From: Rhea Varley
To: Beth Redfern
Subject: FW: Gaza and related issues
Date: Monday, September 15, 2025 3:36:14 PM
From: Tamar Krigel
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2025 3:31 PM
To: Meredith Matthews <[email protected]>; [email protected]; Alex Stillman <[email protected]>; Rhea Varley <[email protected]> Subject: Gaza and related issues
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Dear City Council:
As my father passed away and I traveled to Israel to attend his funeral. it has been a painful period. At the same time it has made me even more determined to speak up for my community, for my family, and for myself.
I am writing because I am deeply alarmed by what has been happening in Humboldt in recent months. The individuals who continually harass this council are not here to promote peace, dialogue, or coexistence. They thrive on hostility. Everything about their conduct - whether it is the words they shout, the slogans they recycle, or the constant personal attacks - is meant to create fear and division. They claim to stand for “justice,” yet they do everything in their power to silence and intimidate others.
The language they use - words like “genocide,” “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing” - has been stripped of all real meaning. These are not attempts at honest discussion. They are carefully chosen buzzwords meant to brainwash and inflame. This rhetoric has little to do with the actual situation in Gaza. It is performative, opportunistic, and trendy. It has become a kind of political theater, a traveling circus that moves from Berkeley to San Francisco to Humboldt and beyond. At its heart, it is a cult that insists every conversation, every form of activism, and every ounce of moral outrage must be centered only on “Palestine.” What makes this even more painful is that, in the aftermath of October 7 - the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust - our city did far too little to acknowledge, let alone protect, the Jewish community here. I am not saying literally the day after, but in the days and weeks following, when Jewish people everywhere were reeling, afraid, and grieving, the response in Humboldt was muted at best. Instead of ensuring that Jewish residents felt seen and safe, the city allowed the loudest and most aggressive voices to dominate public space.
Many Jews in Humboldt, already a small minority, have withdrawn because they feel intimidated. They hear the chants against Israel, they see the reckless and confrontational behavior, and they know it is not merely “politics.” It is directed at them, at us, as Jews. This is antisemitism. Whenever Jews are cowering in fear, the situation is not good. If we are trying to hide and are afraid to reveal who we are to the public, that should tell you a lot. That is why attendance at public meetings has dwindled: people are not staying away out of apathy, they are staying away out of fear.
On a personal note, I have endured something even more disturbing. My own name, and even the names of members of my family, have been defamed and profanely attacked in public.
This kind of harassment should never be permitted in a city that claims to uphold dignity and equal treatment. It is one thing to criticize a government. It is another to target individuals and families in such an abusive and degrading way.
I have been verbally attacked online and in-person so many times that the FBI actually contacted me as part of an investigation. Another disturbing hint about the radicalism of antiZionists here.
If the city wishes to partner with organizations, that is within its discretion. But to side with only one camp, to elevate only one narrative, is profoundly unfair and divisive. It leaves Jews and Zionists in Humboldt, already a minority, feeling erased and unwelcome. The danger here is that the council begins to mistake the noise of a loud, angry crowd for the voice of the whole community. It is not. Those who shout the loudest do not represent everyone.
Despite this, I want to share a positive development. After much effort, we succeeded in helping to pass a bill on antisemitism through the Office of Education, making it a required part of the curriculum. This is not only a meaningful victory for the Jewish community, but also for all children in California. As such a small minority, it is crucial that our history and experiences are recognized and that students are taught to identify and reject antisemitism.
This step will help ensure a safer and more informed future.
What the Jewish community deserves is dignity. What every minority deserves is the assurance that the city will not abandon them in order to appease whoever screams the most.
That is the basic responsibility of leadership: to protect and include, not to bend under pressure from bullies.
I am asking you and the council to remember that there is another side here: one that is quieter not because it lacks conviction, but because its members are outnumbered and outshouted.
Please do not confuse silence with weakness. Our dignity, our safety, and our very place in this community depend on being heard and treated fairly.
I urge you and the council to take a firm stand against antisemitism in all its forms, whether it comes disguised as political rhetoric or open harassment. That means making sure Jewish residents feel protected, ensuring public spaces are safe for all voices, and not allowing intimidation to dictate city policy. True leadership requires the courage to defend those who are most vulnerable, even when it is unpopular. I hope you and the council will rise to that responsibility.
Thank you,
Tamar Krigel
~ Tamar Krigel
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“No room for small dreams”
~ Shimon Peres
From: Genevieve
To: City Manager"s Office; Sarah Schaefer
Subject: Divest from military industrial complex
Date: Monday, September 15, 2025 3:28:52 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
I understand that council member Schaefer has drafted a divestment letter to CalPERS and I am voicing our household’s demand that the divestment letter be sent by Arcata City Council WITH AN IMPORTANT CAVEAT: the letter needs to name israel as the perpetrator of genocide against Palestinians.
The city of Eureka already voted
UNANIMOUSLY to send a similar letter to CalPERS.
