In the Name of Equity, Portland City Councilor Anna Trevorrow Refuses to Condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 Terrorism
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'To treat both sides as equal is actually to tip favor to the oppressor': Portland City Councilor Says Condemning Hamas is Out of Step with 'equity'
On the anniversary of terrorist attack against Israel carried out by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, a member of the Portland City Council voiced her opposition to a proclamation in remembrance of the event, refusing to condemn the terrorist organization’s massacre of civilians in the name of “equity.”
Maine Wire
By Edward Tomic
October 8, 2024
Monday’s meeting of the Portland City Council fell on Oct. 7, marking one year since the Islamist terrorist group Hamas launched an attack from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 Israelis and taking about 250 people — including U.S. citizens — hostage.
Portland Mayor Mark Dion presented a proclamation to the City Council “in remembrance of the atrocities of October 7, 2023,” that condemns the “horrific acts of violence” perpetrated by Hamas during their attack, including the killing of civilians, the murder of women and children in their homes and sexual assault.
The proclamation also recognized the loss of civilian life on both sides of the conflict, and urged a rejection of hatred, antisemitism and terrorism in all its forms.
“Since October 7th, the region has seen continued death, destruction, and the loss of physical and emotional safety for all who live in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank,” the proclamation reads. “Civilians on all sides–Israeli, Palestinian, and others–have paid the ultimate price for the decisions made by their governments and governing bodies, enduring profound harm and hardship.”
“It is only through a future that guarantees safety, dignity, and sovereignty for all peoples in the region that lasting peace can be achieved,” the proclamation states.
“We call upon the residents of Portland to join in rejecting hatred and terrorism in all its forms and to stand united in our shared pursuit of justice, safety, and a future free form violence,” it states.
Before Mayor Dion read the proclamation, City Councilor Anna Trevorrow said she was “troubled” to have her name “associated with this proclamation,” arguing that to support the resolution would be out of line with the Council’s goal of “equity.”
“While absolutely we mourn suffering, reject violence and recognize the events of October 7th, 2023, as a tragedy, this proclamation mistakenly treats October 7th in isolation, and erases the 70-plus years of systematic violence conducted by the state of Israel against the Palestinian people,” Councilor Trevorrow said.
“These ongoing years of violence include imperialism, the apartheid government and international crime, and Israel’s war against Palestinians in Gaza — military operations that the International Court of Justice has characterized as disasterous, with some operations potentially amounting to acts of genocide,” Trevorrow continued.
“The proclamation is out of integrity with the Council’s goals on equity,” she said. “Equality is not the same as equity, and to treat both sides as equal is actually to tip favor to the oppressor.”
Councilor Trevorrow then pointed to the clause in the proclamation that recognizes the loss of civilian life on both sides of the conflict, claiming that doing so “distorts the reality” that “suffering and torture has disproportionately been inflicted by the state of Israel against the Palestinian people living in Gaza.”
“While antisemitism is real and wrong, it is not synonymous with critique of Zionism,” she added.
Trevorrow also argued that the proclamation “mischaracterizes and treats the Jewish community as homogenous” on the issue of the Israel-Hamas conflict given that members of the Jewish community in Portland and elsewhere have “spent the past year protesting Israel’s war on Palestine, and its illegal military actions.”
The only mention of the Jewish community in the proclamation is a clause that reads:
“The trauma of October 7th has reverberated across the world, with Jewish communities, including here in Portland, mourning the senseless loss of life, the violation of human rights, and the escalation of antisemitism that followed in the aftermath.”
Trevorrow’s opposition to the proclamation comes after the Portland City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, as well as a resolution calling for the city to divest all public funds from “entities complicit in the current and ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
Neither of those resolutions previously passed by the Council include any mention of Hamas, or the hostages still being held prisoner by the terrorist group since Oct. 7.
Trevorrow announced in June that she would not be seeking another term on the City Council.
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