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by Rebecca Pitre
An anti-Israel, activist presence is growing here in Vermont. This activism makes many of our friends and neighbors feel unsafe and unwanted. Anti-apartheid Free Community (AFC) pledges have been added to town meeting ballots, and our public schools are subsidizing groups aligned with this ideology as well.
“For Vermonters Palestine is a local Issue.” This was the title of a March 7, 2025 article from the American Service Friends Committee (AFSC), a Philadelphia-based organization. Zoie Jannuzi states, “Over the past year, I’ve gotten to travel to Vermont to support local activists in my role as organizer to the American Friends Service Committee.” Jannuzi’s work, along with that of recruited activists in Vermont, proved successful as a pro Palestinian pledge “to join others in working to end all support to Israel’s Apartheid regime, settler colonialism and military occupation” was placed on six town meeting ballots. Jannuzi ends the article declaring to Vermont citizens, “Five Vermont towns have become the first apartheid-free municipalities in the United States.”
The Shalom Alliance Vermont, who “is committed to safeguarding the Jewish Community in Vermont against growing antisemitism” and the “nurturing of opportunities for nonpartisan, peaceful and constructive dialogue,” tried, to no avail, to stop this measure from being added to the above-mentioned town meeting ballots.
Outright Vermont, who is currently working in over one hundred of Vermont’s public schools, seems to be joining this growing faction. Outright’s name can be found on the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation website as an AFC pledge supporter. Furthermore, Dana Kaplan, a New York resident and Outright Vermont’s executive director, is on record proudly stating, “At this moment, we see youth, from elementary to graduate school age, across the country, leading protests calling for a cease-fire in Palestine.” This from an October 2024 article entitled ‘LGBTQ+Youth Activism’, found on Outright Vermont’s website.
Outright Vermont, it seems, has veered from their original vision of “Building a Vermont where all LGBTQ+ Youth have hope, equity and power,” to what seems like encouragement for political activism. Will their Jewish students feel that sense of “hope, equity and power” if anti-Israel rhetoric is part of their agenda? Outright Vermont has been subsidized by the Vermont Agency of Education. They have been appropriated $60,000 in 2023 and have been recommended an additional $60,000 for 2024. Are they involved in education or political indoctrination?
Vermonters are wondering if the Anti-apartheid Free Community (AFC) pledge with its plainly anti-Israel language will perpetuate the growing divide among our citizens? And will Outright Vermont’s support of these pledges provide an avenue for anti-Israel propaganda in our public schools?
Quotes like these appearing on websites give many Vermonters a cause for worry. “In addition to the national threat to democracy posed by Trump, we should also worry about local threats to democracy from Zionists” (VCPL FAQ page). And, in an article on the Mondoweiss website, Wacif Faour, member of the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation (VCPL) said, “We are on a tidal wave of change.”
Why should Vermonters be focusing anything more than their prayers toward Middle East conflicts? Vermont’s public schools are failing our children. Families are struggling to put healthy food on the table and keep a roof overhead. Taxes and fuel costs are ever rising. Drug addiction and homelessness are a daily hurdle facing many. Let’s work together as Vermonters on the issues which will help our neighbors and stop generating discord over foreign policy issues.
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Categories: Opinion
In response to the question posed in this article—“Why should Vermonters be focusing anything more than their prayers toward Middle East conflicts?” Vermonters and all Americans need to understand that weapons paid for by our taxes and supplied by our government are being used by the Israeli Occupation Forces to slaughter Palestinian women, children and men living in Gaza and the West Bank under a siege of famine and water supply.
As Americans, we bear responsibility for the actions of our government. Gaza has been razed, including mosques, ancient churches, hospitals, schools and universities—by US supplied bombs. Human beings living through enforced starvation and deprivation of water and medical care are being bombed in the tents they live in.
Prayers are good, but as Americans we need to take responsibility for our inhumane actions towards other people. Without American support the Israel would not have been able to kill the 60,000 Palestinians they have killed in Gaza and to have stolen the about 80% of the land of the Palestinians since the early 1900’s.
The USA bears direct responsibility for these deaths and this theft of land and the destruction of Gaza. Americans also need to learn the history of that part of the world in order to understand the role of Western nations in trying to maintain a foothold in those lands.
You rather conveniently forgot to mention October 7. Anything the US has provided to Israel has been in response to Hamas actions on that date.
You are a liar. For one thing, Israel supplied free electric and food to Gaza. Food was routinely seized by Hamas, the govt. of Gaza. After Gaza attacked Israel, the delivery of electric and food stopped. Hamas was seizeing food all along. There is no “apartheid”. Recently, I challenged the pundit Vera Sharav to state a single example of apartheid in Israel. Of course she was unable to do so. The West Bank is controlled, to a degree, by Israel. This was prompted by decades of gunmen crossing into Israel and murdering. A favored target was grade schools where children were gunned down. Women, gays and lesbians have equal rights in Israel. This is not true of Islamic countries, although there are efforts at democratization, such as in Egypt.
There are people in the West Bank, particularly shopkeepers, who welcome Israeli intervention due to the rampant corruption of militant Palestinian factions who regularly extort. The Palestinian Authority has ended free elections, as did Hamas in Gaza. Mahmoud Abbas, trained in Moskow, has held his position for 20 years.
You Left fascists repeat lies and cliches’. What is your real name?
Mary, why is there no mention anywhere in your reply of the utterly depraved and demonic butchery committed by Hamas on innocent babies, children, families, moms, dads, men, and women on October 7th which necessitated Israel’s response to that attack?
