by Neil W. McCabe

More than 150 individuals crowded the City Hall’s Aldermanic Chamber Nov. 8 for a hearing by the board of aldermen’s legislative matters sub-committee regarding the proposal to direct the city’s retirement board to divest its holdings of Israel bonds and shares in companies profiting from Israeli military contracts.

“While I do not blindly support the people of Israel, I ask you to use extreme caution,” said Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, who was called upon to open the hearing with his remarks by the sub-committee chairman, Thomas F. Taylor.

Taylor said it was the custom to ask public officials with an interest in a matter to speak before opening the floor to those on the speakers’ sign-up sheet.

The mayor said he is not an expert in foreign policy, but he did know that Somerville has a tradition of supporting human rights around the world.

It was important for that while working for human rights and peace those actions do not create new divisions, he said.

“Fair and just treatment of the Palestinian people residing in the territories is essential to building peace in the region,” he said. “However, I also support Israel’s right to defend itself and safeguard its people.” 

"The Retirement Board’s chief responsibility is to secure the highest rate of return possible for the fund.  In rare exceptions, the moral imperative is so clear and unambiguous as to warrant divestment.  This is not such a case," the mayor said.

Before Curtatone left the podium, Alderman William M. White Jr., asked the mayor if he would sign the resolution as is was currently written.

Curtatone said, “In its current form, I would exercise my veto.”

The resolution, proposed by The Somerville Divestment Project, includes statements that condemned all attacks on civilians by both Israelis and Palestinians, lists nine war crimes by Israel and cites Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in violation of United Nation Security Council Resolution 242.

The members of the divestment group also presented 1,170 signatures they collected in Somerville for a petition using the same language of the resolution before the aldermen.

The resolution, if passed, would have the aldermen, consistent with their commitment to human rights, encouraging all city investors to sell their Israel Bonds, along with stock in Boeing, which makes the Apache helicopter; General Electric, which makes parts for the Apache helicopter United Technologies, which makes the Black Hawk helicopter; General Dynamics, which makes the F-16 fighter jet; Northup Grumman, which makes high energy lasers used by Israel forces; Lockheed Martin, which makes Israeli missile systems; and Caterpillar, which makes the bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes.

There was no vote at the hearing, but the motion was seconded at the Oct. 28 meeting by Ward 2 Alderman MaryAnn Heuston, Ward 3 Alderman Thomas F. Taylor, Ward 5 Alderman Sean T. O’Donovan, Ward 6 Alderman John M. “Jack” Connolly, Ward 7 Alderman Robert C. Trane, and the Aldermen-at-Large: Dennis M. Sullivan, Bruce M. Desmond, and Denise Provost, who is the board’s president.

Provost had pushed for quick passage of the resolution, before White raised a point of order and asked that the resolution be tabled to the legislative matters sub-committee, White said.      

Ward 4 Alderman Walter Pero said he was recusing himself from the issue because he is a beneficiary of the city’s retirement plan.

After the mayor had finished, Taylor called on Meir Shlomo, Israel’s general consul to New England, who was invited by the board to respond.

Shlomo said he found the resolution insulting.

Despite the more than 3,000 Israeli deaths at the hands of Palestinian terrorists and their Arab allies, the Israeli people do not hate the Palestinians, he said.

There is no difference in the loss of life between an Israeli and a Palestinian, but it was important when judging Israel

to recognize that it is the only democracy in the Middle Eastand a nation founded on the principles of social justice and human rights with an esteemed court system and robust free speech, he said.

Often the abuses cited in the media are the exception not the rule, he said.  Isolated mistakes should not be used to tarnish Israel.

State Rep. Timothy J. Toomey Jr., D-Somerville, said he was also opposed to the resolution.

Toomey said, “The proposed resolution seeks to put the entirety of the blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict squarely on the shoulders of the state of Israel. This approach is one-sided and unfair.

“Rather than a resolution condemning Israel, the board should consider a resolution supporting the peace process and measures such as the U.S.-sponsored Road Map,” he said.

Too many innocent lives have been lost and it was time to advocate for bringing people together, Toomey said.

Toomey received more than one dozen phone calls from constituents alerting him to the resolution and their concerns, he said.

Taylor also read a letter sent from State Sen. Jarrett T. Barrios, D-Somerville, who said he was opposed to the resolution.

The final public official to speak was John M. “Jack” Memory, who sits on the board of the city’s retirement fund.  Memory was called at the request of O’Donovan.

“We do not get involved in social investing,” said Memory.

The fund is only goal is to get the best return for its members and beneficiaries, he said.  The only restrictions on the fund now are state-mandated bans on investing in tobacco companies and Burma.

The fund has roughly $136 million on behalf of 2,200 members, he said.       

The last three years have been very difficult with annual returns at 2-3%, he said.

Memory said the fund is divided amongst a handful of money managers, the largest of whom is Congress Asset Management, which oversees a portfolio of $60 million worth of 60 to 70 individual equities.