City staff found this action would have NO FISCAL IMPACT.
The Eureka letter
UNEQUIVOCALLY states the issue: israel's GENOCIDE of Palestinians, apartheid, and military occupation.
Our family greatly appreciates council member Sarah Schaefer for having already sent a personal divestment letter. We also note that using the language "human rights violations" and "famine" obscures the underlying issue we are fighting:
israel's intentional genocide and forced starvation of Palestinians and criminal occupation of Palestine.
Focusing on Gaza instead of Palestinians as one people is erasure, a deliberate tactic of antiPalestinian racism which includes "failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an indigenous people with a collective identity, belonging, and rights in relation to occupied and historic Palestine". Our beloved Palestinian family live in what the illegal occupier of their land calls the “occupied West Bank”, which is land connected to Gaza be but for the illegal apartheid wall and crime against humanity that is the Gaza concentration camp turned extermination camp under illegal siege and blockade for decades prior to the current escalated collective punishment, ethnic cleansing and genocide of two years.
In the “occupied West Bank” the illegal occupation’s ongoing night raids, abductions, erection of additional suffocating military checkpoints, organized robbery including MILLIONS of dollars and jewelry from Nablus banks and money exchangers in recent months, destruction of TEN THOUSAND OLIVE TREES beloved and owned by the Palestinian people there in surrounding villages including my family’s 20 uprooted, stolen trees; the slaughtering of Palestinian’s livestock by occupation-protected settler invaders, violent arson and physical attacks including murder of Palestinians there outside of Gaza must be included in divestment.
One recent murder includes 20 year old American Saif from Florida who was visiting his family in Palestine when settlers beat him severely and then blocked the Palestinian ambulances from reaching him forcing our fellow American to die from his injuries. One such abduction was a 15 year old American boy named Mohammed Ibrahim, also visiting his family in Palestine when the israeli occupation forces (iof) abducted him and have held him even outside their kangaroo military apartheid court system that has a 98% conviction rate, refusing his American parents to see him; their family lawyer has visited him twice and confirm Mohammed, now 16 years old, is being forcibly starved by israel.
Never forget that the first Biden administration official to resign in opposition to the u.s. violation of the Foreign Assistance Act, the Arms Export Control Act and the Leahy Laws did so after the u.s. state department confirmed the validity of a case brought to it by the NGO Defend Children International wherein an israeli occupation interrogator raped a 13 year old Palestinian boy / abuctee met by israel refusing to hold his rapist to account instead shutting down the NGO labeling it a “terrorist” organization. Since then testimony after testimony of Palestinian people have submitted their rape accounts by israeli forces to the United Nations including youth who endure molestation at the occupation checkpoints they are forced through just to get to school, some youth no longer able to attend school as a result of the violence inflicted on them there in Palestine outside of the Gaza slaughterhouse. Now the reputable NGO Save the Children confirms its investigation with documented testimonies of Palestinian children that lead them to conclude israel is raping its Palestinian child hostages “detainees” in a systematic pattern just like it does the adults.
Verbiage must clearly state “Palestine” not just “Gaza”, the latter which is only 5 miles by 26 miles, when israeli legal definition terror is inflicted on Palestinians all over their territories. All credible genocide and holocaust experts understand that the “occupied West Bank” is being primed for hot genocide next.
Regarding the false claim that divesting is illegal in California, the following must be put on the record. The bill that the anti-ethical-investment, pro-military-industrial-complex-racket opposition cite, AB
2844, does not restrict divesting from israel to protest its policies toward Palestinians - this is according to the Center for Constitutional Rights. AB 2844 is very limited in its scope and only applies when one submits a bid or proposal to enter a state contract worth more than $100,000.
And when it does apply, it only prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, or public accommodation against individuals living in California.
All we are doing is sending a letter. This is not illegal. Nor would it be illegal for CalPERS to change their investments in alignment with this letter. It simply does not apply.
Sources
•Center for Constitutional Rights: AB 2844 does not apply to CA divestment https://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/attach/2016/10/AB2844%20FAQ%20final.pdf? fbclid=PAZnRzaAM1afBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp9zC4lBnmHfjAogRY_G6VdMznrGYVYXjV5_lse7qasLgXICzQiw4Igg-Rc-_aem_04oLRkOXvRkVUb70vMHwcQ •Anti-Palestinian racism
www.antipalestinianracism.org
•13 year old Pal boy raped by israeli interrogator per U.S. state department official https://x.com/_waleedshahid/status/1731791606703865991?s=46 •Rape, Torture and Murder in the israeli torture camps
https://electronicintifada.net/content/rape-torture-and-murder-inside-israels-concentrationcamps/48386; •U.N. report confirms rape of Palestinians in apartheid israeli torture camps https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n24/262/79/pdf/n2426279.pdf •Palestinian rape survivors testimony released to United Nations https://www.instagram.com/p/DBwdETsJl-K/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==