After Hamas fighters killed 1,200 Israelis in an October 7th surprise attack out of Gaza, Israel has responded with a brutal bombing campaign that has flattened the region that has been under siege for 16 years, killing upwards of 11,000 – including at least 4,500 minors – and leading to the mass displacement of Palestinians. President Joe Biden has rejected calls for a ceasefire despite the massive civilian body count and a mounting humanitarian crisis that has been labeled as a genocide and as ethnic cleansing by United Nations experts. The United States sends Israel billions of dollars a year in foreign assistance, and Biden has so far been unable to get Congress to approve a new influx of aid to Israel.
However, evidence shows that the president and other Democratic leaders are at odds with their party’s rank-and-file.
A Data for Progress poll released on October 20th found that 80% of Democratic respondents and more than half of Republican respondents support the U.S. calling for a ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza. An AP poll published on November 9th showed that almost half of Democratic voters disapprove of how Biden has handled the conflict.
Democratic Congressman Richard Neal represents Berkshire County as part of the 1st Massachusetts District. While fellow Congressional Massachusetts Democrat Ayanna Pressley is one of 17 representatives who signed on to legislation from Representative Cori Bush of Missouri calling for “an immediate de-escalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine,” Neal has not. According to OpenSecrets.org, Neal received almost $47,000 from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – the powerful Israeli lobbying group with ties to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing party Likud – in the 2022 election cycle. He discussed the conflict on WAMC’s Congressional Corner:
“Israel has a right to defend itself," said Neal. "The atrocities of what happened on October 7th, now just about a month old, the world had a chance to witness. 1,400 innocent people were mindlessly slaughtered, and Israel as a Jewish state has a right to defend itself, and we need the fundamental acknowledgement to begin with that Israel has a right to exist. I think that what Hamas has done has not only drawn enormous criticism across the world, but it is hampered the ability to get onto what many of us believe in the long run will be a territorial decision that will be negotiated by the Palestinians and the Israeli government. I think what Hamas did at this moment, I think that they are enemies of the Palestinian people.”
Israel lowered its estimate of those killed by Hamas in the October 7th attacks to 1,200 on November 10th.
Neal’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the ceasefire calls or Bush’s legislation.
On October 24th, the Pittsfield city council approved a petition by right-wing Ward 2 representative Charles Kronick to “condemn the terrorist atrocities inflicted upon the people of Israel by the terrorist group, Hamas.”
“It is a expression of condemnation of the atrocity, actually genocidal in nature in intent, that happened on October 7th when thousands of terrorists swarmed into Israel and slaughtered children, infants, people- children in front of their parents, parents in front of the children, utter atrocities," he said.
Ward 6 councilor Dina Lampiasi suggested expanding the focus of the statement.
“We are identifying one group in this event," she said. "It is one side of pain that we are recognizing, or at least I don't want it to be perceived that way. Whereas there are innocent people dying in this region that are just citizens of the place they live. We- Anti-Semitism, Islamic fundamentalism, we all agree that they are bad, and I think we have- I don't think that that is in question. The statement, though, I just want to be clear that it is the innocent lives that are being lost. That should be the focus.”
Kronick pushed back by comparing Israel’s response to the October 7th attacks to America dropping atomic bombs on Japanese civilians at the end of World War II.
“War is a terrible event that results in the death of innocents, and that is a that is a very real concern and a real, real- And it causes a lot of torment for people on both sides of the fence in any war," he said. "I mean, when American pilots were dropping bombs over Japan, they talked about the pain and horror they felt as they watched those bombs crackle below them, knowing that innocent civilians were being decimated by them, and it hurt the soldiers dropping them. It's a terrible thing. And I'm not, and I'm certainly not denying any of the horror that’s happened since the October 7th. However, in acknowledging evil when evil walks, you don't equivocate.”
Lampiasi made it clear she did not disagree with anything Kronick said, and gave up on her amendment attempt before the council approved the petition.
While elected officials in Western Massachusetts haven’t moved to condemn the devastating Israeli offensive in Gaza, community members have stepped to the fore.
“A couple of weeks ago, after the October 7th attack, some community members and I felt that there was a seriously imbalanced conversation happening in Berkshire County that did not center the voices of Palestinians as folks who have been displaced and victims of a slow-motion genocide over the course of 75 years," Robin Chadwell told WAMC. "And so, we came together, and we crafted a letter that we wanted to base on compassion, justice, and empathy.”
Chadwell is the day program director at High Spirit Community Farm in Great Barrington, a signatory and organizer of the letter.
She says the letter, which has been signed by dozens, is a continuation of longstanding Berkshire solidarity for Palestine.
“The attack on October 7th naturally, of course, led to tragedy for so many people, and naturally, people were grieving," she told WAMC. "And I think that my experience and some other folks’ experience was that that grief that we felt after that attack on October 7th was being turned into- It was being weaponized, in a way. It was being weaponized to exact genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.”
Chadwell says that the fear of being perceived as anti-Semitic have dampened calls for peace in Palestine.
“We need to have our objection to anti-Semitism at the forefront of this movement, but I think that what is being called anti-Semitism right now is an opposition to the Israeli state, which is extremely problematic," she explained. "So, Judaism is not what is driving the IDF, the Israeli military forces to exact this violence right now. It is the Israeli state, the settler, colonial state, run by Netanyahu. So right now, I think that there's a lot of fear out there, a lot of folks are scared to say the wrong thing- And that makes sense to me, and I feel deep empathy for that. But we need to be steadfast in our in our convictions. And part of the goal of this letter is to invite people to say the hard thing, which is that Palestinians deserve to be free. And it's just extremely hard to say that right now in this county, because there is a dominant narrative of Zionism, which does not really account for the historical rights of Palestinians.”
