Open Letter to Burlington City Councilors
Dear Councilors,
I encourage all of you to approve the Apartheid-Free Community (AFC) Pledge to be on this spring’s Town Meeting ballot. Here are the reasons you should do so.
The AFC Pledge.
Please read the pledge for what it says and not what people claim it says. Given the distortions, it is important to note what the Pledge actually states. It reads, “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.” A year into Israel’s war that the majority of people in Vermont, the US, and especially the world oppose, what is there honestly to object to in this pledge?
Democracy.
You should support our democratic right to petition, place measures on the ballot, and vote on them. It is the essence of democracy. The incoming Trump administration plans to attack that right and indeed the very foundations of democracy in this country. All of you rightly opposed his election in order to defend our rights. Regardless of your personal position, whether you’re for or against the AFC Pledge, you should honor and defend that right and vote to place it on the ballot. You, like all other registered voters, can then argue your position and vote on it however you would like this spring.
If you vote against it appearing on the ballot, you will not only compromise our right to petition and vote on issues of local, national, and international concern, but you will also set a dangerous precedent that the Trump administration and right wing forces will use as part of their assault on all our rights. Instead of making such a dangerous mistake, the City Council should make Burlington a beacon of democracy, upholding the rights all of us have fought so dearly to win.
Oppose Apartheid and Settler Colonialism Without Exceptions.
Burlington has taken stands to rectify Vermont’s history of colonization, dispossession, and discrimination against its indigenous inhabitants. It has also worked to undo institutional racism in our city and society. You should allow Burlington voters the right to vote on opposition to all forms of colonization, dispossession, racism, and apartheid without exception, including Israeli apartheid. Mainstream human rights organizations almost all agree that Israel is a settler colonial apartheid state. As examples, Human Rights Watch, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, and Amnesty International have all issued in-depth reports documenting Israel’s nature as a settler colonial project much like that of the US. In great detail, their reports demonstrate how Israel has dispossessed Palestinians of their land, imposed second class citizenship on those inside its state boundaries, and subjected Palestinian territories it occupies to illegal colonization, settlement, and violent repression. Clearly, the AFC Pledge’s contention that Israel is an apartheid state has overwhelming support. Some councilors may reject the studied judgement of mainstream organizations, but these matters are subjects of public debate, and such debates can only be resolved by popular votes on Town Meeting Day.
Criticizing Israel is Not Antisemitic.
The AFC Pledge clearly and explicitly states that we should oppose all forms of racism. Obviously that includes opposing antisemitism. So, it is false to contend that an antiracist pledge is antisemitic, especially one designed by the American Service Committee, which has a long and proud history of opposing any and all discrimination against Jews.
Beneath the groundless assertion that the AFC Pledge is antisemitic is an unfounded assumption that any and all criticism of the Israeli state is antisemitic. That is false. Is Bernie Sanders, who vocally criticizes Israel, antisemitic? Of course not. In reality, Israel is a state, not a race or ethnicity. Criticism of a state is not the same as criticism of an entire people. The first should be a political norm and the second rejected as racist.
Moreover, associating all Jews with Israel is actually dangerous. The worst thing you could do in our collective fight against antisemitism is equate Jews with a violent apartheid state carrying out genocide. In fact, there is no homogenous position among Jews about the state of Israel. Most Jews opposed the Zionist colonial project at the start of the 20th century; they wanted to stay and fight antisemitism in Europe, not emigrate, colonize, and steal another people’s land. And today one of the fastest growing organizations in the country, Jewish Voice for Peace, opposes not only Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine, but also Israel itself as an apartheid state. Clearly the Jewish community is not united in support of Israel and some of that state’s most vociferous critics are Jews, especially young Jews. It is obviously wrong to attack them as antisemitic, it is wrong to dismiss their trenchant criticism of Israel as a state as antisemitic, and it is just as wrong to tar and feather all other Palestine solidarity activists as antisemites. Standing against colonization, occupation, and apartheid is antiracist.
Palestine is a Local Issue.
Some claim that the City Council should only pay attention to local issues. In reality, all local issues are tied up with national and international ones, especially in our globalized economy with Amazon shipping from all around the world to our apartments and houses in Burlington. That aside, Palestine is a local issue. Any doubt about that fact should have been put to rest when a racist shot three Palestinian students after he heard them speaking Arabic. This brutal event was obviously triggered by Israel’s war and the anti-Arab and specifically anti-Palestinian racism it has whipped up. That shooting alone shows the deep connection between Palestine, the US, and Burlington.
On top of that, our tax dollars are used to fund and arm Israeli apartheid to the tune of nearly $4 billion per year for a total of $310 billion over the last few decades, making Israel the largest cumulative recipient of US aid of any country in the world. Vermont annually sends $6 million in aid to Israel. That money now spent on occupation, apartheid, and war could instead be spent on desperately needed housing, job programs, climate relief, and drug treatment programs to improve our lives in Vermont. Its diversion to Israel directly impacts and harms all of us, including in Burlington.
Stopping Occupation, War, and Genocide.
Burlington has a proud history of opposing many wars, including Russia’s imperialist war on Ukraine. If we are to oppose unjust wars without exception, Burlington should also oppose Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine. A year ago, some may have doubted the genocidal nature of the war. But Israel’s total destruction of Gaza, its massacre of over 40,000 people, and its internal displacement of most of the territory’s 2.2 million people have utterly changed local, national, and global opinion. Such mass killing of people and destruction of their society has nothing to do with the October 7 attacks.
These facts have compelled Vermont’s two senators, Welch and Sanders, who have long supported Israel, to denounce Israel’s war and propose legislation to block arms shipments to Israel. Internationally, the vast majority of human rights organizations, governments, and international legal institutions now state that Israel is committing genocide. Amnesty International just released a 300-page study documenting Israel’s genocidal intent and practice in carrying out the war in Gaza. In the face of such atrocities, the Burlington City Council should vote in favor of placing the AFC Pledge on the Town Meeting Ballot and allow Burlington residents to vote their conscience.
Debates Resolved By Democracy.
Some of you may not agree with all of this. That is your right. But the matter at hand is not your individual position, but voters’ democratic right to petition, place measures on the ballot, debate and discuss issues, and then vote on them. That is the democratic process the American Revolution and Civil War nominally aimed to enshrine. Of course, as part of the democratic process, you are free to state your own positions, for or against the AFC Pledge, and vote your conscience. But it is a mistake for you to impose your position by overruling Burlington voters’ right to vote on the AFC Pledge. The last thing anyone in elected office should do today, when our country will soon be ruled by an authoritarian politician, is undermine our democratic process. Of course, there is a debate about this and other matters of local, national, and international concern. But those debates can only be resolved by democratic votes. Please put the AFC Pledge on the Town Meeting Ballot and let us vote. It is our democratic right. Do the right thing and uphold it.
Sincerely,
Ashley Smith
Registered Burlington Voter
Ward 7
Ashley Smith, of Burlington, is a member of the Tempest Collective and the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation.
