Supporters of a City Council proclamation calling for a ceasefire in Gaza packed the council chambers on Monday.
Several people spoke during the 30 minutes allotted for public comment period. More than 84 signed up to speak. The crowd filled an overflow room.
Sarah Kaplan Gould, who is Jewish, said Jews who spoke at a previous council meeting opposing the ceasefire did not speak for her. She said she hopes people are not refraining from calling for a ceasefire out of fear of offending Jews.
Many Jews oppose a ceasefire because they believe Israel has a right to defend itself, and because Hamas has violated previous ceasefires. But others, like Kaplan Gould, say Israel is “a country that is plainly in violation of international law.” Kaplan Gould said Jews are being “used as wedges for ongoing U.S. military support.”
Former City Council member speaks
Former Denver City Council member Kathleen MacKenzie also spoke in support of a ceasefire. She said she served on council from 1999 to 2007. While on the council she sponsored a proclamation in 2003 against the Iraq war. She said she “came of age during the Vietnam era,” yet with Iraq America again was “going to war halfway around the world with confused objectives.”
MacKenzie said people said then that local government has no business getting involved in global issues. She also said that in the post-Sept. 11 era, it became unpatriotic to be against the war. "It seems the First Amendment must be defended over and over again.”
Carissa Garcia said she spoke as an Indigenous person and a veteran. “The U.S. military stole my land and my youth, and they used it to terrorize children all over the world,” she said. Garcia said she served in Iraq in 2004 “in the belly of the beast of U.S. imperialism.”
Pediatrician says think about children
Mohamed Kuziez is a Denver pediatrician. He said the council should think of the children in deciding whether to support a ceasefire. “Children are never guilty of the crimes of others.” He said Gaza “is now the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. I stand before you today because our collective humanity is at risk.”
The Finance and Governance Committee last week discussed the proclamation. It remains unclear if it will appear before the council.
Proclamation condemns hate
“The City of Denver condemns antisemitic, anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, Islamophobic, racist, and xenophobic attacks in our city and across the nation, and further condemns threats of violence and retaliation directed at elected officials, students, professors, journalists, and others engaged in the exercise of First Amendment rights; and expresses our deepest concern for the increase in such attacks and threats in our city in recent months and support for all impacted,” the proclamation states. “Be it resolved that the City of Denver joins other cities in calling on our members of Congress to demand an immediate bilateral ceasefire; release of all hostages taken in Israel and of all arbitrarily detained Palestinian prisoners; the unrestricted entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza; the restoration of food, water, electricity, and medical supplies to Gaza; respect for international law and principles of human rights; adherence to U.S. law regarding arms transfers; and funding to alleviate humanitarian crises.”
The proclamation condemns Hamas’ October attack on Israel. “Over 1,200 people in Israel and more than 22,000 people in Gaza have been killed in a matter of weeks, of whom over eight thousand are children, and countless others have been injured, traumatized, or left grieving loved ones,” the proclamation states. “The City of Denver recognizes that the current crisis takes place within a long history, affirms in the strongest possible terms that all Israeli and Palestinian people deserve to live in security, freedom, and peace and that it is for them to design that future, and affirms that the role of the United States is to support the pathway to lasting peace and justice.”