A diverse group of Oak Parkers is asking our village board to join the growing number of local municipalities to call for a permanent ceasefire, release of all hostages, and immediate humanitarian relief to the besieged and now intentionally starved people of Gaza. According to the U.S. Municipal Ceasefire Tracker (1), there have been 132 passed resolutions. Where is Oak Park?
I have heard assertions that this resolution is not in the purview of the board. And I ask, why not?
This is not a foreign policy issue. This is a humanitarian crisis supported by Oak Park tax dollars and affecting Oak Park residents daily.
• Community members, whose well-being is a village board priority, are negatively impacted every day through their personal losses, pain, and fear.
• Every time there is violence, both anti-Palestinian and antisemitic rhetoric and horrific acts increase exponentially — which is a threat to community members.
• According to the U.S. Military Funding to Israel Map (2), Oak Parkers’ over $800,000 in federal taxes for unconditional military aid to Israel is being used to bring about massive suffering in Gaza.
There are objections to this resolution, which are issues the other municipalities considered when they voted for ceasefire.
Taking action:
• will detract from valuable time spent on village issues (But this is a village issue: our tax dollars are continuing the suffering, our families are in anguish, and our community members are living with increase bigotry every single day).
• is just symbolic (During six months of slaughter and destruction, hundreds of Oak Parkers have ceaselessly written, called, gone to our federal representatives’ offices, rallied in Oak Park and in Downtown Chicago, and visited representatives in Washington D.C. But it has become clear that we need our local elected government members, those closest to us, to join with other municipalities who have chosen to amplify community members’ voices to our federal officials. This is an essential way that our federal representatives will hear from us).
• will set a precedent (This is different from other unbearable humanitarian crises. In this case, when community tax dollars are being used to fuel the suffering, we have a special responsibility).
Furthermore, any representation that petition organizers tried to force the board to take a vote last Tuesday is untrue and unfounded. We planned to introduce the resolution during the public comment section of the meeting where community members speak on something that is not on the board’s agenda. We had sent the resolution to the board and had begun both outreach and discussions with members. Our publicity urged the resolution’s supporters to come to the meeting to “support the introduction of a ceasefire resolution” and to sign our petition at www.change.org/OakParkCeasefireResolution
Before any public comments could begin, the board president informed us that the board had already decided not to move forward on a resolution.
Since she has apologized and taken back that statement, we expect the board to reconsider. We are continuing dialogue with trustees and other stakeholders, and we are hopeful that our community can move forward.
Our village has a voice. We have a history of refusing to be silent and complicit, but we cannot rest on that history. Oak Park must join its voice with other municipalities, unions, clergy, and citizens who are standing against incalculable suffering and for justice and for peace.
Village trustees, I ask the question asked by Rabbi Hillel over 2,000 years ago:
If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?
(1) The U.S. Municipal Ceasefire Tracker is online as a joint project of buildingmovement.org and Muslims for Just Futures, which charts municipalities that have passed, rejected, and are still considering ceasefire resolutions.
(2) The U.S. Military Funding to Israel Map is an online calculator developed by the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights at Homepage › Activist Resource › U.S. Military Funding to Israel Map.
Caren Van Slyke
Oak Park