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Somerville pro-Palestine group announces ballot campaign on City Hall steps
Tuesday, September 12— Around a dozen supporters of the Somerville Divestment Campaign (SDP) gathered in front of City Hall early this afternoon to formally announce their campaign on behalf of two public policy questions which will be on local ballots in November. They aim to persuade Somerville citizens to affirm solidarity with Palestinians' right to return to their homes and homeland.
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Two Naturei Karta orthodox rabbis travelled from New York City to be in Somerville for the announcement, which they hoped would be "the beginning of an awakening."
Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss said, "People really want to do good. Unfortunately, there is tremendous propaganda" that distorts the truth and prevents Americans from understanding what is good and what is evil. "I pray to God that we should be able to convey this truth to you," he said.
One of the greatest distortions, he said, was that Jews were for centuries being massacred in the Muslim world, that Islam is a "terrible philosophy" that makes its followers intolerant of other religions.
"Jews were not massacred, but lived side by side for hundreds of years with Muslims and Christians in Palestine and in every Muslim country," giving refuge for those fleeing the Inquisition and the Crusades. But that coexistence began to change around 100 years ago with the introduction of Zionism, which sought "the transformation of Judaism from a religion, serving God… to a political movement," aimed at acquiring territory.
Rabbi Weiss said that his parents died in Auschwitz, "so I am not a man who does not understand Auschwitz."
"They died a physical death," he said of his parents and othr holocaust victims, but we must throw off Zionism, or "they will die twice, die a spiritual death," as well.
Several Somerville residents spoke about taking personal responsibility, as Americans, for Israel's use of weapons and financial assistance from the U.S. to kill and dispossess Palestinians and people in neighboring countries.
Paul Shannon, who has been a teacher for 30 years, said, "Look in the mirror. We are the ones who bombed Lebanon."
Susan Mortimer, who moved to Somerville 30 years ago, said, "I'm here because I have to be… to be able to sleep at night."
David Rolde, Secretary of the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts, said he was "happy and proud to be here" and that the party "fully supports" the work of the SDP.
Ballot push began two days earlier
On Sunday, volunteers began distributing thousands of flyers in areas of Somerville which will vote on the two questions in November.
Last year, SDP was denied a place on the local ballot for its advisory question to dump the City’s investments in Israel.
But SDP vowed not to give up. This year, two public policy questions will appear on the ballot in the eleven precincts that comprise Representative Pat Jehlens' 27th Middlesex district.
One of the questions is again about the divestment issue. The other is about backing the rights of Palestinian families who lost their homes and land to Israeli settlers.
• Shall the State Representative from this district be instructed to vote for resolutions calling on all governmental entities of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to sell any investments they hold either in Israel Bonds or in companies that supply military equipment to Israel ?
• Shall the State Representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling on the federal government to support the right of all refugees, including Palestinian refugees, to return to their land of origin ?
Somerville Divestment Project:
www.divestmentproject.org/divestment_campaigns.shtml
Naturei Karta International:
www.nkusa.org
that makes one of us
Good to be back
Jon
Important Background
Now, regarding this news item: a bit of clarification. City hall did not so much "keep [the SDP] down" as require it to follow the same rules as everyone else with regard to official petitioning (such as petitions for candidates to get onto the ballot). The city's opinion was upheld by Superior Court Justice and civil rights pioneer Julian Houston and, as I noted in my review of the trial (complete document at http://www.somervillemejustice.com/judgement.html):
"One of the SDP's most compelling arguments (made in both its responses to the court ruling noted above) indicate that the group had received assurance (presumably verbal) from city and state officials that they could collect signatures on any form they wished for as long as they liked. While I do not have access to their official court filing that might have provided information about the form such assurances took, it was interesting to note that the SDP's own attorneys chose not to bring up that argument in court."
It is also interesting to note that despite SDP furor over the abbreviated and straightforward petition language the city asked them to use last year (in comparison with the SDP's original charged petition language that was dismissed out of hand by Judge Houston), the language SDP has chosen to use this year is virtually word-for-word what the city said you should use in 2005.
Given that last year's ballot defeat had much more to do with the SDP's own arrogance and blunders than with any opposition (organized or disorganized), I can understand the need to try to salvage some kind of victory this year (even if that involves venue shopping), rather than admit to donors and volunteers that all of their previous money and time had been wasted.
That said, a lot has happened since 2004 when divestment was on the march. Now, two years later, SDP seems to spend most of its time erasing the names of former "champions" of divestment such as the Presbyterian Church and the British Association of University Teachers, without making mention that once these institutions put divestment and boycott to a democratic vote, it was defeated by margins of 90-95%.
And as I summarize in a recent "magnus opus" on divestment in the US (see http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525979283&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FshowFull), the SDP played no small part in the doom of the divestment movement across the country.
Keep up the good work!
Jon Haber