[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening everybody first of all can you hear me okay uh my name is Cliff Brown and I am the chair of the advisory committee's uh ad hoc subcommittee that is hearing Article 19 resolution to support an enduring bilateral ceasefire allowing humanitarian Aid to enter Gaza return of all hostages and a lasting piece um before we begin I have several comments to make some of which relate to how this evening's activities will proceed some of which will answer some questions that have been asked by many people including speakers and those who have submitted written comments and finally a statement to the community the other members of the subcommittee are John doit who is home with covid Kelly hardbeck denell O'Neal and Joselyn Murphy I want to thank the petitioners and all those who have proposed amendments for their courteous cooperation and communication over the past several weeks and the same goes for all the individuals who have signed up to speak this evening this will be a long night we have more than 50 speakers including the petitioners if everyone uses their entire time allotment we will be listening to about two and a half hours of comments and presentations for speakers from the public your two-minute time slot will be strictly adhered to and we apologize in advance but we will cut you off or mute you if you exceed your allotted time if you think you have little to add after listening to others please consider not speaking also your comments should be focused on the article and the proposed amendments please do not comment on or criticize anything someone else has said or your time will be cut short people who have signed up to speak may make statements or site statistics that you do not agree with please keep any reactions to anything anyone else says to yourself we are prepared to ask people to leave the room if this basic courtesy is not provided to each and every speaker and we're prepared to abruptly adjourn the meeting if we feel emotions have reached an uncomfortable level we considered but decided to not obtain a police presence this evening and we look forward to not having to call them for assistance thank you in advance for your cooperation there have been many many people who have asked questions like why is town meeting considering something like this why is something like this on the warrant why is the advisory committee involved at all does the advisory committee have to make recommendations and other questions of that nature I view them all as ones related to process and the law so for everyone's benefit I'm going to take a few minutes hopefully not minutes and provide some basic information former Town Council Ms Murphy will correct me if I misstate any facts I'm sure state law says that the selectman shall insert in the warrant for the annual town meeting all subjects the insertion of which shall be requested of them in writing by 10 or more registered voters of the Town state law also says that advisory or Finance committees shall consider any or all Municipal questions for the purpose of making reports or recommendations to the town our own bylaw says the advisory committee shall consider any and all Municipal questions including appropriation requests and proposed action under all articles in the warrant for a town meeting for the purpose of making reports and recommendations to the town Ensure Court after obtaining at least 10 signatures of registered voters the petitioners have the legal right to file their article and have it placed in the warrant the advisory committee is legally obligated to consider the article and the duly filed proposed amendments and to write a report for Town meeting's consideration and town meeting is legally obligated to hear the article and proposed amendments and to vote on them the advisory committee has in the past offered no recommendation on certain articles and finally before we begin I want to acknowledge the fact that this hearing is occurring before Sundown during the month of Ramadan when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset our Muslim neighbors have uh also break their fast after Sundown often with a communal dinner and also perform obligatory prayers because of the timing of the hearing many Muslims will be unable to attend this evening or will have to miss some of the hearing I want to publicly apologize to the Muslim Community for the scheduling mistake and to thank them for agreeing to not request a PO a postponement of tonight's activities having now spoken far more than I'm comfortable doing I would like to turn to the petitioners of Article 19 for their 10minute presentation thank you this uh computer sure can you hear me okay yes all right so thanks to the advisory committee uh my name is uh Omar Mauk I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 5 I'm also a co- petitioner on warrant Article 19 first off I do want to acknowledge the discomfort and even hurt that this debate has caused some in our community we know that Israel and Palestine are so deeply personal to many of us the intent was not to cause division but to call Brookline to action this community is strong and we will get past this tragic moment in history but how we move forward matters and how we deal with this will be scrutinized by Future Generations since our select Board hearing in March we've been busy listening to the community we heard many who want the war to end in principle but didn't quite agree with all the language in the original resolution amended uh warant Article 19 is stronger because it incorporates these different perspectives and Community feedback to focus on the key objectives it calls for a bilateral ceasefire meaning both sides stop fighting it doesn't mean Israel surrenders and Hamas regroups to continue fighting and shooting Rockets into Israel it factually states that Hamas committed a terrorist attack on October 7th that precipitated this war a war that has resulted in a catastrophic man-made human humanitarian disaster and finally our Amendment demands the safe return of all remaining hostages I think it's fair to say most of us can agree on these points so Article 19 is a plea to our community to our state to our country that this war must stop to prevent worsening of this crisis today children are starving to death in Gaza today delivering humanitarian Aid in a war zone has had deadly consequences and the killing of the world Central Kitchen staff has made other humanitarian organizations rethink their plans to uh deliver um the aid because of safety concerns so we're calling for an immediate end to this cycle of violence so that humanitarian Aid can get to those who need it urgently it simply can't wait for netanyahu's endgame which is not linked to any real long-term Solutions it cannot wait although there are four options on the table today the petition the um the petitioner Amendment and then the three other amendments the subcommittee really has two choices ours and the levy Amendment both call for a ceasefire uh on humanitarian grounds while the other two very intentionally do not call for a ceasefire not supporting a ceasefire effectively endorses this war and the Netanyahu strategy which has destroyed Gaza civilian infrastructure and is seen the use of food as a weapon and this has been shown by Human Rights Watch Oxfam the UN High Commissioner for human rights among others look Israelis absolutely have a right to live in peace and security but so do Palestinians how does the starvation and the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians make Israel more safe the answer is that it does not it actually has the opposite unintended consequence animosity will continue to grow the more that this goes on and the more that the more the more suffering that it that continues here and the generation of Orphans created by this war are now going to struggle to overcome grief for for years but we need the healing to start now so let's talk about the Amendments that are not calling for a ceasefire this the soyer shats amendment offers a strong condemnation of Hamas but not much else the bursty uh Gladstone Amendment calls on Brookline to support the Biden administration's efforts to secure lasting peace and on the surface this sounds like a sensible approach but here's why it falls massively short our Administration has been painfully slow to react and hasn't provided the necessary leadership to guide this conflict towards resolution but the real elephant in the room here is that this Administration continuously provides the weapons that are being used for the devastation that we're all here talking about today the day that the seven World Central Kitchen staff were killed by American missiles the state department approved the transfer of a th000 MK 82 500 PB bombs in a th000 small diameter bombs to Israel so how is is support for this policy threading the needle so it's true that the language from the Administration has begun to shift with uh with recent uh exstension in in the temporary un uh ceasefire resolution and Biden himself is threatened to condition Aid to Israel if they don't allow more Aid to get into Gaza but this is not stop the Bloodshed or the starvation and Americans are demanding an immediate end to all of this a Gallup poll from two weeks ago showed that 55% of the American public and 75% of democratic voters do not support Israel's military action in Gaza and this was before the killing of the uh World Central Kitchen uh staff so I'm sure that these numbers are higher at this point so calling for a ceasefire is not a fringed position more than 100 municipalities in the United States have called for a ceasefire locally we've seen resolutions passed in Cambridge Somerville Melrose Medford and they're being being considered in Newton and Welsley and in other uh municipalities so let Brooklyn join the global courts of demonstrators humanitarians and people of conscience demanding an end to this war please vote favorable action on the petitioner amendment to warant Article 19 thank you I want to make sure I'm in time so uh my name is nine good evening everyone uh I've been a Brookline resident for over 15 14 years now and I'm the lead petitioner on Warr Article 19 and the subsequent Amendment uh thinkk I'd like to thank you all for giving me the time uh and the rest of the group today uh so in my segment I'd like to focus on the local front uh our Amendment continues to focus on what it means for Brookline specifically and we're appalled by the spike in hatred that we've seen since the start of the war and acknowledge the need for communication and healing in Brooklyn specifically whether it be anti-palestinian vandalism in a park anti anti-zionist graffiti on the Longwood te um othering behaviors in our schools uh to threatening posts on the Facebook Town page um all this hatred just needs to come to an end and let's be clear these incidents are happening because of the tragic war and not because our warrants are being sub our warrant article is being submitted um we need to bring opposing views to light and not get defensive and say you know the town government is in the venue to have this discussion and I'm glad if you walked us through a little bit more of that um but saying that would be sweeping the serious issue just under the rug and we need to be honest with ourselves and focus on our Collective Humanity here and help our community be brave and face this head-on town meeting is in fact a place for our town and to safely and courageously discuss difficult matters important to our community and clearly this topic is important to many of us just considering how many speakers and how many people are in this room today local politics are the foundation of our democracy and Brookline town meeting has a rich history of discussing tough issues including foreign policy and a few of the many many examples of resolutions we've passed in the town over de decades including um 1970 warn article 44 relevant to the Vietnam War returning the troops 81 article 18 stopping the arms race with Soviet Union 2002 warrant Article 1 opposing a US attack in Iraq 2012 article 16 ending the war in Afghanistan 2013 warrant article 17 opposing us attack on Syria and finally as recently as 2022 uh the town meeting passed a resolution calling for an end to the Cuba embargo so we share this with you today to provide some historical context to the subcommittee so no matter how many times we hear the town does not get involved it's simply an inaccurate statement of what's actually been happening in our town and I ask you if Brookline town meeting is not the place to discuss something that affects so many of us personally then where should our diverse views be expressed and how should we spark conversation alignment around protecting our community um and Humanity when these atrocities are being committed so let's have this discussion and let's begin healing thank you all for the time thank you you see M up no I just let me let me reset the clock uh um just give us a second Scott y okay go ahead great I'm Scott Gladstone thank you for taking the time to listen Michael Burstein is watching by Zoom as he tends to his children we are asking you to support the gladstein Burstein Amendment which has been ruled within scope by the moderator you've already seen in writing you will see from the comments that follow mine that Article 19 is stirring passions and town and not in a positive way in the schools between and among students staff and faculty as well as in the town as a whole people are conflicted the school administrators continue to try to figure out how best to change the atmosphere for the better but they are struggling the original resolution under Article 19 was not going to help that it was not going to bring people together there that was on full display at and leading up to the select Board hearing the original resolution missed the Mark was not balanced and contain conclusory unsupported statements while also suffering from glaring omissions the levy Amendment both the original and its recent revision not only has the same glaring omissions as the original but in some ways is actually worse the original resolution called for some of the criminal behavior of Kamas called out some of the criminal behavior of Kamas the L Amendment says nothing about the crimes of Kamas it does not even use the word Kamas as if the hostages magically appeared in Gaza of course I recognize that the petitioners have received this criticism and have attempted to rebalance their resolution let me publicly thank them for making a concerted effort to lower the temperature of course the original language was contributing to the rise in the temperature which was already high we addressed our reasons for that in our written submissions unfortunately the new language still falls short for those still hurting in the wake of the October 7 attacks and the ongoing trauma concerning the hostages who are still being held the reports by released hostages include stories of sexual assault beatings and psychological torture of children such as forcing them to watch the murderous snuff films taken by Hamas operatives during the October 7th attack these feelings continue to be raw also the emission of the word Jews from the revised resolution is quite jarring as it will be taken as a statement that the community experiencing ongoing trauma is limited to Israelis thus severing the very real connection that most American Jews although clearly not all feel for Israel and their friends and relatives who live there this community does not want to be lectured to which is a feeling one gets when reading even the revised ceasefire resolution this is a reality for a significant segment of the Brookline Community it is it is at the heart of what the Gladstone bursting Amendment seeks to address resolution as originally written has already stoked flames and caused hurt which the petitioners will not now be able to address with their Amendment no matter how well meaning significantly even the new language fails to address the critical omissions that plagued the original resolution which omissions Michael and I identified in our written remarks submitted a couple of weeks ago there's suffering all over Gaza and all over Israel people want to do something I get that I want to do something to alleviate the suffering too I also don't want to increase the suffering going on in our own diverse Community given the suffering Town meting members will want to say yes to something the newly proposed Language by the petitioners will be parsed and dissected and believe me offense will be found it will still be divisive I am already hearing it again we identified some of the significant omissions in our written materials omissions which the petitioner's new language still does not address the Gladstone bursting Amendment threads the needle it is a positive and hopeful statement that people from all segments of the town can rally behind as I expect you will see tonight and have already seen in the emails I want to answer some questions which I'm um anticipating our Amendment purposely omits the word ceasefire the word ceasefire is still present in the petitioner's revised language the term ceasefire is a political victory for some segments of Brookline and not for others even for those like us who would like to see the fighting stop from both sides the versions that include the word ceasefire if they pass will generate the headlines largely Jewish Brookline comes out for ceasefire joining Somerville and Cambridge if any details would be given at all about the actual language that will not be until the third paragraph in the story all Nuance will be lost I also want to point out another consequence of town meeting passes Article 19 even as amended by the petitioners or the levy Amendment if that happens town meeting is on record as being critical of Israel in this instance it will not be the last time town meeting is asked to opine about Israel passing Article 19 would almost certainly lead to multiple resolutions being brought to town meeting over the next few years concerning the occupation and calls for boycott divestment and sanctions of Israel this is not the best of Brooklyn's time or energy finally you may ask what if the B administration's actions are disappointing to one segment of the community or the other actually I expect that the actions of The Binding Administration will be rejected by partisans from each Camp I also believe that most people in town meeting are willing to give the administration the maximum latitude to operate in an everchanging situation without town meeting prejudging what tactics are acceptable and which are not only the glad Stone bursting Amendment avoids picking winners and losers in that debate as a student of history of this region I will make the observ this observation Israel has only ever taken risk for peace when it knows the US has its back such an environment facilitated peace with Egypt and Jordan the Oslo Accords multiple peace officers to the PLO following Oslo and most recently the Abraham Accords in that vein let's be clear about what a ceasefire resolution directed at both sides is really doing the United States has the ultimate leverage against Israel in that it it is Israel's primary supplier of arms and ammunition Iran is the primary supplier of arms and ammunition to Hamas calling on the United States to pressure both sides towards the SE fire does not reflect political reality what is really doing is calling on Israel to stop firing and then