by Guy Page
Just over a week after the Burlington City Council declined to support a pro-Palestine, anti-Israel resolution in the wake of the November 25 shooting of three Palestinian men on Prospect Street, signatures are being solicited for a ballot initiative condemning Israel as an “apartheid” regime, a Vermonter and backer of Israel warned.
The following email was received Wednesday from Yoram Samets, an active member of Jewish Communities of Vermont:
“As you know, we recently faced a challenging battle at the last Burlington City Council meeting, where a resolution under the guise of supporting three young Palestinian men shot in Burlington attempted to push an Israel/Hamas cease-fire agenda. Regrettably, rather than uniting to support those affected by the shooting and fostering peace, some members of the Burlington community chose to condemn Israel, deepening divisions, challenges, and fear for many.
“The defeat of this resolution has heightened the safety concerns in our community, as City Councilors who voted against it now face organized intimidation efforts. Unfortunately, we must now confront another threat—a petition for a ballot initiative against Israel, branding it an apartheid regime born out of settler colonialism and sustained through military occupation.
“This ballot item is not only anti-Israel and anti-Zionist but also profoundly antisemitic. We are launching a grassroots effort to persuade the City Council and the Mayor that this petition will only serve to fragment Chittenden County further and escalate fears among both our Muslim and Jewish communities. In these tense times, we believe we should focus on creating dialogue opportunities regarding the Middle East’s complexities.
“If this petition progresses from the City Council to a ballot item on Town Meeting Day, it will have no impact on Israel or Gaza but will negatively affect our children, young families, and our elders in the greater Burlington and Vermont communities. Our immediate efforts will concentrate on the upcoming January 16 Council meeting to prevent this petition from moving forward.
“We invite you to join our cause. We need your help. Leadership in all four area synagogues and Hillel are collaborating to oppose this initiative. Please let us know if you wish to be involved in any way. Our on-the-ground efforts have already begun. Together, we must work towards preserving the unity and well-being of our Vermont communities.
“Please share this email with others that you believe are concerned about the anti-Israel and antisemitism climate that is growing state-wide.”
Samets provided the language of the petition, which appears below.
Petition of Legal Voters of the City of Burlington to the City Council and Mayor
We, the undersigned legal voters of the City of Burlington, hereby petition the mayor and the City Council of the City of Burlington to add the following article to the warning for the annual meeting of the City of Burlington to be held on March 5, 2024.
Shall the voters of the City of Burlington advise the Mayor and the City Council to adopt the following pledge?
WE AFFIRM our commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and all people; and WE OPPOSE all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression; and
WE DECLARE ourselves an apartheid-free community, and to that end,
WE PLEDGE to join others in working to end all support to Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.
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Categories: Burlington, Uncategorized
Well we should be anti one world government. Period.
Bernie’s Bolshevik Burlington bringing another tempest in a teapot to a boil via left-wing lunacy
jethrotull1971, this could go well beyond the teapot.
When will the extreme leftist moonbats on the Burlington City Council come to the realization that the rest of the civilized and rational world doesn’t give a damn what they think or declare? …and they think Trump has an ego problem…on the left it’s just called something different: virtue signaling.
They voted against the call to denounce Israel by the pro Palestine nut jobs but your right their opinion means nothing.
I’m not sure whether I think we should work to defeat it or if it would be better to let the world know how low Burlington has sunk? In a sane world this would have no chance of passing but this isn’t a sane world and Burlington is far from sane. I’m sure many ignorant people would support this vile bill too; some are just antisemites while others only know what they learn about Israel from the likes of TikTok. And for the record, Israel isn’t a colonialist power(hard to be a colonizer of your own ancestral land), isn’t apartheid and isn’t occupied by the military.
Burlington can join their fellow California cities that are busy trying to tell another country across the world what to do while being unable to provide a safe secure place to live or work for their own residents. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/another-california-city-passes-proclamation-supporting-ceasefire-gaza
I took the liberty to re-write as it should be written and adopted in every city and town across the nation.
WE AFFIRM our commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for the American people first and foremost. WE HOLD “these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” WE OPPOSE discrimination and oppression of any kind here and abroad.
WE DECLARE the United States of America a Representative Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, and liberty and justice for all.
WE PLEDGE to join others in working to end all support for foreign wars that do not serve the best interests of the United States of America, this is to include international and domestic human trafficking, installed regimes, and crimes against humanity. WE DEMAND the military capture and remove the belligerent, foreign occupation within the District of Columbia and all enemies installed within the borders of the United States of America.
…and leftist palestine advocates need to be reminded that for most people living in muslim-majority jurisdictions, women are treated as property and openly-LGBT folks are considered criminals, sometimes subject to the death penalty…not exactly in line with their worldview…
Feckless fools in the City Council, they are the same clowns that let BLM propaganda be painted on Main Street in the city, sure welcome to Burlington……………. pathetic !!
Now this city council has listened to a hand full of fruitcakes, that believe they know all about the Israel–Hamas war, Gaza they don’t know “jack ” about, war is war, and instead of worrying about a conflict six thousand miles away, look at us we care
they should worry about the issues within Burlington’s city limits……..
To all these anti-Israel protestors, maybe you need to go to Gaza, fly your flags, wear your keffiyeh, and protest, Nah, they won’t as these are the same protestors that were for BLM if they really believed they should have gone to Chicago with it’s daily black on black bloodletting, but Nah………. hypocrites.
Listen to fools, you’ll become a fool !!!
While they get a riled up about this and let their neighbors die of fentanyl OD or violence or illness… but they signed a petition, so they have done their good deed for the day. They do not live there; they do not have knowledge of the situation other than whatever news outlet wants them to know. That is a special kind of ignorance.
Let me paraphrase Jordan Peterson who states so simply, Clean up Your Room before you try to save the planet.
@ Pam
👍
Doesn’t Burlington have enough problems of their own to worry about without sticking their noses in a conflict in the Middle East?
it helps them to ignore all the problems that they created here…
Even the Gazans are sick of Hamas. They know Hamas uses them & their hospitals are shields, and that the big shot Hamas leaders are not in Gaza, but living in luxury in Qatar.
I fact there simply ISN’T “apartheid” in Israel. Palestinians vote, have political parties and representatives in the legislature. There is at least one Palestinian on the supreme court of Israel. The occupied territories are occupied because of the incessant attacks on Israel.