F om Susan R ch e
ubject m 4 on 4/2/2024 agenda
Date Tuesday Ap l 2 2024 3 39 13 M
Attachments Timeline Key Events in the s ael-A ab and Is aeli- ales in an Confli t AJC pdf Dear members of the Sebastopol City Council
I li ed in Sebastopol from 1979 - 1997.
I would s ill be li ing there but I couldn’t afford to buy a house so I mo ed to Santa Rosa.
While li ing in Sebastopol I recei ed boxes that had been stored in my mother’s basement in Brooklyn NY.
In one of the boxes was a reproduction of the front page of the New York Times on the day I was born. The bold headl ne reads Se astopol Throws Back New Nazi Attacks”.
I didn’t mo e nten iona ly to Sebas opol but while read ng the headline it felt like Sebas opol was my des iny.
My acupuncturist is in Sebastopol I eat in Sebastopol I shop in Sebastopol and I cont nue o support Sebastopol in other ways.
Are we not all connected?
I zoomed the February counc l meeting primarily to become educated.
I was ery impressed wi h the way you conduct your mee ings.
I commend you for taking he cease-fire resolut on off the consent calendar.
I hoped the council would not adopt t.
I wondered why a resolution drafted by an ad hoc committee would be put on a consent calendar and not pro ide the residents the oppor unity to gi e feedback.
Maybe t is the council’s policy not to name members of an ad hoc commi tee but surely your process did not feel transparent.
During the time for public comment I d d learn who two of the commi tee members were.
You s ated there was Pales inian and Jewish representa ion on the comm ttee.
I don’t know how many Palestin an faiths there are (I know Palestinians who are Chr s ian and Muslim) and I know there are at least 10 Jewish relig ous denom nations.
As here are no synagogues in Sebastopol I know there are people in Sebastopol who are members of Congregations Beth Ami Shomrei Torah and Ner Shalom. Maybe others? I inqu red at Shomrei Torah and learned there are at least 55 family members who li e in Sebastopol.
Was there any representation from the affiliated Jewish community on the ad hoc committee? I do understand your desire to take a stand for peace. I am n fa or of tha .
I don’t know anyone who isn’t horrified by what we are seeing unfold in this middle east war.
I also know we are a global society and his s as much about Iran who are training terrorists as it is about Israel and Hamas.
When Israel was created two states were formed. Israel accepted the proclamat on but it was rejected by he Arab states.
That was the f rst modern war o er the land. The Arabs told their people to lea e because hey would destroy Israel and then they could return.
But hat’s not what happened.
A tached is a time line which illustra es the past 75 years.
There is another fact wh ch no one mentioned at the mee ing. This year is 578 in the Jewish calendar.
A tached is a simpl fied history.
The Jews in he land of Israel were repea edly occup ed by the d fferent countries/people in power.
They were expe led and they returned aga n and again.
The Jew sh people are indigenous to the land. And I am sure others were there but Islam did not exist un il later.
To his day there are Bedouins on the land coexisting with Israel s.
It took the Holocaust and he death of 6 mill on predominantly Jewish people to gi e the Jew sh people back the r land so hey could fina ly ha e a safe ha en.
That is if you call surrounded on all sides by enemies a safe ha en.
Some belie e the October 7th attack bes des being exactly 50 years after the 1973 Yom Kippur War was due to the fact that Israel was about to sign a Peace Agreement with Saudi Arabia. The outcome of the Yom Kippur War was the signing of a Peace Agreement with Egypt which took 5 years to finalize (the recent mo ie Golda is about this war). Golda Meir was born in Kie Ukra ne and her family emigra ed to the United States in 1906 and she grew up in Milwaukee Wisconsin. She was the first female Pr me M nister of Israel.
Jews throughout history ha e been forced to lea e the r homes.
I am a first generation Amer can.
I am grateful to ha e felt safe hroughout my life in America despite occasional experiences of an i semi ism.
What I am witnessing now terrifies me.
Why are so few Jews showing up at meetings like this? Many are terr fied.
One person at speaking at your meeting denounced the Jewish Community Relations Counc l as not being local.
As a council you participate n reg onal meetings and organizations like ABAG.
The JCRC was founded in 19 8 and if you look at heir home page statement Sonoma county is included in the r ser ice area.
A current member of their staff is a resident of Healdsburg.
Many American and Israeli Jews ha e been acti e in programs promoting peace and coexistence.
Do you know here are at least 130 organizations in Israel hat are working for peace? One organiza ion Stand ng Together has sent representati es from Israel s nce October 7th to educate us about their work.
It is shared in the media that Israelis are regularly bringing food to the border with Gaza for the Palest nians.
We all know how helpless we can be wi h a maniac at the helm.
I still oppose a cease-fire resolu ion. Why choose Co ati’s resolut on? Why not take the action of the Board of Super isors? Or why not take he act on of the Ci y of Santa Cruz. Af er 10 hours of public comment most in fa or of their proposed cease-fire resolu ion their council instead adop ed a resolution promo ing peace and not mentioning cease-fire.
I feel you are determined to pass a resolut on and if you really want to support the rights of Israelis and Palestinians a cease-fire has to include the remo al of Hamas from power the return of all hostages human tar an aid for Gaza and a path for peace including the establishment of a Pales inian democracy. Please amend your resolution to demonstrate you really stand for peace.
Respectfully submit ed
Susan Richter