Opinion: Personal Reflections on the Ceasefire Vote

This piece was written the day after the more than five-hour long town council meeting regarding the vote on the ceasefire in Gaza. Even though in the end, the council did the right thing and voted to pass the proposed resolution, what I and the other Palestinians in attendance had to endure in order to secure that vote sent us a clear message. 

As Palestinians living in Amherst, we have been watching the genocide unfold in Gaza right in front of our eyes. As possible, and whenever Israel allowed internet services, Palestinian journalists living in Gaza have been reporting live to us. We have watched parents mourning their kids, children wishing they got killed with their parents, a kid asking the doctor if this was just a nightmare she was going to wake up from. A child asked a doctor if his legs were going to “grow back again.”

We have seen live images of ambulances getting blown up as they approached the injured and people getting shot at by snipers—all while some brave Palestinian risked their life to broadcast these images, believing that if the world saw them, there was no way we would stay silent. But most governments did stay silent and ours doubled down on its unconditional support of Israel, sending them thousands of precision guided munitions (for targeted assassinations), different kinds of bombs, including bunker busters and various kinds of highly lethal arms. Whatever the weapons used and no matter where they hit, they are guaranteed to kill scores of Palestinians due to the population density.

We watched kids with blown-off limbs, kids with their names written on their bodies so they can be identified if/when they got killed, and children who are shaking uncontrollably due to what they have just witnessed. We also watched video after video of Israeli soldiers recording themselves as they are blowing up residential buildings, schools, mosques, and university buildings, all while they are celebrating or dedicating their war crimes to a soldier they lost.

We have all seen the evidence of Israel’s deliberate effort to kill as many civilians as possible, to destroy all infrastructure, to target cultural icons, journalists, educators, healthcare workers, artists, and activists. We saw how they cut off food, water, electricity, internet, and medical supplies. We saw how they dug up the roads so they would become mostly undrivable. We watched how they shot at people as they followed orders and evacuated to where the occupiers said would be “safe areas”, only to shoot and kill many en route and kidnap many others, including children. Many people reported getting displaced five times during the last five months. All these actions are war crimes and genocidal acts by definition, agreed upon by the international community, including our own government.

These atrocities were not hidden, nor was the intention for committing genocide ever hidden or denied by the Israeli government. There is no shortage of public statements made by Netanyahu and his cabinet members, telling us what their intentions are. We have seen the map that Netanyahu displayed boldly at the United Nations last September (before October 7) that showed the region with Israel expanding from the river to the sea, eliminating Palestine and its people completely (see https://www.commondreams.org/news/netanyahu-map,) yet, when who are protesting the shelling of Gaza chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!,” pro-Israel groups claim that the chant is a call for genocide, rather than hearing it as a call for a democratic state for all its citizens.

Amherst Fails to Support Its Palestinian Residents
Knowing all we know and having watched silently for five months, it was beyond time that Amherst followed other municipalities around the country and lived up to its proclaimed commitment to social justice (see Department of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion | Amherst, MA – Official Website). Our council unanimously condemned Hamas on October 16 for their attack on October 7, but it failed to mention anything about the indiscriminate killing that was already underway by Israel. By October 16th, there were at least 2,800 innocent Palestinian civilians already killed by Israel.

If Amherst wanted to live up to its proclaimed values, then a call for a ceasefire would have meant a call to end the indiscriminate killing and a call to save innocent lives. The resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, submitted by three council members and about 800 community sponsors, would have been in congruence with Amherst values and would have been approved in a unanimous vote. It would not have required any further debate or discussion, no community organizing nor calls for our council to do the right thing would have been needed. Who doesn’t want to save the lives of innocent people, including women and children? Who can claim a shred of humanity and disapprove of stopping a vicious killing machine, especially one enabled by our tax dollars? Who would want their hands dipped in the blood of innocent civilians? Surely nobody who claims to cherish life at all.

Instead, many of the Palestininas in town sat in the Middle School auditorium with community sponsors and concerned residents, watching the debate about the value of the lives of our people. We got the message loud and clear: the lives of Palestinians are not of any concern to several of our council members. The rules of humanity did not seem to apply to us. We, who have lived in this town, making Amherst our home and the home of our families, for as many as 37 years, were told loud and clear that we are not seen as part of the fabric of our town; that our despair about our people in Palestine is something that this council should not be interested in lifting. Apparently, the loss of human life on the part of Palestinians is an international issue, outside the concern of this council. Yet, condemning Hamas in Gaza was definitely the council’s business. It took only a week after Hamas’ attack for the Amherst Town Council to unanimously condemn the loss of precious lives. But five months of shelling, sniping, and kidnapping and total destruction of the possibility of life in Gaza after this, was of no interest to some councilors. It didn’t seem to matter that some of their constituents were suffering, they were still seen as the Other.

Watching some councilors more interested in placing blame on Hamas than stopping the killing of innocent civilians sent us the clear message: “You do not belong in our White town. We do not care about the emotional suffering you and your brown children are going through. We do not care about your relatives and people getting killed by the hundreds every day. Their lives do not matter to us.”

Sitting and watching the contempt with which we were looked at, even as we tried to speak our truth and from the heart, and the tone by which we got silenced as our two minutes were up, gave us the clear message that some residents are more important than others. Some lives are more worth mourning than others. “Your and your people’s lives do not matter to us.”

Was it time for us to look for another town that would accept us? 

On second thought, all the incredible human beings who have sacrificed long hours every day since January to work on this resolution and to garner the support of a wider network; those who have managed to build a powerful, caring and loving tight-knit community, they are the ones who have given us hope. They have given us a louder message than the hateful, racist message we got last night. These activists have told us clearly that they stand with us and that they care about us and our people. They care about our wellbeing, and they are genuine in their support. They are our community, our people. We want to continue living among these loving people and working with them on building the town we wish we had!

Hind Mari is a resident of Amherst