Public Comment

I am calling that Council President and my ward representative Blaine Griffin rescind his statement of support for Israel and rather denounce the genocide of Palestinians by Israel and US funding. I will never support my tax dollars going to an apartheid state and am appalled by the silence of council on this issue, ignoring the thousands of Palestinians and their allies here in Cleveland. You have the power to support your constituents and yet you don't. You continually threaten to, and in some cases actually, shut down public comment. You have the power of the purse, choosing where to receive money from and where to send money. We will remember who spoke out against a genocide and those who didn't.

The mayor and council should have way more important things to worry about in the city of Cleveland than supporting a foreign country that is currently committing genocide on the Palestinian people. Your actions threaten the safety of your own residents that you were voted in to represent. Instead you alienate them and open them up possible harm and ridicule for being Palestinian. You all should be ashamed and turn and immediate corner and support a ceasefire and an end to the killing of innocent people.

I and 7 other community members made public comment on Monday demanding Mayor Bibb and Council President Griffin to denounce the genocide in Israel. Neither bothered to be present at Council. The response given by Council members after we left was appalling. Councilman Polenesk called to have non-residents barred from speaking. Well I am a resident and I oppose this. When city officials make public statements that affect the lives and safety of the tens of thousands of Palestinians who live and work in the Greater Cleveland area, they have a right to come to Council to make comment. The city government saw fit to send an army of police to Beachwood for a pro-Israel rally on Monday October 9th. Clearly city officials are ok with spending tax dollars for use outside of Cleveland, so to say that non-Clevelanders can't speak at Council is hypocritical. Councilman James derided us for leaving in the middle of session. It is frankly disgusting to suggest that Palestinians should be forced to sit and listen to a public comment where they lie that Hamas beheaded infants, a claim that has been retracted and debunked, in order to sate the decorum of your session. I watched the rest of your session on Youtube. You approved ordinance after ordinance with no discussion unanimously. This is what you insisted we sit through? It has only been a few years since public comment has even been allowed at city council in decades, an unimaginable fact on its own, and now we can see why. It is an undemocratic political machine that pushes back the minute is challenged.

The city of Cleveland and all of its elected representatives, need to make a clear and unambiguous call to an end of the genocide being waged against Palestinians by the terroristic settler-colonial regime of Israel, and an end to the U.S. aid for the state sanctioned massacres by Israel. Despite Palestinian-Americans in Cleveland, who this council represents, being targeted with violent hate crimes while their families in Gaza are killed, their representatives choose to stay silent or to support Israel with their genocidal vision. Their representatives refuse to see their humanity, listen to their voices, or stand up for who they claim to represent due to their own self-serving interests or lack of courage and compassion. Instead of unequivocally calling for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the genocide against Palestinians, an end to Israeli colonial occupation of Palestine, representatives only show support for Israel’s efforts to ethnically cleanse Palestinians. By continuing to support or stay silent about Israel’s terror, Cleveland’s representatives fail not only their constituents, but as well as their own humanities. We hold you responsible to act against ongoing warcrimes now. The U.S. and the city of Cleveland is complicit in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

I am ashamed that our city leaders will not condemn Israel and the atrocities that they have inflicted on the Palestinian people. You know that this is not a war. This is a genocide. I am disgusted with our country and Cleveland. We will continue to fight for the freedom of Palestinians with or without you. But we don’t forget who stood on the wrong side of history. You have blood on your hands.

I went to City Council yesterday for the open comment, just wanted to bring up the disrespect I noticed from the people we rely on to represent us. Other than the supporting of the genocide going on, as all the Palestinian supporters were speaking, council was having side conversations, rolling their eyes and sleeping, but they wanted the respect that they were not willing to show. People are getting killed not just overseas but here in America because all of the hate that's being spread. All these council members care about is lining their pockets. Disgusting. Do better.

It is absolutely abhorrent to watch this country and its state and city representatives make political pacts and accept funding handouts from an occupying, genocidal, authoritarian, barbaric government in Israel which has publicly commented on their intentions to “kill all” of the Palestinian “animals”, and it is even worse watching US news and government officials attempt to paint support for Palestine as inherently violent - when it is, in fact, the US funding violence, encouraging the massacre of babies and children and civilians, condoning the bombing of cries, vetoing the UN’s proposed ceasefire agreement, denying aid to a dying and oppressed ethnic population which has historically been ruled by invasive fascist elements - being against genocide is not anti-semitism or pro-terrorism. Denying Palestinians the right to their own land, food, water, internet, electricity, military forces, humanitarian and medical aid, and actively pursuing the destruction of said people, is anti-Semitic. America is eating out of the hand of Israel, and now the whole world knows. As a citizen I will not promote or vote for any Israeli-funded candidate. I will not speak of other good things any of you may have done. You are funding a mass extermination of these people. You are backing Nazis. You are paying for genocide. And we are done playing your political party games. We are done being spoon fed half truths at best and blatant lies at worst. This next generation will lead better. I wouldn’t count on the public’s support in lieu of these events. We are supposed to stand for free speech and the right to protest in this country. We have watched every major news outlet conflate truth and lies for decades. We have watched police beat peaceful protesters and charge them with domestic terrorism for peace-promoting actions. America’s freedoms are a joke. You claim to uphold the values of our country, yet you do everything in your power to suppress true freedom while espousing corruption and *actual* terrorism.

I do not support the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Just based on the human rights offenses and war crimes alone, there is no way the City of Cleveland should be in support of this.

I was watching today’s council meeting and heard some people talking about the city spending money with Israel. I’m going to do my own research but I really hope this is not true because I am tired of our federal government sending Israel billions of dollars each year and we get nothing in return and now they’re trying to drag us into a war, is there anywhere I can see who authorized money to be spent in Israel? I work very hard and can barely make ends meet to be allowing my tax dollars to go to a different country.

Just wanted to say that I will no longer support councilman McCormack due to his support of Israel. My family has been huge supporters of his for many years now and we no longer can continue our support. As a Jewish American, and an Ohio business owner, whose family company employees over 500 people we cannot support the genocide that’s taking place in Gaza. I completely understand that some console members do not really know what’s going on over there, and that they only hear certain things from certain people with certain agendas but playing ignorance and not knowing is definitely going to start costing people their positions. There is no justifying the many, many years of horrible things that Israel has done to innocent civilians! McCormack you have lost our support, Griffin you have lost our support, Mayor you have lost our support! My family and I are still in discussion, but we may start a ad campaign against all political individuals who have pledged her allegiance to Israel.