just count okay all right good evening everyone we are going to get started with tonight's bethleem city council meeting again just to reiterate I thank everyone for not having any chairs in the doorways for not blocking the exits tonight as we try to have a safe environment here as we all gather I will ask is this customary that we all rise for the pledge to the flag [Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God [Music] indivisible get up i h here it's okay ask the clerk to call the role Please Mr Callahan present mrcy Smith present Miss quch present Miss lard present Miss Leon Miss Wilhelm pres and Mr colog present thank you before we get into tonight's agenda and our regular procedure for Council I would invite a motion from Council to move up our president's report from its current spot the agenda to be our next agenda item this evening so second it to you motion by councilwoman Wilhelm second by Mr Callahan any discussion the motion on the floor is to move the president report up to right now this evening any discussion on the [Music] motion I'll ask the clerk to call the rooll on the motion Miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan hi M gr Smith hi m quac i and Mr colog I pass to 70 so our amended agenda will now go to the president's report before we continue on with the agenda as published so I wanted to take it and I thank my colleagues for moving up the president's report this evening so I could address the room because I do think it is important and and to recognize why everyone came out here this evening and I do appreciate as we as we all make an effort to listen to each other this evening just like we did two weeks ago and I will ask that we all show each other the respect that we tried to show everyone two weeks ago and we'll continue to try to show everyone tonight as we're going to likely hear uh opposing views viewpoints opinions about different things that that are to be discussed I would like to recognize that council members have spent the last two weeks in communication with different members of our city given unique perspectives and input from all different uh angles as it relates to the topic at hand and what we heard about um from so many speakers that that came out here to address Council two weeks ago we also had long conversations with each other over the last two weeks along with our our other elected officials at our at our higher levels of government and in these discussions in these deliberations we contemplated how we wanted to respond to what we heard in this room two weeks ago many different paths forward were considered as we've heard and in the meantime our congresswoman Susan wild had signed on to a letter along with a number of her colleagues in the US House of Representatives asking the us to not only redouble its efforts but act with urgency to use whatever influence the United States has to try to find peace to the conflict that's ongoing at the same time in the last week specifically our president President Biden as well as our vice president kamla Harris have been very public and very direct in their remarks and our country's wishes for an end to the violence and moving towards peace city council has recognized these efforts by our members of Congress and our Administration in direct response to voices that were heard in rooms just like this when we look back and think about what the discussion was what the communication we all shared with each other was two weeks ago we feel that these efforts have led to some of the ongoing efforts that are going on at our highest levels of government at those that are tasked with these International Affairs and foreign policy but that being said Council also recognizes the extreme sensitivity around this issue as members of our community right here at home in Bethlehem are impacted by this ongoing conflict we as a city council support continued action by our highest levels of government to use all the influence in their power to act with urgency and help brokering peace in the ongoing conflict momentarily I'm going to read to you a letter from city council that we're going to send to all of our federal elected officials and our higher levels of government but I did want to take a moment before I read that letter from City Council to our our other elected officials just to remind everybody and as I try to keep in my own awareness that while our ability to effectuate change abroad may be limited and despite sometimes our frustrations our shared frustrations one thing that we all have unique control and power over is our actions here the kind of city that we're trying to create the kind of city that a lot of people have have been working towards for a long time to make Bethlehem out to be the kind of city that a lot of us grew up in the kind of city that a lot of us moved into the kind of city that allows come to to work to study whatever it is that brings people into Bethlehem we continue to want to create an environment here in Bethlehem where people feel welcome and people feel the freedom to pursue peace and joy which we all share I ask that we all keep this in mind when we think about how we want to treat each other in this room tonight as we should all be showing each other respect and courtesy after this meeting tonight out in our community and as we continue to share space here in Bethlehem because as I had mentioned we're likely going to hear different perspectives as people have the right to address council tonight and use public comment however you'd like to but while I would say that we may disagree on how we want to get to the goal I would say with confidence that we all share a goal of Peace sustained peace peace and being able to live in peace and seek Joy right here in Bethlehem so I I thank you for listening as I open with these remarks tonight and I am going to read a letter from city council addressed to our other elected officials we the members of bethlhem city council having heard our constituents and feeling a responsibility to amplify their voices write to you in recognition of your leadership and the power of your influence with respect to issues of national and international importance specifically we implore your action with respect to the humanitarian crises around the globe and particularly the October 7th attacks by Hamas and subsequent violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip we have received significant constituent input on the matter notwithstanding their diverse range of understanding and opinions regarding the roots of this historical conflict and appropriate Pathways to resolution citizens from all corners of our city are united in grief over the tens of thousands of Civilian lives lost in this conflict at the same time our local community has been scarred by a rising expressions of both anti-Semitism and islamophobia since October 7th we recognize and appreciate congresswoman Susan Wild's letter to President Biden and the administration's recent efforts to provide Aid to the region and bring an end to the violence as the suffering continues and more lives are lost we urge you to continue to leverage your power and international influence to secure the immediate entry and safe distribution of critical humanitarian assistance into Gaza to facilitate the immediate and safe release of all hostages taken in the course of the conflict to help facilitate the defeat of terrorism and an end to the viol vient conflict in Gaza and to contribute to efforts towards lasting peace in the region we call for you to take an active role and forging a path to Lasting peace and Justice around the world where societies can live freely and safely and individuals can realize their full human potential please act with urgency and use the power and influence of this great nation to protect civilian lives from violent conflict to bring humanitarian assistance to those in need and to encourage a culture of peace and respect across the globe and here at home only by taking action can you demonstrate your commitment to the notion that all human life all Races ethnicities and religions are valued and to underscore that acts of Terror targeting civilians are violations of international humanitarian law and will neither be tolerated nor supported sincerely that will be from the undersigned members of bethlem city council and this letter will be distributed uh to our elected officials in government and moving forward it could be sent to anyone that city council chooses to so again that is our that is a little background about what has happened the last two weeks as it relates to city council and the action that city council has chosen to take moving forward I am going to continue with our regular agenda as was advertised and we will have our public comment as it's on the agenda now we're going to move on to our public hearing so before prior to consideration of our regular agenda items city council is going to have a public hearing to receive public comment on the request for an intermunicipal transfer of the restaurant liquor license number R 13866 this license was obtained in September of 2023 in an auction conducted by the Pennsylvania liquor control board by by aark sports and entertainment services LLC for a new restaurant at Wind Creek Casino 77 Wind Creek Boulevard here in Bethlehem Northampton County in Pennsylvania this public hearing is for informational purposes only there will not be any vote being taken during the actual public hearing and now I'm calling the public hearing to order I will recognize from the um a representative from the applicant to address the application for the liquor license transfer good evening thank you for your time tonight um I will be brief my name is Ellen Freeman I'm an attorney with flarity and dohara and we represent air mark sports and entertainment LLC with regards to the acquisition of an auction liquor license from the Pennsylvania liquor control board and as your president mentioned this would be transferred to 77 Wind Creek Boulevard um if you're familiar with the Wind Creek Outlet Mall um and if you're familiar with the entrance um aeromark would be taking over the space that was forly the temporary hotel lobby um right into the entrance of the outlets to the right is about a 5,000 square foot um area in which they are going to be uh remodeling that area to be a restaurant um the construction would be happening in the near future future with um an early 2025 opening um they're still working out the details of exactly what this restaurant would look like um but they are envisioning it to be an American Fair um Wings sandwiches Burgers um the hours of operation would be 11:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily um but that will ultimately depend on the guest um flow within those hours aark um has number of liquor licenses in Pennsylvania already um over 20 at this point they operate a lot of the venues that everyone has probably been to such as Citizens Bank Park uh true Mark Financial Center the Philadelphia Zoo um as well as a number of colleges in the area where they service both the food and beverage so they have the operations under their belt already in terms of how to operate in a very safe manner um all of the associates that work at this restaurant whether those be the the servers or the bartenders there will be ramp certified which is the responsible alcohol Management program as well as going through aar's internal training um to ensure that they know exactly how to handle the sale of alcohol in the safest manner airmark has a reputation in Pennsylvania as being a responsible operator um and an exemplary employer and they're excited to bring this opportunity to the city of Bethlehem with this new restaurant in the outlets so I welcome any questions certainly from the city as well as any members who are interested in this endeavor thank you thank you and I'm so sorry I should have mentioned since he came all the way out here Ian mcab is from um aark he is the VP of growth for aark sports and entertainment there's anything I'm unable to answer about this um operation I'm sure he can step in thank you I will recognize members of counil does anyone have any question or comment as it relates to the liquor license transfer I see none thank you for the presentation I will so we always have public comment for these public hearings some people I believe signed up on the wrong sheet which is okay so I'm just going to go around the room was there anyone who wanted to make comment this is strictly for the liquor license application I'll start to the left I turn to the broad Center to the right anyone out in the hall who want was here to make comment about the liquor license transfer all right thank you and just a reminder the resolution 10A is on tonight's agenda for us to vote on the proposed liquor license transfer and our public hearing is adjourned continuing on to our agenda approval of the minutes from the February 20224 meeting any comments on the minutes from February 2024 minutes stand approved public comment so we're going to start on any subjects not being voted on this evening just a couple reminders we do have in our rules a five minute time limit given the number of individuals who have come out this evening I am going to be pretty strict about the five minutes so I and I do ask that we all show each other respect to whoever is act the Lector and using their five minutes toh to speak this evening I'm going to go through the uh list of everyone who signed up first and then I'll go around if anyone else wants to speak if anyone wants to um choose not to speak when I call your name you could just gesture or such but we will start with I am just going to start with the first public comment and then work my way through the other list of those who signed up our first Speaker signed up is Anna Smith Smith thank you to whoever was helping out she is here uh good evening my name is Anna Smith and I live at 631 Ridge Street in South Bethlehem I also the director of Community Action development Bethlehem and to everyone here I'm very grateful for uh the shared space this evening uh to address Council since I started at Community Action in 2016 I've had the opportunity to talk with thousands of Bethlehem residents about every quality of life issue trash parking potholes absentee landlords parks pools trees sidewalks jobs but the biggest topic of concern has always been our housing quality and affordability crisis this is not new and not particularly unique Bethlehem is one of thousands of communities grappling with the impact of these dual crises what makes us special is that as of about a year ago we've moved from an average city to an extraordinary one in terms of our Collective response to the crisis whether or not we like it our community is changing housing prices have skyrocketed major investment companies who treat housing like a financial instrument to be bought and sold on the market are investing in our town folks with cash to spend and remote jobs are moving to Bethlehem to take advantage of all the amenities we've built that make it great to live here bethlehem's in such a strong e economic position today because we've been able to anticipate challenges and thoughtfully mitigate the adverse impacts of National Economic political and social forces we've stepped up at crucial junctures and avoided the fate of many of our peer cities and it's a new generations turn to live up to the example set by those who came before us the community leaders who asked what Legacy are we leaving for our children even if we may never leave live to see it come true we have the chance to respond in a way that preserves the values that have defined our community for decades the kids who grow up in our city who go to college or trade school or just get a good job should be able to come back and find a place to live here they should be able to find an apartment like I did when I moved back they should be able to start a family send their kids to the same schools that they attended our next Generation shouldn't be worse off than their parents that we help each other out because it's the right thing to do look around this room we don't ask for for credit we don't make a big deal about it but when someone we know is struggling we lend a hand it's a proud tradition of our churches our social clubs our neighborhood associations I get to see it every single day in my work that's what makes our community special that our history informs our understanding of the place we aspire to be a place where newcomers from all over the world can arrive with little and find a welcoming community of real economic ladders of opportunity that take kids growing up in public hous to become homeowners and presidents of our own city council and that we love our community so deeply that we show up for it from neighborhood meetings to city council we get involved and we make our voices heard and since I've been back in Bethlehem the voices have been loud and clear in every Forum it has never been harder to rent or buy a house in this city for the teacher who's renting a single room in a house with strangers because he can't find a place in the city to rent on his salary for the young woman who grew up in a low-income family on the Southside graduated from Lehi got a great job and had to move outside the city because her landlord told her he was remodeling her apartment and raising the rent by $600 a month for the Youth program's coordinator well- loved by her elementary students at dunigan who just resigned to move back in with her parents in another state because she can't afford to stay when we talk about promoting housing affordability we're talking about finding ways to help these people who love Bethlehem stay here they are our friends our neighbors our co-workers our family members if we do not act what does that say about us about what we represent as a community we do not have to accept the future in which many of our children will have to find a new HomeTown it's up to us to think about the values that Define us as a city and how we can come together to map out a future for our kids that preserves what makes Bethlehem such a welcoming place the numbers are abundantly clear we need more housing the city of Bethlehem in collaboration with many Community Partners has formalized a strategy to address housing affordability in our community the plan incorporates a wide variety of strategies designed to increase the variety of housing types available throughout the city and provide support services to our most vulnerable residents through a Continuum of eviction prevention resources opening doors brings together a number of ongoing initiatives that Community Partners like Community Action leh High Valley New Bethany North pen Legal Services have been developing over the last several years in response to our ongoing housing crisis many of the identified action items will require a major public facing engagement process and multiple layers of review and approval by the zoning hearing board Planning Commission and city council before implementation will be possible this public process is our chance to work together to figure out how we preserve what makes our community special while adding necessary new housing units M Smith thank I'm wrapping oh okay thank you thank you I I appreciate I appreci everyone I'll GNA politely ask as we try to move through the Dozen speakers this evening if we could if we will hold our Applause to the end I would say with confidence that we're GNA agree with a lot of the speakers but if we can just continue moving through and I appreciate Miss Smith um utilizing her five minutes the next speaker we have signed up is Susan ha manic thank you good evening members of city council mayor Reynolds all you fabulous people here who make me so proud to be an American and here in Bethlehem uh Miss Smith I don't see your face right now but you perfectly introduced the subject about which I'm very concerned first off I am a retired teacher I worked in Philadelphia and in Baltimore before I migrated North here to to Bethlehem and fell in love with this city for all the reasons that Miss Smith the assets she described to you I won't repeat but there's one small aspect she've neglected and that is our sorry thank you that's our neighborhood all our neighborhoods are unique each one has a different vibe a different feel there's walking neighborhoods there's close-up neighborhoods there's friendly neighborhoods there's stayed neighborhoods but altoe they weave the tapestry that is the city of Bethlehem and I'm very concerned about the housing crisis one of my earliest students said to me Miss actually he called me teacher teach I just want to buy a house with a porch and sit on it and not have gangs shooting around me and this was in Philadelphia but his words to me haunted me and they haunt me today so I have to remember I'm not in the classroom I have to talk in the mic I'm very very Gravely concerned with a proposed um housing solution that is tangentially related to the city of Bethlehem and that is the First Presbyterian Church proposal to put 320 uh apartments on a small property in the middle of a neighborhood that is well established it doesn't feel right to me to Warehouse people and to have rental only and so I would recommend to the city which is why I'm here that when this comes up for zoning variances and overlays and changes that you don't approve this because to put that many apartments to such density the scope of it is inappropriate which leads me to the opening doors and here I may have a little bit of ignorance and forgive me for that um and I may differ with Miss Smith a little bit because I would CAU ion the city and this opening doors movement to focus on giving people a step up to own home you have such dignity and pride when it's your own space and so I would like to recommend that I would like to recommend that the opening doors be revised I would like to replace multi-story units that are mentioned in high density quantity in in the northern and western and various areas of the city to be replaced with homes that can be purchased by people who work hard and these same exact people that Miss Smith presented after five years 10 years took me that long then maybe they can have an an entry level small home that would be great that was my plan too I'd also recommend that you repurpose here in the city some of the Dead industrial space and in be creative and take this land and build homes for the people who don't have a place to live so that our children who return home have jobs can't live here could live there we have this dead space since the still closed for example it's private property but wherever you're getting the money to do other opening doors I'm suggesting you change that idea I'd like you please to respect the character of our city and the quality of our neighborhoods and be thoughtful and wise in summary no in closing when my teenager kids I had three of them all went to Liberty and graduated and are gone they didn't come back I wish they had when they walked out the door I would say to them make good decisions as they went out for their evening with their friends and so now I'm going to conclude and thank you for listening and ask each of you on city council and our esteemed mayor whom I love and taught by the way um to please make good decisions about our housing crisis right here in Bethlehem and I thank you thank you Miss he manic our our next speaker signed up this evening is muhamad kuu I apologize if I'm mispronouncing that good evening uh ladies and gentlemen the council members thank you for giving me the opportunity I didn't know that I'll be the first one but thanks very much my name is Muhammad Kaku most of the people call me Mo Kaku I've lived in ENT toown since 1985 and work in Bethleham since 1990 and I PID paid my taxes and I know a couple of people on the council here like mayor Callahan and for last 32 years I'm a freelance uh writer and I have a Blog speak up silent no more I worked with the board of Li Val Justice Institute American Civil Liberty Union Emi which stands for and mass incarceration laco and many of the Interfaith Committee in Lehigh Valley I know I have five minutes I worked over 40 years for peace and Justice and I do not need lectures on the morality of Israeli occupying forces or the Zionist right to defend or Hamas is a terrorist which are all these talking points for the APC since since October 7th the Jewish Federation has been running full page ad on Sundays in Morning Call on the Zanes Israel's right of Defense Hamas is a terrorist organization Israel is not occupying Palestine and Israel is not racist country to rebuttle this ad which Reign every Sunday full page head right of Lei Valle Justice uh Federation in the morning call I wrote a rebuttal article to the morning call and express times and it was not printed however the largest newspaper in Pakistan english- speaking Pakistan Dawn was printed and I have the copy for distribution anybody who wants this thing and the headline is the critical questions to answer and I address right of Hamas is not a terrorist Israel is occupying forces has no right of Defense so it's all available here if anybody wants that but just to let you know that that rebuttal was not printed I can give lectures after lectures on gen uh genoci Zionist Geno side apide legal racist regime or terrorist is right but I'm not going to do that instead I'm going to talk to you why your honorable City councils members should vote Yes for the ceasefire resolution I will call spade for a spade blunt reality is the genocide by Israeli occupying forces and the Zionist Israel has no right of Defense as an occupier according to un uh Charter call it a war ethnic ethnic cleansing genocide or whatever it has been over 150 days War continues in Gaza about 30,000 Palestinians have died 70,000 others have been injured the majority of the victims are women and children a child dies in Palestine every 10 minutes I repeat a child dies in Palestine every 10 minutes look at your look at your soul Israel has dropped I would say Zionist Israel has dropped estimated 65,000 tons of bomb bombs on Gaza according to United United Nation at least 65% of the housing in Gaza has been destroyed or rendered unattainable we just saw uh two two speakers spoke about the housing right we have a housing crisis we have homeless here and we keep oh my time is running out Gaza looks like a Hiroshima not a prison right uh liberation resistance is legal right that is how we got rid of the colonization of the global south in America during the Civil War thank you sir thank you m I have the copies for the answers thank you our next speaker is Carlos Diaz good evening Mr Mayor ladies and gentlemen of the council my pleasure to be here first time ever coming to a city council meeting and that's because the crisis of affordable housing has motivated me I'm a lifelong Southside resident let me tell you a story when I grew up in the Southside it was during the 1980s it was a glorious time to be a child on the south side of Bethlehem because the entire Southside was made up of families in their home homes and there were parks to play in and we had our schools and our churches looking out for us and whether it be from family or friends we could find Refuge Sanctuary food and drink and even in a bathroom if we needed to use one all the way from Five Points to fourth in Williams Street so that's miles of the Southside we could just Roam and have fun and believe me if you acted the fool while you were doing that your mom would hear about it before you got home in every sense of the word we were part of a community we were part of a village we made friendships that have lasted a lifetime some were there for our happiest moments and some were there for our saddest ones and we are better off for the experience and all the experiences created citizens with a deep love and a pride for the city of Bethlehem and they take that wherever they go and the city could never ask for any finer ambassadors than that and what what have we exchanged this for a size sizable portion of the local University students engaging in drunken and debaucherous behavior while swarming parts of the cities on the weekend they're going to parties where the music is so loud that it can be heard from blocks away yes blocks away and on the mornings Friday or Saturday mornings Sunday mornings you walk the streets Fifth Street that area they're filled with red Solo cups empty beer bottles empty bottles of liquor and trash and not even my beloved library is spared if they're having parties close to the library the music is so loud it invades the library you can't read and you can't even hear yourself think and what if these luxury apartments rented by outsiders with no roots in the community no stake in the future of Bethlehem why should that kind of housing Force out affordable housing why should it Force out families that have been here for generations and keep out other families willing to put down generational Roots here we have lost that sense of community that I was absolutely blessed to grow up with and we are worse off for it I know there are forces way more powerful and Wealthy than I that are looking to make to xaber the situation and make things worse I beseech you I implore you take whatever action you can to prevent this gentrification of the Southside and of the entire city take on any foe that you must be radical be revolutionary but most of all be unafraid to fight for what is right because there's no more just cause than affordable housing thank you thank you our our next speaker this evening is Ana amafu I apologize again if I mispronounced any names this evening it's okay you said my first name right my name is Ana amatul I won't be disclosing my address um I would like everyone in here who's here for Palina please stand up and I would like everyone in here who wants to honor a fallen soldier to please stand up I will be reading to you the last words of Aaron Bushnell from his Facebook Bushnell