Palestinian ceasefire rally at Peace Wall
Dozens gathered to call for all oppressed groups to come together to end colonial oppression and the war in Gaza
Sebastopol saw its first pro-Palestinian ceasefire rally yesterday, when 30 to 40 people showed up at the Peace Wall in downtown, flags and keffiyehs flying.
The demonstration got a lot of sympathetic honks from passersby, though at least one woman yelled her disagreement out her car window as she drove by.
The demonstration was in support of “The People’s Resolution Calling for a Ceasefire in Palestine and Israel and Demanding Justice for All.” This document is a far cry from the carefully crafted ceasefire resolution that’s been making its way from city council to city council in Sonoma County over the last year. (That carefully worded document, innocuous and even-handed as it was, has been rejected by every city council, with the exception of the city of Cotati. It also drew the endorsement of the Sonoma County Human Rights Commission and Santa Rosa City Schools.)
In the face of that rejection, the organizers have thrown caution to the wind in “The People’s Resolution calling for a Ceasefire in Palestine and Israel and Demanding Justice for All,” which is a completely different, much more radical document, embracing a panoply of anti-colonialist complaints.
Vice Mayor Stephen Zollman, who sponsored Sebastopol’s failed ceasefire resolution, was on hand to cheer the demonstrators on, though he made it clear that he was there as an individual, not representing the council or the city. He said he hoped it would be the first of many such demonstrations.
“I’m hoping this is the start of something where we all stand in solidarity, this crisis being one of many internationally,” he said. “I think that if we all move in solidarity—especially with those who are BIPOC*, who are queer, who are at the margins economically—we can all coalesce and make good movement toward peace and other goals.”
Tarik Kanaana was one of the organizers of yesterday’s event.
“Because we have not gotten any response from the city councils or our elected representatives, who are supposed to take our needs and move them up the line, we wrote our own resolution that represents what we feel—what a lot of people in Sonoma County feel,” Kanaana said. “We got a lot of signatures. This is basically in support of a ceasefire and an end of the occupation, which our government is not doing anything to help. Rather, they’re fueling the conflict. So we’re calling for a ceasefire, for a serious solution, for an end of arms sales to Israel, for an end to the war, occupation, and genocide.”
“There are a lot of people in Sonoma County that come from underrepresented or oppressed groups, or who have suffered from military or economic oppression,” he continued. “You’ve got all these communities who can bring the solution by working together. Right now the main issue is the genocide going on in Gaza, but it’s not the only issue, and we’re using that to also bring support to other justice issues in other places.”
Several people stood up to speak to the assembled group, including Sebastopol activist Alicia Sanchez, Palestinian American activist Therese Mughannam-Walrath, and former Sebastopol City Councilmember Una Glass.
Several speakers pointed to the large Jewish presence at the event as evidence that the pro-Palestinian cause is not antisemitic.
Demonstrators decorated their cars with posters and Palestinian flags, and the demonstration ended with a car caravan to another protest in downtown Santa Rosa.
See the resolution and petition here.
*BIPOC stands for “black, indigenous and other people of color.”
Oy. If it was only this simple.
Ceasefire now? Absolutely.