Grand Rapids residents demanding a cease fire in Gaza are ignored by City officials

Last night more than 100 people attended a vigil in support of the Palestinian people, to mourn those who have been killed during the Israeli assault on Gaza and to demand an immediate ceasefire.

There were a few speakers, some of whom were Palestinians. At one point I noticed that the Grand Rapids officer manager for Representative Hillary Scholten was there with her husband. When three of us were arrested last week for a sit-in at Rep. Scholten’s office we spoke directly with the Congresswoman’s staffer. I would like to think that the conversation we had with her last Tuesday had an impact.

Many people who attended held candles and many more places flowers at the makeshift alter, which had a list of some of the now 11,000-plus Palestinians who have been killed since the Israeli army’s retaliation after the October 7 Hamas attacks. Some people shared stories from the news about the attacks that have targeted hospitals, which have been devastated by the weeks long shelling, while others talked about how people were being displaced, stating that this looked similar to the 1948 Nakba, where 750,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes and their land.

As 7pm drew closer, many people began to head into City Hall to speak during the Public Comment period, to express their anger and to share the demands are included in an action alert that have been send to City Commissioners prior to last night’s meeting. Indeed, near the beginning of the meeting, the City Clerk acknowledged that there had been numerous messages they had received from the community, when in fact some 4,400 had already been sent by the time the commission meeting had begun. 

A couple of comments stood out to me, while sitting through the nearly 60 people who addressed the issue of what the Israeli army was doing to people in Gaza and the West Bank. There was emphasis on how the $2,815,720.00 in federal tax dollars that in part of the $3.8 Billion would particularly benefit BIPOC communities if it were to stay in this community. Maybe the most heart wrenching comment, came from a young Palestinian, who said, “I am unwittingly supporting the use of my tax dollars to murder my own people.”

The Action Alert, which people can still sign here, said the following:

Nearly a month has passed since Israel began its most recent assault on Gaza in response to legally justified resistance against occupation. As of this writing, this has resulted in over 10,000 Palestinian civilians being killed. 4,000 of them are children.

The international community is calling for an immediate ceasefire, but the Biden Administration has said no. Instead, the US government has signed a resolution in full support of Israel and is proposing to send $14 billion in military aid on top of $3.8 billion in military aid the US provides to Israel annually.

The bombs that are being dropped on Gaza, along with other military hardware, are provided by the US government using taxpayer dollars. We say, NOT IN OUR NAME.

Of the $3.8 billion of US taxpayer money that goes to Israel for military purposes $2,815,720.00 is from the residents of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Residents of Grand Rapids need that money to stay in our community and fund things like housing, public education, and to support BIPOC families who are struggling to survive. (Source: https://uscpr.org/acti…/us-military-funding-to-israel-map/)

Therefore, we are calling on the Grand Rapids City Officials to fight for our city and do the following:

1. Make a public statement in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank as specified by UN General Assembly’s Resolution made on October 27th, 2023.

2. To contact Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, along with Rep. Hillary Scholten, to demand back the tax money that leaves Grand Rapids to fund Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land and the current assault on Gaza. That money should stay in Grand Rapids so we can fund critically urgent community needs.

3. To communicate with the public what kind of a response you received from Peters, Stabenow and Scholten.

Unfortunately, several people misunderstood the demands created in the Action Alert, thinking that the City of Grand Rapids had budgeted $2.8 million to be sent to the Israeli government. Several Commissioners themselves had pointed out that this was false information, which it was. However, equally culpable were the commissioners, since it was clear that they had NOT read any of the 4,400 letters that had been sent to them, which clearly stated that the $2.8 million was the amount of federal tax dollars from Grand Rapidians that was part of the annual $3.8 billion the US government sends to Israel to perpetrate the kind of cruelty we are currently seeing in Gaza and the West Bank.

After about 2 and a half hours of public comment, the City Commissioners themselves responded, at least those that had bothered to attend. OF the seven member body, only 4 showed up. Commissioner’s O’Connor, Knight and Perdue were not even present during last nights meeting. 

The commissioners who were in attendance, while expressing some sympathy for what was happening to civilians in Gaza, danced around the issue and stated that such matter were out of their hands and that their role was to only deal with what happens in Grand Rapids. Not only was this a bogus response, it once again demonstrated that City Officials ignored very clear demands that they could make happen. After September 11, 2001, City officials did make statements regarding what had happened, even though it was not specific to Grand Rapids. I made the point that the City of Grand Rapids divested their funds from a bank that was profiting off of the oppression in South Africa in the early 1980s because of the Apartheid regime in that country. 

City commissioners could have made a public declaration in support of a ceasefire, they could have contacted Scholten, Peters and Stabenow to demand that the $2,815,720.00 in federal tax dollars that leaves Grand Rapids on an annual basis to fund the Israeli government be kept in this community, since as so many people had stated, that there are critically urgent needs right here in Grand Rapids. And, City Officials could make public whatever communication they had with members of Congress as a matter of transparency.

As always, if you want to watch/listen to the public comments from last night’s commission meeting, go to this link.  At the 35:30 point in the video is where the public comments about Palestine began. At 3 hours and 18 minutes into the video is when City Officials made their comments.