posted many of us like to ask ourselves what would I do if I was alive during slavery or the Jim Crow south or aparte what would I do if my country was committing a genocide the answer is you're doing it right now his last word in his video before he set himself on fire I I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force and I will no longer be complicit to genocide I am about to engage in an extreme active protest but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers it is not extreme at all this is what our ruling class has decided will be normal free Palestine free Palestine free Palestine and the last words in his will I am sorry to my brother and my friends for leaving you like this of course if I was truly sorry I wouldn't be doing this but the machine demands blood none of this is fair I wish for my remains to be cremated I do not wish for my ashes to be scattered or my remains to be buried as my body does not belong anywhere in this world if a time comes when the Palestinians regain control of their land and if the people native to the land would be open to the possibility I would love for my ashes to be scattered in a free Palestine these were the last words of Aaron Bushnell a member an active duty member of the United States Air Force so many of you in here are proud Americans many of you stood for the Pledge of Allegiance and one of you mentioned being a proud American I hope that you're standing now for a fallen soldier and that you'll listen to his dying words where he sacrificed his life to make notice for the 30,000 lives lost in the continue genocide not conflict genocide happening and guaza Long Live Aaron Bushnell our next speaker is Drew swbg maybe thank you for your time my name is Drew Swedberg and I'm a filmmaker professor and film programmer paying taxes in Bethlehem allent toown and Easton I'm here tonight representing Lehigh Valley artists for a fee Palestine and I note that what I'm about to share are my own views not the views of my employer before I begin I want to express deep solidarity with the folks tonight fighting for affordable housing last meeting we discussed how our tax dollars should be spent on issues like housing instead of the genocide of Palestinians and the mass displac displacement from their homes it is an honor to share space with you as you fight for a local issue that we feel is deeply relevant with the struggle for Palestinian Liberation and our own purpose here tonight I want to begin by expressing gratitude for the ways all of you held space for our emotions at the last council meeting anger frustration fear sadness Outburst these are all understandable in the face of genocide truthfully I was planning to say more about my gratitude When I Was preparing for this meeting looking forward to what was expected that tonight we would be reading your carefully worded resolution and adding our voices our experiences our concerns and ultimately Our Hope for the end of this horrific violence through your vote for a permanent ceasefire after being met with hostility and indifference in E and Allentown I was looking forward to returning to this place knowing that I'd be met respectfully with the seed of some mutual trust planted from the commitment to draft the resolution and from everyone who made sure to mention that your no vote last meeting was only because you wanted to get the language right but as we all know in this room now this is not our reality and while my gratitude is wavering I speak for many when I say we are unwavering tonight we will be asking you to vote on a historic permanent ceasefire resolution after researching over 50 resolutions across the United States we have prepared the language for you to review amend and vote on which have precedent in cities like Albany Detroit Minneapolis Richmond and State College Pennsylvania to assist with this process we have adopted these items into the language you use in the city of Bethlehem tonight we are asking you to make a motion to vote on this resolution to Second this and to discuss the resolution we carefully prepared making the Amendments you feel necessarily necessary but ultimately we ask you to vote and deliver on your promise tonight I wish we had more time as we organized and considered our approach with this Sudden Change in the expected agenda we discussed more common approaches from setting up meetings to finding time to cly discuss to getting on the phone etc etc but we do not have time children are beginning to die of starvation Health experts tell us that a permanent ceasefire could save 75,000 lives they tell us that Palestinians are on the brink of famine and as we saw last week when Aid was delivered and over a 100 Palestinians were massacred by the Israeli military aid delivered by land or by air means little without a permanent ceasefire as an eyewitness said after the massacre on February 29th we do not want to live on the blood of our children if our children will die and be harmed in exchange for Aid we do not want Aid this is what we are asking for a permanent ceasefire now so that urgently needed Aid can be delivered safely before we ask you to do this we'll be joined by speakers and we'll address some of the things we've noticed in our struggle to get city councils in the valley to bravely do everything they tend to end this us funded genocide paid for by the federal tax dollars that are taken from our labor in the city of Bethlehem which addresses one of the most common issues we get how is this a local issue we hear that some of our elected officials are not well versed enough on the topic so we'll spend some time tonight talking about the over 75 years of settler colonialism in Palestine we hear dehumanizing rhetoric being used to excuse the violence happening in Gaza so we'll spend some time tonight talking about the misinformation and propaganda that has been coming through some of our most trusted media outlets and we hear the very real concern of being called anti-semitic for proposing a permanent ceasefire so we'll spend some time tonight discussing the significant difference between anti-Semitism and anti-zionism at the end of our the at the end of the day our request is straightforward and I'll ask for again everyone in support of this to stand if they are able we'll hand the resolution to you later in this um public comment please motion this for a vote second that motion discuss and amend and bring this to a vote tonight we are asking you to lead bravely to not succumb to cowardice or intim a and to take a historic humanitarian stand in Lehigh Valley thank you for your time [Applause] Hallelujah everyone before before we continue on I I just want to make a point of order to again just clarify something it is in our Council rules and because of sunshine laws that we cannot we have a deadline to add anything to our agenda that deadline is and we voted on this to to change it at the last meeting is 4M the Wednesday before a council meeting due to and this is our solicitor our Council lawyer here to my left we cannot in the middle of a council meeting add something to an agenda to be voted on because then no one has an opportunity to comment on something then in a future meeting we could wait till after comment's over to add anything to the agenda without public input so I just want to make that point of order and I will continue to proceed through the list of everyone who who signed up but these are procedural um things that we we have to abide by it was referenced at the last meeting and I just wanted to reinforce that now this is not something that we I am deciding or we are deciding on the Fly these are procedural um norms and things that are enshrined in our city council rules so while I um I just want to make that point it's just for understanding and then our next speaker signed up is Rya thank you my name is Rya abdal I am a resident of Bethlehem and I am from Palestine I'm going to tell a story of four families a tale that is unique yet familiar in its own way in April 1948 The Story begins in haa Palestine where a woman named nazat received a disturbing call from a neighbor warning her to pack her children and flee the area as soon as possible news spread that Villages and towns nearby were being raided and Israeli militias were massacring women and children nazat who had recently lost her husband fear feared for her children's lives as she is now a single mother and a new with a newborn and kids under the age of 10 her husband had just built her a house they had lived in and left a store for them to maintain their livelihood as they packed into the car nazat looked at their home and promised her children they would return they headed toward Syria and that was the last time they saw their home in store nazat started a new in Syria as a single mother having lost her home to a colonial state of Israel she passed away 60 years later telling her grandchildren and great-grandchildren that they have a home in haa Palestine on May 23rd 1948 in the same city haa Palestine a 10-year-old boy named Muhammad was studying at boarding school he healed from a small village of tanura he woke up to the news that the village had been raided and hundreds were massacred his mother arrived at his door a few hours later distraught with one suitcase his sisters and whatever was left of their family they boarded a Bo boat headed towards Lebanon Muhammad looked out to Palestine as they pulled away with tears streaming down his face a man comforted him assured him don't be worry we will be back one day Muhammad lost his unles that day buried beneath a parking lot in tantura he grew up in a small bed one-bedroom apartment responsible for his mothers and sisters he attended night school in Syria always thinking about the V Village he belonged to he passed away in 2010 requesting to be buried at home in Palestine in May of 1948 a six-year-old named seam watched as his her mother packed their home in Safa her father had just passed away leaving her mother a single parent concerned about the ongoing violence against Palestinians in the area she overheard Whispers from her aunts about white foreigners from distant lands declaring Palestine as their as theirs thinking they were going to visit family in ramala she didn't realize they were being forced out because Britain and America decided to give away their land that wasn't Theirs to give she now watches the news living through a second neba praying for the 25,000 women and children being massacred by Israel in the same occupation that pushed her family out she remembers the single home they were crammed in with 10 other families in rala because they were displaced by Israeli militias in 1948 she prays for the Palestinian people hoping that one day the children of Palestine will get to be children in May 1948 in romala Palestine a 10-year-old watches in military vehicles and soldiers take over his village he is scared Palestinian families from outside Villages have packed themselves into rala they speak of family members being murdered at the hands of Israeli soldiers he hears of homes Farms people burning alive while their isn't taking over it is different now they cannot move freely they are afraid of being kidnapped by Israelis they are told to stay by close by S who would have loved to be a child at the time is forced to grow up and protect his land from occupiers and illegal selement he writes a book about a liberated Palestine dies years later peacefully in his sleep dreaming of a palistine where people don't face discrimination and genocide at the hands of colonizers these people are my grandparents and they suffered at the hands of col colonizers the reasons that they were pushed out was due to ongoing colonist effort headed by the United States and Zionist Arthur B for's controversial bfor declaration in 1917 which expressed British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine soed the seeds of Injustice and dispossession of the Palestinian people decades later May 14th 1948 de David Ben guran Israel's primee Minister declared independence dis disregarding the rights and aspirations of the IND indigenous Palestinian population B for's declaration embold Zionist ambition leading to a forcible displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their home the day that Israel was declared a country was the day I lost my home an ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people is still happening here we are 76 years later the genocide continues because it did not start recently it started in 1948 million starves we will not forget and we are not going anywhere 14 million Palestinians worldwide with allies will liberate [Applause] festine everyone I'm gonna just ask that while I understand everyone's enthusiasm when we do get to potentially opposing views that we treat each other with respect and don't meet them with the um opposite of the enthusiasm that we're showing our next speaker signed up is Corey fiser Hoffman Hoffman thank you thank you my name is Cory Fisher Hoffman I am a resident of Bethlehem and a proud member of Jewish voice for peace and Jewish Mothers Against war crimes I am here to voice my strong support for a permanent ceasefire and a permanent ceasefire resolution from Bethlehem while I will address members of Bethlehem City Council I am also speaking directly to members of my beloved Jewish Community who have come to oppose the resolution or who have worked to bolster the false message that calling for a resolution would threaten the safety of the Jewish community in the Lehi Valley in Hebrew school I received an extensive education about the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust and as a result my Judaism has always been rooted in a deep spiritual conviction that never again means never again will the world World stand by as people are dehumanized murdered imprisoned and starved to death in the 1940s when my Jewish people were being systematically exterminated the Bethlehem city council was silent they failed to reaffirm the humanity of Jews and speak out against the horrific murder and suffering for most of my life I have wondered how so many people could have remained silent during this time but sadly in the last five months I have gotten some answers to these questions I am one of many Jews who is calling for a ceasefire in the face of the horrors being committed against the Palestinian people there is a deafening silence among many mainstream Jewish institutions in this country and worse still some Israeli Jewish and Zionist leaders are defending the Israeli government's open calls for genocide I want to be clear that these reactionary voices do not represent all Jews and that the assault of Gaza will not be carried out in my name while it is important to become educated and learn history you do not need to be an expert to know that the wholesale destruction of a people is wrong since the 1948 NBA in which Palestinians were expelled from their lands and massacred in Mass Palestinian territory has shrunk directly through Israel's expansion Palestinians are denied the right to return to their lands and they are denied basic human rights and full citizenship in Israel this is a very uncomfortable reality and it is so uncomfortable in fact that many Jews and many in Israelis live in total denial and simply refus to confront this deeply disturbing truth it's true that Jews needed a safe Refuge following the brutalities of the Nazi Holocaust and especially after being rejected from so many countries including the United States but the need for safety for Jews did not and does not give the state of Israel the right to steal land murder and dominate others Justice for Palestinians is not a threat to Jewish lives or identity in fact it is an invitation to participate in the sacred Jewish work of repair of the world something that we call tun Alam President Biden's chilling assertion that Jews in this country are not safe without sending us US military aid to Israel is extremely disturbing as an American Jew in this country that was founded on the principle of freedom of religion why is my president not guaranteeing my safety period why is he claiming that my safety is contingent upon supporting a foreign government's ongoing military assault against the Palestinian people I reject this premise with my whole being Jewish safety is bolstered through a strong and United repudiation of ethnonational violence which is why supporting the ceasefire resolution is also a stand against anti-Semitism further Israel's actions are not about self-defense or Jewish safety they are a continuation of an ongoing policy of ethnic cleansing Israel is not being singled out we are witnessing Israel's active military campaign that has killed an unprecedented number of children and journalists relative to all other conflicts in the history of Modern Warfare the only humane response to such horror is to call for an immediate end to the killing to demand humanitarian Aid and to call for political negotiations passing a ceasefire resolution is not anti-semitic supporting a ceasefire resolution means that you see Palestinians as people and that as such you acknowledge their unspeakable suffering supporting a ceasefire resolution means that you will not be a victim to propaganda that demands you strip others of their full Humanity this is a time for profound moral courage this is a time to rewrite this City's shameful history of Silence in the face of atrocities have courage that your vote for a ceasefire resolution is a sign of humanity a belief in Justice and a stand against all forms of hatred nonetheless when you support this resolution you will be called names just as all of us have this takes moral courage and please use it thank you our next speaker this evening Josie rosari thank you good evening my name is Jossie ireri and I've worked here in Bethlehem for almost nine years for this stee just born while you're saying you cannot vote on this today I want to First mention that you failed us on the delivery to draft a resolution on time last meeting while we were here you said the only reason you could not vote that evening when councilman Callahan put the vote on the floor is because you wanted language to go along with your resolution the language which is now before you and time is of the utmost importance Israel is threatening to invade Rafa on March 10th we do not have two more weeks to sit around and talk about language bravery requires standing up and making a difference when it's presented before you this is your chance to stand against against violence be brave like Aaron Bushnell I will now read the resolution that represents all of us in this room calling for a ceasefire be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem Northampton County Pennsylvania that whereas we the Council of the city of Bethlehem Northampton County Pennsylvania work to ensure the safety Dignity Health and freedom of people every day and whereas the war on Gaza has caused immense human suffering and loss of life and whereas we believe in the shared Humanity of all people and recognize the need to affirm our commitment to fundamental human rights in a city made Stronger by Arab Jewish and Muslim consti ents who feel deeply the local impact of the global human rights issue and whereas we stand against all acts of hate perpetuated against our constituents here in Bethlehem especially as islamophobic and anti-semitic views increase in the United States and whereas we acknowledge the urgency of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the imperative need for immediate action to protect and save human lives and whereas we follow the lead of over 70 other localities in calling for ceasefire in Gaza because what happens internationally impacts our con our constituents locally now therefore it be it resolved that Council of the city of Bethlehem Northampton County Pennsylvania calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza be it further resolved that the Council of the city of Bethlehem Northampton County Pennsylvania calls Upon Our Congressional Delegation to join us in one calling upon the Biden Administration to immediately descend and facilitate the entry of humanitary assistance at the scale needed in into Gaza beginning with the reinstatement of funding to unra and two supporting an end to the US military funding to the state of Israel and an end to us tax dollars contributing to humanitary catastrophe and genocide and three urging leaders to prioritize the safety and well-being of all hostages and detainees recognizing their rights to freedom and immediate and unconditional release finally be it resolved that upon passage a copy of this resolution be sent to President Joseph R Biden Jr Senator Robert P Casey Senator John K fedman and representative Susan E wild so again everyone here that represents a ceasefire please stand up to show our [Music] voices thank you ceasefire now our next speaker this evening is Joe [Applause] Daniels someone left their cell phone on the podium uh hello everyone Joe Daniels lifelong resident of the southside of Bethlehem here to speak on uh tenant landlord issues if you recall at the last meeting I spoke on 71-73 East Broad Street and the severe maintenance and safety issues going on at that property as a reminder the property management company is Apex Management LLC owned by matador Management LLC and matador Holdings LLC being the actual property owner to date there have been zero repairs since the first inspection performed on January 10th the required uh which required the roof be repair due to it leaking with heavy rain along with other items a citation was issued on February 5th another inspection was performed on the 15th and to date again there have been zero repairs I'm still awaiting on my right to no response that was emailed on February 20th which as of today makes it two weeks outside of the owner's blatant and purposeful disregard to both the inspections and citations I have the following concerns that I would like to work on being remedied with the assistance of city council they are as follows why does a tenant who has filed a complaint with the city and requested an inspection have to be bothered with and delayed in learning the findings of said inspection and citations on a property that they not only pay rent for but a property that has severe safety and health hazards by going through the right to no process instead of being copied on the same timely communication being sent to the property manager Andor owner it's unfair to the tenants that they are being left in the dark in such matters that affect them and in this case health and well-being it's as if the tenants rights do not matter and they do this is the first item that I am requesting the assistance of a city council member to help make effective changes that provide full disclosures to tenants in these situations number two is my concern for the licensing inspection uh terms for residential rentals according to article 17390 not only is the license required for each regulated rental but a copy of the lease is to be given to the city and the lease is to meet the requirements set in section 17392 Section 8 which in part reads terms and conditions owner and occupant may include a rental agreement terms and conditions not prohibited by the ordinance or other no rental agreement May provide that the occupant or owner agrees to wave or to forego the rights or remedies under this ordinance I make mention of this because I have viewed an apex Management lease and I'm sure it's one of many that blatantly disregards the warranty of habitability law set forth by the Attorney General of Pennsylvania I don't have a copy but I can definitely send one to the clerk but in short just to give you an example by signing the lease tenant understands and agrees to indemnify defend hold harmless and otherwise fully relieve Apex and owners a couple notes on here are or a couple examples any failure or mal malfa malfunction of electrical wires or wiring fuses circuits Etc defects in the structural or physical Integrity of any part of the building's interior or exterior including stairs stairwells windows and fire escapes hazardous or unsafe conditions caused by items such as broken glass loose snails etc etc additionally it's my understanding that a bed and breakfast has an annual inspection performed when uh I'm sorry uh bed and breakfast has an annual inspection performed annually when residential rentals are only required to have them every three years and my opinion this is the reason why we have the issues we have with blighted properties rundown properties Etc there is little to no oversight on the part of the city this is why you have pockets of rental neighborhoods that look like pretty much that they're in the hood if the city is WR only writing ordinances and not enforcing them this is what we will get there needs to be better oversight on rental properties in general by doing so and requiring mandatory educational requirements to landlords I promise you you would see a drastic decrease in the number of landlords missing landlords run down properties instead you would find more aesthetically pleasing neighbor neighborhoods with quality tenants so I ask who on city council will help me help our city navigate the waters to make more impactful changes to the way we live and to help make bethleem a model City for others to follow thank you thank you Miss Daniels and Miss Daniels I'll just ask when you have an opportunity this week to email our city clerk then we could figure out how to be in contact okay our next speaker signed up is Carol Baylor when they start talking please thank you hi my name is Carol Baylor my name is Carol Baylor I have lived and worked in Bethlehem since 1976 My Two children attended and graduated from the Bethlehem Area School District ever since the horrific October 7 attack I and other peace activists of leoco the leoco Lehi Pocono Committee of concern had been vigilant for ceasefire every Thursday afternoon at third and W do streets we have gotten largely positive responses from people driving by one day however a man yelled at me from his car do you like roasted babies now I ask you do I look like somebody that likes roasted babies now so where does this come from it is a trism of conflict journalism that when the bullets start to fly truth is the first casualty this is certainly the case in the current war in the Gaza trip the claim that Hamas put babies in microwaves is just one of the many stories promoted by Israel that have been thoroughly debunked another commonly reported claim is that Hamas beheaded babies we were told Hamas cut open a pregnant woman removed her baby and beheaded it then beheaded the woman President Biden said he has seen photographs of of beheaded babies now the White House later clarified that the president has not actually seen such photographs NBC news on October 12th reported that no photographic evidence has been made public confirming the stories of beheaded babies in order to justify a scorched Earth War a scorched Earth war of revenge against Gaza the isra government promoted A Narrative of the attack that included all sorts of in Sensational claims of rape torture burnings and beheadings of babies when Israel's Social Security Agency documented the deaths of October 7th journalists discovered that 1,139 people were killed 695 were civilians sadly including one infant who was shot and 36 children under the age of 19 no infant was beheaded and no pregnant woman was on the official death list nevertheless these sensationalist emotional stories have gone viral in December the New York Times reported that Hamas engaged in a campaign of systematic rape and sexual assault on Israeli women and girls during the attack investigative journalists have shown the unreliable character of the sources the report was based on the New York Times is now walking back this inflammatory story although recently the UN did report that there is credible EV evidence of isolated instances of rape and sexual assault these are just a few samples of how quickly and easily prop propaganda and lies spread during a conflict Israel began its war of Revenge with the defense minister describing the Palestinians as human animals think about that this effort to dehumanize the Palestinians has remained the principal theme of the Israeli Defense Forces press releases these one-sided press releases have dominated the US media landscape and they have also shaped us Poli policy Jeremy Jeremy skill of The Intercept has described the Israeli government's horror Narrative of the Hamas attack as the worst fraud that has been perpet perpetuated since the lies about weapons of mass destruction that led us into a 20-year war of uh again in Iraq there can be no doubt that the Hamas attack on October 7th killed unarmed civilians and seized hostages both violations of of international law but these terrible crimes pale in comparison with what Israel has done to brutally punish collectively the whole Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip let us remember our common Humanity uh we're all I can't finish but ceasefire now peace the the the poppies the poppies that I handed out the cies I handed out the poy is the national flower uh pal and there are to honor the day thank thank you moving on one one thing I did want to address to anyone who could hear me in the hallway it I it is being said for it gets a little hard to hear in here if there are other loud conversations going on in the hallway so I just ask if we could be mindful of that while we have speakers at the lecturn and that are speaking to be heard by everyone thank you and then Lizzy Hayes hi yeah um my name is Lizzie Hayes I'm a seni senior at Lehigh University and I will be speaking about a recent John Hopkins report crisis in Gaza scenario-based health impact projections published February 24th IT projects the next six-month of Health outcomes in Gaza under different scenarios including a ceasefire continuation of the status quo and escalation these experts projected