Skip to main content

tv   BOS Rules Committee  SFGTV  January 21, 2024 12:00am-4:00am PST

12:00 am
this meeting will come to order. good morning everyone, and welcome to the monday, january 8th, 2024 meeting of the rules committee of the san francisco board of supervisors. this is the first board meeting of 2024, and i want to wish everyone a happy new year and welcome everybody back from winter recess. i am supervisor matt dorsey, chair of this committee, and i am joined by vice chair shamann walton. and we are going to be joined shortly by committee member asha safai. uh, together we would like to express our gratitude to our clerk today, as always, mr. victor young. thanks also to the team at sf govtv for facilitating and broadcasting today's meeting. in particular, our producer today, mr. james kawana. we have a crowded agenda today with five items, including a high profile resolution that
12:01 am
we have been asked to fast track and for everyone's information, given the board's end of year calendar, the holiday recess and public noticing requirements that this meeting is the earliest possible committee hearing that we were able to have the cease fire resolution in heard and fast tracked. so we're honoring that request by getting it going. but given that there were four matters already underway that we were working on here at rules, we will be taking those first. i trust that they're not going to take up a lot of time, but i appreciate everybody's patience. um, given the heightened public interest in today's meeting, i will be limiting public comment on all items to one minute and customarily, i would just add also that to refrain from expressions of applause or noise , as usually there's a sort of using your hands, a jazz hands kind of thing that is customarily employed to express support. and with that, mr.
12:02 am
clerk, do you have any announcements? yes. um, public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda when your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak on your right. alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways. email them to myself. the rules committee clerk at vic t o r y o young at sf gov. org or if you submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and included in the file. you may also send written comment via us mail to our office at city hall one doctor carlton goodlett place, room 244, san francisco, california 94102. please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices documents to be included as part of the file should be submitted to myself as the clerk items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda on january 23rd, 2024, unless otherwise stated. that completes my initial announcements. thank you, mr. clerk, would you please call item number one? item
12:03 am
number one is a hearing to consider appointing one member firm ending april 27th, 2025, to the sunshine ordinance task force. thank you, mr. clerk. i want to thank the society of professional journalists who have graciously taken on the responsibility of nominating members to the sunshine task force since the dissolution of the prior appointing authority, which was new. california media. uh, they have nominated ankita kumar with our crowded agenda. today, i'm going to ask this nominee to keep your remarks short, but i would welcome you to the, uh, to the podium. uh, miss kumar, um. the floor is yours. and welcome to the rules committee. thank you so much. um, i'm ankita kumar, uh, i'm a journalist based in the city. i actually live on the intersection of venice and mission. so less than ten minutes by drive. um, i have i became a journalist, uh, several years ago because my grad
12:04 am
parents were refugees. and there i always felt that their story was not told to the world. um i was also the first woman from my. i am the first woman from my family to work. so for me, telling stories of women, refugees, uh, minorities is essential. which is why i became a journalist. um today, um, a lot of my work focuses on, um, documenting the experience of refugees and immigrants. um, i recently completed a documentary that's going to be screened at two film festivals. um, i have also written several articles i actually write for very frequently for local indian american publication called india current. so i write for a minority publication as well. um, apart from this, um, my education, i have a academic background. i was actually an academic before i became a journalist. i uh, got a master's degree from the london school of economics in the uk. uh, in international relations and history. and then i decided to get into journalism because at that time, back in 2015, uh,
12:05 am
with the rise of the modi government in india, i thought it was essential to, uh, go and report on countries where there was no there was lack of, uh, press freedom. and for me, uh, being appointed to this task force is very essential because i believe in the free press. i, i believe in giving, uh, journalists access to public records and making giving them an easy and holding government officials accountable. uh, and the sunshine ordinance does that because i've lived in chicago. i have lived in india. i have worked on afghan refugees. and we all know how the state of the press is in, you know, india and in a lot of other parts of the us as well today. so this ordinance is very, very important for the, uh, for save saving democracy. uh, the city is very unique, and i am deeply fond of the city, so i would love to be appointed to this, uh, task force. thank you. thanks so much. i just want to express my appreciation to you. you have a very impressive background, and i appreciate you
12:06 am
willing to give your time and your expertise to this, um, this role. one thing that i have, i typically ask people who are going on sunshine task force, i do think that there's going to be some room for improvement. i hope in the next year or two to start looking at things that we can do for process improvements that would likely involve the sunshine task force working with the department of technology just to improve efficiencies. i think sometimes some of what holds back responses from getting out the door as quickly as they they can go is that we're not adequately using technology. so i don't know if you have any thoughts on that, but i do think speeding efficiencies would be important to this for the people who make sunshine requests. i uh, my husband works in tech, actually, so i actually think that technology is very useful in making processes efficient. so if we can implement it in ways we like, i know that part of the sunshine ordinance includes, uh, usage of computers and new technology. so if we can get that into the process and i'm very open to making it efficient . but i also feel that a lot of
12:07 am
the matters that are discussed with the sunshine task force, um, i, i was i have listened to a lot of the agendas and the meetings and i believe that some of the matters are very critical, and they do need public comment and they do need, um, like to be discussed, uh, because we are tackling issues of the government, we are tackling issues of, um, corruption. and we're looking at, uh, government officials. we're trying to hold them accountable. so i do believe we should still do our work with a lot of we should do it meticulously. but obviously, i'm very open to the fact that if we can get some new forms of technology into the process, then it will obviously make things faster. um, and yeah, it will just improve the process. so i'm very open to that. definitely. thank you so much. um, seeing no questions or comments on the roster, why don't we open this up to public comment? thank you so much for your comments. and now we'll invite people who, if anybody wants to comment on this appointment. yes members of the public who wish to speak on this item should line up to speak at this time. each speaker will be allowed one minute. there will be a soft chime when you have
12:08 am
30s left and a louder chime when your time has expired. can we have our first speaker, please? good morning supervisors. i am richard nie. i served on the task force from 2002 to 2014. i also sit on the freedom of information committee of spj, norcal, the organization that is nominating miss kumar. um, within the that committee, the vote. to support her nomination was swift and it was unanimous. yes. uh, also, i am speaking here on behalf of san franciscans for sunshine, which is a local civic organization that. deals that follows sunshine matters and we to, uh, they, they and i personally urge that miss kumar's appointment be given favorable consideration by yourselves and by the full board with that happy new year to all of you. happy new year. and i just want to say express my
12:09 am
gratitude to you as well for your service to the sunshine task force. thank you. richard hi. morning, supervisors. my name is aida madad. i'm far more accustomed to scribbling down what people say here behind the podium. but i'm here now as the vice president of the society of professional journalists northern california chapter to urge the approval of ankita on the sunshine ordinance task force, she took up the role as regional coordinating coordinator for to the national chapter, and it's clear she is very hungry to serve and very committed and she has experience in a country that has far less press freedom. so she is, you know, takes it a lot more seriously than some of us might here. so we urge you to confirm her nomination and thank you for your time. thank you. are there any other public commenters for this matter? there does not to be appear to be any more commenters. thank you, mr. clerk. public comment on this item is now closed and i would like to make a motion to
12:10 am
