For much of last year, community members across Vermont have been working to put the Apartheid-free Communities Pledge on their local ballots for Town Meeting Day. On Tuesday, those efforts were put to the test as Vermonters cast their ballots and met in town halls. The Pledge reads as follows:
WE AFFIRM our commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and all people;
WE OPPOSE all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression; and
WE DECLARE ourselves an apartheid-free community and to that end,
WE PLEDGE to join others in working to end all support to Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.
The small town of Thetford, on the New Hampshire border, became the first municipality in the United States to adopt the Apartheid-free Pledge. According to Town Clerk Tracy Borst, the vote was taken in-person at the meeting, and because the vote was clearly in favor, no direct tally was recorded. More than one hundred residents were in attendance.
In all, five municipalities approved the measure: Plainfield, Thetford, Newfane, Winooski, and Brattleboro. Those in Newfane assembled at town meeting, after extensive debate, made amendments to the language before passing it.
Residents in five municipalities voted the measure down: Montpelier, Ferrisburgh, Bristol, Vergennes, and Weybridge. In two towns, Shelburne and Marshfield, the measure was introduced on the floor at the meeting but did not advance to a vote. In the state’s largest city, Burlington, city councilors refused to allow it to appear on the ballot, despite residents collecting the requisite signatures.
Excluding the towns of Plainfield, Thetford, and Weybridge — as residents there voted by voice with no recorded tally — the total votes cast by Vermonters on the issue were 3,123 (52%) in favor and 2,923 (48%) opposed.
In a press release, the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation (VCPL) wrote, “These historic votes make Vermont the first state in the country to have municipalities vote advising their leadership to cut ties with Israeli apartheid.”
According to VCPL, the five towns join forty organizations in Vermont that have already signed the Apartheid-free Pledge.
VCPL organizers suggested the uneven vote outcomes were due in part to an uneven distribution of activists and energy. The campaign was also fairly decentralized, with local activists heading up local efforts. For the towns that voted on the resolution by way of introduction on the floor in the meeting, as opposed to gathering signatures in advance, there was predictably much less education and advocacy in the run-up to the vote.
Wafic Faour of VCPL and Vermonters for Justice in Palestine noted that this is still relatively new ground for Americans, and that much work lies ahead. “This is the first time the Palestinian question has come before the voters in the U.S.,” Wafic Faour said.
VCPL members have already set up meetings to learn lessons from the campaign, after which they will decide next steps.
Patrick is a writer and organizer based in northern Vermont. He is on the editorial collective for The Rake Vermont.