multiple cases of death under different scenarios including traumatic injuries malnutrition infectious diseases non-communicable diseases maternal and neonatal M mortality and still births experts modeled this based on a wide variety of data including rate and type of injuries and comparable Wars and traumatic injury and death data for the ongoing War data on trucks carrying food into Gaza with assumptions about the existing stocks and agricultural output to estimate mean chloric intake over time and adult waste weight weight loss based on those intake estimates they also factored in a model informed by vac vaccination coverage estimates and vaccine Effectiveness values assumed preo um assumed pre-war natural exposure to infection and simulated a large number of epidemics based on starting susceptibility their probability of occurrence and the seasonal pattern of some pathogens transmissibility and case fatality under the different scenarios these are just a few of the ways that the renowned experts thoroughly projected the outcomes for the people of Gaza the ceasefire scenario means an immediate and permanent ceasefire and a large influx of humanitarian assistance that increases over time as logist improve Gaza under continued blockade as well but the population starting to return to their homes although a large amount of their dwellings are already destroyed the status quo scenario assumes aerial bombing and ground offensive continues that there are two to three short humanitarian pauses there is moderate but limited increase in Aid and humanitarian action is constrained by military restrictions an escalation scenario which is looking quite likely means no ceasefires aerial bombardment and ground operations increase in intensity and the shifting Focus to the crowded areas of the south of Gaza while also resuming in the north and decreasing access to healthcare now I'm going to talk about the findings of the study the study projected that from February 7th to August 6th 11,580 more people will die in the case of immediate and permanent ceasefire 66,0 720 will die in The Case of the status quo continuing as is and 85,00 50 more people will die if there is escalation I want to highlight that the status quo scenario includes several temporary ceasefires and moderates increase in aid but 66,000 people will still die temporary ceasefires and in an increase in Aid like Susan wild has suggested will result in the death of 66,000 more people so you supporting that is not acceptable an immediate ceasefire would save 55,000 to 75,000 lives a failure to call for a ceasefire will kill 55,000 to 75,000 people these people are not numbers they are children mothers fathers and grandparents who love who grieve who dream many of the 75,000 who could die are children people younger than me who have so much life left to live they have never felt the joys of having their first love watching their babies take their first steps the satisfaction of a achieving their dream dreams or caring for and learning from their aging parents do not let our tax dollars take the rest of their lives away from them I know you all have people that you love I'll bet you all have lost people that you love if your husbands wives children sisters and brothers were being murdered by a USF funded State you would pray that the American people would make a change you have the power to make that change and the obligation to call for a seat fire and save that many lives you have the numbers and the facts so now is the time to make a choice please if you have any Humanity in your soul do the right thing and stop the death thank you our next speaker this evening S I want to say sirino I apologize again on any mispronunciations no worries about the name it's Kieran by the way um I'm also a student at Lehi University I spoke here at the city council meeting two weeks ago where several of you promised us to draft and immediately vote on a ceasefire resolution the only reason that did not happen at the last city council meeting is that we were promised and you are on video promising that you would draft and vote on a ceasefire resolution during this meeting so all of us here today maybe 200 of us are here to watch you deliver on your promise uh as said previously 70 cities 70 American cities have already passed such resolutions they are incredibly important for influencing National leadership to push for peace the letter that you introduced at the beginning of this meeting Mee which was not disclosed to us does not go far enough plain and simple it does not call for uh political support for Corey Bush's house represent House Bill 786 it does not call it does not condemn and call for an end to the Israeli war crimes which have been ruled by the international court of justice as plausible acts of genocide it does not use the word permanent ceasefire as Lizzie just said we want permanent ceasefire just yesterday KLA Harris used the word six we ceasefire this is better than nothing yes but six weeks of peace is not the same as permanent peace we want you to draft a resolution as stated in the paper that we handed out or will hand out we want permanent peace which would save 75,000 lives over the next six months um just going back to the point of where you guys said you would draft a resolution and then did not breaking a promise is political suicide right we as a country we already we already do not have enough trust in our Democratic institutions as a 20-year-old uh coming up gen Z we have a lot of mistrust in our political institutions um you're on video like your video we have video of you saying you will draft and pass a ceasefire resolution it has thousands of views you can't back away from your promises um the activism that City councils around the country the 70 that have already passed resolutions is working as we saw kamla Harris is now calling for a ceasefire uh Biden as well this is a huge change in language from our uh leadership at the federal level because our federal representatives to the United Nations have rejected Global calls for ceasefire three times in the past five months the UN Security Council the 16 most powerful nations in the world have called for ceasefire in Gaza three times and all three times the US was the sole vote in out of the entire world to vote against the ceasefire so we need as American citizens it is our duty to work with the rest of the world and call for permanent ceasefire and as elected representatives it is your duty to do what your constituents implore you to I'm going to read some more statistics on what has happened since the last time I spoke at this meeting past two weeks um an estimated 87 children die in Gaza every day um Israel has been blocking vital humanitarian Aid including baby formula medicine anesthesia uh food Palestinians have resorted to eating dirt mixed with animal feed 2.3 million Palestinians are extremely malnourished and 500,000 face extreme starvation um last Thursday something called The Flower Massacre occurred where an aid drop with a box of flow in the north of Gaza Uh Hungry starving Palestinians went to go get this Aid the IDF opened fire on them and killed 115 starving refugees Israel's National Security secretary and respons this said it was proven that the transfer of humanitarian Aid to Gaza is madness we must stop transferring this Aid which is in fact har harming the IDF soldiers and oxygen to Hamas I don't understand how flower and baby formula for two million starving people is oxygen to Hamas but I do understand the cries of starving babies and I hope you do too um rest in peace to the 30,000 innocent people who have died in this conflict so far uh last Friday a baby called mmud futa uh died at one week old due to lack of baby formula um this cannot go on please pass the ceasefire resolution thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is naen kton everybody here and our folks have Notting people everyone I'm gonna I'm gonna now is not I'm G to repeat what I had asked in the beginning of the meeting because we still have a number of speakers to get through I will continue to ask whether it is with how we use our voices when someone else is speaking whether it's how we react to the people we're speaking whether it's how we uh present ourselves to our neighbors to our left right in front of us or behind us but I want to continue to keep peacefully moving on so that everyone has an opportunity to speak tonight thank you and our next speaker naen kton yeah uh well good evening as you said my name is nen kton I'm a resident of Bethlehem and a proud member of the Jewish Community um I'd like us first to just like close our eyes and take a breath I think we're all holding our breaths here a little bit so just a quick inhale exhale um I'm here to ask the city council to pass a resolution calling calling for a permanent ceasefire standing in solidarity with my Palestinian cousins in their quest for Liberation is not antithetical to my Judaism but rather because of it my Judaism is one that's rooted in compassion in the value of tikun lam repair of the world as Corey mentioned violence only begets more violence pain begets more pain and to my Jewish cousins here I see your pain and I feel it I honor it I grieve the lives of the hostage of those killed and the hostages still held captive in Gaza just as you do but compassion is not a one-sided ordeal it's possible to hold the pain of both our people in our hearts we're cousins after all we overfeed each other the same way I promise it's the same at a Jewish table as a Palestinian one I grieve the 30,000 gauen civilians slaughtered by us-made bombs and the right-wing Israeli regime the children who've undergone amputations with no anesthesia the families who've been wiped off the map I grieve the Palestinians held in Israeli prisons without due process of law calling for the Israeli government to be held accountable to their abhorent war crimes is not anti-semitic perpetuating the ongoing Slaughter of Palestinians only makes Jews more unsafe calling for a permanent ceasefire is not anti-semitic it is a doorway when our grandchildren look back at this time will we have been silent or will we speak up in the face of genocide and osde will we stand up in support of justice and the preservation of human life let us end the cycles of violence here there is no military solution may we be led by compassion drawing inspiration from the Palestinian poet Marwan makul who said in order for me to write poetry that isn't political I must listen to the birds and in order to hear the birds the war planes must be silent I'll share a poem of my own as poetry has become my way of processing everything going on as fields of October Cosmos Bloom carpet bombs Boom the bones of my Jewish ancestors Quake they exclaim not in our name leaves turn red as numbers of dead pile up in streets mothers children fathers sisters brothers interred in sheets these leaves how they fall with Beauty in their dying but there is no Grace in genocide when children have no place to hide metaphors fail alongside systems designed to reap profits from Hell dear Palestine I send you my love my prayers my tears my grief my action my compassion for you I weep cradle of our ancestors now a coffin stands instead peace is never created by leaving civilians dead for what it's worth I'm sorry I'm sorry for walls apartheid bombs and endless silence gen cycles of trauma generational violence my highest prayer is one for peace reconciliation transcending Beyond illusions of nations may Salam and Shalom be fully realized embodied so that the land and all her people feel safe at home and to close i' like to share a song just to lighten the mood a little bit um and anyone here that knows it can sing it with me I'm sure everyone knows the Debbie and at least coming from my Jewish Community knows the Debbie fredman version of the Misha barah and so it's a prayer for healing um and it goes May the source of strength who bless the ones before us help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing and let us [Music] say bless those in need of healing withu the renewal of body the renewal of spirit and let us say [Music] ahen thank Youk our next speaker this evening CH believe Jack irari I would like to start by saying that was beautiful and to city council I'd like to thank you for your time and energy tonight my name is Jackie I am a local artist by the name of hoppen stand in the Lehigh Valley would a mission to make the world a better place for everyone when I think of a life worth living I think of a life that is liberated I think of the freedom to live eat play learn and love others no one person is superior to another and we all deserve this level of dignity and Humanity so why is it that the world feels righteous in denying the same quality of life and love to the people of Palestine why do they feel they're justified in ignoring the struggles as they are not ours it is immoral to think Palestinians deserve less than us or that we deserve more than they do we are all people who think feel and vibrate on the same wavelength in this universe our souls are interconnected with theirs and we will not escape this genocide without damage the energy we put out in the universe today will transcend beyond our life and what you did or did not do during this time will leave a mark or a stain on Humanity if you think about it our psyches are forever changed by what we have seen and heard over the last 150 days this is a direct result of War everyone is damaged physically mentally emotionally and deep within our souls so you're wondering why is this important well we cannot allow the Israeli government to continue killing Palestinians or the collective consciousness of our world this is bigger than we can even comprehend as humans we must take a stance on what is right and what is wrong based on our moral compass our integrity our accountability our love and our truth or we will fail the ultimate test in life which is Humanity when we talk about a permanent ceasefire tonight and whether is the right thing to do I ask you to consider this in terms of a holistic approach but even more so for the collective consciousness of the world today and the world to come and here are a few simple questions for you to ponder would you want this for yourself or for your family would you have remained silent or complicit during the Holocaust would you want someone to fight for your freedom if you did not have freedom or would you want to die on the street or on a dirt dirty cold Hospital floor or under a pile of rubble I'm sure the answer is no so remember there is no going back the time to do what is right is now not tomorrow not next week and not in another two weeks but in this very moment with the people here and with the platform you have tonight so I reiterate ceasefire now and free Palestine our next speaker this evening Aaron gordinski thank you I appreciate the opportunity to speak today in front of city council especially today March 5th which a very difficult day in the life of the Jewish Community as we remember in 2003 when 17 innocent civilians were lost forever in a second when a terrorist from Hamas walk into bus 37 in ki and blew himself up killing 17 including two American and wounded 40 others most of them young students whose only crime was riding the bus to school this was not the first suicide bombing in 2003 in fact it followed the boming of the ne shanan neighborhood in Tel Aviv on January 5th in which 23 people were killed when two suicide bomber this times from the Islamic Jihad loaded their explosive Bas with nails and blew themselves up by the tab bus station with the intention to kill as many Jews possible from 2000 to 2005 old Jews behind me in this room can tell you a story that occurred to them and their families as Israel was being attacked relentlessly by Hamas the Islamic Jihad the PLO and a dark period of history for the Jewish people known as the second antifa or Uprising the second antifa didn't happen on a vacuum it came right after many of us remember a period of High Hope For Peace especially after the 2000 Camp David Summit which was expected to reach a final agreement between Israel and pal the peace effort proceeded the United Nation resolution 181 and 47 UN resolution 242 and 67 1978 Camp David Accords 1991 Madrid conference 1993 Oso Accords 1995 Oso 2 in the Camp David Accords in the year 2000 all accepted to Israel to create a Palestinian State all rejected by Palestinian leadership what we got instead was another rejected offer by the Palestinians from Israel and the United States in a call by Palestinian president yasar arfad to engaging war against Israel and civilian population the civilian the uprising killed more than 1,000 innocent civilian during a series of terrorist attack that only came to an end after the security barrier was erected separating the West Bank from Israel and how did Israel respond to the violence in 2005 at the end of the second antifa Israel made an unprecedented move he took every single Jewish settler outside of Gaza and left Gaza intact no Jews in the Gaza Strip with all the infrastructure available green houses factories power and waste plant and many of the hospitals are still functioning today built by Jews left for the Gaza people hoping that the unilateral move by Israel were resolu in the establishment of a Palestinian State what do they got after the election they got Hamas the Islamic Jihad who destroyed every single piece of Civilian infrastructure left by Israel to build teral tunnels and launched the attacks that culminated on the October 7 Massacre Next Friday March 8th is international women's day A Day celebrated annually as a focal point in women's right movement to speak about important issues such as gender equality Reproductive Rights and violence and abuse against women unless of course you are a Jewish woman that was in Israel on October 7th finally after 150 days of Israeli women screaming at the world to ask them to believe them just like we believer women here that were sexually assaulted by Hamas as a tool of war the US enoy finally released a report calling for reasonable grounds which is a legal terminology and I quote that Hamas sexualized torture of the cruel incuman treatment of women of October 7 based on firsthand accounts of release hostages the team found clear and convincing information that women and children during their captivity were subjected to the same sexual violence including rape and sexualized torture there's still 14 women in captivity today in the hands of Kamas I bring this all just to show the complexity of the issues that a small but vocal minority would like for you to rule today for the city council to comment on a set a president that has never said before over 65 International conflicts only one demanded by the people here to speak about this is a conflict that's deeply personal for the Jewish Community who mours every single person who had died during this conflict all it takes for the conflict to end as President Biden said today is for Hamas to accept a ceasefire renounce to violence release the hostages and leave Gaza alone so that the people who want to see peace can rule and govern I appreciate the letter the city council has read today to express the concerns of the city and for the peace and coexistence instead of making politically motivated statement because of a vocal loud majority who keeps coming to the same city council meeting that I keep coming to to speak about the same issue that we keep talking about thank you very much our next speaker signed up this evening is Vicky wax thank you for allowing me to speak I'm a long-term resident of the Lehi Valley if I learned nothing in the last four decades I learned that we should never sit in our comfortable homes in the Lehigh Valley and tell the people in Israel what to do and how to protect their children because we have no idea we have absolutely no idea what the reality is for people that are living there we have no idea what the reality is from we get information from countries that have no Free Press Israel has more Free Press than probably most countries in the world but don't believe me here I have a letter okay which is written by Palestinian human rights activist Basim Aid eiid written on January 28th 2024 my fellow Palestinians it's time to get rid of our leaders and accept Israel's offers for peace I want by father I'll leave this with you to read you all the pages of it I'll just read the end of it where he and he goes through exactly what Aaron said all of the wars that have been uh Gone against Israel with no Palestinian leadership absolutely wanting peace he says Palestinian leadership just recently the history of the Israeli Palestine conflict regarding a two-state solution reveals a harsh reality Israel has constantly made genuine efforts towards peace only to be met with rejection treachery and blood curling Violence by the Palestinian side this pattern of refusal particularly epitomized by groups like Hamas is the real obstacle it's time to acknowledge the truth bluntly those who claim to desire peace must confirm and challenge the rejectionist elements within the Palestinian Society we need to get rid of the Palestinian establishments who have ruled in Gaza for 15 years without actually representing the Palestinian people one can only hope to forge a path toward a peaceful two-state solution if we change leadership all right that's one opinion my other opinion I would like everybody when they go home from here everybody here take 30 minutes and 31 seconds and pull up the son of Hamas speaking at the UN on November 21st 2023 his name is Mosa pasin yosif I will try and read some of his comments but you must listen to him speak in his own words to our un he is the son of Hamas co-founder speaking at the UN and his subject is the Savage indoctrination of Palestinian kids by Hamas monsters he says the real intention of Hamas is its religious ideology which insists on the elimination of Israel he says I have a firsthand account I lived it there crime is against this generation and the generations to come again his words not mine without violence and Chaos Hamas does not survive they wage a holy war and they will not be brought to the negotiating table he says quote as a child of 10 I was whipped by Hamas over and over again to make me become a violent Savage I was told I had to obey at 18 I was put into a Palestinian prison where I saw the worst imaginable torture done to Palestinians who did not behave by a miracle I got out and 10 years from the mid nove from mid 1990s until the 2000s he said I worked for the Israeli intelligence division because of the suicide bombers that that were killing Jews Muslims Arabs Christians Americans and Europeans he goes on and on to talk about and I see I'm running out of time so I will just tell you please everybody here you watch it have your family watch it have your children watch it and he says if Hamas and these hostages are not stopped now it will bring down all of democracy all of democracy we will not have a democratic world to live in thank you thank [Applause] you our next speaker signed up this evening is Robert wax excuse me could I just there's two open spots there's an open spot I was just going to say for anybody who's still standing if anybody wants a seat there's open seats thank you for pointing that out what he referenced is here in the center section there are two open seats in the I can't really tell from my perspective so it looks like maybe the middle of the row okay thank you good evening members of council and mayor Reynolds my name is Robbie wax I am the President of the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley and I stand you I stand before you tonight representing over 8,000 Jews from Bethlehem and across the Greater Lehigh Valley the brutal atrocities in October 7th awakened many to the depravity of Hamas the ruthless terrorist organiza organization controlling Gaza with the stated goal of destroying Israel and murdering all Jews who live there more than 1200 Israelis were savagely murdered babies yes were burned and decapitated women yes were raped and subjected to sexual torture and 240 Israelis Americans and others were taken hostage this was the most brutal attack on Jews since the Holocaust and 134 hostages remain in captivity tonight it's worth noting that this council did not pass a resolution or take a position condemning those actions while the issues are complex the following facts yes facts are intended to provide you with a deeper understanding of the conflict first what does Hamas want from Israel Hamas wants to take the land and quote from The River To The Sea for those unfamiliar with this phrase it means Kamas seeks all the land between the Jordan River in the Mediterranean Sea in other words all of Israel this is not a compromised position unfortunately over the past few months protesters have continually repeated this threat from Hamas across the United States and even in Bethlehem and on our local college campuses some knowingly and others unknowingly calling for an entire country and its people to be wiped off the Earth has Israel offered land in exchange for peace yes many times the Palestinian Authority formerly known as the PLO the international terrorist organization and neighboring Arab countries rejected nine peace plans between 1947 and 2019 each of these peace plans would have created a state for the Palestinian people does Israel occupy Gaza no Israel does not occupy Gaza in 2005 Israel unilaterally evacuated the Gaza Strip regret regrettably the Palestinians elected Hamas into power and Hamas began diverting humanitarian Aid to support its military operations and began its reign of terror including the October 7th Massacre so what is the role of the United Nations and the United States the UN through its Refugee agency has allowed humanitarian Aid to be diverted to Hamas and other terrorist organizations and employees of the UN participated in the attacks on Israeli citizens on October 7th the Palestinian Authority in Hamas pay families of terrorists who murder innocent Israelis a success bonus and a monthly stien in perpetuity in 2018 Congress passed the tailor force act which reduces economic aid to the Palestinian Authority until it ends this policy which continues today who else funds Hamas Iran Iran has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas and provides milit military training to the terrorists how would residents of Bethlehem feel if a terrorist organization funded by Iran launched thousands of missiles at our families from un sponsored schools and hospitals just a few miles away would we be calling for a ceasefire or we'd be asking our government to protect us from the terrorists targeting our homes and how does the Israeli Defense Force respond the IDF is more cautious about mitigating civilian casualties than any other military in modern times the IDF uses efforts where possible to warn civilians before bombing in populated areas ham M unfortunately hides weapons in Terrorist command centers in schools and hospitals using human civilian Shields to protect its terrorist activities it takes civilians as hostages it launches thousands of rockets on civilian populations in Israel it's Israel engaged in ethnic cleansing or committing genocide against the Palestinians absolutely not between 1948 and 2023 the combined Jewish population in Arab countries surrounding Israel dropped from 985 th000 Jews Jews to 12,000 Jews representing a decrease of 99% and leaving Israel a country the size of New Jersey as the sole safe haven for Jews in the entire Middle East during the same period the number of Arabs in Israel increased from 156,000 to 2.1 million and the number of Arabs living in Gaza increased from 880,000 to 2 million so claims of ethnic cleansing or genocide are patently untrue have other municipalities passed ceasefire resolutions n 99.7% of municipalities in America have not done so and neither should Bethlehem city council with all due respect while everyone wants peace in the Middle East these issues are clearly beyond the scope and jurisdiction of this body Council has a lengthy agenda tonight it should remain focused on those items if members of the crowd are unhappy with our federal government's position on the conflict in Gaza they should contact our federal legislators and stop creating distractions at Municipal meetings so you can complete the work you were elected to perform thank you [Applause] [Music] our next our next speaker this [Applause] evening our next speaker this evening is Amy Fels are we okay with respect in here the floor is yours ma'am and I continue I'm just okay I I along with many Lehigh Valley community members are here tonight because there are others who are lobbying for a ceasefire in Gaza simply requesting a ceasefire in Gaza sounds wonderful who doesn't want PE and happiness Hamas has rejected several ceasefire offers by Israel most recently from this past weekend however there is yet another on the table and we will wait on hamas's decision the international court of justice in the ha rejected South Africa's request to order a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on the grounds of committing genocide they clearly stated that they did not require ceasefire because Israel has the right to defend herself against Kamas who wants to see all Jews and Christians dead the only ones who are trying to commit genocide are Kamas who clearly states in their doctrine that their goal is to obliterate Israel and kill all the people in it if the international court of justice has ruled that Israel is not committing genocide I think Bethlehem city council should trust their judgment perhaps those requesting a ceasefire could focus on demanding the release of hostages and dismantling of Kamas so their actually could be a ceasefire many speakers say they don't want their tax dollars going to Israel their tax dollars should be spent on their own needs in their City they don't want their tax dollars funding genocide we