 Hi, my name is Sandy Baird, a citizen activist. I'm here with my colleague Guwafiq Faur from Vermonters for Justice in Palestine and many other groups that are pro-peace, anti-war, and humanitarian groups. He's been a real leader in the subject of the Israeli war against Gaza. He's here tonight with me to talk about how that issue we believe influenced our local elections here in Burlington and also in town meetings across Vermont. Guwafiq was very active in keeping track of those issues, in organizing about those issues, and he is an expert, I believe, probably the best expert to talk about how that issue got into our Vermont elections, including in Burlington, how it influenced peace and a ceasefire, influenced our elections first here in Burlington and then later in the same day, but also in the town meetings. Okay, so hi, Guwafiq. How are you doing? Thank you, Sandy. Thank you for this introduction. Okay, so Guwafiq, again, because I think this is such an important story that I don't think most Vermonters realize how important particularly the ceasefire resolution was in our local elections and in a town meeting, so I wonder if you could comment on that. Let's maybe start with what participation that you actually had in the elections. On the election, or let's talk about a pre-election time. Yes, good. Pre-election time, we were involved. We, Vermonter for Justice in Palestine, in particular at the beginning and later the coalition for Palestinian liberation came after Gaza war, but for four months before Gaza war, we, the Vermonter for Justice in Palestine and other solidarity groups, we adopted a resolution from a language have been brought to us by the American Friends Service Committee. Which is a committee of the Quaker, right? They are part of the Quaker organization and the language is apartheid-free communities. Can you explain what that means? Apartheid-free community, because of a three major human rights organization, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli Human Rights Organization, Petzellem, they studied the situation in Palestine. It's not only occupation, it's more racism on the ground. On each area, we see these laws of discrimination and prejudice from the Israeli government and Israeli direct military occupation in many areas clear within what's so called democratic state of Israel. And documenting all this by these human rights organizations have been adopted by many organizations all over the world. And they are struggling to tell small community or organization to adapt to the language that it is apartheid in Palestine, the Palestinian, they don't have the rights over there. They lost every single right possible that respect human rights and equal rights under international law. And we have to do something about it. Usually after declaring apartheid-free community, the next step it goes is adopting BDS or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, which is it's copy and paste from the struggle of our South African sisters and brothers during the 80s and early 90s. That's where the word apartheid comes from also. This is what racism and apartheid have been documented internationally. And here in Burlington at one point they declared that South African, white South African treatment to the black majority is an apartheid and took a stand on that to the governor of that time, Governor Conan did that as an executive order. And she was representing all the governors of New England when Nelson Mandela arrived to Boston on the Boston Common and she introduced she introduced him. So Vermont has a history of seeing injustice and talk about it. So because three years ago we have been discriminated against by the Palestinian Solidarity Group here in Burlington when we introduced a resolution to recognize Palestinian human rights, equal rights and our rights as people on the city of Burlington. We have the right to speak freely about the BDS. We have been labeled as anti-Semitic. Many institutions of this town worked very hard to force the mayor and the council members to shelf that resolution. The outcome of that resolution that we felt the public have different understanding to what is BDS, what is apartheid and the Palestinian have the right for self-determination. We adopted the language of apartheid free community. To bring it, we refused to bring it to the council members. What we did, we draw an initiative and we wrote it for the public to sign it and we went to the attorney of the town and we talked to him and we agreed on the language and we went into the corners of the streets, to the farmers market in front of the churches on Sundays, signing people. For any initiative to be presented to the city you have to collect five percent of the registered voters and we met that number and above that numbers and we signed thousands of others who are interested but they are not registered and we helped some to register later and we were following up with others which is what is it exactly is to practice democracy and to respect the freedom of speech that enshrined in the constitution and the charter of the city of berlington. What happened is after gaza war and after the invasion of the israeli to palestinian gaza and the genocide started you know we had another resolution have been presented by council member al-dianj and had been rejected by many institution lobby the mayor and six other council members which is if they believe on peace the first step is to accept ceasefire and they rejected that ceasefire well the whole council didn't reject it no no no six members voted for and six members against and the mayor broke the tie for that we took notes of what's happening to our initiative of apartheid free campaign and the same times we took notes of who voted for the ceasefire and who voted against it and one of the council member john shannon voted against the ceasefire and later when the city forced a vote on the apartheid free campaign initiative john shannon again and all the democratic member or democratic party member of the council voted to not let this initiative to go to public and to be voted by the peoples for that so but the vote for the ceasefire happened first first okay so a month earlier right and that's in the middle of a mayoral campaign correct the mayor campaign was there it wasn't hated as much at that point at that point right later when they voted down to let the initiative the peoples initiative and five more than five percent of the signature of berlington to let the initiative to be voted on on march fifth you know we talk account of what's happening you know mainly with john shannon who is the hand picked for that position the mayor position our future mayor in berlington by mayor weinberger who is known and proud to be Zionist mayor right he was at a demonstration actually wasn't he to support israel i think he was to support israel on on the greens of uvm but he never came to any