hoping that Hamas has a constructive reaction it is also a call to keep Hamas leadership and four military brigades in power ready to cause a future War as they have promised to do over and over again and have done several times since taking over Gaza in a military coup in 2006 such a result will lead to the loss of more lives in the future both Israeli and Palestinian and will be an obstacle to any long-term peace I'd like to make another historical observation the provisional Ira did not unilaterally agree to disarm and cease its attacks in Northern Ireland and Beyond they did so as a result of a negotiated end to hostilities brokered by Washington if that is the result you imagine in Gaza the Gladstone bursting amendment is how you get there let me add two more things before concluding first Michael and I are very sensitive to the issue of anti-Semitism we also are very concerned about how often expressions of anti-zionism use anti-semitic tropes language and symbols Michael and I want to thank the petitioners for avoiding such expressions of anti-Semitism to extent that they have criticized the actions of the state of Israel both in the original resolution and the recent amended language they have done so in a way that avoids using anti-semitic tropes language and symbols it just goes to show that criticism of the action of Israel even when unbalanced can be done without being anti-semitic and we want to thank the petitioners for modeling that behavior second I want to watch out for something that I noticed at the discussion before the select board when jewishly identified people spoke in favor of Article 19 some of them prefaced the remarks with the phrase as a Jew before explaining why their value systems require them to support Article 19 this phenomenon in my opinion illustrates one of the divisive aspects of Article 19 and the levy Amendment any action of town government which compels people to say in effect I am one of the good Jews is by definition bad policy every one of the amendment petitioners are Jewish as are some of the Article 19 iers we are all suggesting different paths to end the war free the hostages end hamas's Terror regime and get desperately needed Aid to civilians in Gaza and rebuild that land for the Palestinian people the Gladstone bursting Amendment calls for that result in the least prescriptive and least divisive way possible Michael and I ask the petitioners to join us in our Amendment which will then lead to a genuine path towards healing our Collective Brookline Community we call on the advisory board this subcommittee to votee no on the petitioner resolution even as amended and no on the levy Amendment and yes to Gladstone bur's replacement motion thank you um Ariel is it Ariel speaking y ready whenever you are just let me know go ahead okay my name is Ariel soyer and I'm a town meeting member from Precinct 2 Lisa shat and I have put forward an amendment that calls for the immediate and unconditional return of hostages held in Gaza and for the immediate and unconditional surrender of Hass this evening I will briefly outline the concerns with the original Article 19 discuss the horrendous conditions of the hostages being held in Gaza and close with how Amendment will lead to a measure of justice and provide an Avenue for a peaceful resolution the original Article 19 is a wolf and sheep's clothing but the clothing is wearing thin unlike the clothing of the women and girls that were sexually assaulted by the terrorist group Hamas which was forcibly removed by Hamas as part of its campaign that also resulted in the murder of over 12,200 people in just that one s sentence I've mentioned three ways that the original article is a wolf and sheep's clothing first this article ignores the systematic campaign of sexual violence that among others was recognized by the United Nations second this article refers to Hamas as a militant group while the Department of State has designated Hamas as a terrorist group this designation was made in 1997 so the proponents of the original article have had plenty of time to understand this third this article refers to killing instead of murder suggesting that innocent partygoers at the Nova festival or farmers at a kibuts were Justified targets the authors of Article 19 have submitted a proposed amendment removing the reference to Hamas as a militant group but despite being aware of the sexual assaults have declined to address that as though it was not important but that's not all the original article like a wolf in sheep's clothing dresses itself in a bare semblance of neutrality that reveals itself to be a wolf when examined in the most cursory manner while the original article calls for a cessation of all military acts not terrorist acts the amended article's authors call for a bilateral bilateral ceasefire ignoring that a ceasefire existed on October 6th ignoring that a ceasefire existed on December 1st in each case until Hamas broke the ceasefire and ignoring that Hamas has consistently refused a ceasefire in the month since pretending neutrality between the party that broke each ceasefire and refused any new ceasefire and and the party that accepted each ceasefire reveals the wolf and yet the original article and Amendment hides itself behind a thin veil of neutrality the operative Clauses are designed to Su so by citing both the immediate return of hostages and a ceasefire as just one example you'll note that this draws a false equivalence between an an action that is just the immediate Return of the hostages and a ceasefire that was previously violated by Hamas this is absurd like a wol w and sheep's clothing the original article leaves a lot hidden including substantial war crimes that Hamas commits both the preambulatory and operative Clauses ignore one the thousands of rockets that were fired by Hamas indiscriminately at civilian targets from civilian locations double War crime two the refusal the refusal by Hamas to wear Insignia to designate its for forces War crime three the refusal by Hamas to locate its facilities separate from any civilian facilities in including using hospitals as bases War crime each of these war crimes are important not only for being war crimes but also because these are the direct cause of so much of the suffering that occurs among civilians in Gaza every life is precious a universe to be preserved and yet ordinary residents of Gaza suffer and die as a result of hamas's deliberately chose chosen strategy to mix its Personnel together with those residents calling for a ceasefire leaves Hamas in power at a huge cost to ordinary gazin this is only one of the many reasons why Hamas must unconditionally surrender as demanded by our amendment to Article 19 in addition to these war crimes Hamas has taken numerous actions against the ordinary res residents of Gaza when the dougm clan deployed Personnel to assist in the distribution of food in Northern Gaza Hamas executed the shik leader of the clan and almost a dozen of its members similarly Hamas Personnel have captured an estimated 60 to 70% of the aid that goes into Gaza often first keeping the aid for its own fighters and reselling the Aid at a substantial markup to residents of Gaza for these reasons as well Hamas must unconditionally surrender as demanded by our Amendment and yet another reason why Hamas must surrender is the treatment of the hostages that are hel that have been held in Gaza as a result of the Hamas atrocities I recently was unfortunate to learn a new word in Arabic one branch of my family comes from an Arabic speaking country sabaya which means sex slave when some members of Hamas captured young women in Israel sex slave or sabaya was how they described those young women Amit Susana in her powerful testimony described being kept Shackled to the bed when she was held in GSM her captor groped her and forced her to perform a sex act at one point she was kept suspended between two couches while her captors beat her slavery in the 21st century demands Justice Moran yanai described how they took away your freedom they took everything you have nothing nothing is really yours Luis har described a terrorist saying that the terrorist wanted to marry Louis's 17-year-old granddaughter Mia liberg threatening the family with a Commando knife while feeding them bare scraps of Peter bread Aviva seagull described how terrorists would dress young women like dolls and would abuse them and liri alog was forced to cook and clean for her captors while not even being able to eat the food she was cooking this abuse demands Justice these command these conditions of slavery demand justice among those still held by Hamas are a handful of Arabs from Israel including yusf zadna Hamza zadna and Ked Farhan eladi among those still held by Hamas are a handful of Americans including HH Goldberg Poland Edon Alexander zagi Deen Omar Nutra Keith seelen who died in captivity we can only speculate at the conditions they are being held under because Hamas does not allow the Red Cross to visit the hospes our Amendment calls for the unconditional and immediate Return of the hostages in Gaza as we have discussed every day that the hostages are being held they are being abused one day in the conditions that we have described as one day too many and while we cannot go backward in time to return the time to the hostages calling for the immediate and unconditional return in the return of the host hostages held in Gaza at least brings an end to this nightmare there is no Cosmic undo button that can allow us to go backwards in time and undo the great evils the murder the rape the slavery that Hamas undertook and continues to undertake as we've discussed the victims of these actions are Israelis Jews Americans Arabs it's important to note that this include Arabs ruled by Hamas and Gaza who are slaughtered if they stand up to Hamas as the leaders as the dogm clan leadership was in order for there to be a lasting peace Hamas must be removed from the equation the original Article 19 calls for a ceasefire of military acts not terrorist acts leaving Hamas and power and condemning the residents of Gaza to the continued rule of Hamas the original Article 19 leaves H Hamas free to carry out the October 7th attacks again and again as gazi hammad infamously suggested our proposed amendment calls for the unconditional surrender of Hamas and and uh to get Justice for the war crimes and slavery undertaken by Hamas while we cannot go back in time the least we can do is try to obtain Justice in your role as members of the advisory committee I ask you to recommend the soyer shatz amendment to Article 19 as the option that leads to a just resolution and therefore is the most likely to lead to long-term peace Brookline residents have many different views on the Middle East and we would be better off with a resolution that would be more likely to result in peace so that all of all of us can focus on issues closer to our town Le Lisa you have a minute and 40 seconds okay I'll have to be brief okay it is well known that Hamas is a terror organization committed to destroying Israel and replacing it with an Islamic caliphate it is founded it's founding Charters hateful to Jews and ridden with anti-jewish tropes like Jews were responsible for the French Revolution the World War I the Russian Revolution among other hateful Ro the atrocities of October 7th are well known Kamas spent years planning the attack using a billion dollars of Aid money to construct tunnels instead of building infrastructure for its citizens in preparation of the Israel Defense Force the idf's counter offensive Hamas booby trap buildings and tunnel shafts with explosives andus deceptions such as recordings of crying babies for its Warfare its strategy is to use human Shields and place them within homeschools hospitals it stands out in its cruelty that it wants as many civilians as possible to be killed to convince the world that Israel is committing war crimes John Spencer who's considered one of the world's leading experts on Urban Warfare argues that Israel minimizes civilian deaths more than any army in history in a recent new week PC States the International Community and increasingly the US barely acknowledges the idf's protective measures while repeatedly excoriating the idea for not doing enough to protect civilians even as it confronts a ruthless Terror organization holding its citizens hostage instead you you have 10 seconds okay instead the us and its allies should be studying how they can apply the idf's tactics for protecting civilians okay thank you please me Mr wey do you need assistance hi am Mark Livy the author of the so-called Levy Amendment and I want to give you a a brief rundown on why I offered that amendment in the form I did people have said that I have omitted important details about uh the history of Hamas and Israel and Gaza and and that history goes back a long long way there's been conflict between the local Palestinians and the uh Jewish settlers there at least since the 19th century and uh certainly by the 20th century it was in full bloom and uh the first thing that happened after um Israel declar a nation was that the Arab world attacked U I don't have any illusions that this is a one-sided problem I wish it were that' make it easy to solve and frankly I don't see any solution any way to solve this the problem of Israel and Palestine and the Arab world but I do see the news reports of children dying of children suffering of children starving to death in the 21st century and I find that intolerable and I purpose of my amendment is twofold one is to draw attention to that fact that condition that totally immoral and unacceptable condition and also to draw attention to the fact that you don't get anywhere by blaming the other side you get more divisiveness and and you don't get uh cohesion in the in the community that's being addressed and we're addressing Brookline with these War articles and there are strong feelings as we've heard tonight on all the sides of the issue and I thought that it was best and least divisive not to point fingers you know runs a danger of going into the uh schoolyard display of well he hit me first no he hit me first no she hit me first that's pointless uh I don't know if any of these amendments will actually change the course of events in uh Palestine Israel well I certainly know that none of will get Hamas and surrender condition unconditionally and I have severe doubts that all of Israel's Armed Forces won't be able to do it they are very well entrenched and they can leave the country and come back it's it's not something that can be done by a petition uh but negotiation is the only way to do it and one of the things that's called for in my amendment is that the International Community get together and try to bring to the parties together in some kind of negotiated peace I'm not very sanguin about that but it seems to be the only way to go and in the short term the problem is children are dying and they're dying because they they can't can't get food they can't get clean water their families can't find shelter and uh that's what I wanted to have me to to focus on and simply say this is wrong I'm not saying who's in Fault who's primarily at fault who's secondarily at fault but the condition exists and uh God forbid we should live with this on our conscience and say that we remain silent while was happening thank you thank you okay our first um speaker um after the petitioners and who is offering amendments is uh Michael seagull I have a second thank you hold on second ready yeah go ahead you have two minutes this is an issue on which Brookline has no jurisdiction whatsoever it's divisive it's distracting and I urge the members for those reasons to vote no don't abstain because then it'll be decided by the partisans vote no now on the specifics as has been mentioned there was a ceasefire on October 6th it was violated by Hamas which has a genocidal Charter and provided genocidal written instructions to its fighters to kill as many people as possible and bring others back for Bounty I find it shocking that the main resolution calls on Brookline to mourn the Hamas terrorists killed in the war refers to 30,000 quote civilians in one of the res Solutions of which 13,000 are uh Hamas terrorists and we should not be as a town calling on people to mourn them there is no reference whatsoever to the Israeli soldiers who died which I find particularly disturbing because one of them was my cousin y y do lanstein the solution as the soyer shats uh Amendment calls forth unconditional surrender by Hamas it would end the fighting it would provide a legal obligation for Israel to ensure flow of Aid and would release the hostages uh that's unlikely to happen Hamas has refused that so the only solution on the table is the one that President Biden has supported which is to defeat Kamas when the Japanese attacked us in Pearl Harbor Brookline didn't call for a ceasefire a few months later when we were entering Germany in World War II Brook line didn't call for a ceasefire to save German civilians of which 10 times as many died as gazan civilians and nobody goes around talking about that as genocide one of my German colleagues told me the reason that uh please conclude democracy con worked was that uh was that Sor your time is up that's what we need to do here thank you Mel Schuman thank you my name is Mel Schuman from Precinct 13 this war is horrible but the proposed resolution does nothing to help end it and may actually do something to help prolong it I'll focus on just one of the reasons the call for an immediate ceasefire is misplaced and counterproductive I'm wearing this necklace this evening which says bring them home now referring to the hostages in G in held in Gaza by Hamas which cynically exploits the hostages and the well-being of its own citizens to extract more and greater concessions what country or people would ever cease fire while its citizens continue to be held by a genocidal regime dedicated to its destruction which just perpetrated a heinous vulgar attack on its citizens and promised to do so over and over and over again it is unconscionable to call for a ceasefire in these circumstances particularly given that Israel has repeatedly agreed to terms proposed for humanitarian ceasefire and when it is the unwillingness of Hamas to agree to those terms including the release of hostages that is preventing a ceasefire from going into effect in fact the growing calls for an immediate ceasefire only embolden Hamas in its obstinance in failing to release the hostages thus the proposed resolution has it entirely backwards its emphasis being on an immediate ceasefire rather than the return of the hostages which actually would result in a ceasefire I implore The Advisory Board to reject this misguided resolution which does nothing to advance the cause of Peace this resolution is deeply hurtful to a vast majority of Jewish people at a time of rising hate towards Jews I I hate to be overly dramatic but if this resolution passes a town meeting I won't feel the same way about this town as I do now thank you thank you so we're gonna have our first speaker on on zoom and I I I just want to um I guess ask a general question I I'm I'm not I found a town meeting where speakers have three minutes and the moderator after two and a half minutes says you've got 30 seconds and what have you I mean I can I can give people um a heads up if you would prefer that um I find that distracting and I think you probably better off just running through the clock and stopping when the bell goes