have determined that Israel is not committing genocide because we know that Israel goes over and Beyond any other army in the world for all of history to safeguard the lives of civilians no one expressing dismay with their tax dollars going towards Israel also includes not wanting their tax dollars to go towards known terrorist organizations such as unra or for humanitarian Aid to Gaza which lands directly in the hands of Kamas once in their hands we all know they grossly misuse that money there is no denying that Hamas are terrorists it has been discovered that many staff members of unra were tied to the October 7th Massacre and Kamas there were no previous protests of concern regarding their tax dollars being used to fund terrorism rather than having more local use our government currently wants to pass a spending bill for foreign aid which includes a 9.2 billion dollar of humanitarian Aid to Palestinians are any protesters here concerned about how their tax dollars will be spent with that money including pay for sleigh where the Palestinian Authority pays terrorists and their families for killing Jews have they questioned if there is a system in place to ensure this money would go to innocent civilians how do we know who the innocent civilians are do they wear labels do they dress differently Kamas embeds themselves into the civilian population and polls show the Palestinians strongly support Terror including the October 7th Massacre many regular civilians joined the Kamas attack on October 7th killing raping burning beheading and capturing hostages later they sold hostages to Kamas we know that children are trained from a young age to become terrorists thanks to the curriculum in camps provided and funded by unra do these children attend separate schools for children of Hamas I am not hearing concerns regarding any of these issues in relation to how our tax dollarss are being spent so the excuse of tax dollars and claiming the money going to Israel would be better spent here in the Lehigh Valley doesn't work why are these same people silent regarding the atrocities that Russia is inflicting on Ukraine why are there no protests for a Russian ceasefire and accusing Russia of committing genocide after all if Russia stopped the war then the US wouldn't have to send $60 billion dollar in Aid to Ukraine and then their tax dollars could be set spent in Bethlehem why not protest for Ukraine to S surrender for the sake of saving its civilians because then Russia would Annex Ukraine just like Ukraine has a right to exist and fight for their country so too does Israel for almost 76 years Israel has lived with a constant threat of being attacked the answer to all of my questions is because this involves Israel Jewish people and anti-Semitism not one war in this 76 year old history has been initiated by Israel if you vote in favor of ceasefire you are enabling the continuation of this 76 year old war you would be rewarding terrorists you would be expressing a vote that Israel does not have a right to to exist or defend herself our tax dollars are going to Ukraine so they can defend their land Israel has that same right vote no for a ceasefire if you are concerned about the crisis in Gaza that Kamas surrender and release the hostages Israel did not start that our next speaker this evening is Claire Fernandez I I I'm just gonna just a point of order here as we as we move on to to the room to everyone just a point of order we we cannot I cannot police adjudicate litigate from this seat everyone's behavior in this room I look around the room and see a room full of people that have come out here to speak passionately about what you believe in and I will continue to restate my position that I ask everyone in this room to show each other the respect that you hope to see now in terms of how that is followed through again it I cannot I have limitations from here other than we're about halfway through our list of who signed up to speak this evening we're only going to get later into the evening so I will continue to ask everyone to show not only respect but in some cases restraint and this was part of my comments in the beginning as it relates to Applause when we hear Applause from both sides I don't want that Applause to grow louder in opposition to conflicting opinions so that being said while I acknowledge to the point that was made in the crowd I will continue to ask everyone in this room and do my best but I am limited to asking everyone to be be adherent and respectful to what I've laid out since the beginning of the meeting thank you and then our our our so and I will restate as we move forward with tonight that anyone out in the in the hallway to be mindful when anyone's speaking we everyone at the lecture has the right to speak and we all want to hear what they have to say in terms of uh again policing kind of talking there there are limits to as is from a a practical sense I will continue on with tonight's list of who signed up who signed up and our next speaker is Claire fernandz hello everyone I'm Claire I go to Lehigh University um so while I was standing in line thinking of what to say with my time I overheard someone say that what is happening today is war can what is happening today truly be considered War be seen as conflict can the literal killing of thousands of Palestinian families children parents siblings grandparents friends loved ones be labeled as War Israel's war amongst who Palestinian civilians the majority of people around the world do not see this as War the majority of people around the world view what is happening as a genocide why because it is a genocide even according to the United Nations International court of justice on January 26 2024 Israel was deemed as committing a genocide against the Palestinian people over 30,000 Palestinian Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over 70,000 have been injured over one 1.7 million have been displaced from their homes from the lands of their ancestors their schools hospitals neighborhoods have been demolished around 2.3 million Palestinians cannot access food water or medicine today around 250 Palestinians die at the hands of Israel every day 250 people killed every single day and even when I read these numbers to you I need to tell you and justify and try to explain that they're not just numbers that they are not simply statistics that measure suffering death rape starvation they are people they have dreams they have stories they have families they have their own lives they have their own histories they have a heart just like you and me they are also human through and through so why do we let this continue this genocide must end this suffering must stop we need a ceasefire a permanent ceasefire we need to stop funding this genocide of the Palestinian people and I am not the only one who demands the ceasefire and the divestment in Israel many people in this room call for a ceasefire many of your constituents call for a ceasefire Millions around the world call for a ceasefire so we plead you we plead that all of you sitting before us today call for a ceasefire it's very simple we demand that you divest from this genocide we demand that you do not remain complicit we demand that you listen to us we demand that you do your jobs and do the right thing cease fire now thank you for your [Music] time our next speaker signed up this evening is Harry fav all right if you force a population into an enclosed area where you control the food the water the electricity the fuel the medicine literally everything that goes in or out if you put a high-tech fence around it with facial recognition and automated guns if you routinely murder the people inside to further your goal of an ethnos state that is what Israel wants an ethnos State what separates you from the Nazis to put to scale Israel's crimes against children in perspective because I heard a lot of people talk about children today in the final years of the war when Germany was really ramping up their extermination campaign the Nazis killed 127 children per day in a schwitz the Israeli occupation forces are now killing 139 children per day I scrap the rest of my speech because it really doesn't matter I am so so disgusted in everything mayor Reynolds a fellow Greyhound I graduated from maravian you had Professor farbod you called him out yet two weeks ago you took politics of the Middle East and you took a Marxist theory class for the record so he knows what Marxism is he knows what class Consciousness is he's aware of us imperialism and yet you didn't didn't even call for a ceas you didn't even say the word ceasefire two weeks ago that's disgusting that is truly disgusting be a little revolutionary that's what we learned at Moravian it's clear you didn't it's clear you didn't so now I'm gonna quote farbod since our mayor here loves farbod and he agrees with everything he says going a quote from his latest Journal that he published I'm gonna read the ending the deafening den of Zionist propaganda in the US has drowned two essential truisms about the question of Palestine one the Palestinians are not fighting Israel because they Jews they are fighting against their dispossession occupation and eraser for The Liberation from oppression domination colonialization and imperialism the source of the problem two the source of the problem isn't the Palestinian resistance in whatever form but the US imperialist domination of the region in Alliance with the racist Zionist colon colonial colonizing state of Israel and a Cod of reactionary Arab states the historical contextualism Iz ation would undermine the dominant dehumanization Zionist narrative and open Pathways for crucial solidarity towards a free Democratic equal and inclusive Palestine from The River To The Sea now I'm going to read from Palestine Israel us uh Israel and the US Empire by Richard Becker uh we were talking about um ethnic cleansings and massacres so and deras on the outskirts of Jerusalem was a quiet Village in which there was no apparent resistance activity there was even reported cooperation with the Jewish agency the Jewish agency had transformed itself in May 1948 into the new Israeli government and on April 9th of 1948 the Aron which was their uh paramilitary Force which was terroristic which I believe I mentioned two weeks ago that uh a former prime minister was a part of and he self-proclaimed was a terrorist so anyways uh the iron nearly wiped out the entire population of der Yasin the iron soldiers arrived in the village and announced that the residents had 15 minutes to leave then the attack began the Zionist soldiers blew up homes with their inhabitants still inside fired at will and at close range and committed other atrocities when it was over more than 200 laid dead many of them women and children uh many of the women in the village were raped before being killed another quote from this uh from this book I'd like to read is we were talking about this on uh there we go in 20 6 Israel launched a war on Lebanon and a ceasefire was reached a ceasefire was reached uh which was vigorously sought by Washington on August 12 2006 the Israeli military scattered more than a million cluster bomblets across Southern Lebanon this calculated Act of terrorism continues to take the lives and limbs of Lebanese children and adults today but even that could not alter the outcome Hezbollah and its allies pop or Allied popular resistance forces had unmistakably punched a whole in Israel's much vaed iron wall another thing I would like to read how much time I got 39 seconds Israel can and uh that and in talking about a two-state solution uh this is a chauvinist view of the struggle because it puts what's best for Israelis above winning self-determination for the Palestinians bowing even one inch to Zionism cannot lead to a just solution to the occupation of Palestine and one more thing I would like to quote um see I would like to quote Eric Fram he's a Jewish poet or a Jewish writer he said if all nations would suddenly claim territory in which their forefathers had lived 2,000 years ago this world would be a mad house she fire thank you everyone I like to continue on our our next speaker is har schlier honorable members of city council The Honorable mayor Reynolds I lived in Bethlehem for over 30 years loved Bethlehem had three children who graduated from Liberty and although I moved out of Bethlehem I'm whenever I go anywhere I still say I'm from Bethlehem is it's a great place and thank you for all you do and you have a lot to do so I'm going to be brief I had a whole big speech written but I don't want to be redundant what is happening to the innocent civilians in Gaza is undeniably tragic and heartbreaking there's no no denying that every night before I go to sleep I say prayers and I pray to God to please bring peace there to the region please bring peace and the suffering to all who are suffering I I pray that the hostages be released I pray that all Innocents that all struggles everywhere that we live that we live in a peaceful world I'm not totally against the ceasefire I understand why people want to cease fire and I think there's some good reasons however when I used to work I had to tell people you have different you have different options that you can choose and there's advantages and disadvantages to both there are advantages to a ceasefire however and I'm not opposed to one and I I firmly firmly believe in a two-state solution I also want to say that for the people who are pro ceas ceasefire I heard a lot of beautiful things said I also feel we we all have our own narratives we all read what we want to read we believe what we want to believe and having said that I feel that there is I respectfully disagree with the description of Hamas as not a terrorist organization they are a lethal extremist Islamic group much the same if not the same as Isis was and we fought to eliminate Isis as the Taliban is afghanis as in Afghanistan where they subjugate their citizens to brutality if you want to read about there there was resistance underground resistance in h in Gaza there still is there's there's a website out there called Whispers in Gaza people it's much like Russia too you can't you can't protest you can't protest in Iran you could not protest against Kamas without risking your life without risking the lives of your children so having said all that that although I see the reason for a ceasefire the reason the option where I say I would disagree with a ceasefire is that on October 6th of 2023 there was a ceasefire okay that that was a ceasefire from 2021 there was a ceasefire then okay then from before that the reason they had a ceasefire in 2021 was because Hamas launched more than five 4,000 Rockets into Israel and Israel did not do a ground assault at that time then there was a ceased fire the reason they had a ceas fire in 2021 was because in 2019 there was a ceasefire where Hamas broke nine different trues so I think we need to look at history and what's in my opinion I I pray for the Palestinians I I pray to end for their suffering I pray for the the the daughters and sons of Abraham can live in peaceful so coexistence and respect one another live in security I pray for that with all of my soul however I firmly believe that as long as Hamas is allowed to retain control of Gaza they're gonna if there's a ceasefire it maybe two years 3 years 5 years or 10 years doesn't matter it's going to happen they're going to be rebuilding their fortresses Iran will be rearming them with missiles and Rockets there are going to be a lot more accurate and and I this is my opinion only my opinion I haven't read it but this is what I think with Iran enriching the uranium that they're enriching in three years five years 10 years the missiles that Iran is going to supply to Hamas God forbid they be tactical Nuclear tipped weapons imagine the death and destruction to the innocent Palestinians to the innocent Israelis if Hamas this terrorist lethal organization is provided with nuclear tipped weapons and they shoot thousands and thousands of nuclear tipped missiles into Israel the death and destruction will be unfathomable I pray for the peace I pray that the Sons and Daughters of Abraham can live in peaceful coexistence thank you very much thank you our next speaker signed up this evening is Ruthie schfer and as Miss Scher comes to the lecturn I'll just remind everyone as we all sit shoulder toosh shoulder packed into this room pretty much at at our capacity to be mindful of those who sits whether it's your left your right in front of you or behind you as I'm trying to attentively listen to all the speakers I do hear whisperings of shushing and such and conversations going on in the hallway so from everyone present anyone who came out tonight to speak spoke to be heard and listened to or all trying to listen to them thank you m leer thank you for the time to speak tonight um excuse my nervousness I don't do public speaking um I do not believe that a I do not believe that a resolution calling for any foreign policy position is appropriate at the city council level I believe that it would be inappropriate to bring a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Kamas Israel war to this Bethlehem city council please call your congressmen and Senators instead we should never lose sight of the victims the true victims of October 7th the 1200 killed that day in their immediate families those kidnapped into Gaza and their immediate families and all the civilians in Gaza Israel was left vulnerable on October 7th any sense of security was lost as any Sovereign Nation would do Israel has the right to defend itself one can argue with the policies of the Israeli government many of us have done so in the past and continue to do so to this day and will continue however asking for a ceasefire resolution is a distortion of the Relentless complexity regarding Israel's history when anti-zionists call for resolutions for a ceasefire in this war I have to ask if their morals and ethics had them calling for a resolution condemning for example China for its ethnic cleansing in genocide against the urar or its history and treatment of Tibet and Buddhists the city of Bethlehem is home for many people's religions and and cultures just look at what Bethlehem Steel was so many immigrants found work and home in her Shadow we have been a reflection of the Melting Pot that America is we should never never make statements or take actions that wound member of our community that make them feel less than a part of the fabric of our strengths I urge you to take no action regarding a ceasefire resolution instead continue to build and strengthen our community thank you for the time to [Applause] speak our next speaker signed up is Hannah Hannah [Music] s no no good evening my name is Hannah um I was here two weeks ago um two weeks ago I had something prepared and then once I came up here I said forget it I'm not G to read off it I'm just going to speak from what I can um I'm going to try to follow a little more with what I have prepared but I also have some side notes um so anyways I am a current resident of the Le County I am here not only to amplify the voice of the Palestinian people but demand a resolution for a ceasefire as you recall the previous meeting was concluded in the agreement that a resolution will be drafted and presented to the public presumably by this meeting however it has come to all of our attention that a draft was not submitted by the deadline of February 28th therefore it tells us that the commitment to voting for a sea fire was merely wordss despite this we are here today to press our points even further as none of us are going to give up on the demand for point of action the past two weeks have been filled with moral violence and bloodshed beyond belief and I also want to make a point in saying that we have been contacting our congressmen we have been contacting our Representatives however it is usually nothing more than radio silence so that's why we're bringing it to the local government who has the potential to bring more power to this so like I said and just want to kind of reiterate we have been contacting the proper people anyways uh from from civilians getting killed for simply trying to obtain flour and children facing brutal amputations there is zero time to waste on trying to make a change the past five month months have not spared a single second of Humanity on Palestine if the humanitarian aspects of the situation do not concern you the people then the reluctancy to dissolve Aid to Israel should our taxpayer money is being toyed with across the board and our words are falling upon deaf ears last meeting was a prime example of this many speakers last meeting showed you some of the most vulnerable parts of them deep stories generational trauma and yet here we are to tell us that you're going to do one thing but pretend it doesn't exist within the next week is shameful today alone 133 133 Palestinians were killed and 22 were injured in Gaza the numbers are continuously rising in the death tolls pushing close to 35,000 maybe close to 40,000 was still a plethora of people uncounted for reading I am not here to only demand a ceasefire I'm here to speak for the ones who cannot and to show my utter disappointment in growing distrust in our local dis governments and then I also like to um say here this isn't on here either um just kind of just some points um from what I was listening I to say that Israel is not occupying Palestine is a statement that comes from nothing but arrogance um especially when there are illegal settl settlements being made in the West Bank especially when north of Gaza has almost nothing left the land is completely stripped and they are planning on putting whatever there I had seen maybe roughly around a couple months ago plans to put beach houses and things like that all on what was once civilian land tell me where the justification is and killing babies civilians children I did not realize that children innocent children were the sudden leaders of Hamas I did not realize that these children had any need to pass I did not realize that teenagers well as I mentioned before children or even in a civilians had anything to do with this there is absolutely no justification for it and is not self-defense with that being said I would also like to bring the voice of uh as we mentioned before a US Airman um if a US Airman lighting himself on fire is still somehow not enough then I'm not entirely sure what is while you all remain comfortable in your homes and in your silence I hope you remember the last words of Aaron Bushnell as he burned free Palestine free Palestine free Palestine to our hero and the martyred may they all rest in peace and may you please consider an a an action like uh many have mentioned before we have you on video this is what we're asking this is what we need there is no more time to be Wast so please think wisely thank you our next speaker signed up this evening is Valerie Nan hello I haven't prepared quite as much as some of my fellow citizens so bear with me um I'm going to start by reading an from an article in the morning call today um so activists appeared at Allentown and Bethlehem City Council meetings two weeks ago and spoke in favor of ceasefire resolutions in public comment periods that stretched over several hours in Bethlehem council member Brian Callahan spontaneously proposed a resolution calling for a ceasefire but members rejected it in a 51 vote and said they hoped to further discuss and vote on a resolution at their next meeting but members did not follow through on introducing a ceasefire resolution Callahan said that he worked with fellow council member Hillary quatch on a draft resolution but they could not agree on the exact language Callahan said he ended up deciding not to draft and introduce a resolution at all Tuesday as news of a possible ceasefire agreement between Israel and tamas developed I think they can be assured that their goal was reached they wanted local pressure to be put on their congressmen and women and their senators and the president and the vice president so their goal was reached Callahan said um I don't understand how you could think that frankly um that is that is not our goal our goal it is not our complete goal it's not enough is what it is we can't just table a resolution because there are people talking about maybe having a ceasefire temporarily for 6 weeks that's not what we're asking for and frankly it hasn't even happened yet even if it were so I don't see why we should just table the idea of drafting a resolution at all like we need to see it through and the people here at the council last week they were very supportive they asked us to email them language we did we did the draft that was read aloud was sent to the council members it so you guys had plenty of time to do this to come to an agreement and you didn't I can't even really speak to of the people here coming to oppose the ceasefire resolution I think it's ridiculous um but I didn't expect anything better but seriously when you listen to those claims that are being made have a little media literacy leoco the representative from leoco earlier was kind enough to read out some facts for us and preemptively debunked several claims that have been made multiple times by people in opposition to ceasefire today um frankly I don't have the time the energy or the will to debunk every ridiculous claim I've heard here but I came here today so so angry and also so sad over 30,000 lives lost most of them civilians so many of them children if entire families if you hear lists of the Dead read out 4050 people from the same family it's horrible that's why it's we're calling it genocide and then there's Aaron Bushnell I think people may dismiss him as mentally ill and perhaps he was people may not want to call him a martyr they don't want to encourage people to do the things that he did and I understand that but this man was suffering and he clearly named multiple times as hard as he could the reason he was suffering and it was out of empathy for the people of Palestine it was because he was received orders to deploy to Israel that's why he did it so free Palestine cease fire now keep your promises our next speaker this evening is Nicole googly googly at me apologies if I'm mispronouncing that is Nicole googly aty here we're going to con I heard someone say she's coming I just want to announce one more time is Nicole googly me here can you go to the next person please our next speaker Gabby holfeld Gabby holfeld here in the hallway and just a reminder after we exhaust the list we'll do as we do typically go around the room in case anyone comes back who I skip right now next person I believe Caroline gabbles I may be misreading that and or mispronouncing it our next speaker ivy kapler my name's actually Irving Kaplan apologies that's all right you should see my handwriting I'm 77 years old I was born in Bethlehem and lived half my life here uh now I live in the suburbs I got remarried when I grew up I remember bethl there of the anti-Semitism the Prejudice and how betham evolved over the years and became a good place to live sometimes when you think about what's happening in Israel and you think about what's happening in Gaza and you say you want peace and I want peace but one of the major factors besides the murder of 1,00 people which precipitated is the taking of the hostages how would you feel if it was your brother your sister your mother your father your son or your daughter who's been held captive you would want them back and you would want them back safely one of the great deterrence to having peace is the hostages if Hamas who I know the other side feels they're not a terrorist organiz ation I do feel they are a terrorist organization if they gave up all the hostages it takes one big pawn more than a Pawn off the table and would make possibly peace more likely you can't have a resolution that condemns one side when there are things on both sides that make peace harder to come by so I I commend you by taking a more neutral position and we all wish for peace but we wish we want the hostages returned safely we want families re reunited and I do feel for what's happening in Gaza it's not easy to see anyone die but Hamas wants to keep the hostages and force Israel to continue the war take away that the ability to have peace and you might have a chance and that's all I have to say and I thank you for giving me a few [Applause] minutes our next speaker tonight Tommy paresi my name is Tommy pesi I'm a student I'm a resident Bethlehem uh I'm here to advocate for a ceasefire today I also want to first uh just extend my solidarity with those who spoke uh for housing affordability and tenants right tonight um Council last meeting the the most plain way to say it is that you you indicated your support for a ceasefire resolution and you fell through on that um so I want to give everyone some context I have quotes from the minutes posted online from from two weeks ago councilman Callahan quote I'll be writing and promise and proposing at next council meeting a resolution calling for immediate ceasefire in Gaza I will try to get that on our agenda unquote Cal Hann also brought up a motion uh impromptu to call for a ceasefire Council voted that down five to one claiming that they needed time to produce more precise language uh since then we've given you language we've suggested it and it seems like you haven't taken our input um before before voting no against that motion councilwoman kmy Smith said quote I think we all pretty much said we do the resolution in our comments unquote president cologne saide I will not be supporting this motion and I look forward to what we come up with for our next agenda Council woman wilham also agreed that the council should take his time to draft resolution she said quote it's been indicated tonight that we will pursue this conversation and I look forward to doing that with my colleagues councilwoman L quote I look forward to seeing what our Council can put together