Human Rights for Who?
Originally Published in the Alexandria Times on April 25th, 2024
Alexandria prides itself as a bastion of human rights, and our council members constantly remind voters of their commitments to equity and justice for all.
I therefore find it ironic and incredibly disappointing that the city council has made no effort to respond to the statement passed by its own Human Rights Commission on March 20th, without opposition, in support of a ceasefire resolution. Not one council member made a public statement in support of Palestinians or Palestinian-Alexandrians. The council won’t allow a resolution on the agenda, despite a ceasefire recommendation from the body to whom the city entrusts deliberation around human rights.
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As deaths at the hands of Israeli Occupation Forces pass the 34,000 mark and the starvation of Palestinians continues, calling for an unconditional ceasefire is no longer radical. Over 132 municipalities in the U.S. have called for a ceasefire, including Harrisonburg and Charlottesville. Normally Alexandria leads. Why not now?
The mayor has repeated that he “do[es]n’t think the Alexandria City Council should be in the business of weighing in on the conduct of international conflicts.” Yet, in the aftermath of October 7, the city decided to light up city hall in Israeli colors, of which the mayor tweeted a photo, captioned “Alexandria City Hall is lit in the Blue and White as we stand with Israel and against the murderous terrorism of Hamas.”
Clearly, our city’s leaders have no problem speaking out on international issues when they feel morally compelled to do so: what isn’t compelling about genocide and apartheid faced by the people in Palestine? Our city’s leaders claim to be committed to human rights for all Alexandrians, until those Alexandrians are Palestinians with friends and family members slaughtered and starved using our tax dollars. This is textbook hypocrisy coming from our city’s leaders.
Upon publishing this letter, the Alexandria Times editorial board made it clear that they would publish no further letters on the topic of the “Middle East” writ large, although they published another letter criticizing our group’s tactics just the following week. Our local media is making no secret of their censorship of Palestine, marking themselves as complicit in the ongoing genocide.