recommend and ankita kumar to seat number four of the sunshine ordinance task force and send her appointment, appoint to the full board as a committee report. could we have a roll call on that motion? yes, on that motion, vice chair walton walton i supervisor sapphire i sapphire i chair. dorsey i dorsey i the motion passes without objection. thank you mr. young. without opposition then uh, ankita is recommended to seat for the sunshine task force , and it goes to the full board as a committee report. mr. can we please call item number two? yes. item number two is a ordinance amending the administrative code to reduce the membership of the behavioral health commission from 17 to 12 seats, provide that the full board of supervisors, rather than individual supervisors, make these appointments. request that at least one seat be held by a veteran or veterans advocate. reduce the minimum number of seats reserved for consumers and families of consumers from 9 to 6. provide two seats for mental health professionals. update staggered terms for all seats. retain existing members and remove seat
12:11 am
requirements for child advocates . rick thank you, mr. clerk. um, colleagues, we have heard this item several times, and i think we're pretty familiar with what the legislation endeavors to accomplish. um, we have had a robust discussion at our last meeting and given some excellent and constructive feedback from vice chair walton and supervisor safai. we asked the city attorney to draft an additional amendment that was circulated earlier. uh, this amendment would be to add a floating requirement that at least one member of the commission have experience as a child or youth advocate. um, this is a floating requirement to keep the overall mission of reducing the commission to a reasonable, workable number while still preserving the valuable expertise of child and youth advocates. after public comment, i'll make a motion to incorporate the amendments. uh, if we have any additional questions i know that we have from d-p-h and, uh, involved here and mario simmons from dph. um supervisor safai, can you
12:12 am
just read what the amendment is that i have? i don't see it. hold on. it is. there we go. so it. read it into it. it is in addition to the requirements of subsection c, one member of the commission shall it is. page 221. the additions are. page 221. in addition to the requirements of subsection c, one member of the commission
12:13 am
shall be a veteran or veteran advocate. uh veteran includes a parent, spouse, or adult child of a veteran. actually, that is a different one. oh. additionally one member shall be a child advocate for purposes of this subject. a child advocate includes a member, a family member of a child, consumer or consumer advocate for minors who use mental health services. ms. thank you. know, i appreciate that amendment. i think that's important. um so appreciate you working that in i support that. no, i appreciate, uh, your contribution to that seeing. no one else on the roster. i don't know if dff has anything to add to it, but i think that we've we've talked about this. why don't we open this item up to public comment that we're in agreement. okay. are we open this? okay, okay. members of the public who wish to speak on this item should line up to speak at this time. each speaker will be allowed one minute. there will
12:14 am
be a soft chime when you have 30s left and a louder chime when your time has expired. can we have our first speaker? hello. thank you for your time and effort. having worked for the department of public health, specifically behavioral health services for 33 years, 25 of which in the children's services department of bhs, i want to say thank you for pushing this through. it will really help us in terms of being able to meet consistently. and i have, like i said, having worked for the city, 33 years, i know how hard it is to get something like this through, so i really appreciate it. we won't disappoint you. thank you. good morning, supervisors, and thank you, supervisor dorsey, for recognizing the importance of the behavioral health commission. um, in saying so, as a standing commissioner, i just want to assure that the application is waiting in line. our addressed immediately. please and that will increase
12:15 am
our diversity. get us to quorum and comply with the seats that we need. so we need this board of supervisors to pay attention to the applications. that come through. it has taken over a year for some of the applicants to get passed. so i'm asking in your support that you stand in, um, collaboration with us. and again, thank you. hello. good morning. uh, mark roth, 1495 seventh avenue, apartment 34. um, just wanted to remind this board and the body of the city hall that, uh, you are often active in creating behavioral health problems, um, in such as in october of 2019, when i was a certified sworn candidate for mayor of san francisco. i was protesting by myself in front of this building, to which point the sheriff's approached me. and
12:16 am
when i told them that i was running for mayor of san francisco, they handcuffed me, put me in a van, and sent me to a behavioral health facility where it took two days for them to receive a fax from the department of elections qualifying me as a candidate for mayor of san francisco. and it still took them four hours to release me. i witnessed a great number of abuses. i'm not currently applying for any positions on this board, but i am qualified as a us navy veteran. i am running for mayor of san francisco again in 2024, and i would appreciate it if anybody who knows how to reach me, twitter, the reach out to me. i would like to talk to this board and share some information about what's going on and inside of our behavioral health facilities, and be a part of the solution, not the problem. thank you, mr. clerk. my name is winship. hillyer and i oppose this legislation. the proper determinant of the size of a public body is the strength of
12:17 am
its applicant stream. the commission's applicant stream is more than strong enough to support its current size. but you need to make appointments from that stream in order to put it into effect. las eight people applied to the commission and you appoint you, you appointed but one of them, as a result, the commission had ten active members. for most of the year, and this was one above quorum. so of course they had quorum problems. you created them. you didn't approve any of these applications. you should have approved seven of them. you could have done this under this current seat requirements. and this would have done more to solve the quorum problem than your proposed, um, ordinance will possibly do. back to you, mr. clerk. are there any additional speakers on this matter? there does not appear to be additional speakers. thank you, mr. young. public comment on item number two is now closed
12:18 am
and i'd like to make a motion to amend the file as read into the record and send this item to the full board as a committee report. do we have a roll call on that motion? uh, yes. on that motion, vice chair walton walton i supervisor sapphire, i sapphire i chair dorsey i dorsey i the motion passes without objection. thank you mr. young. on a unanimous vote then item two composition of the behavioral health commission is amended and sent to the full board as a committee report. mr. clerk, could we please call the next item? yes. item number three is a ordinance amending the campaign and governmental conduct code to update and clarify the conflict of interest codes, form 700 filing requirements for officers and employees in the general services agency under the city administrator. thank you, mr. clerk. this item was also continued from our last meeting. we are once again joined by sophie hayward, uh, from the city administrator's office and a representative from the department of human resources. uh, miss hayward, welcome to the rules committee. we're trying to move things along to honor
12:19 am
people's the people who have come so i would ask for you to be succinct. welcome to the rules committee. the floor is yours. thank you so much, chair dorsey. and good morning, supervisors walton and sophie. sophie hayward from the office of city administrator carmen chu. and i'm joined today by vivian poe, who's our director of engagement and internal affairs at the office of the city administrator. i will try to be brief. the item before you today is an update, a proposed update to the list of required form 700 filers for the office of the city administrator. and if you could go to our first slide, vivian, that'd be great. just by way of background, as certainly you all know every two years the city's conflict of interest code, which is in article three, chapter one of the campaign and governmental conduct code, is reviewed in order to update the city wide list of required form 700 filers and their disclosure categories. most recently, that regular update was approved by the board of supervisors in february of 2023, and it became effective in
12:20 am
march, and i believe that that cyclical review will be before this body in the next 12 to 18 months. in dependent of that city wide review, our office, because of the hard work of miss poe, has undertaken the development of updated ethics training for all staff, and in order to make that training as effective as possible, miss poe has worked with our division directors within the office of the city administrator to identify which specific positions are involved with government decisions purchasing, issuing permits, making grants, and then miss poe has created tailored ethics training for that group of employees. so based on those conversations, essentially we realized there were updates, additions, clarification, updates to job titles that we felt were best to move forward immediately rather than waiting for another year. so as part of our updated ethics trainings, we have divided our all staff training into a presentation geared to employees who file form 701 training for
