes takes on the machine

                                             Opinion

  By Reginald Johnson

   BRIDGEPORT --- John Gomes, who hopes to unseat incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim in the city's special mayoral election on Tuesday, has written a powerful letter to the editor of the Connecticut Examiner, and everyone in Bridgeport should read it. https://ctexaminer.com/2024/02/24/more-coerced-endorsements-courtesy-of-party-boss-mario-testa/

 Gomes references the pressure that Bridgeport Democratic party boss Mario Testa placed on Connecticut's top elected officials, including Governor Ned Lamont, to secure their endorsement of Ganim. It’s alarming and depressing at the same time.

                   

Billboard for John Gomes, running for mayor of Bridgeport in Tuesday's special election. (Reginald Johnson photo.)

 The Ganim-Testa machine has been running things in Bridgeport for far too long. The results haven’t been good. It’s time for a change.

  Vote for Gomes on Tuesday. It will help not only Bridgeport, but Connecticut as well.

(For a more detailed look at why Gomes should be mayor, read my post "Bridgeport election: Time for a change" on January 21 in this blog).

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.