She says the open communication with clearly identified members of the Berkshire Community is an effort to normalize and depoliticize calls for a ceasefire.
“It's meant to bring people together on a foundation of compassion," said Chadwell. "So, it starts by just telling the reader, we're your neighbors, we’re your farmers, we’re your caregivers. We live next door to you like. These aren't talking heads who are coming to you asking for your support. These are your real, live community members. It's both an expression of deep grief for the loss of every life that has happened since October 7th and a call to action that is really centered around, I suppose, a radical understanding of the situation in Palestine.”
Here is the full text of the letter:
"If you would like to sign this letter, please click here to enter your information.
May this message meet you in solidarity. As we come together to take action, we are trembling at the same time. There is so much pain, trauma, and tenderness at this moment, and it is challenging to find the right words to respond to it. We hope you read this and remember that humans who love you wrote it.
We are your neighbors, farmers, caregivers, friends. We pray that you are finding ways to hold, support, and hear each other during this time. We have been in community—in protest and prayer—these last days. We have been educating ourselves about the conditions that have led us to what we are witnessing today. We have been deeply introspective so that we may actually feel the gravity of what is happening here.
We mourn the deaths of each and every being. We grieve and are enraged as the Israeli government wages a genocidal war on the people of Palestine with the full financial and political support of the United States government. We grieve for the land taken from Palestinian tending, the olive trees cut down, the land burnt, fenced and walled, the air heavy with contamination from bombs (many manufactured in the US), and the ongoing contamination and deprivation of water to the Palestinian people.
“Our federal taxes contribute $3 billion yearly in military and economic aid to Israel. Over $200 million of that money is spent fighting the uprising of Palestinian people who are trying to end the military occupation of their homeland. Israeli soldiers fire tear gas canisters made in america into Palestinian homes and hospitals, killing babies, the sick, and the elderly...Encouraging your congresspeople to press for a peaceful solution in the Middle East, and for recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people, is not altruism, it is survival. ”
— AUDRE LORDE, OBERLIN COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS, MAY 29, 1989
That was in 1989. Today, according to the Congressional Research Service, “the United States has provided Israel $150 billion (current, or non inflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding. At present, almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance.”
We call on our community members to take action in the following ways:
- Contact your government officials DAILY - demand an end to US aid to Israel, an immediate ceasefire, and an end to the occupation of Palestine.
- Educate yourselves on what is happening, centering the voices of Palestinians. We’ve shared a resource list HERE.
- Join your communities that gather in organizing and protest. Solidarity until Palestine is free.
We are asking you, in the face of unimaginable tragedy, to take up a practice of fierce compassion. We know that to do so is no small feat and requires deep courage. But we, your community, believe in our collective strength to do this.
Finally, we leave you with the words of Palestinian poet and activist, Suheir Hammad: “Occupation means that every day you die, and the world watches in silence. As if your death was nothing, as if you were a stone falling in the earth, water falling over water.
And if you face all of this death and indifference and keep your humanity, and your love and your dignity and you refuse to surrender to their terror, then you know something of the courage that is Palestine.”
In love and solidarity,"
Signed:
Robin Chadwell, of High Spirit Community Farm
Lesley Eshelman, Great Barrington, MA
Abi Childs, Berkshires DSA Chair
atalanta sungurov, from Finca Luna Búho
Fran Sequeira Calderón, from Finca Luna Búho
Hanyil López Lira, from Finca Luna Búho
José Gutierrez Calderón, from Finca Luna Búho
Sunder Ashni, Mumbet’s Freedom Farm
Jennifer Maas, Cheshire, MA
Kamaar Taliaferro, Pittsfield, MA
Anaelisa Vanegas, Manos Unidas Co-op
Kristina Cardot, Corazonidos Community School
Joe Scully, Lee, MA
John Prusinski, former Berkshires DSA Co-chair
Hunter Pratt, Cheshire, MA
Marina Fortier, Cheshire, MA
Maddie Elling, West Stockbridge, MA
Abe Hunrichs, West Stockbridge, MA
Hugo Wasserman, Housatonic, MA
Sara Wallach, Great Barrington, MA
Hannah Walker, Housatonic, MA
Mae Whaley, Housatonic, MA
Geneva Gray, Great Barrington, MA
Alejandro Hernandez Chavez, Great Barrington, MA
Clemente Sajquiy, Housatonic, MA
Rebecca Strout, Pittsfield, MA on unceded Mohican land
Julia Keenan, Great Barrington, MA
Michael Vincent Bushy, Pittsfield, MA
Honora Toole, Great Barrington, MA
Cara Petricca, Cheshire, MA
Hedley Stone, Richmond, MA
Sarah Kate Hartt, Great Barrington, MA
Becca Litwin, Monterey, MA
Sean Stanton, Great Barrington, MA
Lillian Volat, Housatonic, MA
Meg Bantle, Full Well Farm, Adams, MA
Laura Tupper-Palches, Full Well Farm, Adams, MA
Elizabeth Caldwell, Great Barrington, MA
Jada Haas, West Stockbridge, MA
Lia Russell-Self, Mohican land in Canaan, NY
Melissa Martin, Sheffield, MA
Peter Martin, Sheffield, MA
Sara Mugridge, Monterey, MA
J. Megan Smithers, North Adams, MA
Kim Ostellino, Pittsfield, MA
Erica Barreto, North Adams, MA
Nora Brulé, Florida, MA
Bilal Ansari, North Adams, MA
