If you wish to communicate with your councilor, find your city ward here and your council member’s email address here.
Our statement on February 4, 2024 🇵🇸
Friends and Allies,
The Corvallis city council meeting is tomorrow. Although we do not know if they will vote on the “peace” resolution they drafted, we have submitted our critiques of their proposed resolution. (See next section below.)
When we first started this campaign, only one city, Richmond, CA, had adopted a resolution affirming the rights of the Palestinians. We were cautiously optimistic that the Corvallis city council would live up to our community’s progressive values. But they did not, completely ignoring the 700 signatories of our resolution and the hundreds of community members who filled up the city council meetings over the past two months.
Now, dozens of cities have passed ceasefire resolutions, and unfortunately, our city’s proposed resolution will be out of tune because of their insistence on neutrality. There can be no neutrality when more than 28,000 Palestinians have been murdered by the Israeli government.
We appreciate everyone who signed and shared our resolution, and those who showed up to city council meetings. Although we may not have gotten our resolution adopted, we successfully cultivated a community of amazing folks, proving that the people of Corvallis are committed to affirming the rights of the Palestinians with or without the city council.
Our February 1, 2024, response to Corvallis City Council’s proposed peace resolution
WHEREAS: The Corvallis 2040 Vision statement affirms that Corvallis supports and engages a changing population in a welcoming community that accommodates all income and cultural groups, and advances the well-being of all its residents.
Our response:
How welcoming is a community that favors one group of people over another by completely silencing its Palestinian members? The Vision Statement can be a useful guide; shouldn’t the goal for our community be to actively seek after its ideals? To that end, the changing population of Corvallis is asking to be treated equitably, just like when we stood in solidarity with our sister city in Ukraine. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, too.
WHEREAS: Our Jewish and Muslim friends and neighbors, both Israeli and Palestinian, have experienced an increase in anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim hate speech and crimes. True peace starts with us, not through accusations or minimizing the suffering on either side, but as a community that empathizes with their grief and offers our hands and hearts in compassion.
Our response:
Experiencing and acknowledging hate in the US is not a competition, nor is it a prerequisite to highlighting the immediate need to bring attention to what is happening in Gaza. The life- and world- altering atrocity of ethnic cleansing and genocide must be acknowledged and foregrounded in the strongest terms. Israel is a country and has a government. As such, both are fair game for critique. We should not countenance the antisemitic idea that the nation-state of Israel is equivalent to the Jewish people.
WHEREAS: While we condemn all acts of hate against anyone in our community, the atrocities happening to people of Gaza are irreversible and are being committed in our name and with our tax dollars. True peace starts with us acknowledging the reality of the genocide happening in Gaza and condemning the Israeli government’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
WHEREAS: While we mourn the lives lost to escalating violence in all corners of the world, we recognize the human tragedies of this war that have profoundly and personally affected our friends and neighbors in our own community.
Our response:
Why do you have such a difficult time acknowledging that Palestinians are being displaced, killed, starved, and injured in record numbers? The urgency of this atrocity must be named and acknowledged in plain terms. It should not be whitewashed. It should not disappear under the blanket of “tragedies.” A faceless “tragedy” only encourages us to center our own feelings while ignoring the present need for justice, which must be actively sought.
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley recently made the following statement, unequivocally calling out the conditions of genocide in Gaza:
“The suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza is nearly unimaginable. Innocent people are on the brink of starvation. Injured children are having limbs amputated without anesthesia. Health officials are warning of an imminent cholera outbreak. An estimated 85% of Palestinians in Gaza have been driven from their homes, and more than 1 million people have fled south and overwhelmed the city of Rafah. No one in Gaza is safe from the falling bombs. Longtime humanitarian workers, who have served in conflict zones from Ukraine to Syria to Sudan, told me they have never witnessed a disaster of this scale or severity.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley
It is precisely this recognition of the harms being inflicted on Palestinians that logically necessitates a call for a ceasefire, which the Council’s peace resolution cannot justify from its perspective of diluted and nonspecific tragedy. Merkley asserts:
“I reiterate my call for a ceasefire to provide a better opportunity to secure the release of all hostages, to end the carnage from bombs and artillery shells and to facilitate humanitarian aid. A massive increase in humanitarian aid must happen immediately or both Israel and the United States will be complicit in the unacceptable and massive continued suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley
WHEREAS: The City of Corvallis mourns the lives lost to escalating violence against innocent civilians in Gaza, and beyond, and offer our sincere support for our community members who are grieving while finding it necessary to advocate for their families who are suffering and dying in Gaza and beyond due to genocide, apartheid, and other human rights violations.
WHEREAS: Leaders from Oregon State University, Beit Am Jewish Community, and Salman Alfarisi Islamic Center stress the importance of listening, engaging, and reaching out to one another within our community. They acknowledge that the events in the land of Israel and Palestine, sacred to many, are not what any of us desire. And there is a collective hope for a future world free from war, where bridges to lasting peace and stability can be built.
Our response:
Who did you speak with in these organizations? If you are naming them as representatives of our community, we need to know who represented the Palestinians. The 700+ signers of our petition are representative of this community. Has the council listened to them?
We are all hopeful for a future world free from war, but that starts with us having the courage to call for a ceasefire. It is imperative because we are watching the live-stream of genocide and ethnic cleansing that our federal government is helping fund and weaponize with our tax dollars and through the withholding of international aid.
