The following article is compiled from Davis Vanguard comments by Ron Glick regarding the special City Council meeting held on Tuesday, April 28. Ron Glick did not wish to author a formal article, but granted me permission to compile his comments into this essay.

Last night was awesome. The Jewish and Muslim communities of Davis met in the Town Hall and for almost three hours [and] respectfully listened to each other speak. Each person was allowed to speak for two minutes and everyone adhered to the time limit. Getting all these people together within one room and everyone being respectful and listening was an achievement in and of itself.

It has been a long two and a half years. There has been much pain, suffering and strife. Many people . . . in this town have been touched by that suffering and when the war will end is still anybody’s guess. So getting the people of this community together, with their disparate opinions, each having a voice, and listen to each other, can hopefully be a step forward towards healing.

While many words have been spilled about the MAPA report . . . another important study was conducted . . . It showed that people connected to events half way around the world can be traumatized by those events. It is clear many in Davis have been traumatized by this ongoing horrific war. Last night was an opportunity to share that pain and hopefully it was cathartic for some people. But even if it wasn’t it provided a space for a divided community to sit together and share their humanity.

The Mayor did an outstanding job of running the meeting and the staff should also be commended for respectfully setting the tone. All in all, Davis should be proud of being a place where a meeting like the one that took place last night could happen.

So much for the positive. I have a concern about one aspect of what was passed. I worry that political opinion will find its way into the training program . . . Time will tell, but as always, the devil will be in the details.

One moment from last night needs to be noticed . . . because it was off camera. After hours of testimony it was finally time for the council members to speak. . . . [Mayor Neville] spoke for a long time and remained respectful throughout as did most of her colleagues. Next came Council member Vaitla. He began by addressing what he thought the CC should do and that was fine. Then after some time he veered off and started lecturing the community about genocide. About 20 people who had patiently and respectfully sat through over three hours of the meeting all got up together and walked out.

What compelled Vaitla to go there at that moment I have no idea . . . On the other hand I think I have a good understanding of why so many walked out. The Jewish community of Davis doesn’t need to be lectured about genocide. We have plenty of experience with genocide. In fact . . . he was addressing people, some of whose families survived the Shoah . . . Vaitla has a knack for pissing people off and lecturing community members from the dais. I don’t know why he somehow consistently screws up. Last night was another example of him sadly and badly misreading the room.

[Addressing another commenter] Interesting that you would lump Jews and blacks together . . . because those are the two groups who experience the most acts of racial and religious violence in America according to Department of Justice statistics. While you may not see such bigotry and therefore don’t think it’s a problem that doesn’t mean its not a real problem.

[Addressing that same commenter] Huh? What are you talking about? The people who walked out . . . have not committed any acts of genocide. They are upstanding law abiding members of this community who are well aware of what is going on in the world and share a desire for the killing to stop. They do not need to be lectured . . . about international law. He was not saying anything they haven’t already heard and they certainly were not obligated to stay while being lectured from the dais. The people who left had politely followed the rules and respectfully sat there for almost four hours until Vaitla started lecturing them.

What amazes me is that Vaitla has a way of insulting community members from the Dais. This is not the first time I have watched him act up there in such a way that totally turned people off. While everyone else on the City Council was trying to walk the line of trying to bring the community together Vaitla decided to lecture the community about the meaning of horrific acts committed in warfare that the people he was lecturing have no control over whatsoever. Its truly bewildering to me why he thinks its appropriate to act the way he does in meetings. I think he misunderstands the job of being on the CC.

[That same commenter says, in the quotes] “He’s an activist,…”

[Ron Glick responds] Oh I thought he was a city council member.

[Addressing that same commenter] So the people who left are bullies? They didn’t say anything, they simply left. How does that make them bullies? No the bullying repeatedly is Vaitla who seems to not understand that attacking people from the dais is not a productive strategy.

[Addressing that same commenter] Well we finally agree on a point. The city should focus on potholes instead of international politics. But its not the Jews of this community who produced the MAPA report. Its not the Jews of this community who wanted the CC to take this up. Yet after behaving appropriately, according to the rules, and acting with the appropriate decorum, they got lectured . . .

What you probably don’t know is that the Mapa (sic) report made many recommendations to the CC. Many of these recommendations were outrageous, inflammatory and inaccurate. So much so that the CC wouldn’t even take up the report itself. Of the 11 original recommendations the CC adopted only three.

When the HRC sent the MAPA Report to the City Council for approval, one of the HRC members wrote a dissenting opinion, as is his right. Astonishingly, the Human Relations Committee, a group that is supposed to help minority groups, decided to NOT include that minority opinion.  Here, in full, is that dissenting opinion.  With permission of the author.

To Davis City Council,

As a Commissioner on the HRC, I believe it is important to provide you with my minority opinion regarding the “Report on MAPA Climate & Experiences in Davis” recently approved by the HRC.

At first glance, the report appears to simply document feelings of concern and alienation among members of the MAPA community and recommends that the City of Davis, DJUSD, and UC Davis demonstrate solidarity and provide training on anti-MAPA bias. On the surface, this seems like a straightforward and unobjectionable request from an oppressed and marginalized community.

However, a closer reading reveals a very different and deeply troubling narrative. The report does not document systemic discrimination against MAPA community members across Davis institutions. Rather, it focuses overwhelmingly on allegations of harassment by individuals identified as ‘Zionists’. The implicit — and at times explicit — message throughout the report is that Zionism is equated with fascism, and that Zionist individuals have no legitimate place in the Davis community.

It is important to clarify what Zionism actually represents. Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people, like all other peoples, have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel). It is a movement rooted in the pursuit of safety, dignity, and national liberation for Jews following centuries of persecution, displacement, and genocide. To demonize Zionism is to deny a fundamental aspect of Jewish identity and to delegitimize Jewish aspirations for freedom and security.

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