of our uh rallies which is we called for ceasefire and rallies to highlight discrimination against palestinian arab muslim community when the three palestinian students got shot okay let's go back to that for a moment okay the palestinian students but i um want to again stress that when the ceasefire resolution came in front of city council yes that was supported by ali diang correct he he was a sponsor along with gene bergman and uh and no joe uh joe uh maggi okay what was the vote on that ceasefire resolution it was just simple vote of ceasefire correct and and there was other elements that it's watered down i mean including the release of the hostages et cetera et cetera uh yeah got voted down and until now we are those party lines uh there was uh i think uh um hannah king voted with the ceasefire right and she's a dem she's a democrat from okay but all the other democrats vote and they may are against against and all the progressives with hannah king voted for yes okay all right so on the apartheid free resolution to put it on the ballot only just to put it on the ballot i and you and i were there that night yes what my argument was was put it on the ballot that's democratic right this is where if you respect the democracy and the charter right and and and and what we are proud about on this country you they should allow it to be on the ballot and let the people of berlington decide and what then was the vote on that and it was party line seven seven seven uh council members from the democratic party uh and and the mayor were against to put it there their excuses was it will endanger a minority on the town which is the event uh by the people who spoke on that meeting majority of them are uh synagogues uh leaders on on our town uh what they mean by that that the jewish community feel fear if the ballot go public okay let me say something or ask you something else when they spoke about the jewish community and i was there and i met with some of that community later it's not the whole jewish community there are plenty of jewish people who were for the ceasefire and also who were for putting that on the ballot and this is yeah and this is what appeared later because we have a huge support from our jewish community right and they refuse those synagogues leaders to represent them uh but uh the mayor and the council members who oppose both resolutions they are telling the public in general and vermoner in general that if you don't support israel with its genocide with its war it means you are anti-sematic even if you are a jewish or you are self-hating jews so by doing that they alienated the huge number of our jewish siblings here they alienated the uh palestinians the arab and the muslim community yeah and they endangered their lives yeah and at the same time the uh palestinian solidarity group that existed in colleges here in uh uvm and others which is they have been facing attacks for years because of their activism for justice in the palestinian issue okay in the middle of this also was the incident against the palestinian students correct yeah that that came up during that period but again the berlington officials and the mayor he never labeled it as a haiti crime right you know right and if it happened to other community let's say the jewish community it will be called anti-sematic for the black community it will be racist based on race but for the palestinians he refused even though the president of united states he called him minutes before the press conference biden did biden did called morrow and said he didn't say he just gave his support to the city and the mayors and do your best but how many times uh biden will call any city mayor yeah 43 people got shot on the streets rarely even the the white house knows that it's haiti crime but sara george and the mayor refused to call it as as and i wonder if they are investigating the crime as a haiti crime um after i mean i kind of understand that they are i might be wrong but i would check that out um as you know i'm an i'm a lawyer and i am often in the court and i'm often able to ask questions like that i believe that they probably are they've said at this point they don't have enough evidence to charge him that way but i would guess that that's being investigated i don't know that but i think it's worth checking out at least as citizens and residents who are uh living here and part of that community that get affected the most we didn't hear anything about that yet not yet we'll see not yet it's not over yeah yet you know might be okay so all of these issues then there's another issue that i think makes the palestinian issue really part of our city it's a local issue more and more and that and i wanted just to point out that we were one of the first cities in 1991 to adopt a sister city relationship with a palestinian city of bethlehem you know that's a kind of a holy christian city even you know and we did that 1991 we have a tripartite arrangement with also a sister city in israel we were one of the first cities in the united states to recognize an official relationship with the palestinian city of bethlehem so it has been a local issue although no one has paid attention much are enough to that sister city relationship it's ongoing no it's headed up by musa ishak and it should be more reinvigorated but it had really been ignored for years this is unfortunate i mean mainly by officials right and uh in purpose that they want to ignore the palestinian issue as a local issue that effect our life over here not only because we have a palestinian community and a big community solidarity but american tax money i'm sure uh berlington pays over nine million six million dollars you know annually from federal money which is if it came back to the city will solve a lot of the problems that the city uh we have uh a lot of people excuse not to bring the palestinian issue to the table in the city hall is a foreign issue and far away countries when actually it is not always the uh city hall took uh many resolution we have many sister cities sister cities the question of nicaragua and the sandanista and uh the question of south africa you know and in vanzuela too and the war in iraq and other issues that the city discussed openly about war and peace and they took a stand about what's happening when it came to palestine and we see it because we have a lot of counsel from the progressive party that many were until recently progressive except in palestine so they are progressive on lgbtq struggle on the black life uh matter struggle on migrant justice struggle but when we say palestine it will become a foreign issue we brought it back to make it local not only by discussing war and peace where united states is the major the major supporter of the state of israel but united states and american are part of this genocide happening over there regardless what you see on the media on many stream media that they are