An open letter to the Columbus community on the Israel-Hamas Conflict
November 17, 2023
Over the past month, Columbus City Council has heard from hundreds of Palestinian and Jewish residents regarding the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. After consulting with Councilmembers, I write today to address the heartbreaking division that has wracked our community, which strives to be a welcoming safe haven for people of all races and faiths.
On October 7, Hamas attacked Israeli civilians. Reports of murdered children at Kfar Aza kibbutz left me stunned: on a trip five years ago to promote interfaith dialogue among Black leaders, I had visited that tight-knit farming village two miles from the Gaza Strip. Now it was destroyed. All morning, I heard fear in the voices and messages of Jewish constituents whose long-persecuted community was under attack again. To acknowledge a shaken community’s pain, I quickly posted to social media to condemn acts of terror, express solidarity with Israel during this difficult time, and pray for peace.
I don’t regret those words, even as protests have ensued at City Hall, the Statehouse, and across our country. But what I wish I could have foreseen — and spoken to — is how the attacks on innocent Israelis would rebound onto innocent Muslims, both abroad and here at home.
Yes, this crisis is beyond the jurisdiction of a legislature whose focus is safety, housing, and transportation in Columbus. But at one Council meeting, I said this was a global issue, not a local one. I was wrong. I thank the Palestinian constituents who have met with us to channel their grief and fear into advocacy, sharing stories of generations of dehumanizing economic and political suppression.
Residents are right to expect their elected representatives to listen, find common ground, and offer moral clarity where it exists. However, asking folks to declare sides, lean into absolutes, or reduce complex realities into semantic litmus tests only leaves us all angrier, more at odds, and incapable of dignified disagreement. Just as important, it also leaves stranded the vast majority of bighearted Americans who want to show empathy and seek comprehension, but are still learning. I believe these are the convictions of Council, informed by the good sense and compassion to know that multiple things can be true at once about an all-around awful situation whose competing claims go back centuries:
First, the cycle of bloodshed in the Middle East must end. October 7 was the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. The Palestinian death toll since then has exceeded it tenfold, including children. We cannot become desensitized to all of this death: my Bible, the Torah, and the Quran all command us to safeguard life, to intervene when our neighbor’s life is in danger, and to avoid substituting vengeance for justice. Of course Israel has a right to defend itself and to confront Hamas, a terrorist group. Most Palestinians are not Hamas, though. Who among us believes a military solution will resolve a conflict rooted in feelings of displacement? That is why we respect and pray for a path to a legitimate two-way ceasefire — one that can hold, unlike in 2014 and 2021, when Hamas violated ceasefires to restart violence. On this path, it is a humanitarian necessity that all hostages go free; water, fuel and food must come in; and civilians can safely exit.
Second, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hate are unacceptable in Columbus. Reports of hate crimes and speech are skyrocketing. Last weekend, Jewish students at The Ohio State University were assaulted and Hillel was vandalized. We have also met with Arabs and Muslims on campus and in Columbus who are being called terrorists, receiving death threats, afraid to wear a hijab or go to school or work. I immediately discussed these incidents with our Police Chief and Ohio State leadership. Conversations are ongoing about how we keep everyone safe. We stand firm in our support for our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters who are equally entitled to living freely and safely.
Third, we will vigorously defend First Amendment rights. As the first gay, Black City Council President in Columbus, I stand on the shoulders of civil rights agitators. This Council is horrified to hear of calls to deport students and ban free speech. Activism should remain peaceful and never call for hate or seek violence. But we cannot be thin-skinned enough to forsake our freedoms when we feel discomfort, enabling a slippery slope that only leads to the persecution of groups fighting for any marginalized people. After Muslims, they will come for groups who fight for Black lives, women’s rights, LGBTQ equality, and the dignity of workers — and eventually, they will come for Jews themselves, as the far-right always does. That is why the 1946 Niemoller poem we all studied in school that begins with “First, they came for…” and ends with “Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me” is emblazoned on the walls of the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
As local elected officials, we cannot bring about the two-state solution. Our responsibility is to listen, find common ground, and offer moral clarity where it exists. We’ll continue to stand with those I met with at Congregation Tifereth Israel during services last month and those we welcomed to Council’s Iftar in April to mark the end of Ramadan fasting, just as we will stand for all of the 907,000 residents of this diverse City. Most of all, we will continue to pray for peace and work to make it a reality in Columbus.