off uh if anyone comes up to the podium or who's on Zoom wants a heads up tell me before we start the clock and I'll be happy to do that um the next speaker is uh Shira fiser who is speaking to us remotely uh Shir let me know when you're ready I'm ready okay go ahead okay and I'll speak briefly um my name is Shar Fischer I'm a town meeting member from Precinct 11 I'm very personally connected to this issue with family and friends directly affected but I do not want to be here I do not think we should be having this hearing I would love if you cut me off and ended this public comment time AC should not be weighing in on this non-binding resolution there are no financial implications as you've said you don't always weigh in so no need to do so I desperately want this war to end I appreciate the revisions to the resolution that much improve it and what Omar said resonates with me deeply but no one is waiting for us to make statements to end it especially for us to do so in late day I agree with Mark that nothing we say here will change what happens it's an active situation changing by the minute people are still dying daily Iran is threatening to get involved we have no idea what will be by the time May comes this is proof that this is not the right time or place for this kind of Declaration or demand for any kind of action there are people who can change things and they are not us write to them petition them let's write to them together but not town meeting I note that town taxes are not involved at all in foreign affairs and the previous examples of where we've weighed in are about us policy not other countries policies why only Israel the term ceasefire is loaded as Scott said even with the edits made hopefully it will all be irrelevant by the time we vote with the war over but we are still being forced to debate this spend hours in meetings on something that will make no difference in the precious lives of those involved and something that just brings division to our community there are other places to have these conversations town meeting needs to focus on what we can do in Brooklyn the AC should not take any position on this because we should not be making a statement on this thank you um thank you um our next speaker is uh Liz Linder and we don't know if she's speaking remotely or in person here she is okay let me know when you're ready thank you thank you and if you could give me like a 10-second heads up would be great okay happy to go ahead okay uh it's been said that certain roads are paved with good intentions I'm speaking of someone whose parent came here as a refugee from global conflict and as a town meeting member for Precinct 4 I don't want to even talk about how people in my family are involved the war with Israel and Gaza is a full-blown humanitarian crisis we all agree in this room I'm sure that horrific tragic frightening on many levels and diff difficult to witness from many perspectives but that is not the point of my comments I'm commenting because town meeting is not the place for Warrant Article 19 the idea that our local volunteer-based town government is proposing to weigh in on and make recommendations around a proxy war in the Middle East while presumably well-intentioned is outside the purview of local town government it's beyond our scope of work not beyond our scope of hard discussions but beond scope of work to weigh in on foreign policy I might add in which we have no security briefings access to nor Sway With the federal government it's performative not effective and points Us in the wrong direction both within our community and as a community this article with its initial resolutions and subsequent amendments and revisions Amit rapidly changing news and recent events in town that have prompted the potential for police presence at this very meeting has in effect Amplified local conflict among political religious ethnic and other divides local communities can and should have impact in global events towns like Brookline can be welcoming and open by condeming anti-Semitism islamophobia and racism by welcoming refugees fleeing Conflict by adopting Sanctuary Provisions where local conflict resolution is possible greater conflict res resolution is possible if the intention behind warrant Article 19 at its core is a plea for peace with a focus on easing conflict and the petitioners are receptive as they seem to be with the aim of effective governance I ask that they go 10 seconds significantly further and consider or The Advisory Board and select board included consider withdrawing Article 19 from town meeting or radically re structuring it to strike counter-effective language and incorporate what a local government can actively do within the community to protect individuals and groups conflict thank you Amir grinstein ready go ahead thank you for inviting me to speak my name is Amir Greenstein I oppos the original resolution presented and I'll explain why using my three the three hats that I wear a Brooker and Resident a trust Builder between Israelis and Palestinians in the start space in a business school professor at Northeastern focusing on the ways the current discussion is or not contributing to Brooklyn as a Brooklyn resident I think as a town we have other priorities than a conflict in the Middle East or elsewhere on which we have zero impact at the individual level of course protest vote write letters but I want the towns elected official to focus under attention on for example our budget or School related challenges as a co-founder of an organization that buil trust between very diverse entrepreneurs Israelis and Palestinians I can tell you that having a symbolic resolution especially when it is viewed as one-sided but regardless having a statement as a goal is not the way to build trust among different groups in Brooklyn just see what happened in other towns that issued such a statement in terms of divisiveness finally as a business school Professor studying social change and interventions to mitigate polarization I would urge to direct the town's efforts into a different direction that will benefit Brooklyn's res residents support our schools and communities in the development of critical skills how to hold multiple truths what I call paradoxical mindset how to be empathetic to other people's pain how to accept perspective diversity the type of deep level diversity that allows for creativity better listening meaningful learning and collaboration thank you thank you Arthur Conquest good evening good evening first of all thank you uh very much uh Mr Brown for being so patient uh really very professional okay and very helpful and I just want to tip my hat to you thank you very much I'm Arthur Conquest town meeting member Precinct 6 four days ago 4th of April was the 58 years since Dr Martin Luther King was tragically assassinated on the balcony of the line Hotel in Memphis Tennessee and it was a year before to that day Dr King delivered his famous Vietnam speech at the Riverside Church in New York City I quote this I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves Bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than the nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals um and positions we are called to speak for the weak for the homeless for the voiceless for the victims of our nation and for those um it calls our enemies for no document for no documented from Human uh hands can make the humans any less our brothers quote un Dr King goes on to say and I quote again we must uh speak when machines and computers profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people the giant Triplets of racism extreme nationalism and militarys are incap incapable of being conquered uh we must speak when the anti-Semitism and is islamophobic slip in through the cracks of the back door by supposedly Progressive spaces when Palestinian children in refugee camps are bombed and killed when schools and hospitals and entire neighborhoods are laid waste we must speak when the international law is treated like a uh a native suggestion we must speak please conclude thank you thank you Steven Schulman thank you for allowing me to speak the revised proposed amendment is an improvement I think the amendment is well intentioned there's been enormous suffering by Israelis and Palestinians including death captivity destruction of property and longlasting Trauma is sure to follow my heart goes out to every person harmed by this war nevertheless even with the changes made in the amendment I still object to the amendment for the following reasons I don't believe that local government should weigh in on International Affairs as this is not within the expertise of the city officials nor do I believe that weighing in is appropriate in a town when the issue is so contentious at a previous hearing 47 citizens signed up to speak the majority spoke against the amendment second Hamas an organization classified as a terrorist organization sted the violence killing dismembering raping kidnapping citizens of all ages and destroying homes farms and other property Hamas is unabashedly proud of the violence inhumane attack on October 7th and has boasted it will attack Israel again a ceasefire will give Hamas time to rearm and continue to plan its strategy of using innocent Palestinians as human Shields third any call for ceasefire must be accompanied by an immediate and simultaneous release of hostages there are believed to still be 130 hostages about 30 of whom are believed to be dead fourth pressure including from the United States is currently being used to provide more humanitarian Aid to the Palestinians finally har Hamas is carrying out the war with support of Iran both Iran and Hamas are committed to eradicating the state of Israel Israel is an important Ally of the United States and a democracy in the part of the world where there are few of any others for the above reasons I oppose the amendment thank you thank you Harold sansky uh via Zoom I think hi can folks hear me okay yep whenever you're ready hi I'm Harold samansky town meeting member foring nine I'm here to speak in favor of the soyer shatz amendment which specifically calls on town meeting to support a just resolution leading to peace and an end to Israel's war with Hamas the reason for my support of this amendment is because I believe that we must first and foremost recognize the true obstacle to peace and that is unquestionably Hamas it has been said numerous times by numerous people but it is worth repeating this would not be happening except for Hamas and the horrors of this war would end immediately if Hamas would put down their arms and free all 133 of the remaining hostages or their remains this is now more important than ever as the brutal assault and sexual violence against the hostages continue changing gears I now wish to directly address the sponsors of the warrant Article 19 I say to you enough whatever youve thought the effect of this warrant article would be your only result has been to create an atmosphere of divisiveness and a culture of disate the notion that a subcommittee of the advisory committee would actually require the presence of police to keep order and protect participants is so absolutely astounding to me and candidly enrages me it is time for the divisiveness to end let town meeting get back to work to which we were elected including to Steward a $400 million budget and to promote the general welfare of all Brookline residents for this reason I am calling on the sponsors of Warrant Article 19 to withdraw it Andor the advisory committee to vote no action on it if this article must go forward I encourage all to support the soer shatz amendment to promote a just and stable peace in the region thank you thank you Susie Davidson thank you I'm a Brooklyn homeowner journalist and author and I am in favor of Warrant Article 19 and its amendment I feel that we and our town do need to take humanitarian stands and not because it makes me a better Jew it just makes me truthful to my feelings I could mention that Israel took 71% of the land in 1948 killed 12,000 Palestinians who had been living there for generations and displaced 750,000 of them I could say that every proposed peace plan that Hamas there people are saying refused was also not fair it was also not 5050 which it should have been these are our cousins but tonight I am not speaking for myself any longer I'm speaking for former Brookline residents rela fund Michael gruin bomb Meer hack Sylvia hack Edgar AA Michael Krauss Ben kachinsky and Ida Rosenberg I have heard people mention the Holocaust and World War II as a justification and some of the reasoning for this war these people were Holocaust Survivors who I interviewed for this book in 20 2005 they were among two dozen and every single one of them said this to me please listen no more Wars no more killing we do not want to be associated with any more Wars we want peace please do not use the Holocaust as justification for any future Wars I heard this from their own mouths despite all that they went through they were peaceful people who wanted peace in their blessed memories I ask that you not bring up the Holocaust as justification kill 33,000 Gaza civilians thank you um I'm apologize in advance if I don't pronounce this correctly but uh Shan Shan Gua on Zoom I'm a longtime Brookline resident and I'm here to speak in support of the warrant Article 19 for ceas fire there's been misinformation circulating so I want to reiterate to the opponents of this warrant article exactly what they are fighting so hard to silence this resolution condemns the terrorist acts of Hamas on October 7th and calls for return of all hostages bilateral ceasefire humanitarian Aid into Gaza and an end for all forms of hate including anti-em ISM and islamophobia an argument we've heard is that warrant Article 19 is divisive and threatens to tear the town apart however it's not this resolution people should be worried about but the silence and inaction of our town in the face of an ongoing humanitarian crisis funded by our taxpayer dollars that will keep us divided this warrant article for ceasefire is a product of the Brooklyn peace Coalition in Interfaith group of people who've been drawn together for the singular purpose to advocate for peace and Justice in Palestine and Israel and also within our community members of our group included those who are Jewish Muslim Palestinian and Israeli many of whom will speak tonight in favor of ceasefire as well as some of whom have been unfortunately excluded from the Civic process today as once again this important Town hearing Falls during ifar and now during the most holy 10 days of Ramadan I also want to take the time to acknowledge many of our Muslim community members who are here at Great personal and religious sacrifice to speak with truth and courage it is easy to call for peace and unity in retrospect and in the aftermath of a catastrophic tragedy but it takes much more courage to Stand United against Injustice as it happens I hope our town will stand on the right side of history as it has many times in the past regarding issues in Brooklyn and globally and to pass a resolution that affirms that all life is equally sacred thank you very much AKA lioz thank you as an Israeli American I'm speaking here not for the first time to support Warren Article 19 my words eminate from who I am as a human as a Jew as a citizen of Israel whose four children were born and raised in Beva mere 40-minute drive from Gaza I remain in awe of how the ceasefire resolution which seeks to even if only symbolically put an end to the Bloodshed starvation misery which is afflicting those who are sharing the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea can be perceived as radical and divisive controversial when it speaks to the basic tenants of humanism and empathy the writers of this resolution went to Great Lengths to avoid language that may spark more controversy or may be or may be offensive they clearly Unapologetic Al empathize and sympathize with the victims of the horrendous attacks of October 7th the Israeli hostages and with the tens of thousands of victims in Gaza and the hundreds of thousands who are starving for those who claim otherwise I wonder where they actually read the text of the resolution this town whose majority electorate self defines themselves as Progressive should embrace such a humanistic approach and cannot dismiss the opportunity to take a moral stand and express solidarity the concern for widespread popular acceptance cannot Trump fundamental values our heart should have space and compassion for all suffering and that message should resonate loud and clear in two weeks many of this room will be sitting in the Passover Center pointing to the mat on their table and calling this is the bread of Affliction this is the bread of Affliction persecution that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt but this is also a call to action to move away from our comfort zone and proactively work to end Affliction persecution hunger Devastation and misery wherever it might be present and with this strikes so close to home for many of us even more so former Israeli member of knesset and minister of education and the current president of B Barrel academic college professor Yuli Tamir concludes in an article titled we Israelis are all complicit in the starvation of civilians in in Gaza none of this means that they or we deserve to starve to death to be killed by a rocket by a knife or by a bomb but it does mean that responsibility that we may speak out against the government that makes us complicit thank you I have oh you want to see her on Zoom Elizabeth schaer so that's over I'm sorry well that's where she's supposed to be but she's not on Zoom so uh we're gonna move ahead and if Miss Schaefer comes back we'll find a way to fit her in um the next speaker is uh Jamila arilla good evening my name is Jamila arilla and I am a Brooklyn resident here to speak in favor of adopting the petitioners amendment to Warrant Article 19 I am a palestinian-american in the third generation of diaspora which began with the migration of my grandparents shortly after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 all of the horror we feel is real and now thousands of children are dead attempts to excuse this are misdirection obfuscation and eraser I will not speak in detail about the current atrocities because we do not know their extent and impact from etel Adnan death is never in plural there are not millions of deaths it happens millions of times that someone dies when my family arrived in Brooklyn after a lifetime abroad I was tasked with hosting a dinner for extended family I had to roll grape leaves which meant I had to find bones Whole Foods does not keep their lamb bones and I was otherwise clueless I called my mom and told her I was going with chicken stock instead I could hear her rolling her eyes when she said are you telling me there's no Kosher butcher in Brookline you see my family holds a memory of actual coexistence which predates by centuries October 7 2023 and the NECA in 1948 before October 7th my most meaningful conversations on these issues were held with Jewish and Israeli friends and Neighbors and in the terrible aftermath Comfort came readily from those same friends our community has a more intimate connection to the tragedy than most in the country and we should feel a collective obligation to make clear our position that no more children need to die violently in their sleep or quietly of starvation I feel that obligation in that