sending aid to the palestinian they are send sending bullets and bombs to israel so what the palestinian needs from that kind of aid when you are shooting them at the same time when you are using f35 and all the american weaponry and you you send us as ford and us as isen howard to protect israel you know and this is a major subject but we decided as activists over here to take a stand that the people who voted against us mainly on the apartheid free community to make them lose the election and go ahead i'm sorry we registered a lot of people to vote where on on on uh uvm area many students they took stand and they rallied against what john shannon and her manager uh hannah king stands for they rallied they did they died in you know during i didn't know that where at the campus at uvm and they were represent on the debate took place in uvm by the uvm unions over there sponsored by by them half of the questions were about palestine half of the question had been asked those two new men need for mayor were about palestine uh and that's why hannah king lost because of her position same happened to john shannon because as we go forward we met with with her go ahead i'm sorry you met with who we we met with amma and we knew mayor the new mayor our new leader and we talked to her in open heart and open mind that it is necessary for her to support the ceasefire which is she signed the letter for ceasefire have been sent to president uh biden uh sponsored by uh legislators from the democratic party and progressive too and uh she answered the question yeah and she answered the question if uh the apartheid free campaign came in under her leadership will let the people vote for it and will respect uh the democratic process now it is the test as we go forward because we going to revisit the issues of palestine on this town and where our new leaders stand this is one the second is everybody who supported palestinian rights uh and ran for council members and who spoke in behalf of the the first and the second resolution they won i know so this is they won in my ward yeah this is to tell the american public that palestine issue is not a foreign issue and they shouldn't be scared to vote for people who are standing for justice a human rights and equal rights for palestinians go to the state level right in 14 different communities 14 14 towns you mean towns they voted as peoples for the ceasefire and many of them conditioning to the aid to israel not only ceasefire conditioning the aid what this is will tell us and tell people of berlington and the resident of berlington this is will tell them if you give the people of vermont the right to vote on the palestinian issue the result will become that the american people will stand for justice for they will stand with the human rights and they will stand with their democracy and democracy for others because all these votes are peoples vote and telling their town that we're going to go to that direction and this is going to be signed to our legislators not to be scared to introduce a divestment resolution and not to be scared to uh uh to run again for office because they have a community standing with them when they run for office it's pretty amazing because i don't think i think this analysis is really important to get out because what happened in berlington if you're right and i think you're right that this issue uh really was a victory for the palestinian people against the war against gaza by israel if this is a winning issue it should have been kind of nationally recognized so i'm happy that you're talking about it here because i don't think people understood the efforts that were made behind the scenes to make those people on city council who were for the ceasefire resolution for the ballot item being put on the ballot they won they all won and they increased their numbers but yes they did yeah and if your argument is correct it could influence the national election as well it could influence state elections everywhere everywhere and and and uh listen ama when she was running for mayor her numbers wasn't a great at first and when when she took a stand and she stood with us on the press conference supporting the ceasefire letter uh the 18th february 18th and she stood with with with uh many of uh members of the legislation oh yeah with the legislators introducing the ceasefire letter uh huh were you there you were there i was there yes and on that press conference she was standing and standing solid and i want ama to keep standing with with justice and standing with the palestinians and the future of berlington they should be a completely different that what mereau weinberger want the people to remember that city of berlington are against peace and they are a pro war by voting the ceasefire down they are pro racism and discrimination when he voted against apartheid the free community we don't want berlington to look like that and or to be like that or to be like that yeah right exactly so so how are you then feeling about or what are you thinking about the future of berlington right now are you hopeful or what's by april we're going to introduce something else uh huh we are talking to council members and we like to sit down with the democratic member of the council to educate them at the same time parallel we are doing teach in inside uh the state house to educate our representative what is apartheid and why divestment is necessary for state like vermont to divest the workers pensions and the teacher pension from israel and its occupation and education will bring us to what we want and the kind of resolution we need so what do you think about the whole future for the state of vermont it looks like you're making war and peace and the palestinian issue local and you're asking vermont to be really different on that issue than the rest of the country or at least public it will be not so certain it's different than the rest of the citizens of our country no but it's never put on the ballot anywhere if the people of united states has a decision yeah about war and peace on the middle east we saw it on the numbers and the polls 70 percent of the democratic party are pro ceasefire 70 70 percent 55 percent of the republican party are pro ceasefire but the official still playing the same game and a pack and the lobby game and they are giving the impression the public that they are under a pressure from the outside force and it's reflecting on the city yeah and their way of voting as a matter of fact one of the council member didn't know what apartheid means but she voted against it wow it she didn't so you're hoping that vermont will not only both the same the right way but also that it present a different voice it will be pioneer on that issue and everybody will follow that's great bafiq thank you so much for all the work thank you and thank you for being here thank you thank you sandy we'll see you next month audience inshallah