12:21 am
those who do not need to file, and just on the next slide, our goal with these amendments is to have an organized list that even i can understand, that clearly lays out the positions within the office of the city administrator that are required to file form 700 disclosure documents, um, at a high level. and on the next slide, um, we sought to clarify by re alphabetizing the list of department s that file under the city administrator, and we propose to alphabet ties, the working titles within each department. we removed several positions that simply no longer exist or are duplicative. and we did add a number of positions as required. filers such as digital and data services, repro mail, the office of cannabis and the permit center. several departments are listed in the code on their own, such as capital planning and coit. and with these proposed amendments, we just propose moving them so that they're listed under the office of the city administrator
12:22 am
so that we can locate them more easily. the proposed amendments do not remove the filing requirements from any existing filers. and on the next slide, we did conduct outreach. we certainly reached out to all employees on our updated list to include them in the appropriate, updated ethics training. we provided an informational update to the ethics commission and their staff and we worked with dr. to ensure that labor partners had an opportunity to review and comment. that concludes my presentation, but i'm available for questions, as is miss poe. thank you. thank you. um, miss hayward, um, seeing no one on the roster with questions, i think this we have been through this a couple of times, so i really appreciate it. everything that you have done on this, seeing no one on the roster, mr. clerk, can we open this up to public comment? yes members of the public wish to speak on this item should line up to speak at this time. each speaker will be allowed one minute. there will be a time when you have 30s left and a
12:23 am
louder chime when your time has expired. are there any speakers for this matter? there does not appear to be any public commenters for this matter. okay, thank you, mr. young. public comment on this item is now closed and i would like to make a motion to send this proposed ordinance to the full board with a positive recommendation. can we have a roll call on that motion? yes. on that motion, vice chair walton walt, an eye supervisor. sapphire sapphire i chair dorsey i dorsey i the motion passes without objection. thank you, mr. clerk. on a unanimous vote. item three campaign and governmental conduct code, form 700 filers. general services agency, city administrator is sent to the full board with a positive recommendation. mr. clerk, could we call item number four? yes item number four is ordinance approving a modified surveillance technology policy for the city administrator's office. acquisition and use of security camera systems. thank you, mr. clerk. we are again joined by sophie hayward from the city administrator's office. long time no see. uh uh, the floor is yours. thank you so
12:24 am
much. good morning, supervisors again on, uh, it's a little bit of groundhog day. my name is sophie hayward. i'm here with the office of city administrator carmen chu. once again, i am joined by miss vivian ho, who is our director of engagement for the central office. i would also like to note that here for our surveillance technology policy, proposed amendment for the office of the city administrator. i'm joined by rowan lane, who's the media and security systems manager for the city. we have peter somerville from tida here, virginia donahoe . donahue is the director of animal care and control. and julia crucial, who is a privacy analyst with coit. and we can go to the next slide, please. uh by way of background, the proposed amendment before you today is to the surveillance policy for security cameras, and it is intended to support the operations of the office of the city administrator. the proposed policy is essentially a modification of our existing policy that currently covers
12:25 am
real estate, and it would extend this policy to cover the entire, uh, office of the city administrator. and to the next slide. again, i will try to be brief, and i'd note that this has also gone through quite and it's associated committees for their review. so just to summarize the amendments, first of all, we'd like to create a policy that applies to all agencies within the office of the city administrator. and i'm stressing that because essentially, we'd like a policy that also covers tida our current policy just covers cameras that are owned as assets by real estate. and tida is a separate entity. in addition, we'd like to amend the existing policy to allow certain animal care and control staff to monitor live and review recorded footage without prior approval from the real estate director. and lastly, we'd like to clarify that we can acquire additional cameras in the future without amending the policy, but we would, of course, record those new cameras and acknowledge them in our annual submitted report
12:26 am
to coyote. next slide please. let's see. so the current policy that we have, as i mentioned, applies to assets, security cameras owned by real estate. this would apply. this would extend that policy to include tida. that said the policy will still primarily rely on real estate for implementation as real estate controls. 511 of the 516 cameras within the portfolio . and the next slide why tida? why does it matter? what have they acquired? they are in the process of transferring the tida ferry building to tida, and that comes with it. a series of cameras and on the next slide, animal care and control comes into this policy because under the current policy, uh, security can only monitor the live feed. uh, and this and then to, to review recorded video, they need to go through the department of
12:27 am
real estate in advance because of some issues that have occurred on the ground at animal care and control, we propose an amendment that would allow very specific animal care and control staff to monitor the live and recorded video feed under certain circumstances, to better respond to issues as they occur and in real time. however, none of the export processes would change with our proposed amendment. uh, and then next slide, uh, certainly in the future, if we require if we acquire additional cameras, we would not need to review or amend the policy. we, uh, that said, we would record any new cameras in our annual surveillance inventory that is submitted to coyote there. we are not proposing any changes to the authorized use cases. and then lastly, this policy was reviewed by coyote on november 16th. and prior to that it was reviewed. it was reviewed by the policy review board on november 7th. that concludes my
12:28 am
presentation. there are far more, um, better experts on this topic who are available to answer questions. thank you. i have, uh, reviewed it and i don't have any questions. i don't see anyone on the roster with questions or comments. so i appreciate your presentation. uh, mr. clerk, why don't we open this up to public comment? yes. members of the public who wish to speak on this item should line up to speak at this time, each speaker will be allowed one minute. there will be a soft chime when you have 30s left and a louder chime when your time has expired. are there any public commenters for this item? there does not appear to be any commenters for this matter. thank you, mr. clerk. public comment on this item is now closed and i will move to send this item to the full board with a positive recommendation. and as a committee report note, can we have a roll call on that motion? yes. on that motion, vice chair walton walton i supervisor saphire i chair dorsey, i dorsey i the motion passes without objection. thank
12:29 am
you mr. clerk. on a unanimous vote then item number four, ordinance approving a modified surveillance technology policy for the city administrator's office, uh, is sent to the full board with a positive recommendation. and as a committee report. mr. clerk, can we please call the next item, item number five? yes yes. item number five is a resolution. uh, excuse me, is a resolution calling for a sustained cease fire in gaza? human, human aid, release of hostages, and condemning anti-semitic anti palestine and anti islamophobic rhetoric and attacks. okay. thank you, mr. clerk. um, i want to express my appreciation to the author of this resolution, brian, uh, who is joining us? uh, supervisor preston, uh, also his co-sponsor and supervisor ronen, for taking on a contentious issue, um, that is distinguished by very strong feelings and, uh, many moving and in some cases, heartbreaking
12:30 am
personal experiences. um, i think they approached this resolution and this process with thoughtfulness, humanity and a cooperative, collaborative spirit. uh, i don't know if consensus is going to be possible on the resolution, but i do want to commend our colleague for commendably setting a tone for this process that hopefully gets us closer to consensus. so i really do want to express my appreciation to you for that. i also want to express my appreciation as well to the many advocates and community community members. uh, some here today, um, with whom i've had the opportunity to meet over the last several weeks. i would say from both sides. but i think all sides would more accurately reflect some of the nuances around around this resolution and events in the middle east that relate to it. um for me, as i'm sure many others, these discussions