room I have felt it over the last six months I found the bones a diverse group came together to raise this article and the spirit of compromise is present in the final petitioner Amendment rather than risk of division this room is an embodiment of what should be happening across two oceans if a message of Peace can come from Brooklyn Massachusetts it is also a message that peace is possible thank you Ralph minichello minello sorry uh my name is Ralph minichello I'm from preing date I've been a Brookline resident for 34 years I've raised two children in Brookline who've attended kindergarten through High School I've uh coached many soccer teams in Brooklyn and have had many relationship and friendships and have experienced the ethnic and religious diversity of our community my family reflects that diversity my wife's Jewish My Two children are Jewish I was born Catholic but I'm an atheist my son alarm and brother and sister-in-law are Muslims in our household we practice Ramadan Easter and Passover my family I think can reflect this community but it is on a basis of community understanding of empathy compassion and appreciation for the differences among us it is also a common sense of justice of doing what is right it is in that spirit that I speak in favor of Article 19 um passing Article 19 is the only Humane and compassion way in which to build and strengthen our community as the uh tragedy unfolds in Gaza avoiding the controversy leaving everyone to their own side or Worse suspicion will only allow hatred and conflict to Fester but by placing a moral marker of compassion empathy humanity and showing what Brooklyn stands for we can rally our community we have seen this I have seen this in action in the Brookline peace Coalition where a diverse group of religious and ethnic people have come together have shared their differences from Israelis from Palestinians and have come together in Article 19 where we try to lead with that sense of compassion understanding and empathy tonight I'm asking the advisory committee to take that stand and not wash your hands of this matter but stand up and say we're going to lead with compassion empathy and understanding and a sense of justice it's the only basis a lasting basis which a community can be built on I want to be able to tell my 18-year-old granddaughter 18-month-old granddaughter when she gets old enough jiy when she asked me jiy what did you do when the things were happen in Gaza I want to be able to say I stood with Muslims and Jews Christian and tried to bring our community together to stand for a people Gaza thank you thank you I I I'm really sorry to have to interrupt people like that every couple of minutes I mean I I I wish we had more time tonight to be able to give people more time to talk um and I'm asking everyone to you know please um when the time's done even if you're mid-sentence just stop because other people have and I just think it's the courteous thing to do um you know given the rules tonight it's it's it's really uncomfortable for us to sit here and have to continue to say something because you know I'd love to hear more from everybody um but we just trying to be fair I apologize uh Rashad Batley Bley who is on Zoom batle thank you hi can you hear me yes we can um sorry for the audio quality uh no time reminder necessary my name is Rashad Batley I'm with uh Precinct 12 um the reason the conflict in Israel and Palestine is impossible to solve is because one party is able to act with to impunity both financially uh both financial and political impunity on the global stage thanks to the unconditional support of the United States the way that changes is through the Grassroots support of individual communities like Brookline in my view it the very strength of Article 19 is that it's performative and in intended to send a message favoring peace and unity those who stay silent in the midst of global atrocities are the means by which uh such atrocities are perpetuated and repeated it is also worth noting that during Israel's assault on Gaza three hostages have been killed and two rescued not to mention the unknown numbers who've been killed in accidental bombings for that reason I believe calling for the release of hostages and not calling for a ceasefire should logically be mutually exclusive finally I believe it is purposefully naive to say that there was a ceasefire on October 7th there has been a total domination and subjugation of the Palestinians by a settler or Colonial estate for 75 years now we must call for sees fire for the future and safe future safety of both Israelis and Palestinians um and last thing as a native Arab speaker saaya means girls not sex slaves thank you sh he excuse me hey excuse me excuse me excuse me come on now please come on now please the the the moon in lying today it's not it's not it's it's it it's excuse me let's folks folks folks please let's take it let's let's just thank let's let's relax okay you know I we maybe should have insued a rule of no applause um and maybe we should ask people to do that going forward because because applausing for certain things um apparently can be hurtful and so you know we're trying to keep the temperature down here um that's what's most important I think is to have civil conversation courteous discourse um and uh just trying to avoid any particular issues so okay it please please I we're I'm not I'm not looking for comments please I'm not looking for comments I'm not looking for com please hey let's stop I'll tell you what it's what is it 8:30 let's take a five minute bathroom break all right let's let's I'm sorry I think that we we need may I say something please may I say something excuse me I would like to say something okay this whole situation right the reason why we're sitting here right now is important okay as far as we're concerned it is important enough for us to take a five minute break settle down and come back with cooler heads the Sun and Moon are lying today y'all come on man okay five minutes we'll be back thank you five minutes we'll be back thank you thank you need to stand anyway my watch has been reminding me I need to stand you know yes okay thank you thank you I wanted thank you for doing everything to prepare for this meeting it was enormously say e e e e e e e e e e e everybody we're going to uh we're going to Recon if if everyone could if if everyone could take their seats please our next speaker is Amira elbach elbach and before before she starts um I want to just make a two comments um there are some folks who are having trouble logging in to zoom and um of course they may not be able to hear this but if any of them are your friends and they're asking for any help um please direct them to the town calendar where the link is for them to log in I think that's that's what we're trying to do up here it's hard to answer emails and pay attention at the same time though um second is I I want to reiterate something I said in my ear my original comments which is that please don't comment on anything anyone else has said um for any reason just keep information keep your reactions to yourself uh because it's there's there's no positive that comes out of that thank you Amira are you here yes can you hear me yes we can tell me when you're ready okay perfect um yes I would like to speak now thank you very much uh my name is Amir I'm a Brookline resident and I'm here today to support Article 19 calling for a ceasefire because it's time to remind the world that seems to have forgotten that human lives matter equally because this resolution Mourns the lives of hundreds of Israeli civilians as well the tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian lives lost since October 7 because it acknowledges our shared pain and infinite outrage towards action that threaten the very essence of our Humanity we should never have to debate the simple truth that absolutely nothing justifies indiscriminate mass murder of humans in the past six months we have seen a historically unprecedented tra of suff of human suffering we've seen a father holding the remains of his children in a plastic bag entire fam is wiped out in seconds women having C-sections without anesthesia and thousands of children dying in forced starvation and preventable disease and I refuse to believe that in this world and in our community this incredible cruelity can be ignored let alone Justified or even celebrated Collective punishment is a crime against humanity against which we should all stand and I'm here because despite my anguish and despair I too I'm complicit with my silence and inaction and my tax dollars that pay for this because it's not just my moral obligation but also because the devastation of this conflict reaches all the way here because it is a local issue because in this community people I have known and broken bread with and hosted their children in my home have stopped speaking to me just because of who I am as an Arab as a Muslim as a believer in Palestinian Freedom equally to every other freedom and I wonder then do they also think that my life is worth less than theirs or do they think that in some scenario my child's life can be chugged off as collateral damage and it breaks my heart and this is why I'm here this resolution speaks against this reality for myself and my community as well as the reality of the people of Gaza it empowers us to stand together United against hate Against Racism against Division and we can all recognize together that history has taught us repeatedly that violence never yields peace and none of us are safe until everyone is safe that we can say along Millions across the world that support this it's not on our name and not on our watch never again is never again for everyone thank you very much thank you sah harun thank you my name is sah harun and I'm a resident of Brooklyn in precin 6 I am here to support uh the amended warrant Article 19 this resolution presents a position of moral Clarity with its focus on promoting peace and its emphasis on the value of Life across the Israel Palestine divide we have a civic responsibility here to examine the role of the US abroad we can and we must collectively Express to our elected representatives that the United States has a moral duty to use its power to stop violence to allow humanitarian relief to reach those in Gaza and to enable a release of hostages the soats amendment opposing the ceasefire accuses the New York Times the guardian and the BBC of spreading Lies when reporting Israeli strikes leading to civilian deaths it flatly denies United Nations and other reports that famine is imminent in huzza it asks you to ignore all accounts of Israel's deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians Aid workers doctors and journalists and it denies the critical need for a ceasefire and a cessation of these attacks the Gladstone burin Amendment also opposes a ceasefire asking that we instead stand aside and wait for the Biden Administration to act but it is the Biden administration's very failure to act that brings me here today this is not an act of hostility yes we and Brooklyn are divided to be united we must unequivocally unequivocally commit to the very values that drive our local agenda of anti-racism and land acknowledgement and unite these with our Global Outlook we must reaffirm our belief in independent journalism in international humanitarian organizations and the humanity of all we must reaffirm the right of 2 million in khaza and the 240 hostages taken by Hamas to Life Safety food Health Care water and freedom thank thank you on Zoom uh uh Eddie strum Fels hi all uh my name is Eddie strumfeld uh you see him pronouns and I'm a current resident in Precinct 10 here tonight uh to speak in favor of the W19 and the amendment submitted by the original petitioners uh so I just want to First express my gratitude to the original petitioners for their work in writing and putting together this article which would have our town join the lights of Cambridge Somerville Medford Northampton and many other towns across Massachusetts along with cities like Chicago and Seattle across the country and calling for an immediate ceasefire ending the war in Gaza since the October 7th uh Hamas attack which killed 12200 Israelis and kidnapped some 240 others the IDF has killed over 30,000 gazin 14,000 of them children in addition to hundreds of journalists and humanitarian Aid workers Gaza has been decimated and its homes hospitals schools and more have been destroyed by bombs made by the United States and launched by Israel despite 6 months of invasion and occupation we are today no closer to the release of any hostages Israeli or Palestinian and instead draw closer and closer to an expanded conflict which can only mean further death and Destruction for all civilians trapped in the crosshairs the only path that leads us away from further suffering and Devastation is that of peace and the actions of the Biden Administration are decisive in determining if the next decade is one of endless war or of peace and Reconciliation I desperately hope we can one day say our town did our part to put us on the path towards peace and the first step is to join in with the majority of Americans who want to see a permanent ceasefire now I'll just conclude by saying that in all the years I've lived in Brooklyn I have seen and been a part of my fair share of heated and contentious issues and as difficult as they have been I've never seen the kind of threatening and frankly shameful Behavior as I have in the past six months I've seen posters for peace mourning the death of children faed and destroyed I've seen Elders harassed by strangers on the train I've even had a dear friend surrounded and threatened for display the Palestinian flag it's critical that we as a community urge ourselves forward to a place of healing and mutual understanding and that cannot happen until there's thank you thank you also in Zoom um NADA almany I'm ready okay hi I'm speaking today in favor of Warrant Article 19 on the proposed amendment by the original petitioners I'm a proud Muslim Arab American and the last 6 months have been incredibly painful over 30,000 Palestinians murdered is not just a number and each one of those people had a life and loved ones and dreams over 13,000 of those murdered were children a fact we should not be able to live with we've seen children losing limbs carrying the remaining parts of their siblings and plastic bags losing their parents being stared to death begging the world to stop their killing in a televised children's P press conference back in November I wonder how many of those children who pleaded with us to save them are still alive I'm a mother and I see my children and every one of them we've seen mothers mourning having C-sections without anesthesia going out to get food for their families only to return to them murdered we've seen men try to stand strong for their families as they carry their lifeless children's bodies and journalists who reported on their own family's death while they try to show the world what is happening to them I'm asking Brookline to follow suit with so many towns in the US and call for an immediate ceasefire I want to tell my children that Muslim Arab children like them matter this isn't just another conflict somewhere far away our government is choosing to ignore the majority of Americans in favor of a ceasefire and is using our tax dollars to pay for bombs instead of funding our schools and as taxpayers this isn't just an international issue many in our community have personal ties in the Middle East and we need to stand together and find a common Humanity I hope everyone here wants all the hostages released Palestinian and Israeli and wants the killing to stop and Palestinians to have access to as much humanitarian Aid as possible and a chance to rebuild I hope we we can agree that that's just a start and a bare and the bare minimum will accept the only time hostages were released was during a temporary ceasefire and if you are concerned for their lives and the lives and freedom of Palestinians you should be in favor for a ceasefire and a lasting peace anything less than that is unacceptable thank you Maya Diane y [Music] sure I'm Maya Diane an Israeli American and a Brooklyn resident in favor of the petitioners amended ceasefire resolution October 7th was harrowing and like most of those with links to Israel I am one step removed one point of contact removed away from victims from hostages who were later found dead and from Festival attendees who barely survived the massacre I don't know what October 7th would have felt like had I not been able to hear my grandparents voices on the other end of the line I can only imagine how Palestinians and those with loved ones in Gaza felt when Israel cut power and cell reception how it feels six months later when even a minor illness can become a life threat can become life-threatening as famine is taking hold when Aid workers are targeted and flower lines turn into massacres a poll last month found that 60% of Goins had lost at least one family member in this War I can only imag begin to comprehend the scale of Devastation born of collective punishment international law was developed in the aftermath of the Holocaust to affirm that human rights transcend National sovereignty that no matter how convinced one state or government is that their actions are Justified they are not the ultimate judges of their actions legitimacy Israel has repeatedly and blatantly violated international law there comes a limit to how much destruction championed by leaders who have publicly voiced their genocidal intent can be labeled as self-defense there's also a limit to my understanding of how a resolution asking for a ceasefire for the return of the hostages and for a lasting peace can be labeled as an endorsement of Kamas I implore you to approve the resolution with the petitioner amendments thank you Susan exitz my name is Susan eskovitz I've been a resident of Brookline for 47 years I am Jewish I'm writing in support of Warrant Article 19 and the amendment filed by the original petitioners I am another Jewish mother against the slaughter of Palestinian children that is what my sign says a sign that has been photographed hundreds of times when I'm not at a rally or a protest in support of an immediate Seas fire I stand in coolage corner with my sign around my neck many people pass by who don't even look at me many people pass by who do many of those people stop and chat for a moment and thank me for being there with the message there are more appreciative folks than there are those who shake their heads and utter have seen comments I stand there because I have to do something after all I am a human being and I cannot fathom how we can still be discussing this when more than 33,000 Palestinians have been murdered others maimed missing starving to death and all of it taking place right before our eyes this is not only an international and national issue is a Massachusetts is issue and a local issue that impacts all of us human beings as well as those of us who pay taxes our shair in Massachusetts is 478 m856 th000 for example we could instead hire at least 2,500 nurses build about 45,000 housing units pay for about 32 Head Start slots for children are we not a progressive Town should we not stand on the correct side of History we cannot and should not let let another second go by without calling for an immediate and Lasting ceasefire in Gaza thank you Shan erck thank you my name is shos Erick I'm a longtime resident of Brooklyn I am here