A group of community members came back to urge Oak Park’s Village Board of Trustees to pass a permanent ceasefire resolution for the Israel-Hamas war.
The move on April 30 comes three weeks after the group first pressed the trustees to take action during a highly contentious board meeting. That April 9 meeting drew about 20 speakers during the non-agenda public comment to either support or oppose the resolution. Tuesday’s meeting was more subdued. Six people spoke to explain why they are still pushing to get the resolution passed.
Daniel Lakemacher, who said he is United States Navy veteran that worked at Guantanamo Bay, explained that his experiences taught him about dehumanization, horrific treatment and torture, so he believes that war is not the answer.
“I’m not asking you, as the village board, to negotiate international affairs,” he said. “But what I am asking you to do is to represent, for our local residents, and for the wider world, what our values are as a community.”
Caren Van Slyke, a founder and chair of the Committee for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel, circulated an online petition supporting the resolution.
The resolution calls for “an immediate permanent ceasefire, the provision of immediate and unconditional lifesaving humanitarian aid in Gaza, and the release of all hostages.” As of May 1, 524 people signed it, but the group is trying to collect as many signatures as possible, Van Slyke said.
Resolution supporters held discussions with village trustees ahead of the April 30 meeting, Van Slyke told Wednesday Journal. Supporters have met with each trustee at least once, she said, and several more than once.
The trustees’ biggest question, she said, has been why it is appropriate for Oak Park to pass this type of resolution. As some residents who have opposed it pointed out, the issue is international, not local.
“It’s appropriate for them [the board] to pass it because our community is being impacted,” Van Slyke explained. “It’s not just any one of dozens of humanitarian crises in the world right now.”
Village President Vicki Scaman said the board will continue to stay in dialogue with the community and “work toward what is possible.” The board members did not elaborate at the meeting on whether they would entertain a resolution on the agenda.
The resolution’s supporters have also tried to emphasize that they are an inclusive group, Van Slyke said. Members of the Jewish and Palestinian community are in support of the resolution, she said, as well as individuals of other faiths and all ages.
“The crisis is accelerating with every passing day,” she said. “There is an unparalleled humanitarian crisis going on.”
Jim Madigan, a former deputy director of the Oak Park Public Library, spoke during the April 30 meeting to express support for the resolution and to ask board members to use their voices to amplify those asking for a ceasefire, humanitarian aid and the release of hostages.
“My generation seems to have lost their idealism and settled for the lesser of two evils,” Madigan said. “Today’s youth rejects that compromise.”
Jenna Leving Jacobson, who said she’s Jewish, said Jews and Palestinians are not on opposite sides of this issue, and that many Jewish people do support a ceasefire.
“It is not enough for only Jews to know freedom,” she said. “If we fight only for our own rights and safety but do not rise up for those in need alongside us, it is not enough.”
The village board, she said, may not want to offend Jewish people, but Jacobson said she has not seen the same concern for Palestinian residents.
“Do not equate supporting Israel with supporting Jews,” Jacobson said. “There is no neutral position. Our silence is complicity and will only encourage continued suffering.”
But other community members are still against the resolution. At the April 9 meeting, several other Jewish individuals expressed an opposition to the board passing a ceasefire resolution and their desire to not “alienate” local Jewish residents.
“The resolution initially seems to check all of the boxes for acceptable wording … but it has many problems,” Judith Alexander said at the April 9 meeting. “Oak Park’s Jewish population feels frightened and alone.”
Alexander also wrote a letter to the editor in the Wednesday Journal explaining what she believes to be problems with a permanent ceasefire resolution.
In response, Van Slyke said resolution supporters have met with and reached out to those against it to have an “amicable” exchange of views.
Some have questioned why CJPIP and others in support of the resolution have not taken the issue up with federal officials. Van Slyke said they have, for about six months. But she also said elected representatives, including the local village board, can amplify their residents’ voices to those officials.
“If Oak Park joins with the other communities in Illinois … and these representatives start hearing that the elected officials closest to the grassroots are saying ‘You should do this,’ it’s going to have an additional, critical impact,” she said.