OPINION EXCHANGE | Counterpoint: On road to liberation, there's only one 'lane'

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Minneapolis City Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw’s recent commentary (“On Gaza, council out of its lane, meeting out of control,” Jan. 11) is a far reach from the call for collaboration she claims it is. Vetaw’s article, published on the eve of South Africa’s appearance in the International Court of Justice to provide evidence of Israel’s violation of the Genocide Convention, demonstrates that Minneapolis leadership needs to pay attention to the voices of its constituents now more than ever.

The City Council has a moral obligation to place pressure on the state and national governments to end aid to Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza. As a collective of Ward 4 constituents and stakeholders, we are concerned by Vetaw’s blatant lack of regard for the more than 23,000 lives stolen since Oct. 7, and the many thousands still under the rubble.

This genocide has been livestreamed for the world to see. Despite numerous human rights organizations concluding Israel is engaged in war crimes and a “textbook case of genocide,” Vetaw suggests the issue is just too complicated for constituents and leaders in Minneapolis to understand.

In reality, passage of resolutions supporting a cease-fire by local governments is neither new nor unfounded. A number of cities across the United States have already passed resolutions supporting a cease-fire, including Atlanta, Seattle, Detroit, San Francisco and Oakland, Calif.

Council Member Vetaw poses a question: “What makes my colleagues think anyone in Israel or Gaza cares what they think?” A brief Google search will show you that Palestinians have been tirelessly sharing about their struggle for decades. Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian poet and correspondent for the Nation, challenges us to “be unabashed in [our] support and articulation of Palestinian’s right to liberation and self defense against Israeli terror.”

On Nov. 1, Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer shared one of his last poems before being killed by an Israeli airstrike, “If I must die, you must live to tell my story … if I must die, let it bring hope, let it be a tale.” Our timelines are flooded with videos of airstrikes, hospitals in ruins and parents mourning their children, because Palestinian people want us to know what is happening and they are insisting that we speak out against it.

For Vetaw to even pose this question demonstrates that she is not listening to the Palestinian people in Gaza or in Minneapolis.

Council Member Vetaw’s claim that Israel’s decadeslong occupation in Palestine is a complicated geopolitical issue, somehow beyond the scope of the City Council, is in direct contradiction with her decision to sign onto the council’s April 2022 resolution expressing unity with the people of Ukraine, and calling for additional funding from the U.S. government.

She describes the first City Council meeting of 2024 as “chaotic,” and the impassioned community members voicing their support for the cease-fire and the passage of the resolution as “disgraceful,” falsely labeling them as bullies. In reality, this was an act of community, with many stakeholders on all sides of the issue showing up to participate in the democratic process of our city.

Council Member Vetaw’s article also claims no “major” Jewish organizations were consulted in creating the City Council’s resolution. However, the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Minnesota) names numerous organizations, including IfNotNow MN, Jewish Voice for Peace and American Muslims for Palestine, who contributed to the writing of the resolution. These organizations and their members asked that the city of Minneapolis support a “full, immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza and for state and federal delegations to use their full authority to advance immediate and permanent cease-fire, and urgently needed humanitarian aid in Gaza.”

Council Member Vetaw wants the City Council to “stay in its lane.” As we honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week, we find his words as timely as ever: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

We believe that all of our lanes converge on the road to liberation.

Noah Schumacher, Anusha Ramaswami, Amber Buck and D.A. Bullock are residents of Minneapolis, Ward 4. Jordan Kushner is a member of the National Lawyers Guild. Samantha Alsadi is a member of the Minnesota Anti War Committee.