January 9, 2024
Via Email
Re: January 9, 2024 Council Committee Meeting Item No. D-3 Request for Future Agenda Item
Dear Mayor Zaragoza and Members of the Oxnard City Council Finance and Governance Committee,
We are writing on behalf of organizations that serve members of Oxnard’s diverse Jewish community. ADL is a leading anti-hate and civil rights organization whose 110 year-old mission is “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” The mission of Jewish Federation of Ventura County is to ensure Jewish life, care for the most vulnerable including Holocaust survivors, and fight Antisemitism. Chabad of Oxnard serves Jewish people of all backgrounds and affiliations celebrating Jewish life, and Temple Beth Torah serves as a hub of Jewish life for many Oxnard residents as well.
While we appreciate and share an interest in promoting peace worldwide, we write to express our concerns about, and opposition to, the Finance and Governance Committee placing on a future Council agenda a resolution “affirming support of House Resolution 786 and calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict.” We have not yet seen the language of the proposed resolution, but this description in the agenda for tonight’s Finance and Governance Committee meeting raises important concerns.
The purpose of city council resolutions is often to represent and affirm the values of the community, to model expression of those values through inoffensive language, and to base conclusions on established facts and well-informed policies. We highly doubt the proposed resolution meets these standards.
Our hearts break at the loss of innocent life in both Israel and Gaza, at the continuing holding of hostages by Hamas and its affiliates, and at the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This is a time when we should be calling out both antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate in our community and recognizing that many members of our community are deeply impacted by what is going on in Israel and in Gaza. Councilmembers should be seeking to bring the community together, reinforcing inclusivity for people of all faiths, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds.
Ceasefire resolutions have, to the contrary, divided communities, inflamed anger, and inflicted offense – albeit often unintended or little understood. Affirming HR 786 and demanding an immediate ceasefire are likely to cause these outcomes. Indeed, a public meeting in nearby Ojai recently devolved into chaos during consideration of such a resolution. HR 786 is an outdated resolution without bipartisan sponsorship or support. Its undefined reference to “occupied Palestine” and implicit suggestion that Israel is engaged in “the targeting of civilians” are controversial and offensive to many. The resolution misleadingly suggests that Israel is at war with Palestinians rather than with Hamas and its avowed mission to destroy Israel. The absence of any reference to or condemnation of Hamas is troubling. It is important to many Oxnard residents that the Council not equate the nature of Hamas’ actions with the nature of Israel’s response.
Calling for an immediate ceasefire, particularly after ceasefires have occurred and been violated by Hamas, is not clearly likely to result in long-term peace in the region and this Council does not likely have the expertise to determine otherwise. Suggesting that Israel alone is responsible for the current humanitarian crisis is simply uninformed anti-Israel bias. A more balanced approach would be simply to urge our national government to pursue strategies for long-term peace in the region with our partners and all stakeholders in the region. We suspect, however, that the Council will have tremendous difficulty arriving at advocacy-spurred language on these issues that brings the community together more than dividing it.
This resolution could actually promote hate against the Jewish people and further divide the community. We have seen time and time again that tensions in the Middle East can lead to an increase in antisemitic incidents, ranging from harassment to violence, targeting Jewish institutions and Jewish individuals in America. Jews across the US, and indeed, the world, are experiencing this now, even in Ventura County, whose Jewish community (along with many others in California and elsewhere) have been targeted with bomb threats in recent weekends.
Between Oct. 7 and Dec. 7, ADL recorded a total of 2,031 antisemitic incidents, up from 465 incidents during the same period in 2022, representing a 337-percent increase year-over-year according to preliminary data from ADL’s Center on Extremism.
We urge you to reject consideration of such a resolution, and we welcome opportunities to discuss or provide additional information about these issues. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Dan Meisel Cheri DeKofsky
Regional Director Executive Director
ADL Tri-Counties Jewish Federation of Ventura County
Rabbi Dov Muchnik Rabbi Lisa Hochberg-Miller
Director Temple Beth Torah
Chabad of Oxnard Jewish Center