and Council quch quote we are committed to this I want this to be a really strong resolution as well as quote I have no concerns about us watering down the resolution as someone suggested might happen so we're here tonight and unfortunately it seems like it's been watered down so much that it doesn't even exist right H how is this not on the agenda tonight you you you told us that it would be on the agenda it is hypocrisy we've sent you our language over the over the past two weeks we've again presented you with language tonight I don't see why you can't come out and support a ceasefire tonight uh president cologne you've talked about there's procedures in place you can't just present a motion now I don't see how this is different from uh two weeks ago and when councilman Callahan brought up a motion and you said that the reason you were against it was uh to be to be more precise with your language so tonight someone do that again read the entire draft resolution we gave you or if you say you still can't do that talk to the reporters right here after the meeting tell them you will support a resolution be very explicit you do that in your comments after uh after we have our public comment go on your social medias post your support for a ceasefire a permanent ceasefire uh put that on your campaign websites right this goes for you too uh May Reynolds you can do these things uh it's it's that the main reason we're here is not for to hear your excuses we're here for a a permanent ceasefire a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire so that's what really needs to be done um and I'd like to reiterate uh the points brought up earlier uh the study from professionals Johns Hopkins just a few weeks ago uh projecting that without a permanent ceasefire that 65,000 more people will die that's inexcusable and we need to be using every tool at our exposal as a community to stop the genocide that's happening right now seiz fire now in free Palestine our next speaker signed up this evening is going to be yes sir right what he said is I'm not a lawyer sir that's not this this is so you can put a res sir that's the point sir I'm not this I've already explained or can't and I don't recognize your point of order sir I I I do not recognize your point of order I'm gonna continue on with our meeting I understand the point you're making but I've already explicitly stated our our Council rules let by all means our next speaker signed up this evening is John [Applause] Irons good evening um I want to start by saying that we are living in extraordinary and dire times uh the number unhoused in our community is skyrocketing uh the number of people living in cost burdened situations is untenable poverty and mental illness Spike as housing dwindles in our communities uh so I Echo the concerns that we need affordable housing and protections for tenants um uh in in the city and as well as in Lehigh Valley more broadly we need uncommon and heroic Solutions right now to that end that's uh here's why I believe that a middle ground appeal to World Peace is an inadequate response to this moment but the desire for peace is not enough there are many governments in the world including the United States that profit off of and actively maintain a state of War an open letter is the same thing that many of us have been writing and sending to Biden and our other Representatives since October it hasn't worked furthermore we're not here because of a conflict or a war we're here to stop a genocide to take every legal public and formal action to stop a genocide we don't stop a genocide by wishing for peace we don't stop a genocide by standing or we stop we stop a genocide by standing in solidarity to dismantle the military occupational forces that carry out genocide I'm under No Illusion that the city council here or Lehi County or Susan wild can do that alone but we can all play our parts and act in solidarity with the movement for Liberation AAR tide was ended in South Africa because of global economic and political solidarity we all remember that in the same way now we in this room are part of a movement to build solidarity to end the occupation of Gaza and are demanding you as our elected officials to take uh to take official action a resolution may not carry International weight but it clarifies to businesses to political parties and to Residents that we will not enable genocide in any way I will go even further and call for a divestment in police training that's designed by the IDF and to ensure that public contracts do not fun funnel public money to Israeli companies anything less than that a the flow of ideas economic support and political support for genocide this is not a time for moderation moderation risks normalization whether you not whether or not you pass a resolution tonight may seem like a trivial thing there's always another meeting there's always a better time there's always better language but the longer we wait the more normal the crisis becomes in 2012 20 plus uh children were murdered in Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut legislators did nothing and now we normalize run hiide fight drills for our kindergarten classrooms but we read plenty of letters wishing for gun restrictions in 2020 police brutality murdered George Floyd on camera or police brutally murdered George Floyd George Floyd on camera and legislators have taken little to no action and now we normalize upwards of 12200 murders by police each year but we read plenty of letters that hope for Hope for reform in the 1970s scientists warmed of an impending climate collapse and Decades of inaction have normalized mega blizzards polar vortices Super Storms and orange Skies around Bethlehem but we've read many letters wishing for an end to fossil fuels we are teetering on the precipice of normalizing genocide today we've allowed it to go on and to escalate for almost half a year catastrophic times do not call for business as usual they certainly don't call for more letters catastrophic times call for heroic Measures and heroism is uncomfortable it's risky it means making rules work for change it means making the rules uh it means uh rather than being impediments to change so yes this is an unusual moment for city council it requires an interpretation unusual interpretation of the rules but each and every day we are watching a crisis unfold that that requires us to take risks be uncomfortable and make the rules work for change you can suspend the rules of council and recognize and take up this resolution tonight that is within your power do it do it right now this is a moment that all of us are going to look back on in 20 30 or even 50 years for some of us about what role we played in it standing here as an elected official myself I'm getting the same emails the same political pressures the same comments this is not my first long public meeting and I think there are many more ahead of us until we act so I'm here uh assured of my role in this movement confident in my position and unafraid to name and oppose genocide calling for a ceasefire at every level of government so I urge you to suspend the rules make a motion to debate this um resolution and hold a vote so that you can look back on this time and know that what you did was necessary to be a spokesperson for Humanity thank [Applause] you our next speaker signed up I believe reads Muhammad Kaku is this a different speaker than the person who spoke earlier okay not a problem our next speaker signed up is Matt wolf understood our next speaker simply signed up as gazal gazul sorry oh no problem all right so good evening my name is gazelle um zip code is oh pardon me zip code is 18104 I was born and raised in the valley um and in my personal professional development if you will I've learned to kind of deescalate most situations most situations are not life or death and so if it's not life or death you can chill out relax figure out how to deal with it as adults um so how urgent is this call for a ceas fire is it life or death and if so can we quantify this urgency last time we were here it was February 20th that day 103 Palestinians were killed 142 were injured we were there late and I'm sure a lot of you had to get back to work the next day after having a long night the next day was February 21st 118 Palestinians were murdered by the illegal occupation and 163 injured that day the illegal occupation also bombed Lebanon in Syria where I'm from and in Syria three people died in Damascus and a woman was killed in Lebanon the day after was February 22nd 97 humans were killed in LDA and 132 injured an air strike on a vehicle in the West Bank which nobody has mentioned in opposition of a ceasefire was bombed and person was killed and 15 were injured with no ceasefire in place the next day after that was February 23rd 104 humans were killed 160 injured 24 of those were in a home in their home in D Bella two 10y old boys in the West Bank were detained for 6 hours February 24th 92 Palestinians murdered 121 injured seven of the deaths were on an air strike in makeshift housing in Raa the safety zone keeping in mind how much pain and suffering every one human loss can c can cause if you can call on your own personal experience to help your capacity to empathize February 25th 86 Palestinians killed 142 injured now take a pause and think about when I say injured what that means that means that person's disabled for the rest of their life an arm a leg or both amputated right um without life-saving measures by the way because those are banned from entering the Gaza Strip medicine in life- Saving eight February 26th Aaron Bushnell self amates in front of the Israeli Embassy more pal Ians killed and injured February 27th 96 Palestinians killed 172 injured and since the hostage swap in November um Omar Al was recaptured making him the ninth hostage that was released by Israel recaptured which breaches their agreement February 28th 76 Palestinians killed 110 injured six children in GDA die of starvation four of those were in Northern GDA where 300,000 plus Palestinians have not received Aid in over a month intentional starvation by the way of a civilian population and Israeli air strikes on Southern Lebanon which killed two civilians February 29th the flower Massacre illegal occupation forces opened fire on hundreds of civilians 110 were murdered over 700 injuries and four children die of starvation remember what I mentioned about people being disabled those injuries for every one of those men because it was mostly men there at the flower massacure murder Ed think about 10 family members that are disabled waiting for them to return with eight that are now going to die from starvation March 1st 193 Palestinians murdered 920 injured and seven Israeli hostages were murdered by Israeli air strikes March 2nd 92 Palestinians killed 156 injured 11 of these humans were targeted in air strikes intense in Raa right and 13-year-old khid Zade was shot and killed in ramalan in the West Bank which once again nobody's mentioned the West Bank and the amount of lives and hostages we've lost from the West Bank on March 3rd 90 Palestinians murdered 117 injured that day another five children di from starvation and dehydration um and two massacres committed against Palestinians awaiting Aid they also destroyed the truck that had the aid in it another four Palestinian teenagers were taken hostage by the illegal occupation forces from the West Bank um and this puts the Palestinian hostages at 7,355 people um Mar 4th 133 killed 220 injured and uh in neus the in the West Bank an 11-year-old Amar Nar and two others were killed and in arala 16-year-old Mustafa abuel was killed and 55 Palestinians were abducted I'm going to skip to the end because I don't have much time left point being every day that we spend the numbers are appalling this is a life for death situation I respect etiquette I respect rules I respect niceties but not when there are lives at risk thank you our next speaker this evening is Amir hello council members um I hope everyone's doing well today the first thing I saw when I opened up my Instagram was I of Palestine posting that the Aluna society which is a nonprofit organization that supports persons with disabilities was bombed and destroyed just sit here and imagine that what is the purpose of targeting an institution that helps disabled children a little bit about myself is I'm a college student at the sales trying to figure out my professional goals while also working on my degree I am devastated by the fact that universities and primary schools have been specifically targeted and completely destroyed I am heartbroken that 12,300 Palestinian students have been murdered by the illegal occupation I feel a deep connection with these Martyrs who don't get to continue their education like me I can only imagine the talent and intellect potential that the world has lost with all their Incredible Minds dreams and aspirations at this point in my life I get to have unlimited opportunities to pursue in my young age it pains me to imagine so many young students with their Vigor excitement for life have opportunities dreams hopes stolen away from them in the most Savage inhuman ways not only have these young Souls lost their ability to grow and contri contribute to society with their bright minds and talent but to think about all the tiny hopes and dreams they lost also hurt to think of how many of these young girls and boys dreamed and loved all I can think of are my friends and family there are also so many things that make us us we all have different tastes different Hobbies we even dream dream of different trips we want to make someday we have different senses senses of humor and have unique personalities my family and friends just like these Palestinian students who are more than numbers what kills me is I know these young adults and children in Palestine were no different than my friends family or even me they each had tiny little quirks tiny little inside jokes crushes romances dreams of what they wanted their wedding to look like and dreams of being parents one day I know we always talk about about the large numbers of lies that have been killed this is heartbreaking but today I don't want to focus on the numbers I just want you to think of them as individuals not two humans are alike I want you to recognize they are not just numbers each and every one of them was a beautiful unique soul I hope we will one day reach a time where justice prevails and we'll be able to honor and speak of them individually and tell their stories I would just like to say I hope you can have a ceasefire soon thank you thank you to the other am Mira you'll be up in about a handful of speakers I didn't realize we had two people sign up under the same name so apologies for the mixup our next speaker signed up is Rabbi Alan Judah okay well I'll go back around once we get through thank you our next speaker signed up Ben feler hi I'm Ben feler I've been a resident of Bethlehem since 2008 thank you to the city council for hearing me uh let me start by saying that the views I am expressing here are purely my own personal views and do not represent any organization I may be a part of I'm speaking in response to the push for the city council to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza I listened to some of the public comment at last city council meeting and today and found some of of it extremely biased and upsetting firstly I want to say that I do not think it is a place for an urban municipality like Bethlehem to make pronouncements about foreign policy over which we have no control and why single out this particular crisis why not also condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the killing of over 19,000 civilians in the yemenese Civil War over 300,000 civilians in the Syrian Civil War and the purposeful destruction of the yuger Islamic Culture by the Chinese it would seem to send a very biased and unwelcoming message to many of the Jewish community in Bethlehem that the city has taken sides in this very complex Conflict by trying to frame it in unrealistically simple terms in fact the city council has never passed a resolution on any issue of Foreign Affairs before so this would be setting a bad precedent furthermore we really don't have the accurate intelligence would allow for an informed decision we are relying on civilian casualties from the Hamas Health Ministry whose sole purpose is to Vil ify Israel and a substantial number of those killed are not civilians but Hamas terrorists over 40% if we accept both the Hamas and IDF estimates that is still way too many innocent Palestinian civilians killed even one is too many but the claims that Israel's targeting women and children are obviously not true I want to say it upfront that I do support an independent Palestinian State living side by side with a secure state of Israel this two-state solution many of us dream of has never been possible as long as Hamas controlled the Gaza Strip which they have done unoccupied since 2007 it is clearly stated in hamas's Covenant that there is no place for Israel or a two-state solution in their vision and that their goal is the elimination of all Jews with anti-semitic language reminiscent of the Nazis I also acknowledge that the current Israeli leadership does not make a two-state solution possible but there is hope that with the electoral process in Israel that can change any condemnation of the innocent killing of innocent Palestinians in Gaza must also be accompanied by a statement acknowledging the barbarity of the Hamas attacks on October 7th and the need to return all the hostages as well as the bodies of any hostages who may have been killed it should also acknowledge the fact that Hamas purposely embeds itself within the civilian population and use Aid money over the years to build tunnels and Rockets rather than infrastructure to support their civilian population and any statement in support of a Palestinian state must also be accompanied by a statement in support of Israel's right to exist without Terror on their borders and any talk of Israel committing genocide is simply not true as they do not Target civilians and I find it deeply I find it deeply offensive it would be better for the city to just not issue any statements at all since we do not have any direct influence on foreign policy I've never done so before and any statement just risk alienating parts of our community thank you for your time next speaker this evening is Rabbi Stephen Nathan thank you my name is Rabbi Stephen Nathan and I am the director of Jewish student life and Associate chaplain at Lehi University however I do not speak here tonight on behalf of the University I stand here today speaking simply as myself as a Jew and as a progressive Zionist that means I believe in the right for Israel to exist as a nation for the Jewish people but it does not mean that I support the current government and many of its actions so I should also say I do not speak for the entire Jewish Community it also means that there must be a home a state for the Palestinian people as well both people deserve a Homeland and both deserve to live in peace how that will happen and what shape it will take depends on the decision of their leaders who must follow the will of the people a resolution in Bethlehem Pennsylvania plays no role in this Judaism Christianity and Islam all follow the teaching in the Book of Genesis that every person is created in the image of God furthermore the rabbis of the talmud also believed that the Book of Genesis teaches that all of humanity descends from a single mother and father in order to remind us that no person and no people can PL can claim superiority to another we are all family the murder of over 1200 Israelis at the hands of Hamas terrorists destroyed over 1200 Unique Individuals all created in the image of God individuals who were simply going about their lives at home or celebrating at a music festival their murders dimin Minish God's image here on Earth in addition The Taking of over 200 hostages more than 130 of whom are still hopefully alive in Gaza diminishes the divine presence as well Israelis and Palestinians May disagree with one another even vehemently as do those of us in this room tonight but we must remember that we are all created in God's image we are all connected we are all part of the same family Palestinians and Israelis must try to listen to one another's narrative even when they contradict their own if there is ever going to be a path to peace as my friend naen said we must all be able to he listen to one another's suffering I don't believe that the current governments of Israel or the Palestinian people will ever find a way to peacefully coexist I'm not sure if they even want to and Hamas certainly will never work towards peace and coexistence but I do believe that there are those on both sides who truly want to live in peace following the Hamas terrorist attack which killed the most Jews in one day since the Holocaust Israel did have a right to defend itself but the tens of thousands of innocent citizens of Gaza that have died in the war that has followed is also diminishing the image of God here on Earth I mourn for them just as I mourn for the slaughtered Israelis and I don't believe those deaths were necessary this war must end there must be must be a lasting and true bilateral ceasefire and it must include the release of all Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza and the return of bodies of any who may have been killed this is the only viable ceasefire we could stay here for days and debate or argue over what has happened and who is to blame but it would not do any good this won't bring back the innocent victims in Israel or in Gaza nor will it release the hostages Bethlehem city council has no power and is no way involved in or connected to the war between Israel and Hamas they are not involved in international conflicts as has already been said they have never been nor should they be you are involved in running and improving improving the city of Bethlehem for all of its citizens regardless of race religion count country of origin sexual orientation and gender identity and the list goes on because the city council is not involved in foreign affairs and as I said you have never passed a resolution regarding any International conflict to pass a resolution concerning Israel having never pass one before sends a chilling message to much of the Jewish community of the area I do not believe that all Israeli statements are anti-semitic however to single Israel out from all of the Nations involved in conflicts right now will have an impact on the Bethlehem Jewish Community many of whom have connections to Israel as I stated at the start and also we must remember all the important Interfaith work that has happened in Bethlehem Area and we want to continue that that as I stated at the start I am a Zionist who Longs for the days when israels and Palestinians can live together as a free people in peace and Harmony so regardless of your personal feelings concerning the war or your feelings concern of about the governing bodies of those involved I implore you not to pass any um resolution today but for us all to do what we can to work with our government to bring peace thank you our next speaker signed up is Sarah sadik good evening everyone I hope you all are doing well my name is Sara Zab sadic and to be completely honest I've never been into public speaking so apology for any lack of formalities nonetheless I find it necessary for all walks of life to be here present and unequivocally sharing their support for the Palestinian plight and the absolute ceasefire resolution I was born to two Kashmir parents who much like the vast Palestinian community in the Lehi Valley immigrated here to Bethlehem Pennsylvania in the early 2000s to flee violence seek Asylum and of course give us a better life and they did they gave me everything I asked for and sent me to one of the best charter schools in the area I only graduated recently so I remember it quite clearly I had this one teacher who dedicated an entire unit of poetry and emphasized the significance of looking at the pauses and full stops in a sentence because the structure of a sentence along with its unspoken nuances often reveals more profound truths than explicit statements and in times like this I alongside millions of others are left to observe the deafening Silence of our governing bodies of of our elected representatives and those puring to serve our interests how dare we weigh economic ramifications against the heroing play endured by those in Gaza how dare we take 150 days to go back and forth whilst the proud people of Gaza are forced to audition for our sympathy how dare we sit here in Bethlehem only considering a ceasefire with conditions that has killed over 30,000 people when there are children who are undergoing amputations without anesthetics I have no new facts to give you nor will I tell you of the lives lost I won't name names or the ages or the memories of these lives however I will say amongst the most upsetting crimes Israel has committed in the is the death of possibilities we mourn the death of knowledge the death of award-winning discoveries the death of lineage and the theft of Life the occupation flouts the very essence of humanity distorting our moral compass and perpetuating a grotesque normalization of suffering it perpetuates a chilling narrative where the boundary between life and death blurs and love is liberated from the confines of morality each passing day Bears witness to the resilience of our Collective Consciousness aadi the call for freedom is the struggle against this manufactured impossibility When the Children of Gazza fall the children of Kashmir fall alongside them and if they die today we remember them tomorrow and for a lifetime after so to the noble people of The Proud Gaza our children will cry for your children our youth will will cry for your youth our wom will cry for your women and our men will cry for your men I reiterate the words of Imam Ali who said in an indivisual is one of two things a brother in faith or an equal in humanity so today I plead with your hearts and quite literally beg you to vote Yes for a ceasefire resolution the people of Bethlehem must denounce the ongoing genocide and I plead with your insania and I plead with your Humanity we don't want a Ramadan special six week ceasefire but rather a permanent ceasefire that must be followed our only sense of hope is that when tomorrow does come and when Palestine is eventually liberated every single individual will have to sit and finally acknowledge the rment of their silence your silence was complicit and it was betrayal May the hands raised against these fire revolutions tremble on that day May the voices that supported Israel falter and may your silence be a haunting demon may you feel shame when Palestine is eventually liberated and maybe not today or tomorrow but when when it is finally liberated May your children and grandchildren question your silence Kashmir and Palestine though miles apart are spirits are deeply intertwined with each other two lands thousands of miles apart yet together they understand if you crack open their hearts you'll find the same dream etched in pen from the lavender of gulmar to the olive trees of Gaza we'll return to the very beginning of our story and erase the crayon etched borders of our occupiers so from the children of Palestine to the children of kashm may we return to our homeland with the sweet sounds of Liberation behind us I'll end with this please raise your hand if you oppose the killing of the innocent children women and men of Gazza enough upet enough upet I implore you to vote Yes for the ceasefire resolution free Palestine from The River To The Sea Palestine will be free thank you for your time our next speaker signed up this evening everyone moving forward our next speaker signed up this evening Mary Joe m mayy Joe mcol 449 Grand View Boulevard after checking tonight's agenda I do not see any resolution regarding a ceasefire I email topics to the council and mayor and hope they can consider them if drafting a a resolution in the future I want to play Devil's Advocate tonight let me preface that with this I do not like or support War I do support a Sovereign Nation and its right to defend itself let me briefly State my concerns along with others I expressed in my email do those asking a city the city of Bethlehem support a ceasefire in Gaza also support a two-state solution if not they are no better than Israel as they too are promoting genocide please be honest with yourselves innocent babies people burned raped and others had their unborn child cut out of their wombs on October 7th 2023 a 9-month-old infant was kidnapped and held as a hostage when a ceasefire and a hostage exchange arranged Hamas gave this baby to another terrorist group not involved with the negotiations and spent its first birthday in captivity anra a United Nations Refugee group relief group was directly involved in the attack and Massacre they also teach Palestinian children to hate all Jewish people many were e were either not born or much too young to remember the happenings on 911 I was not born when Pearl Harbor happened but I learned my from my father two of his brothers and a sister all who proudly served their country during World War II I wonder if they would have supported our country's response to those two events or rather have had the United States just throw up their hands and do nothing to respond they want the city to vote immediately on a resolution for a ceasefire but Express their lack of respect for this country by not standing for the pledge of allegiance to our flag I truly wonder where their Alliance and priorities lie all refugees deserve safety I wonder why no other Arabic countries offer to take in any refugees the Rafa gate opens into Egypt not Israel Israeli Prime Ministers Manakin Bean Perez and Rabin and War Sadat of Egypt and gaser aret of the PLO all received Nobel Peace