tonight to speak in favor of the petitioners amended version of Warrant Article 19 on January 30th the office of the high commission for UN Human Rights declared that quote Gaza is a massive human rights crisis and a humanitarian disaster as a professor of gender studies at UMass Boston I want to zero in on the G gender dimensions of this crisis not only have approximately 70% of those killed been women and children but Palestinian women and girls have been systematically stripped of their rights to bodily Integrity which is an integral dimension of the international human rights ecosystem first menstruation menstrual health and dignity requires access to pads tampons Water Sanitation and Disposal facilities all of which are human rights due to the dire lack of these some women and girls are taking period delaying pills which have serious side effects also the serious risk of UTI and infection of the reproductive tracts pregnancy women aren't getting pre uh prenatal care they are malnourished underweight and that's leading to babies being born seriously underweight according to care and international relief organization there's been a 300% increase in miscarriages childbirth those lucky enough to make it to a hospital risk serious infection and medical complications due to lack of unsanitary conditions lack of supplies most dire is the performance as others have mentioned of C-sections without anesthesia women are often discharged within 3 hours of giving birth in a hospital and some as little as discharged within a half hour others give please please conclude okay as Jews were taught to pursue justice for all includes women and girls work in he ruvy thank you dear members of the advisory committee thank you for listening to the comments today my name is Ruby kitov I'm a Brooklyn resident running for town meeting in precin six by now thousands of hours have been spent by many people as a result of this warn article hundreds of people in the community including many town meeting select board and advisory committee members are discussing the article the Amendments how people will vote and the views of the candidates in email threads Zoom meetings and chat groups at the end of May town meeting will convene to discuss important matters related to Brookline but very few people are talking about things like the 2025 budget or the proposed changes to zoning bylaws for accessory dwelling units just to name a couple Article 19 is completely taken over the town discussion because it asks us to take a moral stance on a on a situation thousands of miles away that is so complex that none of the experts have been able to resolve it yet you can see how divisive the article is just based on the comments and the feelings here today and the fact that for many people this article has become the litmus test for candidates running for office in Brooklyn think for a moment about how unproductive and harmful this is to town that voters are picking candidates based on how they're going to vote on the article instead of what the candidate stances are on what truly mattered to the functioning of Brookline regarding the content the wording of the amendment article is still misguided one-sided and squarely puts the blame on Israel the word ceasefire has not been taken out since the main objective of the article is to provide some victory that will allow the petitioners to say Brooklyn voted for a ceasefire if people are looking for the bid Administration to put pressure on Israel I believe we're seeing that already without burline having anything to do with it I'm urging the advisory committee to vote no on the amendment article no on the ly Amendment and yes to the Gladstone bursting thank you thank you very much Arno amalog ready hello our names are arag and sopi schnapper Jewish and Israeli um sorry Jewish and Israeli parents of four in bookline uh we would like to speak in favor of the petitioner's new version of warant Article 19 today the question is no more whether the call for bilateral ceasefire should be discussed in Pine it is discussed and that's why this subcommittee exists the question is what you will recommend about bilateral ceasefire humanitarian head and release of their stages all the member organization of the progressive Israel Network including my Jewish suamp our Zionist organization here is what they say we represent the vast majority of liberal American Jews and we support a bilateral ceasefire there is no military solution what they say is very close or identical to this uh resolution this amendment so what will you support additionally things are going to get much worse in Gaza this is a title of an article by the Israeli newspaper hars on April 6 the daily caloric intake in Gaza is below the minimum during the worst days of the Somali famine from quote from who the danger of starvation threatened more than two million people in Gaza but the first victims are the toddlers the less than five years old 70% 70 of whom have had diara in the preceding two weeks this is a 23 fold compared to 2022 it put them at risk of dehydratation disease and deaths will you recommend no action while no one is safe in Gaza not even the worker of world Central Kitchen the flow of food and head cannot be restored only a bilateral ceasefire can provide the aid to save these children's life and the return of the Israeli stage to their homes thank you very much please don't sit on the sidelines thank you uh so via Zoom I've got Karen stened yes that's correct I'm sorry apologies okay good evening my name is Muhammad and I'm a Brookline resident I'm originally from Iraq I have lived through multiple Wars and air strike anyone who has lived through a war will tell you that they wouldn't wish it on anybody else uh some say but Hamas started it on October 7 by killing 1200 Israelis and others say well Israel started it before October 7 with the death of with killing of thousands of Palestinian and the answer to both is no uh the massacres Israel did before October 7 does not justify October 7 the massacre Hamas did October 7th does not justify what's happening right now Gaza Strip is 140 square miles which is equivalent to a circle of a 6 and a half mile radius so where we're standing right now it will be Brookline uh Boston Cambridge Somerville Watertown and new Intel about the 95 now put a wall a 20 foot wall starve them bomb them every single day for six months this is what it feels like the total number of kids killed by Israel has exceeded 13,750 according to the UN which is 750 more than what the article says imagine seeing the dead bodies of 750 children lined up actually you don't have to imagine you can just go to social media or YouTube and watch the videos of them the number of children killed by is is is equivalent to all the students in every single Brookline Public School Cambridge Public School and Watertown Public School combined and you're asking for more by not demanding a ceasefire an immediate ceasefire I just ask you when you go home tonight to look at yourself in the mirror and decide which side of history and which side of the moral Spectrum you would like to be on thank you very much now it's Karen she was having some trouble logging in do we know if she got it yep okay great I think you're still muted Karen oh hi good evening everyone um my name is Karen Sten I'm a Brookline resident in Precinct six and um I too would like to just Express gratitude for the petitioners and I'm uh commenting in support of the amended warrant Article 19 um I definitely uh amart by all of the comments and and uh concur with the articulate astute and heartfelt statements in favor of Warrant Article 19 on uh Easter Sunday um my daughter a 10th grader at Brookline High School and I had the honor and privilege of attending the Brookline uh Coalition for peace uh hosted talk by uh Physicians for human rights Israel where we were able to hear uh two Israeli Physicians speak about their experiences in Gaza and the crisis therein one comment that they stated was that they just go home every day feeling like they just didn't do enough and what they did was affirm all of our Humanity so far from this crisis uh feeling so helpless that's what I fear slipping away is is my humanity and I feel heartened and uh grateful for the opportunity to go on record uh in stating and calling for a ceas fire now I firmly believe that is what will bring the hostages home and we need to care for the people of Gaza um you know I can't my conscience sit by and do nothing I'm I'm a proud Brooklyn resident and would be so heartened to know that we as a town uh have gone on record and recognize one another for our similar call for Humanity thank you thank you setting these setting the list out ahead of time was a good idea going down the list Osman right yes thank you um I'm Hibba Osman I'm a physician in Brookline and I very much appreciate you taking the time to listen um to this resolution and the arguments for it I am in favor of um the um resolution that's being proposed as well very much in favor of the levy Amendment which actually spoke to me I read before I came here and that really touches on our shared Humanity it doesn't go into who started what I have heard so much misinformation today um that's really disturbing especially by people who proposed other amendments so I if you do take them into consideration I hope that you will go and research um all the information that's shared with the other amendments about who did what I'm thankful to hear that there were no beheaded babies mentioned but there were lots of other uh pieces of atrocity propaganda that have been disproven time and again that have been raised I think the reason you saw the room erupt when um the uh misinformation about what sabaya means um was because we all felt it my mother would walk into the room and call me and my friend sabaya I assure you she was not calling us prostitutes it's Arabic for young lady the misinformation is immense and I have just a few more words to say in terms of why this applies locally and it's not just the money that we spent it's also that we as constituents in Massachusetts need to give our Representatives a very strong message Jake aen Claus who represents us gets a lot of money from APAC from the Zionist Lobby $100,000 last year $668,000 so far this year he is speaking based on the money that buys him he needs to hear his con constituents stand up for what's right stand up for Humanity not point fingers at anybody but do what's right we need to speak up asine thank you thank you Mona are you Mona yes okay just making sure whenever you're ready thank you hi my name is Mona maafi and I've been a Brookline resident for 14 years our family has loved living in Brookline and has always felt safe welcome and happy in our town I want to start by addressing the Gladstone bursting Amendment which essentially calls for following the Biden administration's lead in this War I stand against this amendment on basic principles of democracy democracy calls for citizens to stand up and be in engaged in their government it does it is not citizens who should blindly follow or lead any elected official but rather elected officials that must listen to their citizenry and understand where they stand in this moment on this issue of grave importance it is our duty as Citizens to be here to think critically to engage on the issues and to make clear where we stand beyond that on the substance the Biden Administration has called for an immediate ceasefire so I would say that the Gladstone Burtin amendment should not be considered neither on principle nor on substance more than ever this moment calls for standing together here in Brooklyn this is not just our calling but also that of Palestinians and Israelis working toward a shared future back in November leaders from the new Israel fund spoke to pack audiences at Temple siai and the brookln public library sharing their hope for a shared future they urged us As Americans to not be divided at this moment on this issue just last last week a delegation from Physicians for human rights Israel came right here to Brooklyn with the exact same message they urged us do not turn away and please call for ceasefire now as a progressive town brookln has stood firmly on the right side of Justice in so many conflicts as residents of Brooklyn we are proud of this history this moment calls for no less courage let us be clear sitting out on the sidelines voting no action on this warrant is not a decision to stay neutral it is an active decision to stay complicit in the atrocities we have been funding for the last 6 months thank you Mona thank you Sean hi hi uh my name is Sean Ley present 7 I ask the advisory committee to move forward with the article uh I'll speak speak specifically to the question of foreign policy versus local policy last fall the town moderator who appoints AC when advising against an article on this topic describ those in Brookline calling for a cease fire as terrorist for those living in the cave that means kill them that's a local policy the Brookline police sent a crystal knocking email out to parents suggesting that Brookline Muslims were listening to calls to violence from from Global Jihad that's a local policy in contrast the FBI and others correctly identify that anti-semitic and islamophobic incidents have overwhelmingly come from right-wing white supremacists not Jews not Muslims we've seen men shot women chased down the street kids bullied in school and racist Graff graffiti it's local policy opposition to the article includes violently anti-semitic claims that local Jews must back Netanyahu benir and support famine to Pro to prove our jewishness genes side demands dehumanization in order to dehumanize other people we first have to dehumanize ourselves that's a local policy I ask the AC to allow the article to proceed to vote for a SE ceasefire to return all the hostages to affirm life and to ensure the safety and peace in mind of our local Jewish and Muslim residents thank you thank you thank you uh via Zoom uh if she's available Daphne Zohar hi can you hear me yes we can okay thank you for listening I'm a Brooklyn res president and I care deeply about the suffering of all fellow humans and I wish the war would end I'm speaking against Article 19 those proposing Article 19 have good intentions they care about social justice and they believe the misinformation that has been served to them by Hamas including statistics about deaths that have been debunked yet are repeated by news outlets and in this room without factchecking or discernment let's assume that we choose to believe those lies ask yourselves what excuse me can you hear me yeah excuse me de please in the audience please okay everyone has been really good tonight let's not go down a path of criticizing or disagreeing with things that you're hearing because that's what we talked about at the beginning of this evening not to do that if you're going to persist in doing that we'll ask you to leave thank you should I continue go ahead yes please St so let's assume that we choose to believe those lies ask yourselves what is it about this particular conflict that brookln feels it needs to pass a resolution about why didn't the town of Brooklyn pass resolutions to end the slaughter of collectively hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria Ukraine Sudan Yemen Nigeria Somalia and Myanmar in order to understand this you must understand that anti-Semitism morphs into whatever a culture most fears and hates lies against the Jewish people to dehumanize and justify violence against them are as old as time it's happening today it's happening in Brooklyn the same people who would faint at the sound of the N or r or f word are happily calling for violence and death of Jews against under the guise of anti-zionism this is terrifying to those of us who are descendants of Holocaust Survivors Zionism led to the establishment of a Jewish state in the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people there is no Zionist movement anymore there's only the question of whether Israel should exist or whether you believe like Hamas and other Iranian surrogates that Israel should not defend itself against an enemy that cynically causes and celebrates its own civilian deaths thank you very much thank you uh is Max there um she's not here I can I just say that she has been she feels very much hate a lot of that's okay please no that's we'll just move on to the next speaker okay uh Sarah liberer on Zoom not here okay well if she makes it we'll come back to her khed Isel good evening so my my name is khed is I'm a Brookline resident a physician and I'm here in support of the petitioner's amendment of War Article 19 so I just want to briefly share a reflection I had after reading the amended article you know I couldn't help wonder who would say no to such a proposal you know who in good conscience would say no to stopping the killing of innocent people women children and elderly it was wrong on October 7th and it was wrong every single day since who in good conscience would say no to um free innocent hostages War has not freed any hostages ceas fire did who in good conscience would say no to immediate unrestricted Aid to starving families women and children know eating grass and sand and drinking their own urine at times and who would in good conscience would say no to stopping racism anti-Semitism islamophobia and all forms of hatred in our own town of Brooklyn that's what this petitioner's amendment is calling for and you know someone just asked why is this particular War so different and I have two answers for you one we are funding this war every single person in this audience and in this town you know it's our tax dollars and two we can stop this war you know the US can absolutely has the power to end this war tomorrow and push for political Solutions you know the best way to get rid of Hamas is to provide Palestinians with a better you know true alternative a chance to truly live and prosper a reason to want to live in peace with Israel and for those who say this is an international matter you know has nothing to do with Brookline I would argue it is enormously impacting many residents in Brookline just look at the room and look at you know the you know the audience on Zoom uh not to mention the rising hate incidents against Arabs Palestinians Israelis and Jews here in Brooklyn this is directly related to the ongoing war and started way before the war in article um so uh coming together in support of this amendment upholding our humanity and respect to human life thank you Ahmed El on T hi uh my name is Ahmed say I'm a resident of Brookline today I'm speaking in favor of Article 19 and the proposed amendment by the original petitioners I'm asking the town of Brookline to match what so many towns and cities Across the Nation have done and call for an immediate ceasefire for the past 6 months Israel has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians mostly women and children this isn't just another conflict somewhere far away unfortunately we as American taxpayers are funding this this genocide our federal government choose to ignore the majority of Americans who are in favor of a ceasefire and is using our tax money to pay for bombs instead of funding our schools and infrastructure there are more than 100 towns and cities across the United States that voted for a ceasefire actually the whole world is asking for a ceasefire the world has had enough watching kids dying every single day we're asking for a ceased fire the release of