Cambridge Voters Say "Yes" To Palestinians

By Mary Barrett

History was made in Cambridge and Somerville, MA, when ballot Question 5, favoring Palestinian rights and condemning American Middle East policy, rode to victory on Nov. 8. Success of the strongly worded referendum caught many off guard since it had been challenged aggressively by a well-funded and vocal opposition including the Jewish Community Relations Council, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith. In a revealing reversal of political roles, incumbent Democratic Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II fought bitterly against the nonbinding referendum, whose original intent was to communicate voters' opinions to him, their representative.

The success of the measure, by far the most strongly worded of four resolutions on local ballots in Massachusetts and California, was no surprise to members of the Coalition for Palestinian Rights, the Cambridge based group that worked to get the question on the ballot. In canvassing to collect signatures in the three congressional districts involved, they were impressed by the positive public response that produced twice the required number of signatories.

During the course of the ballot campaign, the coalition members held fund-raising events which enabled them to mail information to all affected voters and print a graphic and widely distributed poster. Additionally, they held numerous rush-hour pickets, passing out literature and discussing the issues with interested passers-by. Local television coverage included a full hour on Cambridge Cable Television in which they presented their position in depth.

A Call for Peace

Nonbinding public policy Question 5 reads as follows:

"Shall the representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of a resolution calling upon Congress and the President of the United States to achieve a just and lasting peace in the Middle East by:

"Demanding that Israel end its violations of Palestinian human rights and its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza;
"Stopping all expenditure of US taxpayers' money for Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza; and
"Favoring the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza with peace for all states in the region including Israel?"

Ninety percent of the 47,000 who voted in Cambridge and Somerville wards responded to the question. Of those, 22,784 voted "Yes" and 20,456 voted "No," a margin of 52.7 percent to 47.3 percent.

Kathryn Silver, coordinator of the Coalition for Palestinian Rights, said the vote signified the coming of age of mainstream America on the Palestine issue. While many view academic Cambridge as atypical, she said, in fact, it has a broad socioeconomic base that includes a diverse ethnic mix and a large working class community, a microcosm of the nation.

A high point of the campaign was a spirited debate at Harvard University, sponsored by the Harvard-Radcliff Democratic Club, pitting Dr. James Zogby, director of the Arab American Institute, against Prof. Alan Dershowitz, lecturer at Harvard Law School.

In his opening remarks, Zogby stated, "When you go to the polls on Nov. 8 you can vote for peace. You can deal with an issue that our elected officials have been unable to deal with, through a lack of courage, and because of the lack of ability to challenge myths that have been too long shrouded from debate on the Middle East. If the stones of the uprising have shattered anything, it has been the myths, the assumptions that have been held too long about the Middle East."

Dershowitz, urging a "No" vote in the referendum said: "What we don't want is a one-sided attempt to de-legitimate, indeed destroy, Israel's very existence. It should come as no surprise to many of us that those who favor this resolution also favor the dismantling of Israel. It only calls for action against a country which, on a list of human rights complaints and violations would, by any standard, rank in the top 10 percent around the world. "

In an erroneous attack on Arab countries in general, Dershowitz claimed, "There hasn't been an election in any Arab state since the beginning of history." Dershowitz further astonished his audience by seeking to equate Arab courts and laws with Israeli occupation procedures. He claimed that "Every single prisoner in every Arab country is administratively detained."

He added, without explanation, that "The US would suffer horribly for having a Palestinian state in the Middle East."

Reached in his Washington office after the vote, Zogby was asked to comment on Dershowitz's assertion that supporters of the initiative are a "fringe element absolutely out of sync with the mainstream Democratic Party." Zogby responded that "No amount of malicious name-calling ... will change the fact that there is now a dialogue among Americans, including American Jews, on the future of US foreign policy in the Middle East. The fact is that the silence has been broken. Americans are now debating Palestinian rights. The results of this referendum prove that Palestinian rights is not a fringe issue, but a mainstream concern."

Silver, who also debated Dershowitz on evening television, attributed success of the referendum to several factors: a heightened public awareness, as a result of the intifadah, of the need for a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; a focus in the ballot campaign on the fact that the occupation is paid for by US tax dollars; very hard work and dedication by the supporters of the campaign; and the fact that the questions raised by the referendum were openly and candidly discussed within the Cambridge-Somerville community, giving voters an unprecedented amount of information concerning the issues.

Mary Barrett is a free-lance photojournalist based in Boston. She is currently completing a book entitled View From Below: Palestinian Stories of Occupation and Rebellion.