prizes Israel has its faults but I believe has demonstrated its desire for peace in closing I want to leave everyone with these thoughts [Music] there is an appointed time for everything and a time for every Affair under the heavens a time to be born and a time to die a time to plant and a time to uproot the plant A Time to Kill and a time to heal time to tear down and a time to build a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them a time to embrace and a time to be far from Embraces a time to seek and a time to lose a time to keep and a time to Cast Away a time to Rend and a time to seow a time to be silent and a time to speak a time to love and a time of hate to Hate a time of war and a time of Peace Ecclesiastes chapter 3 veres 1-8 and then I'm quot another quote because everyone is created by God Almighty the maker of all humans the maker of all humans must treat one another with full honor and respect and loving kindness and that is from the Quran 17 verse 70 and I leave you with assalam assalam alayum Shalom and peace be with you thank you our next speaker signed up this evening V duun good evening thank you for allowing me to speak my name is V duken I am the Socialist Workers Party candidate for senate Pennsylvania I'm a rail worker and I wanted to say something about what is going on today and what my campaign will be talking about which is the fight against Jew hatred um and why my campaign and party calls and opposition to the calls for a ceasefire if anything a ceasefire today would allow Hamas to regroup and carry out its murderous program that it was carrying out on October 7th bear in mind this was not a terrorist attack but a program as is the Hallmark of all programs carried out against the Jewish people which was the brutal rape murder torture um of Jews over 1,00 including others and The Taking of hostages the rise of Jew hatred today is a deadly threat a life and death question for all working people um and this is what we will talk about what has transpired there was a ceasefire on October 6th October 7th changed the world forever the two Wars that are taking place today the Ukrainian people fighting for their independence and the fight for the Jewish people for their survival Israel as a state a refuge for the Jewish people has to exist it came about as a result of the Holocaust and the refusal of the imperialist countries at the time today the United States and France in particular to accept Jewish refugees there was no other place it exists as a state and has for the last 76 years Hamas uses the Palestinian people they want Martyrs you don't have to believe me read what the leadership of Hamas says about its people they don't care about Palestinians that's the job of the United Nations why did it take five months for there to be any semblance of acceptance of the fact of the massive use of sexual VI vience why because the victims were Jewish women the hypocrisy that people talk about the facts are clear as day and has to be denounced and spoken about for what it is a program the rise of Jew hatred as capitalism as part of its system will be used and a deadly threat against working people as a rail worker the recent derailment that is Tak taking place not far from here is another example of the conditions that working people are fighting to change this is what we have been involved in to build strong labor and Union movements to oppose the conditions that is the result of more derailments I rais that it is combined with the question of the fight against Jew hatred as being a union question it is a question for the unions to oppose any act that is carried out against somebody who is a businessman because he's simply Jewish has to be opposed those who speak about and trying to oppose people for what they say intimidating physically and using violence has to be opposed this is a decisive question to fight for space space to act and that's what you're seeing the war to diminish hamas's ability to carry out further attacks which they said they will do again and again again and again again we call for the release of the hostages we defend Israel's right to exist as a refuge for Jews today and the fight against Jew hatred in the interests of all working people around the world thank [Applause] you our next speaker signed up is amyra hello for several weeks now you as an elected body have been silent from this de you were not elected to be silent in the face of the pain of your constituents continuing to prolong Drafting and planning is to harvest reasons not to do things to justify the bloodthirsty status quo to justify your apathy unless you introduce and pass a permanent ceasefire resolution your cowardice will be your only Legacy I've been to a number of City Council meetings in the Lehigh Valley now and I keep hearing the same reservations about passing a permanent ceasefire resolution I've heard the critics of a resolution say this is not a local issue and distracts from domestic issues but we can't go meet with Joe Biden we can't get two minutes in front of Congress we can come to our local city council that's what democracy is about and the refusal to see Palestine as the local and intersectional issue it is is actually grounds for people to start judging your intelligence I'm pretty sure Bethlehem could use some of the 135 million in PA resident taxes sent annually to the IDF I've heard that the complexities of the Israel Palestine conflict require expertise that local authorities lack but you do not need to be gnome Chomsky to recognize the immorality of killing over 30,000 innocent civilians this genocide has been live streamed in high definition and Technic color we know more than enough we know things we've never wanted to know like what the inside of skulls look like and how bodies burn and limbs come off how much pain a single person can bear and still exist in this world in fact I dread to think what we have't scen Skeptics also question the impact a city council resolution would have on such a complex and distant conflict but more than 70 cities across the country have passed a permanent ceasefire resolution calling for a ceasefire they know Israel is not going to look to Acron Ohio to learn what US foreign policy is going to be but I do think that these local resolutions have an impact within the Democratic party and that they do signal the extent of discontent and the sources of discontent around US foreign policy set by the Biden Administration this permanent ceasefire resolution would add to this Collective pressure enough Pebbles can make a mountain some said a resolution is divisive but a failure to call for peace is divisive to us your Arab constituents who will conclude that you believe the suffering of Arabs is not worthy of your concern that the worth of innocent Palestinian lives is inferior to others divisiveness already existed whether acknowledged or not openly discussing the issue is essential for fostering understanding and ultimately Unity finally those council members in power those that currently deem the blood of tens of thousands of children an insufficient currency for p purchasing peace have all said they want the same thing they do want peace but how can you want peace and be against a permanent ceasefire thank you our next speaker this evening is Logan Michael hello good to go my name is Logan Michael Shire I am a resident of palmeran Pennsylvania and I drove down here tonight about an hour drive to speak in support of a ceasefire resolution as mentioned by others you may be asking why someone from palan drove all the way down here to speak on a ceasefire resolution in the city of Bethlehem I've have done so as well in Allentown in Easton and the reason I didn't do it last time in Bethlehem was because uh I wasn't planning on ever speaking but I was inspired by someone here uh I don't know if he's right there um and so I wanted to um give my piece and the reason I don't speak in palmeran is because the last time there was a social justice protests in my town um in in my case it was uh black lives matter protesters it was black families who came to our town to protest police brutality what they were met with and what I saw and what I witnessed when I was 14 years old was people waving Confederate flags people aiming weapons at people people being uh people being pushed and shoved people being called slurs people being being spit on they were driven out of our city and so it is not a safe place anymore but I promise you we will not be driven out of Bethlehem we will not be driven out of e and we will not be driven out of Allentown and we will keep showing up I want to speak partially on why this is a local issue as some people seem to not be able to understand the taxes of the people of the Lehigh Valley including Bethlehem in the sum of millions of dollars are being sent every year to a government that the icj has ruled is partially uh been found to be guilty of genocide this is uh quite frankly to me this is this is horrifying that our tax dollars the people who work in here every day are being sent to a government that has been found an international Court to be guilty of committing genocide and while I understand that this is not the city's budget what I do think is that the city sending a message in supporting a ceasefire resolution and supporting divesting would be able to send a message to our state and federal officials that you do not support our tax money being misappropriated you said that you sent a letter to state and federal officials that you condemn um or that you support rather um what you outlined in the I don't remember the entire speech but what you outlined I do not see why you cannot um I cannot see why you cannot pass a ceasefire resolution for the same reason another reason why I think this is a local issue is because of the demographics that reside within the city many palestin Ians Arabs Muslims and Jews who live in this city have come here and they have demanded that you pass a ceasefire resolution we came here a couple weeks ago and I'd say a couple dozen and we promised you that if you did not act that we would come with more people and we did today we gathered two to 300 people I would say and we marched one mile in the cold and Rain to come here and we had a vigil outside and then we came here so there's hundreds of us we told you we'd show up because you didn't act we said that if you didn't act we would show up and we did you guys promised us last council meeting that you would have a ceasefire resolution introduced and now I I when I came when I was thinking about speaking here this morning I was thinking that this was going to be a more positive environment than Allentown and Easter War because they were ra rather belligerent in my opinion um but now I'm disappointed to come here that to see that you guys are just as shameful as the other two City councils are and that you guys do not act just like the other two City councils have failed to do so you guys made a promise it's all on recording you have to act now because we are asking you to do so and now that I've spoken on the points of it being local I as a a student of international relations and history I just want to uh speak on some things that were mentioned because I still have a minute left um there were people that came up here and said that made broad generalizations about the the people in our movement that we don't condemn terrorism that we don't this and that I would like to say as speaking for myself that I do condemn terrorism I condemn what happened on October 7th The Taking of hostages the killing of innocent people I also condemn the um unjustified response by Israel to the sum of 20 times The Killing that Hamas committed on October 7th whatever Hamas did on October 7th is horrible since then Israel has committed acts much worse if Hamas raped women Israel did too and this has been proven In Articles when Hamas killed killed 1,00 people in Israel Israel killed 30,000 when Hamas kidnapped 13 or 200 people it's now 134 Israel has every day or every year rather uh sent 500 to 700 Palestinian children to prisons Israel is the only country on Earth that charges children in Criminal Courts and because I only have three seconds left I just want to say pass the ceas fire introduce and pass the ceas fire resolution thank you our next speaker signed up this evening everyone moving on our next speaker signed up is Lauren Robin [Music] Robin did I hear she left understood next up is Marina adamsky is Marina adamsky still here I'm G to move on is Beth Kushner here and we're a close to the end of our list so then I'll go back around the room but so Beth Kushner understood Eric Zager you heard many speakers citing statistics and numbers regarding the number of deaths in Gaza these numbers are not credible and I urge you to take that into consideration any reports on the number of casualties in Gaza cannot be trusted as they are reported by the Gaza Health Ministry run by Hamas there have been discoveries of Al jaer journalists for example who are Hamas members journalists reporting for the Associated Press participated in the October 7th attacks many news stations are biased on trustworthy sources which report information faster than can be realistically confirmed lying about the claims and then later printing a retraction doesn't undo the damage of slandering Israel the Hamas figures of total deaths do not purport to distinguish combatants from what they consider civilians they never give the ages of the children they claim have been killed although they regard anyone under the age of 19 as a child regardless of whether or not they're active combatants Hamas has recruited Fighters as young as 13 the H the Hamas members also do not count Goins who were killed by aant rockets launched by terrorists or Goins who were killed by Hamas for refusing its orders not to move to safer locations while any human death is disturbing we never heard protests when Hamas was voted into power during which time anybody that opposed them was brutally murdered people protesting to free Palestine from The River To The Sea are denying Israel's right to exist Palestine was never a country there is no current day Palestine Hamas and Hezbollah have both threatened more October 7th until all the Jews are killed and there's no more Israel if from The River To The Sea Palestine will be free means something else then a two State solution would have been accepted by the Arabs a long time ago imagine if Jews no longer had their homeland of Israel anti-Semitism is rocketing right now around the world even in America Jews do not feel safe violent mobs are physically and verbally attacking Jews everywhere what if it got so bad that we had to flee America like Jews had to do many times before throughout history where would we go if we didn't have that little sliver of land the size of New Jersey thank goodness we have that land now imagine if Israel had existed during the time of Nazi Germany imagine if Jews could have fled there maybe 6 million Jews would not have been exterminated after the war in 1948 about 850,000 Jews were displaced from Arab countries to Israel more than 50% of Israel's Jewish population is comprised of Jews from Morocco Algeria Iraq Iran Egypt Syria Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Ethiopia and other countries not white colonizers they didn't come to Israel they fled to Israel escaping persecution and pams leaving behind communities that stood for centuries they abandoned their homes schools synagogues businesses and possessions they arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the promise of a land called Israel and they were determined to keep that promise alive regardless of race Creed color or sex sexual orientation why wouldn't the world want us to have our one little sliver of land because those who are against Israel's existence are anti-semitic it is very simple if you vote in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza you are denying Israel the ability to defend herself and her land which means you don't care about the safety of the Jewish people many speakers tonight claim Israel as a colonizer this term implies that Israel stole land which is false as Jews have lived in Israel for over 3,000 years Jews are indigenous to the land Jews lived in the area almost 2,000 years before Islam was even created even after the Romans exiled the Jews there were still Jews living in the land of Israel in 1880 when Jews began to flee Eastern Europe because they were not safe anymore and couldn't practice their religion they returned to their Homeland fighting between Arabs and Jews took place continuously in 1922 a proposal was made to divide the British Mandate of Palestine which included all of present day Jordan and Israel Arabs were to get 78% including all of Jordan today the Jewish people would get the remaining 22% which is Israel World War II delayed all of this and by the time it was Revisited Britain had already given the 78% land to the hashimite kingdom as a thank you which became Jordan as we know it 70% of those who live there today are Palestinian Jordan was and is the Palestinian State why hasn't the world ever protested against Britain for giving away the Palestinian country after 2,000 years of Exile the world voted to return the land to the Jewish people Israel did not steal it Israel has desired peace ever since than our next speaker signed up is Naomi fosa I'll again ask everyone to exercise respect towards all of our speakers as we're down to our last handful of people who had previously signed up before I open it up to the room and as we're now at 10:30 tonight I appreciate everyone thank you hello my name is Naomi and I I'm a resident in Bethlehem I love the city of Bethlehem and the community that I found here and my appreciation for this city increased after I attended last city council meeting and heard several of you promise to draft and pass a ceasefire resolution in accordance with the desires of the vast majority of Bethlehem residents we are all deeply affected troubled and ashamed of our complicity in the genocide and settle settler Colonial violence unfolding in Palestine I was deeply disappointed to learn that this resolution was not submitted in time for this meeting as promised in between last council meeting and today the people of Gaza have been subjected to starvation by the state of Israel as an occupying Nation Israel holds control of gaza's food water and electricity they also control all entryways into Gaza and have been blocking Aid sent from other nations from entering it the situation has been especially dire in the north of Gaza where very little Aid that enters to the South reaches on February 29th of last month Aid organizations began to airdrop necessary resources into the north of Gaza Parcels carrying flour fell from the sky and many already weakened and injured Palestinians rushed to retrieve them in response to this the state of Israel opened fire and brutally murdered at least 118 and injured 760 civilians who are desperately trying to obtain food for their families those Parc Parcels were then soaked with the blood of these Martyrs and were unable to be used by their families who again were not just hungry but were being starved down to the skin and bone with very few hours of life left this massacre and many others happened in between last city council meeting and today I want this to highlight how urgent it is for us to call for a ceasefire as soon as possible I also want to mention that many of the protesters and activists in this room have spoken up about other world crisises and armed conflicts the reason we are so vocal about this one is our responsibility as American citizens many American citizens don't believe that we are responsible for what is happening in Gaza however the United States has been sending billions of dollars in military aid to Israel has stood alone and vetoed every attempt of the United Nations to call for a ceasefire and has manufactured the very ammunition and bombs that have claimed over 30,000 Palestinian lives um which might I add is probably a wildly underestimated number as Palestinians means of counting their dead um are being destroyed every day I want to make it very clear to you the city council and to everyone in this room that as an American citizen until we do every single thing that is within our power to bring about a free Palestine we ourselves are responsible it is our elected officials our taxpayer dollars and our sense of arrogance and apathy that is allowing this genocide to unfold city council I urge you to vote into effect resolution number 2024 which is I believe the number of the ceasefire resolution presented to you leave a memory of Peace Justice equity and Humanity because in a few years those who oppose the ceas far Gaza will be remembered as one of the ugliest blats in the history of humankind thank you our next speaker signed up this evening Caitlyn Hart councel I Was preparing to give birth at Anderson Campus when I read about women who were undergoing C-sections without anesthesia my toddler was curled on my chest while I saw bodies her size under Rubble on my screen and suddenly she appeared impossibly small I was holding my newborn While others placed white sheets over theirs born malnourished with Mother's doubly so all the desperation in the world cannot fill an empty stomach after all I chastise myself that this is a morbid thought but then I think how lucky I am that my worst Affliction is only the thought while 80% of the world's population experiencing famine conditions is in the Gaza Strip only 25 miles long and we are offering aircrafts the nation blocking their food at the border yes our officials have recently waxed poetic about the need to end the violence but those Concepts have yet to be realized in policy it is almost hack season again again and we are told that we do not have money to pay for health care for our sick or housing for our homeless or teachers for our school children but we reached deep past the lint in our country's pockets and pulled out ammunition sced under the couch cushion for missiles and found an extra $14 billion do of military aid for a nation waging a war where two-thirds of the casualties have been women and children this money does not come from thin air a portion of my paycheck goes to pay for the bullet lodged in civilian bodies may be 65 armed conflicts in the world but not all of those are funded by the people of the US and of the Lehi Valley of course we condemn any and all actions of Hamas that has resulted in the harm of Innocence but we do not send weapons to Hamas the US is responsible for 80% of Israel's weapon Imports even while the UN states that civilians are the primary victims of increased violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories Hamas is not being punished but all of Palestine is Palestinians have no safe Zone Zone anywhere in Gaza with Israel having imposed a Complete Siege warnings of incoming attacks do nothing to help a people with nowhere to flee to as the death tole in Gaza mounts entire cities are leveled and rendered uninhabitable for years and whole family lines are wiped out the US government has an enormous influence as Israel's primary Patron and weapon supplier if you would like Israel to defend its state without our input then let it also do so without our missiles our administ ation can only get away with aiding and atrocity because it believes it has enough backing from its states our states are unmoved so long as they believe their cities are content but we are those cities and we are not content city council I appreciate your letter but in addition I would call on you to pass an official ceasefire resolution as The Stance of Bethlehem City in addition I urge you to commit to auditing the city budget and divesting from Israel for as long as they choose to continue the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians if there is a barrier to do this to do this due to the anti-bds ACT 163 signed by Tom Wolf in 2016 I would call on you to turn your attention to advocating that that be overturned so that our City May regain its right to choose where our city money goes and to ensure it is not contributing to further oppression overseas a few months ago Israeli officials insisted that they would not be callous enough to B bomb a hospital now the World Health Organization shows that there are no fully functioning hospitals left in Gaza every individual has a responsibility to do whatever is within their power to Advocate on behalf of those facing indiscriminate extermination you Council have an extra responsibility to look at this conflict through the lens of your position and Advocate as strongly as you can in any way that you are able women in Gaza have told UNICEF workers that they pray for peace but that if peace does not come they pray for a quick death in their sleep with their children in their arms ceasefire now thank you our next speaker signed up this evening everyone we're going to continue on our next speaker signed up this evening Robin gal not here did I hear understood next person signed up Allan Jennings is Allan still here Allan's not here next person signed up Billy Miner Billy Miner here good evening esteemed council members honorable mayor I will make this quick let's be honest you've all been yelled at enough tonight night it's getting late we're all tired I do not come here tonight to dissuade you from calling for a ceasefire or to disrespect you bully you or really do anything else we all want peace everyone in this room wants peace we are all horrified but what's happening in Gaza we all want a ceasefire instead I came here tonight to ask you to think about the over 100 hostages in Gaza and include them in any future declarations as you did tonight in your opening statement demand peace but first demand the hostages be released you have heard and I apologize you will hear tonight many more people calling for ceasefire did you notice how many actually asks for the hostages to be released I heard maybe one from the so-called Pro Palestinian side please be respectful of the speakers as we've all like I said I'm not here to disrespect the council continue speaking please so I'm here to ask for that because if you ask for a ceasefire and forget the men women and yes as the other uh ladies just said the children being held by Kamas being raped daily by Kamas you will be turning your back on us I am asking you nay I implore you tonight to care about all victims call for Hamas to release the hostages and that will lead to a ceasefire thank you for your opening letter which did that and this is what the Palestinian peace activists in Israel the West Bank East Jerusalem and Gaza are asking for they're asking for peace and hostages to be released thank you for your time thank you I will say that does exhaust our list of everyone who had signed up in advance I know there were a couple people that may have been missed so I'm going to go around the room as is customary anyone who wanted to speak whether you were missed unintentionally or out of the room uh anyone could speak moving forward so I'll start to the left I believe uh so I'll just work my way from left to right I'll start in the back and work my way down I see Mr Kera I'm Mary catola betham resident a13 laery Street uh been here all my life all 75 years on June 22nd Lord Wills I'll be here for 76 years uh I commend everybody that spoke tonight and um uh definitely we need to free the hostages and Stu make a seize fire being one of the speakers and host for wakeup rise of live for peace that's linked it's a 24-hour plus podcast that's once a year we this last year we had 38 hours goes out all over the world it's an International Peace concert with bands playing music playing all peace and peace activists everybody that spoke here tonight if your peace activist it's not going to be 24 hours it'll be 48 hours but that'd be great you know really we need to we need to be able to understand how our United States started if we want to help anyone help them over there we need to show them how we did it here with the United States of America all the states had differences of opinion but they United Israel's like state of New Jersey you got other different why don't they have the United States of the Middle East and all learn to get together because Wars are never won through violence and bombs they only cause only the battles are won and the battles build more Flames for more battles which make the wars ever ending and the Chimes of Freedom you will never hear we've got to get together and get world peace and unity help them over there to love care respect each other all live together that's the only way we're going to have peace peace is acquired through compassion understanding knowledge not violence we got to cease to fire yeah but we also have to spread the knowledge to be able to live and be together because we're all creations of God and like I firmly believe in even though I'm a Christian I believe in the Dal Lama when he said every creature created by God has a right to live we got to all live together God bless you all thank you Mr parola again to the left starting in the third row back and then we'll starting here everyone please with comments hi uh my name is Lauren Gilmore I'm a resident here in Bethlehem I'm also a PhD student at Leigh an instructor of first year writing there um I don't have a new comment to add I was hoping to use this time to ask a question of the council president about the procedures of the council um um so last meeting two weeks ago we were here when council member Callahan proposed a motion on the floor about passing a ceasefire resolution that motion was seconded and went to a discussion where many of the city council members here voed that they wanted to have time to talk it over and so they ended up voting no um I am confused about how that process is different than the one that we proposed today where we gave uh resolution that we hoped to see motioned and discussed on the floor um whether