all the hostages I wonder how would that be divisive to our town I've heard folks saying that this is beyond Brooklyn jurisdiction which I disagree this would not be the first time the town of Brookline has had taken a stance on an international issue actually as someone said earlier this isn't just an international issue many in our community have personal ties to the Middle East others are already devastated by the atrocities of that genocide committed in Gaza we need to stand together and find our common Humanity please vote Yes for Article 19 and prove that Brook line is for all thank you very much so the next person we're gonna hear from is Sarah liberer did I skip her before or she was not here she she's she had a heart yeah okay hello my name is Sarah liberer not Julia and I'm a Brookline resident From Prank synct one I'll try to keep this as succinct as possible but for now I need to get this off my chest I support the ceasefire resolution stated in warrant Article 19 for the following reasons it is currently estimated that more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed including over 13,800 children even before October 7th Palestinians have horrendously suffered under the Israeli government's regime for the past 76 years as an American Jew in favor of a ceasefire I believe this will save countless lives I also want to emphasize that advocating for a ceasefire is not anti antisemitic many Jewish values align with Justice and I strongly believe that urging our officials to na an immediate and permanent ceasefire is incredibly necessary both for Palestinians and Jews around the world the US is largely responsible for supplying weapons to Israel and the consequences have been beyond devastating for this reason although this may sound contradictory a growing number of Jews including myself are standing on the right side of history and will not stop pushing our world leaders to save Palestine from the Israeli occupation after six months of genocide the situation could be more dire and Urgent and I hope the entire town can stand on the right side of History thank you thank you Lauren shear here and I'm another Jew in favor of Warrant Article 19 I reject the premise that this article is too divisive given the particularly vile harassment local activist friends and myself have been subjected to said division has been here the whole time having one safy threatened and experiencing cognitive dissonance because your beliefs are called into question are two different things the genocide in Gaza recognized as such by the icj and every reputable human rights organization the world over it's funded with billions of our tax dollars trying to silence all objection to that is anti-democratic and morally obscene and no debunk propaganda can change that $139 million from Massachusetts alone goes to Israel every year instead of local needs while our Palestinian neighbors people whom my heart has grown from the privilege of knowing grieve the loss of entire branches of their family tree this is a local concern and is a moral imperative to address it this resolution calls for a bilateral complete ceasefire affirming the humanity of all concerned while refusing to omit the history that led us here this resolution demands the unrestricted passage of Aid to Gaza because there is no excuse for purposeful starvation the only answer to this horror is a political solution not continued lies and brutality while silencing those who demand mere decency if 14,000 children killed does not spur you to action ask yourself how many more need to die before you are comfortable speaking against it as my hero aitz Survivor and lifelong Crusader for Palestinian rights Haj Meer said never again for anyone thank you Marina radua good evening evening my my name is Marina I'm um and I'm here in support of the amended amended warrant Article 19 because peace and Justice matter today marks exactly six months since the beginning of a mass destruction of Gaza after October 7th in which no red lines have been respected where even schools hospitals mosques and churches have been targeted and destroyed in six antagonizing months of pain and suffering an average of four children have been killed every 60 Minutes four children per hour for 6 months Gaza lies in the ruins now it's um residents facing death if not from air strikes rockets and bullets for sure from man-made starvation and disease the scale of Destruction is horrifying veteran humanitarians say that the crisis and suffering in Gaza is unlike any other they have ever witnessed before last week seven Aid workers of world Central Kitchen including our fellow American were killed in a targeted attack by IDF with the missiles provided and paid by our country with our tax money they their only crime being dis distribution of meals to starving Palestinians they are now added to the list of 196 Aid workers killed till now let's make it clear there is no path to peace through violence the global Community recognizes it and now finally it seems like President Biden calling for ceasefire recognizes it too so let us here in Brooklyn stand together in the midst of this crisis and support what's morally right peace and Justice is not an radical idea so please vote Yes on this critically important vant Article 19 which would hopefully become a step step towards achieving the lasting peace for both Nations thank you so much thank you isan Ley Salam alikum and Shalom to all our community here on on Zoom ladies and gentlemen and esteemed members of the advisory committee as isan Lei a moroccan-american immigrants an advocate for justice it is an honor to stand before you to speak about a resolution that resonates deeply with my own life's Mission the proposed amendment to Article 19 for ceasefire and humanitarian Aid in Gaza is not just a political statement it's a reflection of the values that have driven my journey from the streets of Morocco to the halls of the American democracy in my life I have witnessed and experience the struggles that come from inequality and Injustice I have fought against the corporate greed that disregards the many for the profit of a few today as we discuss this resolution I see a parallel in our call for an immediate enduring ceasefire and unrestricted passage of humanitarian Aid in Gaza this is not just a matter of policy but a question of humanity this resolution Mourns the tragic loss of lives calls for the safe return of hostages and demands an end to the violence that breeds hatred and division these issues echo my own struggles against racial social economic and environmental justice injustices in the face of adversity We Stand United advocating for a world where peace is built on the back the Bedrock of in of justice and empathy furthermore the call for Freedom equality and Democratic representation for all in Palestine and Israel mirrors my belief in a just world a world where every individual irrespective of their background can live with dignity and opportunity this resolution is a step towards that world and it demands our Collective action and wavering commitment thank you Ryan rad my name is Rihanna Riva and I'm here today in support of amended Article 19 an immediate ceasefire has been supported by the vast majority of world States the UN and now President Biden it's not just necessary it's our moral obligation to sure we support one as well we see the horrifying images coming out of Gaza due to Israel's indiscriminate violent attack that pays no heed to its Target whether it's a child Aid or medical worker hostage or civilian people missing limbs orphans crying for parents that will never come back parents grieving children they will never see grow history will look back at us recent data shows that American young adults are becoming increasingly more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and the Youth of today are the voters and policy makers of tomorrow and although I come here today slightly baffled frankly that we must debate whether to support such violence and Terror or not I can assure you we will not stop fighting for peace and Justice because we as Americans will never support our money being used to kill while we watch fellow Americans struggle to make ends meet in our own home base my little brother's Elementary School alone just faced a budget cut that could have easily been covered by the money used to destroy the same Elementary School in Gaza we will will not send hard-earned American tax dollars to Aid Israel in murdering innocent people innocent children and now even our own countrymen who have been there to Aid in humanitarian efforts let's uphold our moral duty to protect the innocent and fight for peace only political solution will be able to secure this government leaders around the globe calling for a ceasefire know this thousands of Israelis riding in Tel Aviv now know this Millions protesting around the world now know this and we in Brooklyn eager to end violence in Gaza and divisiveness in our community know this as well thank you Isabella G for NOP okay if Isabella shows up we will find a slot for her excuse me if I pronounce this incorrectly FIA Rashid who should be on Zoom hi there thank you hi uh my name is fzy rashed and I am in support of warrant Article 19 and it's called for an immediate and Lasting ceasefire in Gaza I want to quote a letter from a network of 100 active duty military service members across the United States armed forces the laws of war either apply to all of us or none of us it is undeniably evident that the Israeli Defense Forces are repeatedly and systematically committing war crimes in Gaza it has led these active military servicemen to assert that support for the conduct of the IDF is unaccepted able and inconsistent with our values in the US Armed Forces it is incumbent upon us all to hold hold those we call our partners and allies to the same standards that we hold ourselves as Americans we cannot defend the indefensible we cannot abide by such a double standard as there is no legal or moral gray area where service members of Any Nation Target or kill civilians when we as Americans and citizens of Brooklyn through our silence allow this genocide to continue we are saying that it is okay to kill our children ma our civilians and starve to death millions of our Innocents please understand what you are really saying is that rules of war no longer matter and that you are tacitly giving the world permission for these crimes to be committed against American civilians American children and American lives because rules of War apply to all of us or none of us please understand that this is the opposite of what our nation's called for after the Holocaust thank you Elina zilberberg uh good evening everybody uh thank you for having us here um I am a a resident of Brook line since 1981 we came here as Jewish refugees uh from former Soviet Union and Brookline became home for us and it became a safe place for us and I just can't imagine that we have to vote on these amendments I think we should do no action because it doesn't bring us together it brings us apart and this is not what our town needs this is a big International Community October what happened in Israel six months ago was another Holocaust and we're still trying to deal with this and I'm talking on behalf of all my friends and neighbors who live in this town and who love this town and have we always have a you know I have a special uh place in my heart for Brookline even when I complain about the weather and I just look around the room and I hear people's reactions and it's it's dividing us let's bring Brookline together let's have events together that bring us together we have no power at all to vote on something that's happening in Israel or Palestine or Gaza because they've been trying to negotiate peace and ceasefire and release of hostages for the past six months nothing so where how are we going to help the only thing we can do is have a strong Community here in Brookline where everybody is welcome and that's why I would say no action also I'm surprised to see there is an ongoing war in Ukraine I am from Ukraine I still have friends and family there it's another place that's dear in my heart nothing is happening here why are we iing Israel you know and its right to exist which was given to us after the Holocaust and this is why I hope that just no action thank you IET Schultz AIT on Zoom Schultz a y lit t i Elite hello yep hi there we go all right ready to start my name is Elite Schultz I'm a Brooklyn resident and I'm against all these warrant articles this is the wrong process a two-page warrant article is the wrong vehicle for addressing complex foreign policy and giving people two minutes each to have their voices heard leaves only enough time for sound bites and undermines the principles of thoughtful thoughtful discourse and of Truth with all due respect Town Representatives you are the wrong people for this job because you were not elected to do foreign policy this is simply outside your lane and if despite all this you feel you must go forward with a resolution on this topic you must give people a real opportunity to address and debunk the dozens of Lies put forth here tonight you have asked us not to respond to what other people have said tonight but just look at the gross distortions of fact 33,000 civilians I'm sorry no half of them if not more were combatants indiscriminate bombing again no you cannot just throw out accusations like that with no backing just because you heard it on Al jazer does not make it true the only time hostages were released was during a ceasefire again simply not true hostages have been rescued on more than one occasion and bodies unfortunately have been recovered to Aid workers targeted no this was a mistake a grave one but not targeted calling it intentional is a blood liable Collective punishment a blood liable Israel has genocidal intent again blood liable Jake aen Claus gets a lot of money from APAC implying that he does not vote his conscience or represent his constituents again blood liable and just because there are Jews saying these blood lies does not make them true again town of Brooklyn should not be complicit it is not representative of my voice I would very much appreciate if you would make a clear statement that the town will getting back to the work I elected you to do thank you so so I I'm just gonna have to say something again you know I appreciate that people may not agree with what they're hearing we we talked about that at the beginning it's just not right it's not respectful and it hasn't happened except for certain speakers and I would really implore you to to not do that you know we've been having a great night here I think and that is it's just it's just so disrespectful to the folks who are making comments it's okay if you don't agree keep it to yourself that's that's the compact that we agreed to or maybe you didn't agree to it but it's a compact I asked you to agree to tonight thank you Ron sharf not here okay that's John that's John doet who's a a member of the subcomittee Ulus did he get on great hello everybody can you hear me yes we can all right thank you AI Liss I'm an attorney and a longtime resident uh of Brook in Brooklyn um I want to Echo what the previous speaker said um while you are absolutely uh respected and I appreciate all you do for this town everybody I've I've in fact sat on a panel like this for the town uh this is just much bigger than what we all ask you and should ask of you uh this is just something that is um very heated you can tell by the audience you making a decision one way or the other is absolutely not going to make anything better uh it's it's a sound bite it's a news clipping and it's a somewhat one-sided Victory if this warrant article passes and we do ask you to not to make no action on it please um to reiterate a few other things a lot of blood liable on one side a lot of disrespect on one side a lot of misinformation on one side it is incredibly difficult as a a Jew and as Israeli and as an American to listen to um the US bashing the Israel bashing and just just basically non-factual statements um I would caution and re re really um ask everyone on the board and panel and everyone in the room really please look up the word genocide just so you understand that word means um post 107 that word's been thrown around way too much and it's it's just too much for for us to handle we are still healing from that my parents surv my grandparents survived the Holocaust it's not something we take lightly um and I would also you know Echo the fact that we were silent as to matters in Congo Syria Ukraine uh Yemen Iraq and Afghanistan that had far more people uh killed in a war um and we made no position on that and um just because we do happen to have a large percentage of Arab Americans and Israelis thank you thank you Marina chenko hi my name is Marina shener thank you for allowing me to speak tonight I'm a longtime resident of Brooklyn and I also came here as a refugee from a former Soviet Union and we um obtain our Refugee status because uh Soviet Union was considered a very anti-semitic country however it was thinly veiled under the guise of anti-zionism so um as such I am extremely sensitive when people say that anti-zionism and anti-Semitism is not the same thing because from my life experience and from anybody who grew up in a Soviet Union in fact it is absolutely the same thing as far as today's topic um I also call for no action as a previous speaker said there have been very many very large conflicts in the war where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed starved genocide like such as genocide in Dar for and somehow it did not rise to the point of um requiring resolution from town of Brookline so the only difference I see from my perspective is that this particular conflict involves the only Jewish state in the world and that is why we're talking about this now I think that we should probably focus on improving our schools improving our roads maybe changing our wi so we can get electrified and maybe come climate crisis versus um putting ourselves in international politics thank you thank you on Zoom David fredman hi there I had hoped to be with you in person but unfortunately a family emergency LED Me to the ER but I thought it was important enough to join you tonight um because this issue was very important obviously and I'd urge you to not adopt a ceasefire resolution that has a lot of stuff that people probably might agree with but at the end of the day we all know that Brook line isn't going to change how President Biden or Senator Warren or Senator Mary see Hamas and Gaza in the crisis they're well aware that a lot of people want a ceasefire but I do think that this resolution is likely to stir up more anti-Semitism here in Brookline you know you call for a bilateral ceasefire and that suggests that we have to pressure Israel and Kamas but actually Israel has been willing to have a ceasefire for weeks they've been willing to do a ceasefire in return for the hostages so the problem is not Israel and when you call that um humanitarian crisis which is partly caused mainly caused by Famas taking food from its own people there's a false equivalency here too and I'm just very concerned that it's not coincidence you see more and more swastikas in Brookline classrooms that you see anti-semitic graffiti on t- stops in and around Brookline this is happening today and it's real and it's very dangerous so urge you to think about the anti-Semitism that's exploded and what will happen if there's