Council Passes Resolution About the War in Israel and Gaza, Bylaws on Reproductive Health Care and Specialized Stretch Building Code
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Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Town Council October 16, 2023 (Part 2)
This meeting was held in hybrid format and was recorded. It can be viewed here.
At its October 11 meeting, the Governance, Organization, and Legislation (GOL) formulated a resolution about the ongoing war in Israel and Gaza that began with Hamas attacking civilians in Israel. As approved by the five members of GOL, Pat DeAngelis and Lynn Griessemer (District 2), Jennifer Taub (District 3), Michele Miller (District 1), and Mandi Jo Hanneke (at large) the resolution ended with the paragraph:
Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved we, the Amherst Town Council expresses our unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and its appalling acts of terrorism and stand in solidarity with the members of the Amherst community whose family and friends are directly impacted by this crisis and we join our hearts and minds with others working toward non-violent and equitable solutions to resolve this complex and difficult conflict.
In light of retaliatory actions taken by Israel since the resolution was crafted, DeAngelis amended the last paragraph by adding the phrase “we also express our condemnation of the indiscriminate attacks by Israeli forces on the Gaza civilian population.” This raised objections from Dorothy Pam (District 3) and Taub who felt the added phrase made it sound like the resolution encompassed the whole situation in the Middle East, not just the Hamas terrorist attacks. DeAngelis responded that the Israeli bombing of hospitals and civilians should also be condemned.
Andy Steinberg (at large) was also uncomfortable with DeAngelis’ amendment, and suggested omitting the reference to Israeli forces, saying, “We express our regrets that the lives and safety of the Gaza civilian population have been endangered.” Ellisha Walker (at large) stated that she understood where DeAngelis was trying to express, but she wanted a resolution that “…we all feel good about, so I don’t want to agree to anything that is making any member feel uncomfortable.”
Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5) objected to the use of the word “regrets”. Pam Rooney suggested that “regrets” be replaced with “sorrow”. With these changes, the resolution was approved 12-0 (Shalini Bahl Milne [District 5] absent.)
Taub noted that the community sponsors of the resolution, Rabbi Devorah Jacobson and Peter Blood, were not present to approve the changes made, but it was after 11 p.m. It was decided that they could remove their sponsorship when notified the next day if they did not agree with the changes. Steinberg added his name as a sponsor.
Council Adopts Specialized Stretch Energy Code
Sponsor Devlin Gauthier noted that Amherst adopted the energy stretch building code in 2012, and it was time to update it by opting in to the specialized code to “ensure that new buildings in Amherst will be resilient in the face of heat waves, deep freezes, and other major changes to the world in which we live as a result of a changing climate.” The specialized code sets standards for energy efficiency in new buildings and significant remodels through insulation, high performance windows and doors, and full electrification. It adds to the town’s net zero bylaw for new municipal buildings.
Bylaw Affirming Safe Access to Legally Protected Reproductive and Gender Affirming Care
Although the state of Massachusetts passed the Roe act, protecting the legal right to abortion, this bylaw adds to those protections. The bylaw “Ensuring Safe Access to Legally Protected Reproductive and Gender Affirming Care” was sponsored by Devlin Gauthier and Hanneke. The town’s bylaw prohibits town staff from assisting outside organizations who may be seeking information on people who are seeking gender-affirming or reproductive care in Amherst. Devlin Gauthier said, “We have so many individuals in Amherst who travel here especially for school that the likelihood that we have people who seek this care is high. We owe it to our community to protect them.”
In public comment, Michael Hutton-Woodland, a representative of the Abortion Truth Campaign of Massachusetts praised the bylaw that solidifies and extends protections available in Massachusetts for Amherst. He said the bylaw requires town representatives, such as those in the Health Department or the police, to protect the identity and health information of people seeking reproductive care and gender affirming care by helping town staff resist pressure from outside of the town to release that information. “That pressure is coming, and it’s coming from outside of our state,” he added.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/10/israel-gaza-war-manufactured-consent.html
When I taught about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict back in the 90’s I would point out to my students how the coverage in the mainstream media treated the victims of violence differentially depending on their identity. Jewish victims had names, and families and backstories. Palestinian victims were typically nameless and story-less. And so it often happened that the reader came to subconsciously see the former, as more sympathetic, more righteous, more victimized, more human than the latter. And this of course made it easier to rationalize violent retaliation against the less human side.
Sadly, the Council’s resolution on Gaza, in spite of all of its good intent, reproduces this injustice.
Across the United States, we grieve for the victims of Kibbutz Be’eri, and the music festival, and the other settlements that were viciously attacked by Hamas and we identify that attack as an unconscionable war crime. We know the victim’s names and their backstories. We see countless interviews with survivors and relatives of the victims. Not so for the victims of the genocidal bombing campaign now being conducted in Gaza.
The council’s resolution condemned the Hamas attack and, “expressed sorrow that the lives and safety of the Gazan civilian population have been endangered”.
How were they “endangered” and by whom? As of today more than 1000 Gazan children have been killed in the Israeli bombing campaign. The Gazans who have been “endangered” (who are in fact being killed in horrific numbers) are victims, of Israeli genocidal aggression. Both the victims of the Hamas attack and of the Israeli bombing campaign are victims of war crimes. The asymmetry of the resolution – naming the perpetrators of one assault and not the other, undermines the humanity of the Palestinian victims.
Councilor Pat De Angelis was correct to object to the original wording of the resolution that left out Palestinian victims entirely and to attempt to identify Israel as perpatrators of violence in Gaza. But that amendment was rejected by the council. The unanimously adopted compromise is still harmful.
It is noteworthy that some of the surviving residents on Kibbutz Be’eri and some of their relatives, have unequivocally condemned the bombing campaign in Gaza, naming it a war crime and calling for an immediate cease-fire. We would do well to follow their lead.
Thanks, Art, for clarifying the important nuances involved in the Council’s Resolution AND in our mainstream approach to the The Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A resource is the Jewish Voice for Peace. ( JVP.org ). which I have belonged to.