I am voting Yes because the children of Palestine have heard too many No’s.
No drinking water. No food. No medicine. No playgrounds. No, your best friend is not coming back. No, we don’t know why they’ve detained your cousin. No, your grandmother’s house and olive trees are gone. No, we’re not allowed to walk that road. No, we don’t know when they’ll rebuild your school. No, we don’t know how long we’ll be sleeping here. No, we can’t make those scary sounds and sirens stop.
When visiting the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem in early October 2023, I met with an art therapist who showed children’s drawings, depicting missiles, violence, and armed soldiers. One drawing showed a small girl speaking to a huge room filled with hundreds of empty chairs. The caption read, “Me telling the United Nations what it is like to live in my village.” Generations of children in Palestine have lived through forced displacement, discrimination, segregation, occupation, disappeared family members, and unspeakable violence. Over 20,000 Palestinian children have been killed in the last three years.
This letter is not easy to write. I recognize the referendum has generated fear, sadness, and anger for friends and neighbors, some saying it has strained their sense of belonging in Oak Park. There is nothing I can do to alleviate that pain; I can only acknowledge it.
I am voting Yes on the referendum because boycotting is a non-violent and powerful tool to pressure systemic change. I am voting Yes for the children of Palestine, to counter all the No’s that have eroded their trust in humanity and their hope for the future.
Sources:
United Nations, Independent International Commission of Inquiry, https://www.un.org/unispal/document/coi-report-23jun26/
Unicef, https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/more-50000-children-killed-or-injured-gaza
World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/public-health-situation-analysis-occupied-palestinian-territory-September.
Tara Meyer Dull
Oak Park