more um implication of anti-Semitism in a resolution which is just not based on facts so appreciate your time on this and um as many other speakers have said the town does need to wait into Foreign Affairs and try to solve the Middle East crisis thank you thank you Danielle lens the list is very hello everyone and and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today my name is Danielle I'm from precent 11 I am Jewish I am Israeli I am actually Pro as seire and yet I do urge you to v no on the Endor M of Warrant 19 and the amendments in my view the question you should ask yourself today is not whether you think that the US should change its involvement in the conflict or whether this warrant is one-sided or sufficiently balanced the question is what any endorsement that's related to this highly complex conflict would do to the community we are all in the Biden Administration doesn't care if Brooklyn Massachusetts votes in favor of a ceasefire or not but we all the people that are here today we do clearly that is exactly why this resolution is divisive and it is why you shouldn't endorse it again as I mentioned I am actually in favor of a ceasefire a true one that includes humanitarian Aid with the return of all hostages and determination of Hamas control over Gaza but it doesn't matter because most people don't bother to read the original warrant 19 or the amended version I do acknowledge the great effort that was made uh to bring an a warrant that is balanced but we are living in the real world where such an endorsement is a call against Israel and unfortunately not the current Israeli government or Administration but all Israelis to think otherwise is simply naive when aided my son's thirdd grade year said that he's no longer allowed to play with Israelis he didn't bother to check if the Israeli in question or his parents are zionists or not or whether they are are against or not a ceasefire and this is beyond disturbing we should not be divisive and definitely not based on nationality I therefore urge you not to endorse warrant 19 or the Amendments not because you support or not its content but because you understand the harm that it can do to our community thank you thank you I Eldar L thank you um I've been a Brooklyn resident for over 15 years um and I'd like to share with you a little bit about what I've been through over the past few weeks and few months um my eighth grader uh at Florida Ruffin Ridley came home from school last week last Wednesday and she told me about a swasa one of her classmates Drew in science class and showed it to another Jewish friend later that day that very same day my high schooler daughter came back from school and asked me if I had seen the graffiti the anti-semitic graffiti that was drawn on the Longwood t- stop the amount of hate crime against Jewish and Israeli Community has raisen sharply over the past few months and even more sharply over the past few weeks since resolution 18 was actually proposed this morning you the Committee Member have asked sent an email saying that given the recent events in town you're seeking police protection for this meeting so um I want to ask you this if you decide to accept Article 19 what measure of precaution is the town willing to put in place to protect my children and all Jewish children in the in our community I hope I don't hurt your feeling but whether you would like to admit this or not your decision today has merly PR implications it is not likely that our US government or the Israeli government uh will uh pay attention to this decision if you decide to accept Article 19 or its variation the only implication your decision today will have is that it will like likely exacerbate even further hate crimes toward the Jewish community and town are you prepared to take responsibility and accountability for the ramification thank you very much appreciate it thank you Bonnie Bastion she I thought she was gonna be here okay can you hear me whenever you're ready thank you my name is Bonnie Bastion town meeting member in Precinct 5 thank you for my time to speak here tonight um I'm here to support the petitioner's amendment to Warren Article 19 I can't watch the horrors unfolding relentlessly and with impunity and not scream at the top of my lungs for this madness to stop at every opportunity available to me we have every right in Brooklyn to demand this ceasefire because our hard-earned tax dollars are complicit in the Bloodshed and are required to perpetuate a Slaughter that guarantees another generation of young people on both sides are traumatized by violence over the past few weeks it's become clear to me that efforts like this resolution across the country are beginning to work perspectives are beginning to change at the federal level and internationally In This Moment peace feels like the farthest thing from possible but falling into hopelessness is never an option Rebecca soulet wrote that hope is not the belief that everything was is or will be fine the evidence is all around us of tremendous suffering and destruction hope doesn't mean denying these realities hope means facing them and addressing them by remembering what else the 21st century has brought including the movements the heroes and the huge shifts in Consciousness that have moved us forward towards a Freer Society this resolution calls for a bilateral ceasefire and demands the return of all hostages Israeli and Palestinian it's hopeful it affirms the value of all life and it's an Act of Faith in humanity supporting this resolution and standing with the Brooklyn peace Coalition is an effort to hold on to my own Humanity I hope that you will find your way to support it as well thank you thank you ra mumas um good evening my name is R mtas I'm Precinct 15 thank you for allowing me to speak here tonight I'm here to support the war Article 19 and the amendment filed by the petitioners and I urge you to do the same we are a town where compassionate caring people flourish irrespective of their ethnicity and religion seeing the devastation Carnage continue on a daily basis in Gaza leaves me brings me here to ask you for permanent ceasefire Brookline is an empathetic town that supports Humane treatment towards others regardless of race ethnicity and religion if as residents of Brookline we can care and feed an emaciated golden retriever who was found in our town on January 29th why the hesitation to save innocent lives who are starving in Gaza and get the release of the innocent hostages Humanity has to Prevail and Brooklyn can help send a message that leads the way I urge you to support this resolution thank you Joshua Geller hi good evening my name is Josh Geller uh Precinct 7 uh I've come tonight to voice my vement opposition to war warant Article 19 rather than pointing out the original resolutions numerous flaws I urge the committee to carefully review the Gladstone written submission and sshot Amendment both of which do so remarkably well I do wish to speak however about divis divisive divisiveness which results from the lack of humility and Fidelity with regard to institutions regarding humility critics of Israel commonly employ elusive legal terms of art belonging to international law all of which carry implications of considerable severity sometimes it's white settler colonialism other times it's apartheid or genocide or illegal occupation or illegal settlement in the West Bank but we should have the humility to stop and ask if we really understand what we are saying the original resolution and the leevia amendment precisely failed to do this I implore the committee to consider that adopting resolution especially one that maligns Israel under the guise of international law is detrimental to the welfare and cohesion of the community second with regard to Fidelity of Institutions we must ask what is the role of Brookline Town Council what function does adopting this non-binding resolution that forces no action does not influence US foreign policy playing the role of local government it does nothing to solve any issue whatsoever affecting the residents of this town if members of the community would like to talk about acting with impunity look no further than the terrorist organization embedding itself within civilian population and stealing aid from its citizens if you think we are funding Israeli atrocities we also send hundreds of millions of dollars to unroll what do you think has happened with that money maybe our tax dollars wouldn't need to go to Israel if we stopped when we once we stop funding Iran and its proxies who are unwaveringly dedicated to the destruction of Israel look no further than what you are doing here tonight if you would like to talk about wasting taxpayer dollars in closing I ask the committee to take no action with the resolution if the committee chooses to adopt a resolution I ask that please consider the Gladstone burn Amendment buring Amendment as is the most neutral and least divisive with additional provision calling for the unconditional releases release of all hostages thank you Carlos Rios I here next Bradley uh masier the Gaza Health Ministry controlled by Kamas have said 33,000 people have killed been killed but they don't distinguish between Hamas and true civilians Israel says 13,000 Hamas terrorists have been killed so let's T take both numbers as fact despite the fact that world statisticians have demonstrated that the ministry's death toll numbers are probably improbable and likely nonsense let's forget that and assume 20,000 civilians have died 13,000 terrorists that represents a one and a half civilian to one combatant ratio which is historically and unprecedentedly low especially in urban Warfare when the average ratio of Civilian to combatant deaths in urban Warfare and Wars is 9 to1 what Israel is doing is distinct from genocide because if it were Israel would be trying to maximize casualties however imperfectly despite the world's unreasonable expectations Israel is doing the opposite so what is unique about this war it's not the death toll is that you have an Army in Kamas that has perfected the art of embedding itself with civilians so that you cannot hit them without hitting the people around them for a captured Islamic Jihad spokesperson released just today in a video Hamas openly uses one x-ray room in shifa hospital next to an act operational x-ray room other armies have done this but none have perfected it to the extent that Hamas has and I completely feel for the plight of the Palestinian people but what creates this is the way Kamas fights and either we can say one of two things either Israel doesn't have a clean shot and they have to let Hamas get away with it because it's just too much to bear but then we are essentially creating a situation where terrorists have found the perfect solution whereby they can cross the border Slaughter rate behead and then hide behind their own people and we can do nothing about it it's a perfect strategy can we live in a world where we allow that to be an acceptable strategy a ceasefire without the release of hostages and a full Surrender by Kamas is a win for terrorists and barbarism vote no on the resolution please you don't like something that someone says that's fine just keep it to yourself okay so just to give everyone an idea of where we are we have uh one two three six speakers left okay and then we can maybe have some discussion Tanya gorland online ready when you are good evening thank you very much for having me um speaking to you I am against this resolution I am a resident of Brookline for 37 years and that is the first time I participate in this kind of discussion um I think that um first of all I I I I'm very much amazed that those who promoted this re this um Article 19 didn't challenge the statistics and didn't check if the statistics provided by Hamas is right uh there is an article by Professor Wier uh who is a leading professor of statistic and data science at the Warton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania uh this article is named how the GAA Ministry of Health takes casualty numbers and I expect uh from intellectuals of brookl to check the numbers it is a respect to the residence of Brookline um as a town we have never participated in international Affairs be it World War I World War II Korean Vietnam War Afghanistan war Russian war against Ukraine Etc but this time Brookline is considering um considering stopping Israel from finishing Hamas a terrorist organization whose Charter still has an article of destruction of Israel Israel is doing great service to the whole world sacrifi sacrificing her own Sons and Daughters to make the world safer what Brooklyn needs to to concentrate on is T thank you your time is up thank you very much uh Asad Ahmed oh uh Maran Musa good evening everyone um thank you um my name is Maran I live across the [Music] street I would like to invoke and the members of this town the Golden Rule to live and to wish upon others what we wish upon ourselves I too doubted the numbers once of the amount of people that died I too could not fathom back in January that our entire public school student population would have been decimated since October till January but then I went and I looked for the numbers myself right now nobody can really say 100% what are the numbers but there is a pattern to history which is that the numbers that are reported by the health Ministry in Gaza are about 1 to 3% discrepant than those by the UN that go after each war and after each Siege since 2007 the last being in 2019 with the great march on the wall the last peaceful demonstration to free Gaza from The Siege where the UN report they could relieve it reported 150 civilians shot including those who are on wheelchairs shot by snipers in the head while 500 meters away from the wall so I ask you that happens one day Mar someone else that you take your time so you see SP thank you thank you Marty Rosenthal two minutes you do it trying to unmute and open video yep you're all set Marty tell us when you go okay thank sorry about that um may may I just ask a quick point of order did my written comments get into the record uh they were received and they will be public okay public all right thank you very much and I commend uh the chair for the way he's handled this meeting I'll go very quickly um I really yield to nobody in doing resolutions on State and National issues but this one I think was a huge mistake I also understand why advisory may want to stay out of such issues but on this one I don't think you should I think you should endorse Gladstone bursting as the what I would call a solomonic and very simple U compromise um secondly just where I'm coming from I believe Netanyahu and the West Bank settlements are horrendous um and I have to put that aside because what I think is the reason for Gladstone bursting and I support the Charles Schumer approach and the Biden approach for two states um the the problem is 3 800 pound gorillas that I can only mention very quickly about war in Article 19 and I don't question the good intentions of its proponents number one is the biggest issue that they ignore and some of them don't agree with is the right of Israel to exist as a state as a Jewish State now number two that raises the question of self-defense against a genocidal terrorist organization that's committed to wiping out Israel as a Jewish State and that brings up the question of self-defense and what is proportionate self-defense and that's a very complicated issue under international law some have tried to simplify it today saying Israel is violating international law that's just simply not shown and um the fact that Hamas has uh human tunnels has tunnels and human Shields and people eded into hospitals what is Israel supposed to do just have a temporary ceasefire let Hamas rebuild and let Hamas which is committed to destroying Israel Marty your time is up and let them continue to rebuild thanks a lot thank you hey G try her again Julia liberer hi I am a resident of Brooklyn and I'm Jewish um according to the 10 stages of genocide created by the founder and president of the organization genocide watch the stages of genocide are as follows classification symbolization discrimination dehumanization organization polarization preparation persecution extermination and denial if anyone has cared to do their thorough research on Palestine in Israel's history and has paid attention to the events that have unfolded leading to October 7th you would clearly see that not only has the state of Israel carried out a genocide against the Palestinian people for the past 75 years but is one of the most well documented genocides in history Israel carries out the classification stage by giving Palestinians and Israelis different license plates and passports that determine their freedom of movement and access to the land and uses this classification to carry out the Discrimination stage against Palestinians from um participating in Israeli government and elections Palestinians are often to humanized by being referred to as human animals which is perpetuated by the propaganda that is present in Israeli school systems and media the state of Israel engages in the um preparation stage by leading their um citizens to believe in a if we don't kill them they will kill us mindset and constantly frames their aggressions on Gaza as self-defense the state of Israel carries out the persecution stage by segregating Palestinians into separate territories that they cannot leave or enter that they've left to starve in and are deliberately deprived of needed resources we are currently at the extermination stage of genocide with tens of thousands of Goins already dead and with casualties rapidly growing if Brooklyn does not pass a resolution for a permanent and immediate ceasefire the town is not only complicit in genocide but is an active participant in one as a Jewish resident of Brooklyn I urge my local elected officials to do what it takes to spare people's lives who are dying in the masses from what is clearly a genocide and vote to pass a ceasefire resolution thank you our last speaker haard delad hello thank you U my name is Hagar dalshad and I'm a resident of brookln uh I'm one of the very few Palestinians in brookln my father survived the nakba and I'm now living a life in which my tax dollars are going to kill potentially my own relatives I hope that you understand how difficult that is I want to ask people in this room a message a question if you feel that this sworn article is so ineffective and so not helpful and so useless why are you fighting it so hard why are you in this room quiet I want to ask you for the people who oppose a ceasefire what do you think would be a number that's enough to stop the war how many people is enough were 1,000 people enough were 5,000 people enough are 30,000 people enough how many kids are enough would you like to pick how they're killed would you like them to be dismembered would you like them to be starved would you like them to be died after amputations have gone infected what does it matter as we sit here and nitpick in our incredibly privileged positions if this is genocide or genocide light what does it matter we're nitpicking while people die with our money the people who wrote and championed this petition are facing harassment and doxing there's no victory for them they're not getting any type of political office or clout from doing this they're doing this just on principle and they're being attacked every day so I'm going to come back and ask you to consider that what is dividing us is not this