Student Organizers Should Be Commended for Chappaqua Peace Rally

The high school students who organized the peace rally in Chappaqua on Feb. 3 should be commended for staging a vigorous and peaceful demonstration in protest of the Israeli government’s violence against the Palestinian people.

The students and their supporters overcame intense resistance from the New Castle Town Board and a small, vocal group of counter-protesters. These young people demonstrated their leadership skills, moral courage and a firm belief in their First Amendment rights to free speech.

The Examiner article covering the rally highlighted statements by rally opponents that reflected the type of propaganda that muddles an accurate discussion about what is happening in Gaza.

Cantor Deborah Katcho-Gray evokes the oft heard mantra that the demonstrators deny Israel’s right to exist. In fact, we oppose the policies and actions of the Israeli government that flaunt international law. The most respected international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s own B’Tselem, decry the longstanding illegal and inhuman Israeli policies of apartheid, occupation and displacement. Healthy criticism of these policies does not constitute a denial of Israel’s right to exist.

Golan Bramli’s claim that Palestinians living inside of Israel proper have equal rights is blatantly false. The Nation State laws of Israel clearly state that non-Jewish citizens of Israel have no right to self-determination and are permanently and legally relegated to second-class citizenship, much akin to Jim Crow and South African apartheid status.

His objection to the term “genocide” is a denial of the facts that nearly 30,000 civilians in Gaza have been killed (nearly half of them children), two million people have been displaced and 250,000 homes have been destroyed, all while the Israeli government has denied the people of Gaza food, water, sanitation and power. The International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to end all these actions that violate the Genocide Convention.

Town Supervisor Vicki Tipp’s post-march statement that her efforts to stop the rally were “centered around safety, not an attempt to deny the permit” are self-serving and disingenuous. In fact, in a social media post a few days before the march, Ms. Tipp wrote: “It is with a heavy heart that I am reporting to you that our police chief had to grant the permit this afternoon…police will be on the scene. We were not able to deny this permit. I reviewed the ADL website information about the sponsors with our town attorney and police chief. This was nevertheless deemed protected speech and activity…a denial would be based on content of speech which is unconstitutional…I have also been in touch with our regional ADL director who confirmed that we have to grant this permit. I wish I had something different to report.”

In other words, Ms. Tipp put considerable directed effort into preventing a peaceful demonstration organized by high school students, and “with a heavy heart” was forced to acknowledge that – apparently unfortunately – New Castle remains subject to the U.S. Constitution. Her attempt after the demonstration to walk back this egregious attempt at abuse of power as an elected official was laughable when suddenly her concern was really about how “very unsafe” it would be for high school students to cross a street with a clearly marked crosswalk and police officers in every direction.

Finally, Cantor Katcho-Gray and others should realize that the worldwide outrage about Israel’s response in Gaza is likely “fueling incidents of antisemitism,” not a peaceful rally organized by concerned high school students. Critics of the rally would do well to examine the facts and not rely on misinformation in their support of Israel’s policies.

Arthur C. Grant
Chappaqua

Harry Soloway
Cortlandt Manor

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