that's a violation of the rules versus what happened two weeks ago so I'll just say this is your time to address Council and when we get to council business I'll try to make a point to clarify that thank you sir I I do not I do not acknowledge your point of order I do not acknowledge your point of order we are going to everyone again I do not acknowledge your point of order sir I'm going to allow the speaker to continue her time should they wish to yeah so um my hope is just that that gets clarified for those of us that were here two weeks ago um and then also that the council discuss the possibility of voting to suspend that rule if council members would choose to motion on this resolution thank you thank you thank was there anyone else to the here hi um I'm taller than she is um so I'm also a Bethlehem resident um and I wanted to point out a lot of talk has been made tonight about the hostages and that's very valid we also all agree that the hostages should be released on all sides and I wanted to point to a specific part in the resolution that we proposed where we talk about the hostages so um says urging leaders to um it's part of like Let It Be um let it further be resolved and we list three things and the third thing is urging leaders to prioritize the safety and well-being of all hostages and detainees recognizing their right to freedom and immediate unconditional release um so I just wanted to point out that like although you may not think we're on the same side in a lot of ways we really are okay thank you thank you um Mr Mayor members of the council my name is Rabbi Alan Israel Judah I've lived in the Bethlehem City and in the Bethlehem Area for about 50 years at this point uh that being said I've been retired for 10 years so I speak for myself and not on behalf of the community personally I think I'm going to say things that will upset everyone in the room firstly I want to say that I'm a proponent of a two-state solution I wish we already had and will have a free and independent Palestinian state where the Palestinians will rule over themselves and will lead their people to Prosperity I'm not a big fan of the current government in Israel I haven't been a fan of some previous governments in Israel I haven't been a fan of some governments of the United States and I think if we were all honest I would have to say that I'm not a fan of some of the people who have led the Palestinian people don't take my word for anything you can look it all up online if you go back and look at the 1947 UN resolution and look at the maps that they drew up you'll see a much smaller Israel than we have today and a Palestinian State much like what the pal Palestinians want today that plan was rejected by the Palestinians and their supporters I feel like that was a tragic mistake that's cost thousands of people their lives up to and including today and very likely tomorrow and the next day I mourn for the loss of all the Palestinian lives and particularly the children it's a tragedy of colossal proportions it likely lead leads to more future hatred because while we must remember history on all sides it's likely that this history will not only be a reminder of the past but kind of a control of the future but having said that I also believe in a free and independent Jewish state that secure and safe we have lived in that part of the world as someone mentioned were probably close to three Millennia and despite that fact people talk about us as colonized like we showed up just after the end of World War II we have suffered for generations and I say that not to excuse anything but simply to point out when we say we're vulnerable as Jews it comes from history for two Millennia we were basically accused of killing Jesus in Jerusalem showing one thing for sure there were Jews in Jerusalem in the time of Jesus if you go to the Internet and look up the Arch of Titus you'll see that in 81 in Rome they build a monument to the emperor Titus who along with his father destroyed Jerusalem and exiled the Jews from Jerusalem it's memorialized on the arch it shows the Jews being taken into Exile along with manora from the temple we were slaughtered along with many Muslims by the Crusaders it's not just all about Robin Hood they destroyed communities in France and Germany on their way to kill the infidels in Jerusalem in the Middle Ages we were accused of poisoning the wells and that's what caused the black plague because they didn't know about rats in vermin we were slaughtered by the inquisitors along with Muslims because we wouldn't convert to Catholicism and of course the ultimate event in Europe the Holocaust and while we probably failed to teach adequately in religious schools it's hard to forget that one million children were killed Among The Six Million so we're afraid and we don't know what the world wants from us we have one country there are something along the lines of 49 Muslim countries we continue to fear for our lives because anti-Semitism is real and growing and when it's in our schools in the Lehi Valley and on our college campuses in the Lehigh Valley then this isn't just about land so it's an overall tragedy I pray for the day when we and our Muslim cousins and our Palestinian cousins can live in peace and mutual Prosperity thank you was there anyone else to the left I'll start in the middle row here and then work my way down to the front hi my name is Ariel um I'm a Lafayette College student and I'm a proud anti-zionist Jew I don't see these two identities in Conflict I see anti- Zionism as a core part of my Jewish identity our grandparents can remember when over six million Jewish people were rounded up put in concentration camps and exterminated during the Holocaust for as long as I can remember I and other Jewish children have been passed down stories about the atrocities committed against our people and taught the principle of never again it has been drilled into us that we must never allow another genocide to happen again it's mindboggling to me the amount of cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy that Zionist Jewish people have had to leap through in order to go from those teachings that we all grew up with to supporting the state of Israel what happened on October 7th was horrific and please believe me when I say that no one in this room thinks that killing people is good and if you can look the palestin Palestine supporters in this room in the eyes and think that they want Jews dead just because we're Jewish you're not granting them any humanity and honestly you're just racist it's important to understand that this aggression did not begin on October 7th this attack was not unprompted Palestinians have been being massacred every single year every single month every single week since Israel invaded Palestine in 1948 zionists argue that just because we have endured we as in Jewish people have endured this endless persecution at every turn we deserve a Jewish homeland to call our own and that this is the only way to truly ensure our safety and that sounds great it really does all people should have the right to self-determination and safety however it is incredibly simple-minded to act as if this exists in a vacuum unfortunately we all live in the real world and while Jews absolutely deserve safety that can never mean that anyone else's right to safety should come at the expense of that when Jewish people were immigrating to Palestine throughout the late 1800s through the 1900s and following the Holocaust nobody had a problem with them living peacefully alongside the Palestinian Muslims and Christians it was the moment in which Jewish zionists decided that due to our ancestral connections to the land we have the sole right to this land that it became a problem it was the moment in which over 750,000 Palestinians were violently expelled from their homes during the 19 1948 nakba when it became a problem it was the moment in which they began teaching Us in Hebrew school that Palestine was a land without a people for people without a land that this became a problem one of the zionists who spoke earlier said that Israel has never started a war with Palestine please tell me how did the state of Israel come to be this is not a religious issue this is a settler or Colonial issue this is an illegal occupation it is once again incredibly arrogant to decide that just because Jews technically inhabited the lands first because Judaism predates both Christianity and Islam that that means that no one else is indigenous to the land well it is true that some Jews are indigenous to Palestine this concept of Jewish indigen quickly loses all meaning when it allows Yakov from Long Island to fly in and displace an indigenous Palestinian family that has been living on the land for Generations like I said you cannot just call for Jewish self-determination in a vacuum there are real world ramifications it is always the case and very clear to see that in any Nation where any one people have systemic power over any other group of people based on ethnicity that that's wrong and that this system will inherently impress those not in power zionists love to claim that criticism of Israel and Zionism is only leveled against them because they're Jewish and this is an example of anti-Semitism however I'm quite confident that every single person here supporting Palestine stands against the existence of ethnos states in all forms it's important to understand that anti-zionism is not anti-em ISM zionists love to call me and other anti-zionist Jewish people self-hating Jews what I say to them is what do you call it when we assume that one group of people all think the same way just because of their identity for example all black people do this all gay people think this Etc conflating all Jews as representatives of Israel and supporters of Zionism is in fact the true anti-Semitism here do not let anyone tell you that criticizing Israel is anti-Semitic we know that this is not a religious issue but a political one because the very founders of Zionism constantly wrote and spoke about Zionism as a colonial project Theodore herel wrote that this was his goal was to Spirit the penniless population of the Palestinians across the borders and be rid of them Zev jabotinsky directly said zist colonization must be carried out in defiance of the will of the native population lastly mosha Dian an Israeli General is quoted as having said before the Palestinians very eyes we are possessing the land and Villages where they and their ancestors have lived we are the generation of colonizers no amount of misinformation spreading by the zionists can hide the truth of this colonial project please follow through on the Promises you made last week to propose a a ceasefire resolution and your promis is to not let it get watered down we need a ceasefire now we needed one yesterday and we needed one two weeks [Applause] ago is there anyone else in the middle row before I come down to the front row who would to make comment I'll start with Mr analex I believe your hand was up and then I'll work my way across the road I'm not going to uh use my prepared comments because of the large turnout and although by profession on a research uh scientist I'm going to give a history lesson tonight stepen antolic 737 Ridge people have spoken this evening lovingly about Bethlehem and also the south side but there's a history of Bethlehem which is probably unknown and should be known and probably I won't make any points by revealing history and what I'm going to say I can can be confirmed because I've researched it very carefully the city of Bethlehem way back when the the community was known as Bethlehem for the first time was founded on religious discrimination the way discrimination has been baned by speakers tonight and is that accurate go to the monument on rose garden and it says Bethlehem you can only own property if you belong to the church so that's the height of religious discrimination if eventually the area south of that development had quite a few residents and that area then became South Bethlehem and there existed burrow Bethlehem and burrow South Bethlehem and they were the Southside didn't exist but the residents of of the burough of South bethle were very unique they were primarily immigrants from Central Europe and were looked down upon very harshly by the residents of the burough of Bethlehem and they developed a tremendous animosity and that tradition of the Bur bethleem carried over so that over 100 years ago there appeared in the only newspaper in Bethlehem which was from the bur of Bethlehem and said Bethlehem is so nice that although we have an immigration problem we allow the scum of Central Europe to come live with us and that scum were all the original immigrants from from Central Europe and South the burrow of South bethan became known as the burrow of smoke stacks and Steeples and it prospered tremendously it had steel works it had a university had a hospital had railroads and North the burough of Bethlehem was strug Ling economically because it was essentially residential based upon the early precepts so they tried to over 100 years ago form a union with the bur of South Bethlehem but the people in South Bethlehem knew what was going on and they said no way because you were calling us shanty town and the great on washed and this discrimination continued on and the burrow then became known as the Southside and the City of Bethleham was founded in 1917 because of pressure from Charles Schwab who saw the advantage for bethle steel to have the two Burrows as a city but all that happened then after that favored the bur the north side I'm running out of time but um they published quite a few of my articles in the paper so if you're interested in what happened to Soundside check it out online thank you Mr analex I'll hi um my name is Meg I'm a uh student at Lehigh University um two weeks ago I originally came here to celebrate the win that we've had that our local government was listening to its constituents and um creating a pece a ceasefire resolution yet that did not happen so I had to something else I want to start with a quote from a former Israeli religious Affairs official Abner Cohan Hamas to my greatest regret is Israel's creation this was backed by another former we can call him a whistleblower Israeli official SE vitag I hope I'm pronouncing that right the creation of H the funding of Hamas was made to counteract a secular PLO and dehumanize Palestinians PLO is the Palestinian liberation of um organization and it is a secular it is a secular party for in Palestine of course the state that is killing Palestinians and its own people conflates Palestinians to Hamas to conflate the secular state of Palestine to Islam proves that Israel knows nothing but the S settler ethnostate ideology treating Palestinians as other even though they are descendants of Canaanites is a direct admission to the legitimacy of Palestine whether Muslim Jewish Etc and proof that the Declaration of Faith does not determine lineage for people who claim to closely follow Israel Palestine politics it takes a great level of cognitive dissonance to ignore these facts I want to add to diminish the power of our local government and to hide the debts and of Palestinians behind thoughts and prayers is absolutely despicable councilman colen you said that we we cannot pass the resolution tonight because we we have to follow rules and we can't pass these resolutions on site but we've lied to but you've lied to your own constituents I'm beginning to believe that this Council doesn't support its citizens and it hides under meaningless bureaucracy I am disappointed with Bethlehem while we beautifully decorated our streets to on Christmas for the city that we proudly named ourselves after the people of Bethlehem Palestine hid in fear of death and situations worse than immediate death death I'm also extremely disappointed with the eye rolls and laughs when my friends who've talked before me have spoken about deaths in of Palestinians you've shown how much you care about humanity and that overshadows everything that you claim to stand for I had a lot to say to celebrate we our name comes from our mother City again Bethlehem Palestine we are named after a city of one of the most dangerous places in the world and at this moment we are all complicit until we do that name Justice I and all my friends here are here for the safety of people regardless of their nationality those against ceasefire are here for a genocidal government at the expense of their supposed own people our advocacy is against a genocidal government and everything everything else is against a group that was funded by the very same government and inflated to all of Palestinians council members I hope you make a wise decision thank you thank you can you hear me okay hello my name is daha a Lehi student I am here to raise my concerns about the us financially supporting Israel to commit war crimes against Palestine who don't have anything at all would you have emphasized repeatedly many times to you yet you seem to fatal listen to do something about it I also want to talk about testifying on affordable housing and now finding to make homes affordable about and Palestine both have something in common to have a safe place one can call home as someone who lived in trailer park for most of my upbringing and witnessed my parents struggle to make ends meet and miss out on my school trips and parent teacher conferences all to afford the American dream here the cost of living here is outrageously stupid and to find out at the age of stupidly outrageous and to find out at the age of nine that my town could have helped me and my family to allow my mom dad to at least one attend one teacher conference of me one school trip by all by simply expanding affordable housing here and preserving architecture and Community here but instead of doing all of that my local councilman used my parents and other locals money to get rid of to get Land Oil and machines that are stripping children away from their homes rather than spending our money to fix affordable housing to preserve that culture and maintain that architecture around here you decided to create your own housing crisis but instead of making homes less affordable you're destroying them you're killing homes of generations of History childhood homes a home do you see how these things come in Full Circle how our course of actions can literally determine someone's life right now are you going to sit here and let another parent or child die because of your incompetency to do your your job right in my political science class we learned how contracts are based on distrust you made us a promise last week a promise that was based on trust and you broke it if you want to earn your consti s back and their trust and have your seat in office you must pass a resolution for immediate and permanent ceasefire now you canem divest from Israel and start putting your money to Southside and affordable housing and your people here overall And in regards in my political science class I want to emphasize the stats and facts here about Palestine Israel in the meetings and give you a quick lesson about politics first if you do a quick Google search you would find that Israel and their leadership has rejected two-state Solutions also two-state Solutions we have gone through the American education system here and I've learned how two-state Solutions only lead to Devastation the East and West Germany partition 198 1947 India Korea Vietnam and more are just a few examples of those very failures moreover someone said here that we should not be wasting your time and I'm here to say that they're wrong as political science major myself we are learning that change starts locally and if want want to make effective real change it starts here in City Council meetings our federal government does not represent us unfortunately but our city councils do or at least they should there are reports emphasizing local governments to being the Forefront of human human rights globally hence it's up to us to send a message to federal government to divest Israel and other conflicts and actually invest in us like loans that we can all have and you can relieve us from debt but instead burden people with bombs and on top of Alla I want to make something very clear with you guys and it may be offensive to you all but I would consider a great P privilege and comp and compliment you guys are old youve grown up seeing children if you have any grow up you got wrinkles and gray hairs and you so privileged to have those things or you use hair dye to cover those gray hairs wherever you do for all of that the point is you have that privilege you got to grow up the Palestine people do not have that privilege to grow but even get to the age of 18 Lo on the age of five you have stories to share wisdom to share with lessons from our generation is this the story you want to share is the lesson to be complicit ignorant towards people dying and letting hundreds and hundreds every day cease fire and now and free Palestine is there anyone else to the left who hadn't had chance to speak yet tonight who wish to I turn to the wide Center again I'll start from the third row and work my way back in the back left I see you Mr sh sorry I'll be quick I promise uh my name is Sarah Stevens I'm a college student I you'll have to bear with me I was not planning on speaking I'm not GNA take much of your time but I kind of want to go off what my classmate just said I'm also a poai major at Lehi um I really like Lehi I like it here I thought of moving to Bethlehem I am 19 it's going to be my first presidential election super excited except I'm not excited because I'm stuck between these two candidates that don't represent me and I'm looking at a city council that's supposed to represent me and I'm hoping that you guys will because I am a constituent and I want to address something that was said two weeks ago um it was kind of brought up by some of the members and also other uh it's I mean it's an idea that's kind of Often touted by the old older generation that the younger generation doesn't care that we don't show up and there was a lot of well- wishes that we would continue to show up and that we'd stay for City Council meetings and for that uh I agree I appreciate like it's exciting to see people here but it's also important to note that um you guys have jobs people have jobs we are college students we have stuff going on I've been in and out of this room I have two exams tomorrow I'm trying to list into everything I'm trying to study and college students care we care just because we don't show up every other mon uh Tuesday for a city council meeting doesn't mean that we're not voting doesn't mean that we're not um spreading awareness in our own way so the fact that there's so many students here the fact that there's so many people here and that we're here and it's 11:15 p.m. I know you guys are tired we are also tired we are also thinking oh how are we going to get our sleep tonight how are we going to be able to do all of the things that we need to do tomorrow so understand that while you're sitting there and you're tired and I respect that and I understand that we are also tired and so the fact that we're still still here and the fact that we all showed up is just proving how much we care and as our city council you need to represent us I mean it's a simple as that like I I can't say it in poetic terms like so many of the wonderful speakers have that's just the way that it is and so I just kind of want to put my support there and also just to emphasize that we do care we are listening even though we don't show our faces here every single week um our pressure is still there and come voting if that's what you care about then we will be there or in other situations in rallies and speeches and whatnot and that's all I have to say thank you was there anyone else in the very back row who wanted to make comment who hadn't had a chance to yet I'll move to the middle row is there anyone in the middle row who want to make comment yes sir sorry Bill Jim fer I do find it interesting how it appeared for the first time it had me laughing hysterically two weeks ago that some members of city council actually said they liked and are proud of the students neighbors and community members and glad to hear from you tonight that was a quote I read out of the paper I almost fell out of my chair laughing when for the majority of my time in this institution you ignore the citizens of Bethlehem who come to this Podium discussing things like the Walnut Street Garage the white box historical standards the budget it's like some members of council don't even look or pay attention to your own citizens who bring up issues but now it's so interesting how you listen and pay attention and are so proud of what the people are saying when even right now 2third I kept count through tonight so far 2third of those people that spoke at this Podium are not from Bethlehem and they're demanding that you do a resolution but seriously let's always work toward peace we all agree on that war is a terrible thing especially for the Innocents in all sides and this situation on both sides of that border there were terrible things that happened on both sides nobody's arguing those points and certainly some people's perceptions and Views are obviously Twisted from wherever they come from I commend all the young people primarily with appears to be the bulk of college students from the area for coming out and speaking I remember these types of events during the Vietnam war a lot of us were you years ago even though somebody said about coloring our gray hairs and all that sort of stuff we've lived it so I commend you for coming out and speaking on all sides I walk grounds in Warfare having spent a career in the mil US military war is a terrible thing killing people destroying their livelihood is terrible but why this topic here now when several speakers mention we ignore Ukraine 8 million people displaced hundreds of thousand casualties and we don't hear a peep demanding action in those fronts if we looked at some of our history if we imp plot imposed some of the views and expectations today during World War II and more recently after 911 the outcomes of the world would have been different and there would have been a lot more brutality murder tyranny death and misery across more of humankind humans can be terrible to each other it's been that way for the life of mankind we all support peace we want it desperately on all sides sides but I say to this Council I believe that making public resolutions proclamations and statements on count we could make statements on countless issues of international national state but they will only distract from the precious time we should be spent spending on issues facing our our city and the citizens I oppose any resolution at this level of government but I highly encourage everyone let your passionate voices be heard by our national Representatives be it the president or congress thank you Mr fer to take those points not here was there anyone else in the middle row who want to make comment who didn't have a chance to okay come down to the front Mr sh Bill Shire 1898 in Avenue now for something entirely different I'm for those of you who don't know me I'm Bethlehem native spent my working life in DC came back 21 years ago go and have been to approximately 400 City Council meetings um the starting point is that while I can be idealistic and even emotional I think the time has come for some pragmatism the starting point in my mind is that the situation in Gaza is not acceptable especially to the leader of the Free World calling for a ceasefire is a nice idea but I have to say it's not going to accomplish anything it's already been proposed and rejected by Mr Netanyahu he wants to eliminate Hamas he says which is an impossibility he never will eradicate all of it and then he's is making it easier for Hamas to recruit more people that's not the answer the time I think has come for the United States of America to disregard Mr Netanyahu and so how do we do that I think the key may be humanitarian Aid now we have made some air drops that's not a very efficient way to go about it we did that with the Berlin Air Lift with that then we were contending to with Russia which is a much stronger opponent than the nation of Israel I think what we should do is offer armed escort to any humanitarian Convoy legitimate humanitarian Convoy that ask for it and ask our partners in NATO to join in if they so wish I I would like to see a flood of humanitarian Aid into Gaza accompanied by armed escorts I don't think the Israeli soldiers would fire on American soldiers if they did they would surely regret [Music] it we would have humanitarian Aid flooding all over Gaza on armed and protected and there would be in effect a ceasefire we might even find the hostages uh I have two minutes left I have some ideas about a postwar situation and even some ideas about the governance of Jerusalem which a local District Judge once said to me Bill that's there's so businesslike it'll never happen but I'm going to be here after the meeting anybody wants to hear them I'll be glad to to talk about them I also have some ideas about affordable housing but that's got to wait for another meeting so I'm going actually going to quit I think with over one minute left thank you thank you Mr sh is there anyone else in front row who didn't have a chance yes all right hello my name is Amel not GNA give my last name because I don't feel safe in this room but I'm not shocked that you all backed out I'm a little disappointed I'm not shocked which I'm sad he's not here because he's the one I was going to talk to don't know where he went but you were called cowards at the last meeting and for a second I almost was going to be like wait maybe they're on to something nope you're all cowards he was right and um I wanted to show you what has happened in the last two weeks that you all didn't take the initiative to do something so I