12:31 am
preceded the resolution's introduction and included heartfelt appeals and conversations. late last night and is as recently as this morning. i do intend to propose, um, amendments to this resolution, which i will explain. i think i should explain this before public comment in the interest of transparency, so that people who are commenting know, um, what amendments i intend to put forward. um, as part of that, i'll also explain some of the process in developing amendments and rationale. rationale underlying them. there's a couple people on the roster, and i just wanted to ask, should i mention, should i talk about the amendments that i was hoping to propose first, or do you want to? okay, so i'm going to before i get to that, um, supervisor safai is on the roster first. yeah. thank you. uh, thank you. chair. um, actually, i was trying to get your attention before you started talking. i think it would be really important to set the tone today. um, asking for a moment of silence. for all the loss of life, all the people suffering
12:32 am
in that part of the world, uh, people that are having their own personal, uh, experiences have loved ones over there. um, if we can have a moment of silence and ask everyone in in their comments today to be respectful, uh, to think about life, think about humanity, um, and understand that this is personal for everyone involved. so if we can have a moment of silence, i would really appreciate that. thank you, mr. chair. thank you. supervisor um, supervisor. preston, i'll put it to you. should i mention go through some of what i was proposing, or do you want to open? because i don't know if you wanted to comment on what i was going to propose, i would. yeah if i could make some some, uh, comments, uh, to start us and, and then i'd welcome, uh, yourp,
12:33 am
your thoughts on, on amendments. um, and i want to thank supervisor safai for setting that tone and, and starting us off with a moment of silence. so thank you for that. supervisor um, chair dorsey, i want to thank you for calendaring this item today and moving it, you know, to the first available, uh, meeting back from recess on our first day. back from recess. and want to thank you for your engagement with my office on this resolution on, um, i circulated a draft resolution on back on november 28th. i incorporate the limited feedback that we had from colleagues, um, before we introduced it. and then introduced the resolution a week later back on december 5th. the resolution, as you know, calls for a sustained ceasefire in gaza for humanitarian aid and the release of all hostages and condemns anti-semitism, um,
12:34 am
islamophobia and anti-palestinian hate. and as i said, when i introduced this, i believe the resolution is compelled by the moment and offers an opportunity for us to come together in defense of human life. um, i spoke extensively when i introduced this measure about the impact of october 7th and the israeli response since, and i do not plan to repeat my extensive comments when i introduced it here, although i will add to them a bit, uh, especially in light of what's occurred since we introduced this item, i believe that all of us on the board of supervisors and probably everyone in this chamber and waiting online and hopefully everyone listening, um, had hoped that by now the assault on gaza would have stopped. and it has not. and in many ways it has expanded with no end in sight. so we are at a
12:35 am
defining moment in history as the world grapples with blatant, intentional and undeniable atrocities that continue despite widespread condemnation by nearly the entire international community. any thought or hope that this resolution would become moot has vanished. it is more relevant than ever. since october seventh, over 22,000 palestinians, a majority of them women and children, have been killed in gaza. over 50,000 more have been wounded, per the world health organization. last month, an average of 160 palestine children were killed are being killed every day per amnesty international, entire palestinian families have been killed in israel's assault on gaza, and we have heard from many of our constituent agents who have had that experience personally with their own family . over 600 health care workers
12:36 am
have been killed in gaza, in the west bank since october seventh, and gaza's health system has collapsed as a result of overcrowded hospitals and supply shortages, per the committee to protect journalists. at least 77 journalists have been killed in gaza and the west bank since october 7th, with dozens more injured and missing, per the un's human chief, martin griffiths. gaza is at risk of becoming, quote, uninhabitable and has become, um, a, quote, place of death and despair. last month, the un world food program reported the entire population of the gaza strip is facing a crisis of hunger. and as that and is at risk of famine, according to npr, the war has exacerbated difficulties for people in gaza to access clean water, with many families surviving on five gallons of water per day well below the 13
12:37 am
gallons recommended per person per day. violence and illegal settlements in the west bank have intensified after they spiked following the october 7th attack, making 2023 the most violent year in the west bank in recent history. nearly 2 million palestinians have been displaced from their homes in gaza, and nearly half of gaza's population has crowded into one small border city members of the israeli government, including national security minister itamar ben-gvir, have suggested that palestinians be expelled from gaza so that israelis can resettle the area, despite the horrific conditions in gaza and growing international calls for ceasefire, israeli officials have doubled down, moved to stop automatically issuing visas to un employees and have vowed to continue their war on gaza. similarly, the biden administration has continued to send bombs and other weapons to
12:38 am
israel and has used its diplomatic position in organizations like the united nations to shut down calls for a cease fire. simultaneously simultaneously, hatred against palestinians, jewish people and muslims has skyrocketed, partly fueled by images from october 7th and the ongoing bombardment of gaza. it is, i believe, imperative that we use our voices to call for an end to the killing of civilians and advocate for peace, so our community, so that our communities can begin healing. i want to thank everyone who has weighed in, regardless of their viewpoint, for their engagement with our office, especially the many people of san francisco who have deep connections to the region, including in some cases, family, friends and loved ones. there so many san franciscans right now are experiencing intense trauma, fear, anxiety,
12:39 am
loss, and grief for from the start, this resolution has been an effort to bring everyone together in defense of basic human rights and life. we used unifying language, avoided triggering language, prescribing specific geopolitical solutions and attributions of historic blame, and sought to unite behind an urgent call for a ceasefire relief, release of hostages and humanitarian aid. now we have circulated amendments to the committee and i want to address those briefly. these amendments respond to input from the public, including critics of our resolution. while while preserving, as we understand it, support from many community members and organizations in support of the ceasefire resolution. and specifically, we request added amendments that would update the
12:40 am
numbers of those killed and displaced to represent the current data, update the resolution to reflect the us veto of un action that occurred after we introduced the resolution and add more explicit condemnation of both hamas october 7th attack and to israel's attack on gaza and add a call for the international community to work with palestinian and israeli people toward a lasting peace, and to hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable. i have heard no no concerns from colleagues about these proposed amendments and we ask that this committee accept our amendments today, or if the committee chooses not to do that , to forward the resolution without any amendments to the full board for a vote. as a
12:41 am
committee report tomorrow, i want to i want to acknowledge and chair dorsey referenced this and i want to acknowledge that as of friday, we received some proposed amendments from chair dorsey. uh, it's my understanding, as you have stated, mr. chair, that you intend to offer, uh, these amendments today, some slight changes, but essentially the same amendments you shared with us friday. um, i have had several constructive conversations with chair dorsey about these amendments, and i want to emphasize i very much appreciate his openness and his candor, candor in in discussing these amendments, even though we may see them differently. uh, we've had constructive conversations about them. um and while i appreciate the dialog, i believe very strongly that some of the proposed amendments that the chair will describe, um, before public comment, um, are one sided, extremely one sided,
12:42 am
uh, divisive would alienate thousands of supporters of the resolution, an unnecessarily plunge the board of supervisors into controversial matters far beyond the scope of this resolution and undo the spirit of unity with which we have proposed this resolution. so i, i urge the committee, um, not to take those amendments, but instead, if individual members of the committee or board feel compelled to issue separate statements of their opinions and views on these matters, to do so, we are all entitled to our own views. but to keep this resolution to what really has been an attempt to have a unifying language that brings us together so, colleagues, i invite you to join me and supervisor ronen in standing on the right side of history. as i said, when i introduced by supporting by supporting this