warant article what's dividing us is the war and the immoral way that it's being carried out that is what's dividing us thank you I'm not done yet well you I'm sorry you are done okay one quick I'm Sor I'm sorry I'm sorry I just want to ask you what you do you face your children Grand no I'm sorry they ask you what did you do in this moment thank you thank you everybody um we're going to close the public hearing portion of this evening and we're going to go to a public meeting at public meetings the public listens to the extent that the subcommittee has things to say we do not take questions we don't have a debate this is really just deliberations for the subcommittee I do want to just uh um mention one thing I've heard a lot about tonight people commenting about the advisory committee or you know you shouldn't you shouldn't you should vote for this you you shouldn't vote for that you should you shouldn't be involved um the advisory committee is just what it says it's a it's an Advisory Group and all it does is it listens to people who have put warrant articles on the warrant um and writes reports sometimes we make recommendations to town meeting we do not tell town meeting what to do um more often than the not town meeting doesn't listen to what we have to say anyway um and I'm saying this for a couple of reasons one is so that people appreciate our role here tonight um but also to make the point that the folks you really want to be talking to are your elected town meeting members in the precinct that you're in and to the extent you want to um make other statements to folks who actually will vote those the people who you should be writing to um so thank you um this subcommittee uh will make a presentation to the full advisory committee I think that date currently is uh the 18th yeah the 18th of April that will be a public meeting again there will be not there won't be discussion um or debate um there may be an opportunity for each one of the uh petition commers uh or those who have put in uh proposed amendments to make um some additional comments but uh it's not going to be like this evening um our role is to you know think about what we heard tonight and write a report to our compatriots make a presentation to them uh talking about the pros and the cons of everything we've heard and what we've read and how we've analyed ize things um and then what we say to them doesn't really matter either because uh they may or may not listen to us uh and they will have uh their own mind the advisory committee has 30 people on it um so we're just a small part of that group uh having said that Preamble um I'm going to open it up for comments um or thoughts and John is on zoom and he can be I guess unmuted and participate how he wants to um who wants to go first M Murphy please thank you um at the risk of repeating what the chair has said my name is Joselyn Murphy I Am A a town meeting member in Precinct 16 and obviously also a member of the advisory committee um but I think it's really important to amplify what the chair said about our role here in local government town meeting has been described as the purest form of democracy and the non-discretionary law that mandates the inclusion of Resident petition resolution warrant articles does not distinguish between topics the role of the subcommittee then is to conduct a hearing and report on this article to the full advisory committee which in return will make a recommendation on the article and the amendments to town meeting that recommendation could be no recommendation The Advisory committee's recommendation could also be for favorable action or for no action the horror of the terrorist acts committed by Hamas in October and the ensuing anguish and fear that has been suffered every day since is beyond unimaginable however it is because of conversations like this that I can now fully appreciate what adopting this resolution means to the petitioners to the proponents of the Amendments and to those of you who have delivered written comments and spoken in favor or against the resolution tonight thank you for your participation a number of local communities have adopted resolutions similar to this one although a predominant concern raised by many of you is that the article and the related debate will divide this community I agree with the Cambridge City councelor who said this issue has already divided our community regardless of whether the city regardless of whether the city council does anything and sometimes airing those divisions in dialogue is necessary for reconciliation here in Brookline we've already seen some work toward reconciliation evidence by the petitioners and the amendment proponents who have edit their edited their submissions in response to comments from this community a Medford City councelor observed that well observe that while we know that this one one resolution will not end the crisis it is important for local government in general to speak up to speak out so members of our community who are feeling powerless and Afraid for their families know that they are supported by their neighbors as a member of the subcommittee I will not support making a recommendation to the advisory committee in favor of or against Article 19 or any of the proposed amendments however I agree with the comments that were made by Cambridge and Medford City councilors to the extent that they support and encourage ongoing dialogue in the community about the fears that the members of the Jewish and Muslim communities in Brookline and others are experiencing because of this crisis this view is shared in comments that members of this commun community our community wrote in support of and in opposition to the article including one member who wrote instead of investing in symbolic gestures that may inadvertently create increased risk and harm to members of our community I believe we should be seeking opportunities for constructive dialogue that bring us closer together and offer support to all of those who have been impacted another who wrote pretending that there is no division by avoiding or attempting to silence a discussion does not bring peace or understanding and finally I offer the words of a city councelor in Somerville who said whether you're opposed to this resolution whether you're in support of it or whether you wish that we weren't even taking it up all of us are part of one community and tomorrow we will all wake up as neighbors thank you you you don't have to talk you don't have to S sure sure I'll speak up so first I just want to thank everyone for for coming here and speaking up speaking out for and against but actually getting it out there in the air having this conversation personally as the one ethnic group in his sitting in front of you who's actually part of that group who's been enslaved on this soil I have a lot of thoughts on this um you know either either way we vote on this people don't want to vote on it or not I support the resolution I support the petitioners who wrote The Resolution I I support the amend the Amendments I support everybody who had something had part of this conversation there is a process that we have that cliff and everyone mentioned and I'm going to be straight up with everyone here I will be voting in favor of this resolution one way or the other well there's nothing nothing excuse me there there's nothing to gain by this other than peace and love in your neighbor okay I you know seen a lot in this town 44 years old four kids in the school in the school system group in the school system you know and it I cannot sit here and say we that we cannot get along and that nothing should be done we have to speak up this is this is what we this is what we do in Brook line like it or not this is this is what I've I've I've known to love about our community to me the difference in this resolution and some might not like this but hey this is what it is it's a late hour A lot's coming out I feel personally it is the petitioners so waren Article 19 19 resolutions articles in the past something about warrant article 19s they all come okay if you look back in the history of Warrant article 19s resolutions okay just think about it y'all okay hasn't it hasn't been that good it's always been divisive there's always been some yeah I'm G to support this one way or the other and I I feel as a town we all should support some some sort of resolution okay um for us to be silent is is unacceptable that's all I have to say thank you John you want to say something C for you were you speaking to me yes I was asking if you I couldn't hear you thank you um John dget also town meeting member precin 13 and on the advisory committee um boy we've covered a lot of ground tonight and really do appreciate all of the folks that wrote in we tremendous amount of Correspondence on on the issue and obviously the the passion that uh everyone brought to the room tonight um I just in terms of what we have to do uh some committee here is to sift through all of this and try to make a recommendation for the advisory committee who will then make their recommendation to town meeting it's complicated process um I just look back over time the two two uh decisions that were made that have some similarity in the sense that they were foreign policy issues um in 2013 we did Syria the unilateral bombing of Syria was proposed at the time at least the sorry the resolution was against that um the bombing never happened but um in that situation the advisory committee uh get after a lot of discussion did a uh no action on that one the last one in 2022 we have um the the Cuba embargo uh resolution which because the rules are changed for the advisory committee where we could uh do a no recommendation uh which un up until then was not possible um that's what happened the unanimous decision on Cuba was by the advisory committee was to do a no recommendation so there kind runs a gamut on these um on these foreign policy issues this one uh for my money no recommendation is not on the table I don't believe um there is too much at stake I think in everybody's investment in this and they want to see some decide one way or the other perhaps and as hard as it is um I look at the Amendments that have been offered to uh the um waren Article 19 U amended motion uh which the amendment was a great improvement over the uh over the original wording which is is good to see but I still find some significant flaws in it which have been covered by by others um and so I won't well on that but uh I think that if if I was to support I i' like to vote for something here something positive and I think the the burin amendment Gladstone burin Amendment uh offers that positive I mean it talks about it's very simple and I like the Simplicity it's not you can't misinterpret it I don't believe um that the swn of Brook L supports the Biden Administration in its efforts to seek a peaceful resolution to the war in Gaza and secure a lasting peace I mean what's not to like there I I think that that that that really uh capsules it all so the Simplicity of it uh and the directness uh I find uh appealing uh and therefore I'd be more inclined to support that Amendment than the the other two uh plus the original uh wa9 as amended you don't have to say anything I no that's okay I just noticed my microphone doesn't have a noise cancelling thing on it anyway um it's fine um first I do just want to say thank you to everyone um I have really a deep appreciation for all the speakers tonight and everybody that's submitted written comments um thank you for your energy around this um as we knew coming into tonight this article and its many amendments have elicited a wi wide range of reactions from people on the subcommittee um I think we've already heard that we have a you know diversity of opinion of thoughts opinions and personal feelings about the Articles and amendments and I do believe that there are times when the advisory committee acting as a body cannot make a recommendation to town meeting and I believe that the best course of action would be that should This Be Moved at town meeting is for each town meeting member individually to make the decision on how to vote so therefore um John I'm hoping that there will be no recommendation from the subcommittee um and I would not I would not be voting for that so thank you it's been a long few weeks with this let me tell you uh uh I I want to reiterate something I said at the beginning which is to thank the petitioners and uh all those folks who um uh have proposed amendments and all the people who uh spoke tonight um for making process as as complicated as it was as easy as it could be I really I really appreciate that I know I I hope Lisa did too because you know we we spent a lot of time on that um so I'm someone who's actually on record um for a long period of time as it relates to the advisory committee and um resolutions I view the advisory committee as being the town's finance committee and that where we can add the most value uh and and truly add value is where there are um economic issues that we can analyze and actually provide value in terms of what the work that we produce and that there are other situations where what it really comes down to is one person's opinion versus another and that the opinions of the people on the advisory committee individually were collectively um are no better than anyone else's in the room and that it's a little um presumptuous frankly uh for us as a group to basically tell town meeting how they should vote on what become matters of conscience um or matters of uh you know opinion that really have nothing to do with how the town operates how the town's budgets work you know what we're doing with the laws of the town that impact people on a day-to-day basis um and over the years I've participated in a number of different committees here in town and I've press that view at every opportunity um and so I would join with Joslin and Kelly this evening in in a process that has us talk to our colleagues about what we heard tonight the pros and the cons of each different um article or proposed the uh uh Amendment um and recognizing that those pros and cons themselves become opinions and views on information that is provided to us by Third parties and very few of us not saying none of us maybe none of us on the advisory committee but very few people in town actually have um Hands-On knowledge or hands-on experience or Hands-On data um that that they can rely on we're all relying on third party information but we would take that you know take that process and talk to our colleagues and then you know see what our colleagues say now I am no longer a town meeting member so you know I'm sort of don't have any you know any say when it comes to town meeting at all a number of the folks on town on advisory are meeting members and they may have a different view than the subcommittee um would on that issue um I'm the only one of our us five who is not a town meeting member um but that is how I would uh vote this evening um and having said that the process for how we go about um deciding what we might say to our colleagues is for and I'm not sure how would work in this situation I guess it would it would be um a vote on 19 as offered by the petitioners and then do we take each Amendment as a substitution and vote those amendments or do we interrupt sorry I I think we should uh treat it like we normally would and that is deal with each of the amendments first as being replacing uh by uh replacing the mo the mo motion and if they succeed um then the amendment becomes the main motion and we vote on the main motion um if but if the there's a separate issue about no recommendation which is outside of that I it sounds to me like that that might go first because if that's the uh the dominant experience and then that settles it it's it's a bit like refer [Music] all right so why why don't we do that because then why don't we do that so I'm gonna make a motion for no recommendation from the subcommittee um and we we can we can vote on that and if that passes that's great if it doesn't pass then we'll go through each proposed um the article and each proposed amendment uh in the process before we proceed with a vote I have a question so um as a subcommittee it is I believe within our purview to provide a report rather than a recommendation which is distinctly different from no recommendation and I'm wondering John if you understand how we could come to a conclusion to write a report which is again distinctly different from no recommendation is it is it though I mean my my view of it is I H we've heard from so many people here who feel so very strongly about these issues I think we can represent that in the report and and by the way we always provide a copy of the video for members um I'm not sure that they would watch it a YouTube video a YouTube video as well so you know but some of them certainly would watch the entire video and read all of the comments that all of us have read that we've received one one other point on that is that most people came to the Lector and had written comments and I would strongly recommend in fact I would ask that everyone forward their written comments to us because then that can go in a packet and actually would be easier for people to read than for them to watch two hours of um of presentations so yeah and I will send that notice to all the speakers I'll do a joint a a group email so that everyone has that advice but I I'd like to repeat what you said about reaching out to your town meeting members I mean they I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 16 I listen to the folks that live in my precinct and I vote accordingly so and I'm I trust that the other town meeting members do as well so they are your elected representatives as well as the select board so I highly encourage you to reach out to the select board and to your town meeting members with your opinions on this I I I think that we can write a report um and and and the at the end of that basically say here's what we heard here are the pluses and minuses and hear people's thoughts and here's our conclusion we're not going to tell you what to do and my concern was just coming forward with a recommendation of no recommendation rather than leaving it just to a report that is all I was just someone's going to ask okay someone's going to say well so what is it um and again the full advisory does not have to listen to us that is that is very sure that is very no okay thank you okay so I've made that motion does anyone want to Second it second okay so um johnon on no recommendation yes Kelly yes anel no John I'm gonna abstain and the chair votes yes so that is a 3 to one: one vote and that will be the con the recommendation that we give to full advisory um with our report and um I'm going to need some volunteers to help writing the report because that will be a challenging report so Cliff just uh note that when we did no recommendation before we didn't WR report well so I will I I will I will push back on that because the first time a subcommittee proposed no recommendation to advisory committee was the school subcommittee on the Florida Ruffin ridy Ridley renaming because that was a very contentious renaming and there were three or four different Alternatives we listened to the mall we wrote a report and we Bas and then we said you know no recommendations so think it can be done it can be done yeah yeah great okay I want to thank everyone very very much for expressing their their views tonight thank you motion to adjourn move thank you everybody really appreciate it