By Jim Bloch
Five citizens stepped to the podium to ask the Port Huron City Council to issue a resolution demanding a ceasefire in the war in the Gaza Strip.
The war started after Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7 by land, air and sea, killing 1,300 Israelis and taking more than 200 hostages. Opponents of the war have argued that Israel’s response has been radically disproportionate to Hamas’ original attack, killing as many as 30,000 Palestinians. According to United Nations Human Rights Council, the bulk of the Palestinian population now lacks clean drinking water, sufficient food, fuel, electricity and healthcare as a result of the Israeli air and ground attacks.
“I’ve been a resident of Port Huron for 26 years, almost my entire life,” said Ashley Pratt, a mother of two and a healthcare worker. She is studying nursing at St. Clair County Community College. “I’m here to discuss an issue that resonates beyond the border of our beloved city — the ongoing crisis in Palestine. The situation there is not just troubling. It’s a humanitarian catastrophe that we cannot afford to endure. Thirty thousand human lives have been lost. Ten thousand of those are children just like my two little boys. And 300 healthcare workers have been killed as well… As citizens of the world and members of a compassionate community, we cannot remain silent in the face of such atrocities. That’s why I urge you, our council members, to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine. By doing so, we will take a stand against hate and violence and will be voicing our support for peace and justice and the sanctity of human life.”
The speakers addressed the city council during the public comment portion of the agenda, during which each person is permitted to speak for four minutes. Carrie Balmer followed Pratt.
“I’ve been a Port Huron resident for about half my life,” said Balmer. “My family hails from Detroit and before that various shtetls in Poland and Russia. My family is a descendent of Jews who emigrated to the U.S. in the early 20th Century due to persecution from ever-growing fascism within the region. Growing up, my father spoke of Palestine often. He taught me about the illegal Israeli settlements and colonization of what was once was a land full of indigenous Palestinians. He made sure to teach each of his four children that ‘never again’ meant (‘never again’) for everyone. Our tortured history does not give us permission to pass our trauma onto others. And yet Israel has not learned the lessons of humanity. At this very moment, displaced families, mostly consisting of children, are dying of starvation, hypothermia, sniper rifles, bombing and infections from their preventable wounds. This is not new for the Palestinian people. Many are three generations into the nearly century-old genocide.”
Balmer implored the council and audience to see past the Jew versus Muslim narrative “that our country has convinced us is the root of the problem.”
“I am one of thousands of members of the Michigan chapter of Jewish Voices for Peace,” Balmer said. “You don’t have to be Jewish or Christian or Muslim or atheist to see the atrocities committed on the Palestinian people. You only have to be human. I urge you to join our sister cities of Detroit, Dearborn, Hamtramck, Canton, Kalamazoo and dozens of cities across the U.S. and the world in calling for a ceasefire.”
The Detroit City Council passed such a resolution before Thanksgiving.
“The Detroit City Council believes all sovereign nations in pursuit of self-defense must comply with international humanitarian law regardless of geographic context,” said the resolution, which passed 7-2, Nov. 21.
“Solidarity is the only feasible way we can convince our government (to stop the) $4 billion in our tax dollars going to Israel each year so they can have free health care and college all the while indiscriminately bombing innocent civilians in order to steal their land,” said Balmer.
Adam Russell, of Armada, requested that the council pass a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza. So did Hayden Roszczewski of Port Huron.
A woman who said she came to the U.S. as a refugee of the 1991 Desert Storm War made the same request. She quoted figures from the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor: 30,617 Palestinians dead, including 12,000 children, 6,100 women, 241 health workers and 106 journalists; 90 percent of the Gaza population displaced; four percent of the population dead or missing; 240,000 housing units damaged or destroyed, as well as 318 schools, 169 healthcare facilities
“How would you feel if these horrible things were happening to you and your loved ones?” she asked.
The council did not respond to any of the speakers, their normal practice during public comment.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