12:43 am
resolution, i urge you to pass it today with the unifying amendments that we've presented. uh, or or, uh, forward. it without any amendments. uh as is to the full board, forward it as a committee report for a full board of supervisors vote tomorrow. again, i want to thank you not only for calendaring this mr. chair, but for calendaring it as a committee report, which for those unfamiliar with our processes, um, means that it is a matter of viewed as potentially with such urgency that it can be moved immediately to a vote. if it is the committee's will tomorrow, as opposed to what the normal course of business which would be a week later. so i appreciate you calendaring it as a committee report. hope it will be sent out as such. and finally, i want to thank supervisor ronen for her co sponsorship and for so powerfully sharing her perspective and her story. um, and all of the activists who have been working so hard, um, in support of this resolution and to bring peace to the region and reduce the suffering and
12:44 am
loss of life. so thank you for the opportunity to make these, uh, remarks. and i'm looking forward to hearing from the public as well. thank you. thank you. supervisor preston. and i do appreciate you as well as supervisor ronen, for the for the tone and, um, approach that you've brought to this for your your leadership on it. um, i mentioned that i intended to propose amendments. um, and again, in the interest of transparency rather than waiting, sometimes you know, the amendments will be made after public comment. i think it's important for transparency sake, to outline them here. i want to just start by mentioning that when this resolution was first assigned to the committee, i chair my initial preference was. to oppose the resolution as written and author. my own statement as supervisor preston mentioned to express my support for a ceasefire under certain conditions, um, under the brown
12:45 am
act, i'm not allowed to interact with, you know, we're not as rules committee members. we're not allowed to interact with each other, but we can have conversations with some of our other colleagues. um, when i reached out to some of other colleagues, um, in that process process, i was asked to make an attempt to open the hood on language. um, and seek feedback on possible amendments that could get us to something that might muster majority support. i don't know yet if what we've arrived at will succeed in that, but over the holidays, i think many of us were watching events and working to make a good faith. try um, i do want to speak for myself here. um to share what informed my perspective on this process. yes. um, for me, there are two weighty considerations that aren't specific to gaza, but that emanate from the nature of the terrorist attack on october 7th. um, first among the 129
12:46 am
hostages is believed to be in custody right now, we believe seven are american citizens. as um, if i am being asked to take a position against the president of the united states at a time when his administration is working to secure the release of american hostages, um, i had better be convinced that our president is doing something wrong. um. and i was not so convinced. um, second, i have been haunted by the context of a singularly horrific terrorist attack and what message it might send to other terrorist organizations or any other non state actor capable of similar atrocities. if we were in to effect, in effect, reward terrorism by platforming grievances that underlie it, even if those grievances are legitimate and just and right.
12:47 am
um, i think we have to be explicit. and i think other people shared on this board share that view that we would have to be explicit in our condemnation of the terrorist act itself, and that to do otherwise, in my view, in the view of others, would risk sending a dangerous and unthinkable message that terrorism works and in fact, um, a hamas spokesperson, ghazi hamad, who was probably well known on many news reports for being the person who promised that the october 7th attack would happen again and again, uh, was quoted on lebanese tv mentioning that the hamas movement, quote, the hamas movement is watching the growing calls by several western governments to end the aggression on gaza. and he adding, we welcome these developments and consider them in the right direction, given it is something that i have said to most of the people that i have met with, because i have worked in politics and communications
12:48 am
for most of my career, that that leadership and communication, both are about not just taking responsible for the words that we use, but also consider how they might be heard or how they might be represented. so that is something that weighed on my approach to this and i think weighed on the consciences of others with whom i worked on this. in my view, as well as the view of some colleagues. the quantitative comparison open to both sides of this war in terms of the staggering loss of life and humanitarian displacement, unlike anything i've seen in my lifetime, um, is absolutely appropriate and necessary. however, it elevates the need for a qualitative comparison. in that in our view, was insufficient in the existing resolution. as written, some of our colleagues agreed with me that we needed to mirror president biden's call for hamas to lay down arms in this conflict. uh, relatedly, some some colleagues shared my view that the city and county of san
12:49 am
francisco should express its support in solidarity with the biden administration, g7 nations, eurean union and others for a two state solution as the best hope for a just and durable peace. um, finally, we wanted to make sure that all the data points were updated to reflect the most recent figures for wartime deaths, displacement and hostage believed to be alive . so i'm going to walk through the line references that i'm going to make are to the last published result version. and i just want to read these into the record on page one, line nine. there would be additional language that would be two recitations, um, that are qualitative. whereas on october 7th, 2023, hamas, a us department of state designated foreign terrorist organization, launched from gaza into israel the deadliest, most horrific attack on jewish people since the holocaust of world war two. to describe, quote, as systemic
12:50 am
and unprecedented in its cruelty , unquote, claiming the lives of approximately 1200 people, most of them civilians. and according to a two month investigation by the new york times, quote, showing a pattern of rape, mutilation and extreme brutality against women and, quote, establishing that the attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender based violence . so i like to warn the audience , audience, please, if you disagree with statements that we would appreciate it if you just give us nonverbal cues and thumbs down, and if you like to express support, you can do jazz hands non verbal, please nonverbal. okay and where and whereas since the october 7th attack, the united states government has urged israel to
12:51 am
do more to limit the human toll in gaza, with us secretary of state antony blinken expressing concern that a gap between israel's, quote, stated intent to protect civilians and the actual results we're seeing on the ground, unquote. and president biden describing seemingly indiscriminate bombing in gaza. and whereas the toll of the war on the civilian population in gaza has been and continues to be horrific, with tens of thousands dead and more than 2 million gazans displaced from their homes. on page one, line nine, um, whereas october on between october 7th, we're adding 2023 and we're extending that to january 7th, 2024. armed violence has claimed the lives of at least 22,700 palestinians. that is the most updated numbers that i could find to update that number on page one. line 12. um adding the recitation. whereas
12:52 am
according to a new york times report, as of january 5th, 2024, quote, almost all of gaza's 2.3 million residents have been driven from their homes by israel's nearly three months of airstrikes and evacuation orders . that replaces what is now a dated reference to 1.7 million palestinian displaced. it is now nearly the entire population. page one. line 16 makes reference to 137 remaining hostages. that is updated to 129 remaining hostages. page two. line five reads. whereas in a november 18th, uh, or it would would be added a recitation of whereas in a november 18th, 2023 washington post op ed president joe biden wrote if hamas cared at all for palestinian lives, it would release all the hostages, give up arms and surrender the leaders of those responsible for october seventh, unquote, and on
12:53 am
page three, line one, there's an added reference after anti-palestinian to anti-israeli on page three, line three resolved, the san francisco board of supervisors calls for there's language added, the surrender of hamas, a sustained and then sustain a cease fire. that language is repeated on page three, line seven in the in the amendment, um, that also calls for the surrender of hamas and then finally on page three, line nine, there is a resolution further resolved, that the san francisco board of supervisors stands in support of a two state solution, envisioning a pair of territorially distinct states, one for the people of israel as an ancestral jewish homeland and one for an autonomously governed palestine as an ancestral palestinian homeland, affirming the right of existence, self-determination, and self-defense for both states. so okay, so those are. yeah okay.
