There would have been a lot less to argue about if those who drafted the memorializing resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza now under consideration by the Kingston Common Council had stopped at “the City of Kingston calls upon our leaders in Albany and Washington to sponsor and support resolutions calling for a permanent ceasefire in Israel.”
But the resolution went on, calling for an end to military funding of Israel and the investment of that money instead on public goods such as housing, healthcare and food.
“I think this resolution is an extremely bad idea,” said Joel Mandelbaum, observing the action from the front row of the spectator seats in the chambers. “The whereases in this clause are extremely one-sided. They put all the blame on Israel.”
The resolution urged various elected officials to condemn apartheid in all of its forms, lift the siege on occupied Palestinian lands, support the urgent appeal for the establishment of humanitarian corridors, and called on the area’s elected federal officials to abide by the democratic will of the people of Kingston.
With no provision that the resolution be sent to Hamas, that military group may remain unaware that the people of Kingston urge the swift and secure return and release of all hostages and administrative detainees in Israel and occupied Palestine.
Before the public-comment period of the meeting, Mark Klein, in a tailored suit, approached, waved a piece of paper with a printed picture of one man kissing another man on the cheek.
“You know about Hassan Eslaiah? He was a reporter for the AP and CNN,” said Klein. “That’s Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza. He is kissing him because of the good work that he did! This is what’s happening in our news! The Israelis were accused of bombing a hospital. So the rocket that was fired, was a misguided rocket from Hamas. And many of these casualties that are being reported as Israelis’ doing this are from Hamas people themselves.”
I ask him where he got his information.
“I was with the Israeli consulate a few weeks ago,” Klein said. “I met with people from the US government and several other sources.”
Klein, an Ulster County resident, belongs to the Jewish Federation of Dutchess County. Mandelbaum to the Jewish Federation of Ulster County (UCJF).
Before the speaking begins, Klein can’t contain his loathing any longer. He points over to the group gathered on the other half of the benches. They are wearing Covid face masks, holding signs and wearing shirts printed with messages supporting a ceasefire.
“You can see how horrible these people are!”
“I can?” I ask.
When the meeting is called to order and the public-speaking segment of the evening begins, attendees are invited to the lectern to express their insights in three-minute increments.
Watched over by a wall painting of George Washington, the speakers approach the lectern, separated from the nine members of the common council by a wooden rail. The councilmembers, many newly sworn in, sit facing them, listening.
One speaker said that $300,000 in taxes from Ulster County had already gone towards supporting the Israeli military efforts. Another said a child was being killed every ten minutes. Still another said that 23,000 people had been killed in over 95 days.
It’s hard to know where these numbers are coming from. The pro-ceasefire crowd’s talking points are intended to shame the pro-military-response crowd. One after the other after the other, all supported the resolution calling for a ceasefire.
Klein gave a short moan when one of the speakers identified herself as a Bard professor of politics. Bordering on tears, the Bard professor noted that the 23,000 victims of the Israeli response almost exactly totaled the number of residents in Kingston. It would be as though during October, November and December almost every man, woman and child of Kingston had been buried, and only 916 people remained to look for them.
Calling the current regime in Israel “an apartheid regime” on December 28, 2023, the Republic of South Africa, accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
In an application submitted to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, South Africa says in part that “No armed attack on a state’s territory no matter how serious — even an attack involving atrocity crimes — can, however, provide any possible justification for, or defense to, breaches of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (‘Genocide Convention’ or ‘Convention’), whether as a matter of law or morality.”
The 1948 genocide convention was drawn up as a response to the treatment of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis.
Israel has characterized the allegations as baseless.
Those who identify as Jewish appear to be split on the matter. Numerous speakers calling for the ceasefire identified as Jewish.
As a county legislator, Phil Erner signed onto a letter calling for a ceasefire. “I’m coming into this as a US American Jew,” said Erner. “We need to think beyond borders. We’re human beings, we all have basic things that we need and want, and the people of Gaza simply are being deprived of those things right now by a murderous regime that leads the Israeli government.”
Sam Goldberg said that “Israel was a state that was founded on displacement and theft of land.”
“Our community is already divided,” said Cheryl Schneider, who called in to speak during the public-comment period. “Zionism is not Judaism. No war, no more. Stop.”
When Mark Klein finally spoke, he struck back against the narrative which oppressed him — the idea that Israel was the one at fault.