The fund is also diversified by asset class, with 55% equities, 30% bonds and 10% in real estate, he said.

The main problem with social investing is that with 2,200 members, each with individual cultural or moral values, it would be impossible to please everyone, he said.   

Before opening the floor to testimony, Taylor said he had ground rules for the hearing. 

It has been the practice of the aldermen to give citizens the opportunity to express themselves on issues before the board, he said.

Each side would be allotted one hour of testimony, with each individuals limited to two minutes, he said.

Speakers could not ask the aldermen questions and would have the chance to submit written testimony until 5 p.m.

Dec. 1, he said.

Because of the crowd, which filled all 90 seats, lined the chamber walls three and four people deep and overflowed into both the hallway and the conference meeting at the back left corner of the room, Taylor said he wanted to point out the exits.

After he gestured to the exit door behind him at the rostrum, Taylor paused then said, “But, I don’t think it has any stairs, so you probably want to use them as a last resort.”

Taylor said he expected speakers to be respectful of each other, and if things got out of hand, he would take steps to restore order.

Stationed in the chamber and at the front entrance to City Hall were eight city police officers, who searched backpacks and other packages before allowing them into the building and provided officer presence, said Lt. Michael S. Cabral, who commanded the detachment.

Cabral said his men were merely a precaution, as the department had not received any warnings or alerts.

The opposition to resolution spoke first.

“We stand before you as representatives of organized labor in solidarity with the Jewish Labor Committee, many of your locals live and work in Somerville,” said David N. Borrus, council representative for the pile drivers union Local 56.  Standing with Borrus were nine other representatives from organized labor.

“We are strongly opposed to the Somerville Israel Divestment resolution and urge you to vote no on this issue,” he said. 

“The resolution before you today is a one-sided document, which heaps blame on Israel alone.  It is implicitly a divisive document, which will only create more bitterness and less reconciliation, both in the Middle East and between the groups in this room tonight,” Borrus said.

When Robert J. Berman, a public policy student at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, identified himself as a former Israeli soldier, a chorus of hisses rose up. 

“As a combat soldier in the West Bank, I never saw an abuse that was the result of an order,” he said.

Berman said the resolution was ill-timed, given the progress that has been made since the Oslo Accords and the Israeli proposals to withdraw from occupied territories.

Roger Kolb said if the resolution passed it would be a victory for terrorism.

The supporters of the resolution waited out not only the first hour of testimony, but also the 30 minutes spent on the meeting’s first agenda item, the increase in the linkage fee charged to developers to be applied towards affordable housing.

Many of the opponents left the chamber once they spoke, with the notable exception of Toomey who hovered by the door, so he could hear out individuals privately in the hallway and so he would not take up a rare seat for himself.

William Slaughter, a supporter of the resolution, said to Taylor it was unfair that the Israeli consul spoke for more than nine minutes, which was not deducted the opposition’s hour.

“The mayor had 10 minutes also; do you want to criticize him as well?” Taylor asked. 

Slaughter did not bite.  Instead, he proceeded with his testimony. 

If American children were killed in the same proportions as the Palestinian children killed by the Israelis in the last four years, it would equal 30,200 American children, he said.

Human rights attorney, Shamai Leibowitz said, “I testify before you as an Israeli, as an Orthodox Jew, as a human rights lawyer who often appears before the Israeli Supreme Court, as an Israeli citizen who served three years in the Israeli army.  I ask you: Please support this resolution. For the sake of saving my country from the immoral and self-destructive policies of the Israeli government,” he said.

“Israel has a right to exist and defend its citizens. And precisely because of this fundamental premise – this resolution – which upholds the highest Jewish values – should be passed,” he said. 

Another supporter, Dr. Rawan Barakat, said the opponents had the blood of dead Palestinians on their hands.

The Israelis have killed three of her best friends, the most recent in April, she said.

“Israel is wrong and its policies are making peace more difficult,” said John Frasier, who said he was a Jewish supporter of the resolution.

It is time to recognize Palestinian rights and end the cycle of violence, he said.

It is not anti-Israel to ask Somerville not to support human rights abuses, he said.

Palestinian Hilary Rantisi said she grew up under the Israeli occupation and strongly urged the aldermen to support the resolution.

Her family’s suffering included her uncle dying after being denied medical attention because he was held up at an Israeli checkpoint, she said.

Her grandmother was removed from her home at gunpoint by Israeli soldiers, and she had other relatives arrested and incarcerated for months without charge, she said.

Rantisi said despite these abuses, she considers her family lucky compared to what others have endured.  “This occupation is more than humiliation. It means death, and we must stand for life.”

When the supporters had gone through their list, Taylor

said they had some time left over.  But, when a number of resolution supporters called out for Leibowitz to given more time, Taylorsaid he would not allow anyone to speak twice.

Just past 10:30 p.m. Taylor gaveled the hearing closed.  Released, the crowd broke up into small groups and individuals, who trickled out of City Hall bundled up, but unaware that while inside they had missed the city’s first dusting of snow.