The collective hope for a future free of war begins with how we stand as a community against atrocities of this kind. The world said “Never again” in the past when faced with the horrors of the Holocaust. “Never again” is not just for one people at only one time; rather, it is for all people on this planet at all times.
WHEREAS: The City of Corvallis determines our collective understanding and compassion are necessary to acknowledge the suffering of those under bombardment, those being held hostage, and those being falsely imprisoned.
WHEREAS: The Genocide Convention, the entreaty of “Never Again” and the historical memory of the Holocaust means fighting ethnic cleansing and apartheid everywhere and for all peoples.
THEREFORE: We support the Biden Administration in ongoing efforts to engage in meaningful talks for a lasting peace. Additionally, we urge Corvallis residents to enhance their understanding of these complex issues through discussion and education. Issuing this resolution is not a substitute for the hard work we must do locally to promote peace and understanding.
Our response:
The claim to “complexity” is typically used to silence dissent, implying that clear judgment must be delayed to an imagined future time. The issue is not complex, and the time to demonstrate solidarity is now. Israel is a colonial settler regime that implemented apartheid to gain control over land. In short, the Israeli government wants as much Palestinian land as possible with the fewest number of Palestinian people on it. There are countless documentaries and books by historians from all sides– Israeli, Palestinian, and American– that provide clear and unambiguous explanations of this conflict. Claims to “complexity” obfuscate and confuse.
We deeply question the ethics of supporting an administration that has pledged monetary and military support to a nation-state carrying out an active genocide. Wishing generally for peace only describes a result– not the process of achieving it, or by whose metric the peace is measured.
THEREFORE: The City of Corvallis advocates for the dignity and safety of residents in every community, regardless of what crimes their leadership may commit, and understands that peaceful diplomacy – as measured by a community’s members – is the only way to achieve this safety and dignity.
THEREFORE: The City of Corvallis offers our support for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the name of valuing and saving human lives and working toward creating a lasting peace in the region.
Our letter to the Gazette-Times newspaper on January 10, 2024 🇵🇸
Regarding “Corvallis Leaders Receive Antisemitic Postcards in the Mail — at home” from Jan. 8, 2024, by Cody Mann:
We are deeply troubled that some of our City Council members received disgusting and hateful anti-Semitic and transphobic flyers.
Our group is rooted first and foremost in justice. We oppose bigotry in all its forms, and we condemn any instances of anti-Semitism and transphobia. Indeed, our proposed Resolution explicitly called for the City “to combat anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and ethnonationalism.”
Our advocacy for the Palestinians is grounded in the principle that all human life is precious; all people have the right to live free from oppression, occupation, and apartheid. Our testimony at the City Council meetings and protests concretely demonstrates those principles.
It is our duty, as a community, to condemn those forms of hate at every turn whether it be anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or transphobia. And going forward, we will continue to call out any racist actions–-as we did when shouting down the neo-Nazis at the last City Council meeting.
Corvallis has a history of being on the side of justice. Let’s keep it up by denouncing the rising hatred, misinformation and violence.
Our statement on January 4, 2024 🇵🇸
Dear Friends,
On Tuesday night we had numerous folks provide powerful, moving and justice-aligned testimony in support of our Palestine Resolution for the third Corvallis City Council meeting in a row. We want to thank everyone who has continued their support for our Resolution by signing our petition, sharing and liking our social media posts about it, submitting written testimony, and speaking and showing up to council meetings. We are inspired by you and grateful for our community. Keep it up!
Two nazis tried to speak over zoom during the council meeting, and thankfully there was a collective call to shut them down in the council chambers before they could spout too much hate. We do not know who they are, and they are not aligned with our values. We condemn anti-semitism.
Despite our speakers eloquently and methodically addressing the text of our Resolution and being willing to answer any questions or concerns, the councilors completely disregarded and failed to meaningfully engage with them.
During councilor comments, Ellis and Napack presented their “peace” resolution draft. As expected, the language is weak and does not hold Israel accountable. It does not even include a call for a ceasefire because of the cowardice of 5 council members – Ellis, Lytle, Napack, Cadena and Shaffer. Ultimately the discussion was tabled until their meeting on February 5. Our council members proved that our city’s “progressive” politics and stances do not extend to Palestinians.
We encourage everyone to submit written testimony to the city council by January 29th expressing your feelings about their resolution draft. We will continue to keep an eye on the process and submit our own testimony as well.
Even though we likely will not see an adequate resolution that supports Palestine from this council, we consider these last 8 weeks to be a win. We are building a movement that connects to others across the globe struggling for Palestinian liberation. None of us are free until we all are free.
Regardless of the city council’s failure to uphold basic human rights, we remain undeterred and steadfast in our call for Israel to end its genocide against the Palestinians. We will continue to call for and advocate for the liberation of Palestine, and we look forward to being in community with you all.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!!
Thanks for being a great community,
Corvallis Palestine Solidarity
Testimony given at City Council meetings 🇵🇸
Highlights from 10 commenters on January 2, 2024 (full recording here) Highlights from 11 commenters on December 18, 2023 (full recording here) Council meeting testimony by four commenters on December 4, 2023Add your name to the resolution. 🇵🇸
Please add your name below the resolution text. PDF of resolution here.