12:54 am
so everybody everybody will have a chance to make their public comment. yeah. great great. so i okay. we're about to we're we're actually about to go to public comment. but i do want to express again my appreciation to the community members and also the colleague, the colleagues with whom i have worked. we have, i think, have all done a lot of soul searching on this. i know this is something that is not likely to find consensus. or agreement, but we're hoping to find something as we discussed, that is closer to it. um, and with that, i don't know if there's anybody else on the roster, but i think we can open this up at this time to public comment. yes members of the public who wish to speak on this item should line up to speak
12:55 am
along, uh, at this time, each speaker will be allowed one minute. there will be a soft time when you have 30s left and a louder chime when your time expired. i would can i just my apologies. uh, supervisor soft i would like to say a few words. yes. sorry um, i was waiting for you to finish your amendments. i know supervisor preston will talk about his later. is that correct, supervisor, or did you already? you just pass them around? sorry. through the chair, i did. i distributed those earlier and described them. yeah. um, if there's an interest. no, i'm just i just want. i'd be happy to read them line by line. no no, you don't need to. you talked about them in your. i mean, if you want to later, please, please do i. i mean, surajah dorsey had spoken about his in broad strokes. you did yours and now he went through line by line. i just i just wanted to say a few words before we, um, before we get into public comment. i appreciate all the people that are waiting here. um i can tell you, i've been on this board for, uh, seven years as of
12:56 am
today. actually and there has not been one issue that has captured my attention more than this issue. i've gotten more emails, uh, more calls, more text messages. stop passing people stopping me on the street , random people coming up to me. um, it shows the magnitude of the issue. and you know, it's easy to say for those that will say, well, you're the board of supervisors, you shouldn't be thinking about this. another part of the world. um, but if you believe in democracy and if you believe in humanity, how can you ignore what's happening there on the ground and the truth is, um, we have people in the jewish community. we have people in the muslim and palestinian community, um, that are direct residents of san francisco that have family members on the ground that have
12:57 am
personal relationships with the hostages, that have personal relationships with women and children dying predominantly in gaza. um, this is happening in real time and is impacting us in real time. and so first and foremost, i want to say on behalf of this board and this city, i'm very, very sorry for what you're experiencing. i'm very sorry for the rise in sadness and pain and suffering. and i met with folks, um, from the jewish community that are in tremendous fear. i. met met with folks in the palestinian community that just don't feel seen, and they've never felt seen and are in pain and are in real, real pain. and so i first and foremost, i want to say sorry for the rise in anti, um,
12:58 am
islamic anti semitic anti-palestinian anti. israeli. all of the fear and suffering that people are feeling first and foremost. and for me, this is very, very personal. i'm the i'm the only person on this board of supervisors that was born in that part of the world. and i had my own family torn apart by religious extremism, by fanatics that came in, killed my family members, and forced me to flee the country that i was born in. and i came to this city almost half my life ago, knowing that this was a city that would welcome me, that this was a city that would embrace me no matter who i was. and that's what makes san francisco special. so i feel like it's our duty to stand up and say something about this and do something about this. now, i understand, uh, supervisor dorsey has amendments. i understand that supervisor preston has amendments, and i
12:59 am
think both sides should. should truly keep talking and at the end of the day, if you believe in humanity and if you believe in in, in justice, i think we need to pass something. we need to pass a resolution. um, and, you know, one person said to me that if one side walks away feeling like they they won and the other side does not, then we haven't we haven't done our job. um, so i'm hopeful today that i want to listen to every single comment that somebody has that people have here today. um, i don't take this lightly in any way, shape or form. um, but we are where we are here today. i hope we can do this in a respectful way. and hopefully come out of this with some type of solution that will make people feel a bit better about what we stand for in san francisco. thank you. great. thank you. supervisor safai. and i just want to express my appreciation for your powerful words. um i will say that, um,
1:00 am
just on behalf of the colleagues with whom i was able to work on this, um, i didn't hear one person say that this isn't something we should be doing. i think most people recognize that it is personal for many san franciscans. i think we've all heard and seen in, um, events play out that are, um, heart wrenching and i think everybody is trying to do the most conscientious job they can representing, um, our constituencies and our cities. um, so with that, i think, uh, seeing no one else on the roster, we can open this up to public comment. and come to san francisco for work and other cultural events. i want to start by acknowledging we're going to we're going to restart your time. sorry i'm a
1:01 am
little hard of hearing, and i didn't even hear all your comments. no problem. i just wanted to make a quick announcement. we are starting public comment. uh, one minute per person. i just like to note that, um, we will be making some ada accommodations and other accommodations to get some people into the line. first, i will bring them to the front. uh, in addition to that, i would like to restate that if you we would like you if you like to provide support, we would prefer nonverbal support or expression of opposition. thumbs up. jazz hands. it would be appreciated. uh, to and uh, we will go ahead and get started. you may begin. okay. again, my name is robert bonham. i live in the east bay and come to san francisco for work and other cultural events. i want to start by acknowledging the suffering by both the israeli and palestinian population. i also want to thank you for all your hard work. i'm sorry i didn't hear everything you said. so please bear with
1:02 am
me. i'm asking that a resolution not be passed because it is beyond the expertise and the scope of local area politics and causes an unsafe and divisive atmosphere here. if you do pass a resolution, please be sure to condemn hamas. ask for its removal from power and bring the hostages home. hamas is a terrorist organized nation. it has broken many ceasefires and it broke one when they attacked israel on october 7th. i've been to the area 20 times and saw that the situation is far more complex and has far more information than we hear. no terrorist s have a role in this. the press has a role in this. iran has a role in this. it's speak your time has elapsed. thank you. thank you. can we have our next speaker? if you go
1:03 am
to the second mic, it's lower. that one. okay thanks. okay i'm david spiro i'm a jewish resident of district seven. um, i want this resolution passed more or less. as supervisor preston introduced it in the first place because this is really, really urgent. i have friends in gaza. i have friends in israel. i have friends in the west bank. and everybody is suffering. everybody is stressed, and people here, it's tearing apart our communities. it's tearing apart the jewish community. um and it's tearing apart and people are being subjected to violence, both anti-semitic and anti-islamic muslim violence. um, and we don't need to solve the israel-palestine issue right now with a two state solution. we don't need to be condemning hamas because hamas is not dropping the bombs. hamas is not starving people. hamas is not