When you leave that niggling little detail out of your gaslighting anti-Israel rant, you’re being quite disingenuous and biased.
I don’t buy your narrative for one moment, although the way you write, it looks like you think everyone just automatically believes what you say is truth. There’s a whole nother side of the story you conveniently leave out.
If you ain’t condemning Hamas—even by your conspicuous silence about them—you’re supporting them. Wrong side of history to be on.
Ms. Stowe, firstly, your comment of the IDF is using western money “to slaughter Palestinian women, children and men living in Gaza and the West Bank under a siege of famine and water supply” is blatantly false. See Reuters October 12th, 2023 titled, “Hamas tells Gaza residents to stay put as Israel ground offensive looms”. And there are many other eyewitness accounts of Hamas threatening Gazan’s with harm or death should they evacuate. Blocking exit routes. Just to name a few things.
Secondly, no one likes it when civilians die in war. (No one except psychopaths.) No one wants it. Hell, any reasonable adult doesn’t even want the soldiers to die. But we are not talking about reasonable adults. We are talking about terrorists who live by a set of rules and immutable laws which are carved in stone and set forth by their religious leader. You talk about learning the history, ma’am, there is a LOT of history you are sidestepping. On both sides. As far back as 4 thousand years before Christ. No other country IN THE WORLD, alerts their enemy to incoming munitions. NONE. Not even the good ole USA. And we don’t live in places like Sredot, Beersheba, Ashdod, and Askelon. Not to mention Tel Aviv and central Israel. They have been targeted for DECADES with missiles. Do you understand what it is like to live in that environment, where at any given moment on a random day, you might have 15 seconds to get to shelter before missiles land? Do you?
Thirdly, the responsibility for civilian casualties does not solely rest on the IDF or on their supporters… e.g. us/the west. HAMAS bears a much larger burden of blame. If you can’t see that, you are willfully ignorant or brainwashed. They could have used their monies to build military installations like most of the western world, instead they built tunnels and put their “military” under hospitals, mosques and schools. So, you okay with that strategy? You okay with a leader who sets the elderly, ill and defenseless in front of them as a shield? Is that okay?
See for me, that is evil. It is Satanic. It is beyond redemption. So, they don’t get a pass for that. Hard stop.
I’m not saying Israel or the IDF is without flaws. Or has made bad strategy. But if you are going to compare the IDF to Hamas and come out thinking the IDF is worse… I got nothing for you ma’am.
So am I understanding you correctly. You are saying that ‘yes’ , Vermonters should be focusing their attentions on foreign affairs more so than on the problems facing our citizens?
Replying to Rebecca Pitre—I think you are making an unfounded assumption about my statement. I am saying that as American citizens whose tax dollars are enabling the genocide of the Palestinian people, we need to wake up and take moral responsibility for our actions as a nation. This is not “focusing on foreign affairs”. This is looking critically at the effects of our actions in the world. I find your comment trite in the face of the suffering of a people being annihilated by American bombs. I find the lack of moral consciousness expressed by many in this thread staggering.
Thank you Mr. Gallagher. Nothing to add.
Sorry, Mr Gallagher, you need to do way better than that. Most of the world’s consciously-thinking population knows very well this situation did not begin on October 7. You betray your ignorance of the history of the origins of this conflict and those who were behind it. Any nation which ignores history and/or tries to hide it, invites undesired consequences.
I remember well the war of 1967. And I have noticed how Gaza, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority have refused to accept any peace since that time. They are now all terrorists and that includes their children and their grandchildren. I will cheer the day they are wiped off the face of the earth. And that day should not be far off. Sometimes terrorist get what they ask for. And they will deserve it.
Mary Stowe, the origins were Jews, Christians, Druse, even Bedouins and Zoroastrians, overtaxed, restricted, often raped, murdered, assaulted, robbed in what was then Palestine and other countries in the region. The fascist story of Europen “colonizers” is a lie and always has been. You yourself hide behind a pseudonym.
Oh boy, another rogue NGO, DEFUND!
Phantomroseexpress–who are you to talk about pseudonyms, or about Palestine for that matter? Sadly you know nothing of the true situation. There is a genocide going on and the USA is enabling it.
Israel will cease to be a state, and you will see that a new state called by the name of the land, Judea, will form with freedom and equal rights for Muslims, Christians and Jews.
I know there are people in Vermont who are aware of the history of Palestine and who are not misled by Zionist propaganda, but I guess not too many of them read this publication.
Guy Page, you would not let me comment without giving my real name—why are others allowed not to use their real names??
Mary, I am Fighting the Good Fight to have everyone use their names. It’s hard to keep up. Scott, please use your real, full name. You should be able to do this on when you make a comment and/or when you log in to WordPress.
Thanks, Guy!
BTW, thank you, Rebecca, for your excellent article. It is well-balanced, and you make a great point which is sorely needed in this conversation, and in Vermont in particular.
Thank you for calling out the hypocritically misinformed, misplaced, and inordinate attention of those who:
1.) Condemn Israel while remaining silent about the utter wickedness of Hamas and what it did to Israel on October 7th.
2.) Stridently gossip, spread rumors, and complain about and condemn people in another neighborhood or town, while their own family, house, and yard are an absolute pigsty.
If October 7 Justifies The Gaza Genocide, What Acts Of Violence Will The Gaza Genocide Justify?
Caitlin Johnstone
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/if-october-7-justifies-the-gaza-genocide?