would like to show you all some evidence um I also would like to say that I'm not going to address any of the um arguments made um against the ceasefire because I don't have the stamina I don't have the energy to educate genocide supporters so let me quick show you these if I may okay and please do look at it don't look away scares you that's all I have for all of you have a good night is there anyone else in the front row who would make comment okay hi name's t uh didn't plan to speak today uh actually didn't even plan to come not going to lie to y'all didn't hear about the last meeting had no idea y'all broke promises that was weird um I I they them if you acknowledge me please I identify as black queer and a person in that order I never thought I would stand uh in a town hall and say anything not because I don't have the audacity to go against my government or say what I think or what I mean it's because I've you know marched in Philly marched in New York uh and did other things I there were no marches well it's not warm enough for me to March right now so I came here instead um and I don't have any of the numbers that a lot of the people who spoke before me do I can't say many names longer than ones like Briana Taylor um but I do want to point out that uh none of us are really stupid enough to think that any of y'all deciding anything will do a dang thing about something in another country we're all looking at you though and we're telling you that your constituents are growing up they're changing they look different they want different things and they need more from you than what you've been doing we need you to go above and beyond our potholes the things that are wrong with our neighborhood the affordable housing that oh yes please do do that but we need more we need you to do what we haven't been able to do ourselves what everyone keeps suggesting we do which is talk to what is it our our Representatives they're not listening to us so we're asking you as our as your constituents as the someone who's been a an active local V voter uh one guy said it's weird that people who aren't from Bethlehem are talking from this I promise and assure you that I was born and raised in the valley and I've been an active uh local voter for coming on 10 years now and I'm remembering all y'all's faces your your constituents are the kind of people who are going to make this go viral online at least locally to the point that none of y'all are getting reelected because how are you going to lie to our faces like that it's absurd it's absurd you took it upon yourselves to say that you could do this so get it done get it done you're your public scope of what we need out of you from your jobs and what we've elected you to do has progressed to do to doing this and letting our hups know on our behalf because they're no longer answering our letters they're no longer answering our phone calls that we want to cease fire also black lives matter aab thank you was there anyone else in the front row who wanted to speak who didn't have a chance to yet I'm going to turn to the right was there anyone to the right who wanted to make comment who has not had a chance to yet I'll start again in the third row and work to the front so in the very third row thank you for having me I'm here in solidarity with tenants and workers throughout our city of Bethlehem I wish to start by sharing my sentiment for peace love and respect for everyone here in this Council today I'm here to support the city of bethlehem's affordable housing plan and I also wish to condemn any form of anti-Semitism Israelis pal alians and Jewish Americans are all Semitic brothers and sisters all of which have my respect love and desire for peace we are here in the United Ste worker near the United Steel Workers Union which I think is U very important there were mentions of Hamas uh today in today's meeting and I think it's important to mention a historic fact um Hamas was propped up by the American taxpayer way back when in order to destroy uh trade unions in Palestine and any form of organized um you know movement to improve living conditions for Palestinian workers during the Cold War and I also wish to acknowledge another uh fact historical fact that the British um one of the like main contributors to the current situation going on right now along with many other regions of Europe were extremely anti-semitic in that they you know forced Jewish communities into you know horific conditions um and I also want to mention that the another reason I'm here is because many individuals tenants and workers have been concerned about how our priorities and our resources that are always scarce um are being allocated in ways that don't represent what our values are uh an example of that is the Pennsylvania state treasurer Stacy gerti sent millions of tax dollars extracted from our workers tax contributions away from affordable housing investment for our Bethlehem City community and towards Israeli government bonds US Representative Susan wild us Senator Casey and fedman are sending over 95 billion US towards Weaponry to arm uh foreign militarism abroad and with that I yield rest of my time thank you for having me thank you is there anyone else in the third row what's my comment hello hello my name is Gabby hackfeld I live in Bethlehem on the South Side like West pav feels weird to give my address here um I went to Marian college and I graduated in 2019 with a political science degree I've been educated by Professor farbod who's over there and I also was um educated by professor John Reynolds make his memory be a blessing um I had an incredible education at maravian College I um have been living in the area ever since doing nonprofit work to support our community as a patrilineal Jewish person which means that my father's Jewish which matters to some Jewish people um sorry I lost my place here this is my first time speaking at one of these things I'm not usually into this sort of thing thank you um anyways with the family tree lost to the Holocaust I cannot stay silent in the face of Justice let alone a genocide do not let the word genocide speak only of a past group of people there needs to be the acknowledgement of a present Trend that leads to the destruction of culture land and people the argument for defense is over bombing hospitals libraries and schools starving civilians and intimidating with fear shattering sirens is hateful inhumane and pure pure cruelity life is precious stop the madness Bethlehem needs to do this now and how appropriate would it be given the history of our name Bethlehem is a city in Palestine and the birthplace of Jesus for those who haven't learned the geographical history do your jobs and do the right thing permanent seiz fire lift The Siege free Palestine thank you was there anyone else in the third row in the back row who wants you yes um hi um I'm a student at theity and uh I've been living here for the last of my life and also a taxpayer Ina him um well first I wasn't going to say that but I want to address some things um a comment on some of the arguments um some of design is here pretend as if Judaism is an inherent genetic trait that as if um Muslim Christians atheist or people of any faith in Palestine couldn't have been descendants of Jewish Jewish people back then uh that's just such a idiotic argument I see people are stupid here um okay so I will um so I'm born in China Al I've been living here for quite a while and I believe when people hear China here like us the word dictatorship just fls through their mind um well that's I guess probably fine because it's not a liberal democracy uh they claim to be a dictatorship or Prat but it's really funny that um the soal dictatorship feels more democratic because the government actually does what the people wanted uh contrary to what I've seen since the last meeting where for example uh the city council couldn't get the parking garage that the people here wanted and this time we hearing that the city council couldn't get the housing affordability that people here really wanted um and also the council here didn't fulfill the promise uh they made last time to give us a resolution to vote on um so well I mean this government has a mandate of the people here and the Mandate here is that well one part of is that uh we want a resol SFI resolution andone con to vote Yes for it so if if the if the con doesn't do that how is it the Democracy of the People by the people for the people so um and just please um do your duty and uh fulfill your promise and vote for SFI resolution thanks thank you was there anyone else in the third row who would to make comment who hasn't not had a chance yet I'll move to the second row the middle row you hi my name is Nicole um I'm a betham resident I'm a student here a payent here I'm very involved in the community as part of of leehi community service office so you know I I'd like to contest I guess claims that were made last week that the people here only care about Palestine that's not true true many of us are involved in the community and I I don't appreciate that that claim um but I'm here to speak both in favor of a ceasefire resolution as well as in favor of housing affordability because I deeply believe that these are both local issues and we could care about two things at once so I'll start by sharing something personal uh when I was 15 my family's house was just about foreclosed upon the news was shocking because I had always thought we were fine I came from a middle class area and family A place I was privileged to live in and that my family had moved to because of the quality public education there what I came to find out was that we had fallen behind on our mortgage and this had been happening for years I came to find out any college savings we had was spent and my dad was counting the pieces of posa in the Box to see if we had enough to last until his next check there's this misconception that housing affordability doesn't benefit us all but I know it have benefited my middle class family because the majority of us are one Health crisis one lost family member or job away from not being able to afford housing any longer housing affordability benefits all of us and it would have benefited my family if we had had that opportunity leive University who I want to acknowledge has been complicit in this housing crisis has purchased homes for new professors because they're unable to afford them these are professors middle class individuals and they can't even afford to live here 16 of the top 20 jobs held by Lehigh Valley residents do not pay enough money for workers to afford the median one-bedroom rent in Bethlehem this is unacceptable do you understand the stress living paycheck to paycheck causes the toll it takes on your body the amount of families in your town who Skip important doctor's appointments because they don't want to miss a day pay the amount of people in your town whose life expectancy decreases by the day because they live with the vicious and constant stress of not knowing if next month they'll have somewhere to sleep the amount of people in your town who will die before they ever get to retire it is your duty to make sure the people who make your town run have access to housing that is Affordable to them so that they can enjoy their lives and save for a future where they get something I hop for my own parents my family had the immense privilege of having access to a support system of family and friends who ended up loaning us the money before our house was foreclosed upon so we could keep it this is a privilege that most people do not have and so I also want to make it inexplicably clear that if Bethlehem as a City Pennsylvania as a state and the us as a country spent less money funding the murder of Palestinians it would have a lot more to dedicate to resources such as housing and while in some ways my family's experience was traumatic it was nothing compared absolutely nothing can't emphasize that enough compared to the trauma of forc displacement that Palestinians have undergone for over 75 years in Palestine in areas such as the West Bank eviction looks different just as almost every facet of life life does because the apartheid state Israel imposes there Palestinian families don't leave their house empty and fear that settlers will notice their absence occupy it and use unjust legal justification to force over ownership of the house this has happened there in the West Bank elsewhere in occupied Palestine Palestinian family split up two sisters both of whom were mothers switched their children so that if their home is bombed their entire family lineage isn't destroyed in hopes that both of their homes of course aren't bombed there in Palestine a Palestinian girl not only has her home taken from her but she also has her entire family murdered there in Palestine she sobs and says I can't live without her I wish I died with her they killed everyone I have no one left they killed my grandpa my grandma my aunt her kids my mom and sister why what did we do I spent a long time writing this because there's so much I want to say but I couldn't put most of it into words I didn't think we would need to beg you here today to vote for a ceasefire you told us you would have one here for today and you don't instead we have to name Martyrs and tell you their stories and hope that that will be enough that was the murder of 30,000 Palestinians has it not been enough how many more people do you need to see die I understand that we're just Bethlehem but as many people have said Bethlehem can affect our state and our state can affect our country how many more hindra jobs do you need how many more Aliyah abas how many more Muhammed and Omar Alaris how many more Sidra hunas do you even recognize these names do you do you do you know who I'm talking about have you heard about them at all because I know the people in this room do and I know they think about them every day while there are many reasons that the United States supports Israel including the orientalist geopolitical purposes it serves there's also a guilt that motivates us Court someone here recently said that Israel was the only place for Jewish refugees to go this was not true both during and after the Holocaust the US denied entry to thousands of Jewish people fleeing the aberant violence they are facing either leaving them to be murdered by the Nazis or forced to be separated from family members that are allowed entrance into the US the US could have provided a semblance of safety to Jewish people but instead could not get past its anti-Semitism and collaborated with the British I'm almost done the British and European powers to use Palestinian land as a false solution the US will always have this blood in their hands just as they will the blood of 30,000 mared Palestinians on their we need a ceasefire now not tomorrow not next week not two weeks from now dozens of people are dying every day every day we're going to continue [Applause] on was there anyone else to the right in the center row who want you yes okay so I am sick so my voice is kind of shaking but also I did not prepare anything so I have literally nothing and I did not plan to speak um I already spoke earlier at the rally and right now my heart is just shaking I'm like really trying [Applause] um I'm I'm really trying really hard to just keep myself together but matter of fact I just can't keep myself together um every single day these past 150 days plus this been really hard as a student especially at mberg College um you know I faced a lot like I faced doxing I faced um being reported to the school um I face like actual physical threats and you know I just have to continue on every single day right and I'm still very much privileged because I am privileged there's no need to explain that especially when other people are living such less privileged lives and I just want to quote something that um is just has been on my mind I've said this a few times these past months and I will never be the same after seeing the tank flattened human the child without a head the lynched baby girl hanging from the building the child turned into soup carried in a plastic bag by their screaming father I just I don't know how you guys wake up every day honestly because I'm honestly struggling myself to wake up every day and pretend like everything is normal because it's very much not and I don't even know if you guys are seeing the same things I'm seeing cuz I can't eat I can't drink I can't do anything I can't even shower without the thought of the tank crushed boy or a girl and if you guys don't know about the tank crushed child what basically happened was that a child was found and there was a picture of it and their whole body is crushed from the tank like you can see the marks of the tire and you can see that the child on one of their hands has a zip tie meaning that they were tortured and people were able to analyze the picture from the tracks and see that the person the child was driven over from the feet to the head and I need you to think about that like just like think about that just that itself like this one moment out of so many like Martyrs that this person felt every single thing from their toe all the way to their head and this picture is extremely graphic and for people to say like oh these numbers are not real like they're not to be trusted like Hamas made these numbers are you guys looking at the videos and pictures and live streams that I'm seeing because if these numbers are not exact to your number are we still seeing the same pictures and videos like I'm confused like are these like not credible enough for you like what will be credible enough for you like do you need to go there and like see it for yourself like I'm just confused I just I can't fathom people like still arguing over numbers because at the end of the day we are not numbers and even one life taken and just that one picture of the tank is enough for me to like throw up I just I just I don't know how like any of this is really real and how you guys are just able to just think that you know calling for a seire is going to do nothing and all this like crap it's just by not calling for a ceasefire basically just enabling it you really are and even if it doesn't do something actively you guys are our representatives and you should be also like agreeing that genocide and ethnic cleansing is bad like I thought that was common sense but apparently not I'm just confused like why are you guys not just saying like no like why are you guys not just saying like yes to a ceasefire a ceasefire is equal like a ceasefire does not mean like Israel will like drop all their weapons only and then Hamas will like pick up their stuff and like I I feel like people don't understand like the basic definition of a ceasefire which means like both sides are like equally mandated to like drop everything and people are saying that oh like the ceasefire has been violated so many times by Hamas no that's actually not true at all and I literally hear you Whispering bro like chill and for you to deny everything call everything anti-semitic say everything is related to Hamas like I'm just confused like nothing will ever be perfect enough for you like our numbers will never make sense to you but I just want you to look at the pictures that we are looking at and the videos that we have because these pictures are real please think about the child who was killed by the tank thank [Applause] [Music] you was there anyone else in the center row who wanted to make comment who has not yet had a chance is there anyone in the very front row that want to make comment that's not have a chance there anyone to the far right who wanted to make oh sorry I didn't see you there sir welcome oh that was way too short um sorry so I'll begin the way that I always try to begin in the name of the most compassionate my name is jine I've been here before I'm from Lafayette College honestly at the end of the day as I look through the notes of all the things I wanted to say I find so few that I can really go into here today if anybody wants I'm more than happy to debunk all of the things that were said today um but I won't go through all of it now but there's there's some key points that I do need to address when I came here last time and I said look at me look at my life when I came here last time and I said somebody was just holding a sign actually and I wanted to point this out before I continue somebody was just holding a sign and and they left unfortunately at Ideal Time and their sign read a call for a ceasefire means support for ham so when 30,000 people are killed and it's a known fact that not all of them were ham I'm telling you I don't want anybody killed and your response is a call for a ceasefire is support for Hamas when I'm telling you I don't want anybody killed and your response is hey how about our people when your response is to go on the defensive and I'm telling you I don't want anybody killed what does that say when your response is to Snicker and to laugh as they literally show you signs of the people that were slaughtered when they're holding up babies that were killed people that would run over and your response is to laugh this is not a humanitarian discussion anymore now you've lost me and now I'm concerned and that's exactly why last time I showed up I said we need to take action now because this is not about a ceasefire in Palestine I swear to you if that could happen right here and if you could do that I would give you everything I have my whole life I don't care but I know for a fact that that's not what this is about we're taking a step this is government if you were to expect each one of us to walk all the way to DC every time that we had a complaint that we wanted to bring up to the government is that really what you think the government is supposed to be we have the system for a reason everybody loves the system we have the system for a reason so that's why we're coming to you at the city council level this is important and this is how we follow the rules and funnily enough actually we're not just here at city council so many have called the upper level they email they call they do everything but they get ignored and what does this say again returning back to the point my life doesn't matter somebody said that Israel only has the Jews only have one state and that's Israel and the Arabs the Muslims they've got 49 states you know what's really sad about that all except for the ones that convenience the West the corrupt few that I personally hate on a deep level for being so corrupt they've destroyed the countries irq Iran is now in charge they stopped the Democracy that was going to be put in place in Aton and the US went in and organized a coup so it's not just the crazy terrorists in the Middle East the US is in charge the West is in charge they backed Isis they backed the Taliban the CIA literally trained these people so when you're telling me oh look at you guys you're so lucky no I'm not lucky and that's why I'm standing here today because they're killing my people everywhere they're killing my people in America for what for nothing you cannot tell me that a seven-year-old boy deserves to be stabbed by his neighbor you cannot tell me that that same seven-year-old or younger deserves to be slaughtered in Israel in phe this is not okay but what happened when I told you that this call for a ceasefire is to tell me that my life matters to tell me that the lives of all of those who stood before you today matter your response was yes certainly right away we'll make sure that we do that and now we're here 2 weeks later you affirm that my life does not matter which I knew and it's really unfortunate and certainly I was losing hope throughout the course of this discussion you affirm that our lives don't matter but I'm here today because I will not give up because I won't stop fighting for my life to matter and I don't know how hard I have to fight but I'm going to keep pushing because a ceasefire is to say that those 30,000 and the many more that will die between now and God knows when the US finally decides to stop the slaughter is going to happen thank you ceasefire [Applause] now was there was there anyone else to the right who wants to make comment uh Delia Moro I live in Southside of Bethlehem um I just want to take a moment and say I think it's a beautiful thing to watch democracy in action here we hold space in the retunda for all to share their voices and we are really fortunate as a people to be able to share here today I also want to take a moment to address a comment about cobers towards Council we all humans here and I hold space to understand all the emotions at this time and I thank you especially those on Council for your continued work towards helping to improve Bethlehem as a community overall and providing continuous and Open Spaces in dialogue and discourse in the space I'm here today to support conversations about affordable housing for our local communities as they continue to struggle it is essential that we come together to find Solutions because no one can address this an issue alone not a city government not one any not any one organization and but a coalition that brings together the voices of all of Bethlehem residents here today um and I just want to take a moment to say I understand that these are very very important conversations and that we are all holding a lot of emotions and spaces here but it doesn't give us any one of us the right to disrespect each other thank you thank you m morero was there anyone else in the hallway who wanted to speak before we continue on I don't know how many people are out in the hallway but was there anyone else who was still here who wanted to make comment on anything we're not voting on this evening all right so just confirming we're going to move on then with our public comment that adjourns our first public comment which is for anything not being voted on this evening now we're going to move on to our second public comment which is for anything that's on the agenda miss mccole you had signed up did you want to make comment on something we're voting on this evening yes it's short the floor is yours Mary Joe mcol 449 Grand View Boulevard last fall I attended budget hearings and expressed my disapproval of both the city real estate tax increase and the sewer fee increase on tonight agenda is a request for an increase in the storm water budget are these two separate budgets I respectfully request a clear explanation in plain language of what projects are now on the schedule that warrant this increase is this increase going to rectify the flooding in my neighborhood or in my backyard thank you thank you Miss mcole continuing on to our agenda old business any old business for members of council moving on to new business which we've moved up in the agenda now before um I open it up to new business I am just going to say I'm not going to restate my comments that I opened up the meeting with but I will to address a question that was asked earlier give the microphone to our Council solicitor who could speak just sort of to some of the uh rules as it relates that are prescribed to us about when and how we can add something to the agenda without advertising because I think that's just it was worth mentioning the last meeting and I I did not but I will give the floor to our solicitor thank you I just wanted to explain there was some talk this evening some call to council to suspend their rules and vote on a resolution tonight um and that is not possible that is not it's not a matter of council rule rule it is a matter of Commonwealth statute and the Sunshine act specifically section 709 of the sunshine act requires that matters that are going to be addressed at a council meeting have to be published in an agenda prior to the meeting um and section 72.1 says that an agency may not take official action on a matter an agency being a council a committee um on a matter of agency business at a meeting if the matter has not been included in the notification required under Section 709 meaning that posted agenda um which is the reason why Council cannot vote on a resolution tonight and that goes back to two weeks ago when there was a motion um made and it was seconded and it was voted on um as a procedural matter to address it at that point in time um Council expressed and I don't want to go too far beyond the law when your P perview um expressed an intention to um bring forth a resolution then in the course of those two weeks some things happened on the international um scale and some things happened nationally um that led Council to bring forth this letter which is a very strong statement and I'm I'm very proud of council for doing it attorney Stewart thank you but just keeping into the law yes yes it's I'm sorry it's 12:02 it's now Wednesday um you're gonna fail to pass resolution tonight then we're gonna I that I you cannot interrupt our meeting this is not how weem support res we we order we are going to continue on with our meeting everyone we are going everyone order here in the council chamber I ask everyone to respect the order of a council [Applause] meeting we will continue on with our here this even [Applause] every fire [Applause] fire putting it on the agenda for the next meeting we we are going to continue on with our Council business fire now motion to adjourn I motion to adjourn the meeting all right we have a motion to adjourn the meeting is there a second yes second by councilwoman Leon so are you gonna put it on the agenda for the next me pleas call the role for the there is a motion to adjourn the meeting Mr Miller please call the role toj the meeting that you will hey you keep saying you need two weeks are you going to put it on the next We are continuing on with our motion we are voting we are voting everyone we are having a vote of City business Miss Miss KY Smith voted in the affirmative Miss quch I and Mr col are you gonna put it on the agenda this meeting is adjourned thank you [Applause] it's not too late to call for a fire