1:04 am
keeping water away. we need to we need to pass this resolution. and i just want to say, i know the i don't know, but i can suspect the pressure you guys are under to vote no on this. um, that, you know, because i've seen what the israel lobby has done to other people, their time has elapsed. can we have our next speaker? yes but we will. we i will have your back and our movement will have your back. yes. yes. my name is sharon kazako, and i've studied this story just from reading articles . um, when israel took over palestine. palestine, um, they, they, they, they forced people to leave their homes by putting a gun on their hand, on their head. and if they refuse to leave, they will shoot and kill
1:05 am
them. and in 2018, over about 100 unarmed palestinians that were marching in the war were, uh, were shot to death. they were unarmed because they were marching for the right of palestine to return. i'm i'm just going to read a little bit of a poem that i found here, and it's, uh, lisa suhair majaj poets for palestine. this is not a massacre. what kind of war is this? amina has joretta april 19th, 2002. this is a humanitarian operation. all efforts have been made to protect speaker time has elapsed. speaker time. speaker time has elapsed. can we have our next speaker. should i say it again. your time has elapsed.
1:06 am
can we have the next speaker? career. good morning. uh, i'm alan burdell. i live in district eight. um i agree fully with the first speaker, and i support you. supervisor dorsey, as your, uh, effort in here today. um, but as long as we're here, there are three things that must be included in this outrageous resolution. number one, lay out the atrocities and detail that have been committed by hamas on october seventh. in detail. number two include language calling for the removal of hamas from military and governing control of gaza. and number three, call for a two state solution. and why a two state
1:07 am
solution? because hamas is seeking the annihilation of the jewish state. that's exactly why we need a two state solution. thank you very much. now, okay. thank you. um, good afternoon. my name is laura kiswani. i'm the executive director of the arab resource and organizing center. i'm also the daughter of palestinian refugees and this is my daughter, selma. since i was last here, i learned that i lost 40 family members in gaza. and i share that to say that every single day counts. and the 28,000 emails you guys got, the thousands of people who showed up last december, the thousands of people that are here today live and outside and watching the hundreds of organizers. that
1:08 am
have sent you emails, the union support, the thousands. of jewish people who have demanded more of you to call for ceasefire. they are not asking for you to create amendments to appease is a pro genocide agenda . they are asking you to move forward with a common sense resolution. they are asking you to support, put an end to this humanitarian crisis. they are asking you to join the majority of san franciscans, the majority of people in the united states and the speaker time has elapsed . speaker time has elapsed. can we have the next speaker, please ? resolution this is not the time. this is the time to support the mass of the people of. belize today, for the people
1:09 am
you do not support internet. speaker time has elapsed. anybody tomorrow? your time has elapsed. time. from all my but all communities, i compel you to stand for people. thank you, thank you doctor martin. esf. i'm a professor of medicine here at ucsf and a former commissioner of the healthy california for all commission appointed by governor newsom. i have come to speak in this hall when injustice threatens the lives and the health of our community,
1:10 am
especially when that injustice is steeped in racism. a call for no cease fire is a racist call and needs to be said that way. a delay in a cease fire in any tactic to delay is calling for more lives of palestinians to be killed, more children to be killed, and more of my colleagues who have been on the phone with almost every day since october 7th to be killed in gaza, it's totally unconscionable and incorrect. i spoke here when sfpd was killing black and brown community members, naming racist police violence as a community public health threat. since before george floyd, since before it was popular to do so. it was unpopular and today it's another unpopular issue at hand, which is the indiscriminate killing of palestinians with weapons made with us tax dollars. those tax dollars need to go to our health care and to health care for people here and abroad, not to be killing doctors and bombing hospitals. any delay is an act of racism. when we have critical lives at stake in medicine, we
1:11 am
act critically. you guys are the speaker. time has elapsed. i'll turn it back on. hello. my name is george jessel, and i oppose this resolution. and i have a very strong feelings on, on on the, uh, on the jewish side, on the israeli side that i just want to call to your attention that israel is a nation of refugees, not just refugees from holocaust, but also refugees from arab lands. half of the population of israel, many of them brown people, were natives in arab lands for thousands of years and were killed out and live there. they have nowhere else to go. there's a lot of fear. i'm calling for some humility that after they've been after. excuse me, excuse me. stop for a second. let the man
1:12 am
speak. when everyone is speaking , let them speak. if you disagree, put your hand like this. if you agree, wave your hands. do not taunt people when they're speaking. go ahead. thank you. and i think that that, uh, there clearly is two sides here. uh, we have to understand that the resolution itself is a little schizophrenic . i understand there's politics, but to acknowledge that hamas is a terrorist organization that oppresses their people and yet calls for a peace settlement. now is giving them a victory because this was their strategy. speaker time has elapsed. thank you. for yes. yes we do. i'm the daughter and granddaughter of holocaust survivors. and here i stand knowing that my safety will never come at the expense
1:13 am
of anyone. certainly not from bombing entire families and this endless slaughter, half of which are children. we cannot bomb to create peace. it only creates terror. who is the real terrorist? the current cease fire resolution as is, is balanced and inclusive. amendments that are being suggested will be divisive. j crc, who is pushing for some of these amendments, does not only not speak for me or jewish community, but consistently works to silence any community member or institution that might critique israel or stand for equality and justice for palestine. one example, in 2003, jcrc claims to care about sexual violence, yet they attacked sff women against rape and threatened their funding for having a workshop about zionism. among many other things, that i sent a letter to you about. jcrc does not represent jews. they silence and threaten anyone who critiques israel. my speaker time has elapsed. speaker time
1:14 am
has elapsed. i would i would just like to remind the public that you have one minute to speak. once that one minute expired, your microphone will be turned off. we would appreciate it if you could stay within your one minute time limit. can we have the next speaker? you may begin. supervisors. my name is rosita. i'm a nurse here in sf. i urge you to pass the cease fire resolution, as is. i am proud that some of some arm of sf are trying to take action steps for peace. sf should stand against genocide as an indigenous mapuche woman, i understand genocide. the mapuche community stands in solid parity with the people of palestine. we cannot allow genocide to happen to anyone else. as a health care worker, i understand the effects this violence has had not only on my colleagues in gaza, but their families in sf over 600 health care workers have been killed. over 25,000 palestinians have been killed over half of
1:15 am
