Palestine Tet – 138 – Longmont Colorado City Council refuses to even consider a ceasefire resolution.

Longmont Peace Group challenges its city council on ceasefire

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All over the country, as they did twenty years ago when the Bush Administration launched its war against Iraq, more than 100 city councils have issued resolutions or proclamations calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, for an end to the ongoing genocide. 

Here in Colorado, under pressure from the Biden Administration and the state’s Democratic Party, only one city council, that of Glenwood Springs, has come out and voted for a ceasefire.

Along the Front Range of the Rockies a number of cities have tried to pass such resolutions only to be rebuffed. This is true for Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Boulder, Ft. Collins and now Longmont. In the same light, none of Colorado’s Congressional delegation – with the exception of Denver’s Diana DeGette – have had the courage to come out in support of a ceasefire. This includes Jason Crow, Joe Neguse, Brittany Petterson and Yadira Caraveo, all supposedly liberal Democrats. As if working from the same script, they all gave the same pretext for their failure: Israel’s (not so) legitimate right of self defense and the need to bring down the new boogyman – Hamas . 

Still such efforts have been worthwhile as all over the state the question of Palestine, of the Occupation, of the Israeli genocide against Gazan Palestinians are now issues statewide and this is only the beginning.  The most recent city council ceasefire effort was in Longmont. It was defeated … but not really. 

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It is not clear what it was that chilled the Council’s initiative on the ceasefire issue. In weeks and months prior to killing the proposal, a number of the Council members had shown by sympathy and support for a measure that would freeze the unspeakable violence being perpetrated against Gaza civilians, a high percentage of which are children. But then “suddenly”, the Council as a whole, minus Marsha Martin, got cold feet, so cold that even publicly debating the question was taken off the table.

A local friend who has lived in Longmont for decades mentioned that “the usual suspects” had shifted into action and that the Council had been deluged with “hundreds” of calls and emails opposed to a ceasefire resolution. Curious. “Hundreds of calls and emails”? No one seemed to have asked if these came from residents of Longmont or some outside well oiled pro-Zionist lobbying effort. Whatever, the pressure worked; the Counci caved and Councilwoman Martin – who spoke at the press conference condemning the decision – could not even garner a “second” to her motion for the Council to consider a ceasefire resolution.

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Longmont City Councilwoman Marsha Martin – what’s left the city’ council’s conscience

On the surface it appeared like a setback, but it wasn’t.

Several months of quality organizing of a small Longmont peace group that has coalesced in response to the U.S. supported Israeli war on Gaza – and the genocide it has resulted in – Longmont, Colorado’s City Council refused to even consider a ceasefire resolution introduced by one of the council’s members, Marsha Martin. Martin’s motion failed to get a second thus killing it and preventing even a debate at Council.

Just minutes prior to a Council meeting, local peace activists came together on Tuesday evening to condemn the Council’s cold feet on the issue ina press conference outside the Council meeting place. They rejected the Council’s explanation that only local issues should be considered. In several speeches both there and in the Council itself, these local peace activists condemned the cowardice of the Council to even debate the issue.

The press conference was led off by Irina Karic, from the peace group. Among her comments:

The council’s decision thus buried the resolution before it could be discussed transparently with community members. The city council’s job is to represent its constituents, and its responsibility is to bring their residents’ concerns to the state of Colorado and influence how Colorado congress representatives vote. Our council has instead decided to continue condoning the “Honorable” Representative Joe Neguse’s and other legislators’ consistent votes to fund Israel’s genocide.

“This is not a local issue” is a common excuse our so-called representatives give. Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Palestine and any other place in the world where the US government funds atrocities and condones consistent denial of fundamental human rights with our taxpayer dollars is our local issue. 

Gaza is a local issue because all of us are inextricably linked to one another. Palestine and Israel are local issues also because we have community members in Longmont who are Palestinian and Israeli. We stand here because genocide anywhere is a local issue everywhere. We no longer live at a time when ignorance could be claimed as an excuse. The genocide in Gaza is being live-streamed onto our phones, reaching everyone, including us residing in the beautiful, safe city of Longmont. To avert eyes and remain indifferent is a choice. Silence is a choice.  Silence has condoned over seven decades of occupation. Silence has condoned mass graves under hospital ruins. Silence has condoned the destruction of hospitals, schools, places of worship and homes. Silence has condoned the mass slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza, 15,000 of whom are children. 

Silence costs lives. 

Silence costs us our humanity. 

One of the protesters is Deborah Crabbe, a nurse who had served in Afghanistan. She commented:

As a nurse midwife who’s job it has been to help women bring their babies safely into this world and help them feed and nurture their infants and care for themselves. I see the dire situation of women in Gaza trying to find a safe place to give birth. They struggle to feed their babies and they themselves are hungry. They not only can’t produce milk for their baby they also have no access to formula or any other way to feed their child. The agony of a mother who is helpless to feed and care for her children is heart breaking. I have seen this suffering.

Another protestor, Marie, a Longmont city employee noted:

Seeing yet another devastating video last night of the three young orphaned siblings huddled together with dust in their hair, crying, literally shell-shocked, hugging each other and the absolute terror on their faces is too much. Where is our morality? Let our city not be complicit. Let us at least add our name to the over 100 cities  who have already stood up and aid genocide is wrong.”

It is not clear what it was that chilled the Council’s initiative on the ceasefire issue. In weeks and months prior to killing the proposal, a number of the Council members had shown by sympathy and support for a measure that would freeze the unspeakable violence being perpetrated against Gaza civilians, a high percentage of which are children. But then “suddenly”, the Council as a whole, minus Marsha Martin, got cold feet, so cold that even publicly debating the question was taken off the table.

A local, a longtime friend who has lived in Longmont for decades mentioned that “the usual suspects” had shifted into action, targeting Council members and that they had been deluged with “hundreds” of calls and emails opposed to a ceasefire resolution. Curious. “Hundreds of calls and emails”? No one seemed to have asked if these came from residents of Longmont or some outside well-oiled pro-Zionist lobbying effort. Whatever, the pressure worked; the Counci caved and Councilwoman Martin – who spoke at the press conference condemning the decision – could not even garner a “second” to her motion for the Council to consider a ceasefire resolution.

So why wasn’t it a set back for the “ceasefire movement” to fail to get a resolution through? Couple of themes come to mind.

1. The sinlence on Palestine was broken. Whether they realize it or not, this fledgeling peace group has put the question of Palestine, and the genocide that Israel is conducted against it, in the public sphere in Longmont. That wasn’t the case previously. Now and for sometime in the future, Palestine will be in an issue in Longmont with Israeli and Palestinian practices being discussed, debated. There have been several articles in the local paper – the Longmont Times Call. Longmont has grown some – actually quite a bit – over the past few decades but it is still a town of jnst under 100,000.

And …

2. Although the peace group is small, it is already gelled into an organic whole. Nice mix. Some old timers with long organizing experience coming together with some newcomers.  The statements made both at the press conference and in the Council meeting itself were filled with humanitarian concern and political acuity. There is something moving (to me anyway) to see members of a local community come together for the common good. And like any organization just learning the ropes, if they stick at it they’ll learn from their shortcomings. Needless to say the challenge is one all of us – new or seasoned peace activists: how to extend our base among the population, how to connect the local issues facing Longmont with international crises like the Gaza genocide.

And there are many connections… it is up to them (and the rest of us) to discover them.

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