He repeated the old hoary chestnut about the babies being decapitated, and added the detail that their heads couldn’t be matched to the right bodies afterwards, presumably by the soldiers who found the bodies.
This claim, without Klein’s embellishment of the mismatched bodies, was originally made by Tal Heinrich, a spokeswoman for Benjamin Netanyahu. The decapitations were purported to have occurred at the kibbutz of Kfar Aza during a murderous rampage by agents of Hamas.
Once spoken, a million times repeated, and still not yet proven.
Moving from shock subject to shock subject, Klein went on to talk about rape.
“Is it ‘me too’ but not if you’re a Jew?” Klein asked in rhyme form.
Klein’s outrage and empathy appeared to end with Israeli civilians and hostages.
Harv Hilowitz of the Jewish Federation of Ulster County explained the rainbow of opinions within the Jewish community. “There’s no pope that Jews listen to,” he said. “There’s no overriding one synagogue. It’s not a unilateral kind of an operation. People have their own opinions.”
Hilowitz minced no words in describing the UCJF as a Zionist organization.
“We support the State of Israel,” said Hilowitz. “We understand that Israel is not perfect, but it’s the Jewish homeland.”
Hilowitz said the UCJF unequivocally supported Israel in its self-defense against any and all enemies and that Israel had the absolute right to try to dismantle and destroy the terrorist Hamas organization.
I ask him how much money the UCJF has sent in support of the war in Gaza. “We don’t put money towards the war,” he replied.
A yellow message banner bisects the UCJF home page, switching between an option to report anti-Semitism, to join a library, or to contribute to the Israel war effort. Clicking on the link for supporting the war effort, one arrives at a Pay Pal page with a donate button to the UCJF.
Hilowitz conceded that this call to support the war effort might be overly strident. “That’s a valid point,” he said. “I can go and talk to the webmaster and correct that.”
Hilowitz claimed the money sent to Israel by the Jewish Federation of Ulster County “and all the Jewish federations, which a month ago publicly said they raised $800,000, for Israeli non-profits” went to the equivalent of the Jewish Red Cross in Israel or other organizations helping people deal with hostage trauma and people who had lost family members.
“The money does not go to the — knock on wood — the Israeli war machine,” said Hilowitz. “But listen, I’m not ashamed of being a Jew. I don’t have Stockholm Syndrome. I’m not a Kapo, not one of the people who helped the Nazis in the death camps. You know, the people who support Hamas, and all the Jews who talk about this genocide, they don’t even have a clue what they’re talking about, because they would be slaughtered in five minutes if they were on those kibbutzes.”
“I think it’s a very stupid thing for the city to do,” a woman introducing herself as Toni Enoch said about the memorializing resolution. “Because it’s not just the city. There’s a huge surrounding community. And maybe we can’t control what the city decides to do. But we can decide where to take our business! I mean, people decide whether they’re going to eat at Kingston restaurants …”
Where else could one go? “The Town of Ulster has plenty going on,” she responded.
Barbara Cohen sat next to Mandelbaum in the front row. She and Mandelbaum waited patiently, disagreeing quietly from time to time or shaking their heads. With the exception of Klein, the in-person crowd had uniformly supported the memorializing resolution.
When Cohen spoke, she did so with great composure.
“If there’s a ceasefire tomorrow. we’re still going to be left with two terrorist organizations in Gaza, Hezbollah and Hamas,” she said. “They have no regard for their residents, especially women. Their goal is the annihilation of Jews, and we’ve had many Jews speak tonight. Israel definitely has their problems, but it is the only democracy in the Middle East. Gaza is not a democracy, unfortunately, because of who’s running it.”
Ward 9 alder Michelle Hirsch, who identifies as Jewish, is the sponsor of the resolution, but not its author. The first version was brought to her by members of the community. She knows this version is not perfect, she said.
“It was more about not wanting to really condemn, but uplift what we believe,” said Hirsch. “The language is not yet final, and anyone can introduce amendments.”
The memorializing resolution is set to be considered on January 17 at the regular meeting of the Laws and Rules Committee.
Ward 2 alder Michael Tierney offered his own comment after the meeting. “There’s a lot of people that were quoting a lot of Old Testament tonight,” he said. “They missed out on Isaiah 2:4 – ‘and they shall beat their swords into plowshares.’”
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