On April 9, a group of local residents attended the Oak Park Village Board meeting and asked the president and trustees to consider approving the wording of a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Gaza. As you may have heard, the proceedings quickly got tense and testy.
I’m not sure where all that stands now, but I support the idea of having our village, by way of the village board, take a position on this issue — even though feelings are running raw on all sides. A resolution needs to be fair, but it also needs to take a stand.
My attempt will not satisfy everyone, or maybe anyone, but it’s worth a try. So here goes:
A resolution
The current Israel-Gaza crisis has deep roots in history, but the most immediate causes of the ongoing humanitarian crisis are the following:
* The attack by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7 led to many civilian deaths and injuries and the taking of many Israeli hostages.
* The counter-attack by the Israeli military has led to many more civilian casualties, displacement of the population, and general destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, as part of the Israeli government’s effort to eliminate Hamas altogether.
* Hamas uses Gazan civilians as human shields and essential infrastructure to hide their system of tunnels.
* Israel’s military operation has prevented adequate humanitarian assistance from reaching the Gazan population.
* U.S. military assistance to Israel is being used to further death and destruction in Gaza. That assistance is funded by American taxpayers, which means we all have a stake in what happens there.
* Other countries in the surrounding region, which are hostile to Israel and oppose its existence, sponsor and support terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Consideration of these causes leads to the following conclusions:
* We believe that resorting to violent acts of terrorism, no matter the circumstances, even in the face of oppression, is intolerable.
* We believe Israel has a right to defend itself, but a clear distinction must be drawn between defense and retaliation. We do not believe that the Israeli government has a right to retaliate in a way that creates a widespread humanitarian crisis with many thousands of civilian casualties, including many children.
* We believe when the Israeli military uses weapons that we pay for, we are entitled to a say in the matter and that U.S. military assistance to Israel must be conditioned on a responsible use of that assistance.
* We believe the endless cycle of warfare in this region must stop.
Therefore,
* We call for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza to stop the death and destruction, to allow humanitarian assistance to reach the Gazan population, to facilitate an international intervention for the release of all Israeli hostages and the release of all Palestinians held without charge in Israeli prisons, the peaceful surrender of Hamas militants, and to begin an international effort to rebuild Gaza. But the first step is to halt the bloodshed, and for that to happen a ceasefire must take place.
* To that end, we are joining more than 100 municipalities in this country who have called for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
* We also call on the Biden Administration to significantly ramp up its efforts, along with those of our allies, to make this ceasefire a reality.
* We support Israel’s right to exist as an independent, sovereign nation. Israel has a right to defend itself. The people of Israel did not deserve what was inflicted upon them on Oct. 7.
* We support a Palestinian state’s right to exist as an independent, sovereign nation. That Palestinian state also has a right to defend itself. The Palestinian people do not deserve what has been inflicted upon them since Oct. 7.
* What Hamas did to Israel is unjustifiable. What Israel is doing to Gaza is unjustifiable. We cannot immediately resolve the longstanding issues at the heart of this conflict, but we can call for an immediate permanent ceasefire to allow the long journey to a just peace for both Palestine and Israel to begin.
* We care deeply about the people in Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank — and their respective supporters here in our community — and we pray for an end to these protracted and deadly hostilities.
That’s my draft, which I hope both sides can live with and the village board might be willing to approve in the name of the entire village. No doubt people on both sides will say it goes too far or not far enough. It’s not perfect. But it just might fly.
Maybe you have a better version. For the wording of the resolution previously submitted to the village board, go to: https://www.change.org/OakParkCeasefireResolution.
For existing wording elsewhere, check out https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/at-least-100-american-communities-have-called-for-a-gaza-cease-fire, which includes the statement: “This conflict will not be resolved militarily; rather, it will be resolved diplomatically when wise, courageous and visionary leaders on both sides replace the current leaders in charge today.”
That’s something with which we can all agree.