JCRC ACTION ALERT

Take action as the Cambridge City Council considers ‘Ceasefire Now’ resolution.

On Monday, November 20, at 5:30pm the Cambridge City Council will consider policy order #210 “In Support of Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley’s Call for a Ceasefire”. 

Read the proposed Policy Order here.  

ACTION STEPS: 

Members of the Cambridge community should make themselves heard. 

Be heard during the public comment period on Monday. Advance registration is required. Sign up here. 

You can also communicate with the members of the Council in writing by sending an email prior to the meeting.  

Read these important TIPS before sharing comment.  

Our Message to the Cambridge City Council:  

We, the Jewish population in Cambridge are feeling scared and intimidated. Many of us know people who were murdered or taken hostage by Hamas on October 7. Many of us have experienced antisemitic incidents in Cambridge and on campuses in our city since October 7th. Tension in the community has continued to grow following demonstrations with antisemitic chants, and including violence, here in Cambridge.  

Passing this policy Order which fails to condemn the Hamas attacks and assigns blame on Israel, the country whose citizens were savagely killed on October 7, would increase the Jewish community’s sense of isolation and marginalization from the Cambridge community and its elected officials.  

• Any policy order that does not include an explicit and unconditional condemnation of the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th should be voted down. 
• Any policy order that conflates and equalizes the 220 hostages from 40 countries taken on October 7th, many of them children and elderly, with ‘prisoners of war’ should be voted down.  
• Expressing concern for the innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza, including women and children, is a moral priority that all decent people share. Caring for innocent civilians in harm’s way should not be presented as a zero-sum moral value. As we support humanitarian efforts to help innocent civilians in Gaza, we must also support humanitarian needs for the 250,000 internally displaced people in Israel whose homes were destroyed or remain under fire from Hamas, Hezbollah and others to this day. A policy order that fails to treat human rights consistently should be voted down. 
• There was a ceasefire on October 6th. Hamas broke this ceasefire on October 7th. Any call for ceasefire that doesn’t include a commitment to removing Hamas as a controlling actor in Gaza will only ensure that this designated terrorist organization has the time and opportunity to commit these crimes again, especially when supported by other bad actors in the region. It should be voted down. 
• The topic of the war between Israel and Hamas is so fraught that it’s impossible to talk about all of its elements in a council policy order in a way that wouldn’t cause harm to many Cambridge residents. And we hope that the policy order is voted down. 

Among the most concerning aspects of the proposed Order are: 

• Its failure to unequivocally condemn the Hamas attacks of October 7 or to acknowledge that these acts were taken by a recognized foreign terrorist organization. 
• The cruel and perverse linkage of the immediate return of over 200 innocent civilians taken hostage taken from Israel on October 7 to the release of “prisoners of war”.  
• The adjudication and blaming of Israel as responsible for “collective punishment” and bearing sole responsibility for a humanitarian crisis, under the guise of calling out the loss of civilian life and calling for humanitarian aid.