those killed are children younger than 14. 4 to 5 health care workers are dying every day. 100 palestinians are killed every day. i urge the board to pass the ceasefire resolution, as is the alternative to a cease fire is the continued option of the genocide. this is not performative. this is a humanitarian issue. be the ethical and moral leadership we need. pass the resolution as is. speak your time has elapsed. good. good morning. my name is missy mastel and i'm here to encourage you to not take up resolution for san francisco to call for a cease fire in the israel hamas war. i make this request not just as an sf citizen, a parent and a jew, but i have someone who i have fought for years for safety and equity in our schools and public places alongside you, commissioner walton, no person, and certainly
1:16 am
no student should feel unsafe to live in this city. and these resolutions have done very little other than create divisive and dehumanizing behavior in our schools and our streets. like israel, san francisco has one of the most diverse demographic populations in the world, and it's hard to believe that our city could be represented by a single opinion regarding a conflict happening 7500 miles away and over 60 years old. one of the things that makes this city great is that we do not have to look far to find someone who feels differently than we do. some one we can learn from and with whom we can share stories. but this conflict is a difficult one to start a conversation about. speaker time has elapsed. thank you. good morning. i live and work in the mission and in bernal heights. i'm honored to be here in support of the immediate adoption of the ceasefire resolution. as it stands, bands representing the san francisco bay area chapter
1:17 am
of the national lawyers guild. i'm also here. as a child and parent of latin american migrants from colombia and mexico in unconditional solidarity with our palestinian sisters and brothers here and everywhere. the un's genocide convention was signed and ratified by the us and is part of domestic law and is fully binding on all federal, state and local authorities in the country, including the board of supervisors. this includes a duty to prevent genocide and not to be in complicity with genocidal acts and policies. this is what is at stake in the ceasefire resolution and at the internal national court. speaker time has elapsed. the u.s. morris boys here in san francisco on january 26th, speaker time has elapsed. did
1:18 am
you forget your mask? no. somebody else. good morning. my name is rebecca goodman. i've worked in san francisco for more than 15 years, and my children attend school here in san francisco. i love the opportunity to enjoy theater, music, and cultural events. as you mentioned, wishing and quote. and i quote, the assault on gaza would have stopped, but i wish that too. i wish that those who were kidnaped and held captive for nearly 100 days would have returned home by now. that is also my wish. the their nightmare is not yet over. i also appreciate your desire to let out. let our nation's government and the biden administration, as they do their work to release the american hostages in international politics, is their job, not yours. here in san francisco, the people screaming for cease
1:19 am
fire are also calling to eliminate israel and everyone in it that is what that is. what from the river to the sea means that israel will not exist. that there must be a two state solution in which is not possible with hamas in power. speaker time has lapsed. thank you. i'd just like to remind the audience to not interrupt other speakers. thank you very much. my name is chase carter, and i'm a san francisco resident. i'm here representing jewish voice for peace, which has over 7000 members and supporters in san francisco and over 30,000 in the bay area. we call on the board of supervisors to pass the cease fire resolution without the amendments proposed by supervisor dorsey, which undermine the unifying call for peace that san franciscans and americans at large support as jews, we know that our safety can and will never come at the expense of others. that is why we choose solidarity, justice and peace over more war,
1:20 am
occupation, and apartheid with the state of israel committing genocidal violence against palestinians in gaza, the only way to save lives is to stop the bombing and violence. cease fire means saving lives. now, this resolution is popular and represents something all of us should be able to agree on, that all life is precious and that never again means never again. for anyone. i urge you to do the right thing and pass the resolution as is. thank you. my name is eileen lee. i live in berkeley. i'm part of the mission minyan here in san francisco, a jewish community, and i bring my grandchildren here to go bicycling. and i'm a member of the wonderful museum, and i am terrified. i am shaking outside as i was climbing up the
1:21 am
stairs, someone is yelling, zionism caused 911. this resolution is bringing out its legitimizing. it's making it okay to call for the destruction of israel and threats to jews. and i please ask you to focus on keeping us safe here. everyone in and not legitimizing hate speech. thank you. my name is manuel alcala, a san francisco resident born and raised in district eight. more than 100 members of my family have been killed in gaza and the rest joined the 2 million made homeless by our tax money and our unlimited military aid. i'm here as a family medicine doctor who has taken an oath to do no harm. we are witnessing atrocities that we have never seen before live streamed on
1:22 am
social media. as a doctor, i am here to remind you that a cease fire is a call for peace. it means stop bombing hospitals instead of supporting the destruction of the whole medical infrastructure. it means stop killing doctors, nurses and other health professionals instead of supporting their assassinations. it means to protect the 50,000 pregnant women instead of supporting a government that is denying them prenatal care, anesthesia and medication. it means allow palestinians basic human rights like clean water, electricity, fuel and humanitarian aid. the opposite on the opposite of a cease fire, is open fire. those who oppose a cease fire are supporting the continued killing of innocent people. please tap into your humanity and support a cease fire now with no amendments. we believe in you. my name is linda wolf. the resolution needs to lay out the atrocities committed by hamas, which precipitated this war.
1:23 am
deliberate and planned mass murder of civilians is systematic and hideous. sexual violence documented in the new york times of december 28th. kidnaped of hostages still living in hell in total darkness . the resolution needs to call for the removal of isis style terrorist group hamas from military and governing control of gaza. the resolution needs to acknowledge the right of israel to survive as a haven for jews worldwide, and a haven from the screams, the hatred, the jeers, the taunts of crowds like the one here this morning. thank you . my name is my name is stanley wolf. i'm a board certified ob and gynecologist, and i come to you today in support of the amended to this resolution by
1:24 am
supervisor dorsey. the only consideration of a cease fire really is in the hands of qatar, egypt, hamas and israel. not by this board, however, if you are going to pass a resolution, why would people want the original bill unmodified resolution? what are they scared of? dose supervisor dorsey, you create a balance of elucidating very clearly what initiated this round of atrocities. and that is what happened on on october the 7th. please include that with as much specificity in detail and data as the others. thank you.
1:25 am
wanna go next? good morning everyone. my name is iman khalil . um, i have worked at, uh, saint francis hospital in the burn unit for the past 12 years. i've been a respiratory therapist for 20 years. um, i am here to support to pass the resolution for a cease fire. as is. uh, we don't have time. um, if you have ever been to the burn unit at saint francis. um, mr. dorsey, um, it's easy to see why there is such a such a sense of urgency. we need medical care to get into gaza. um, anesthesia says this is spreading, so it's not even about dying immediately. it's about the suffering of the children and all the innocent civilians, men and women as well. because no one asked for this. um, and it's also not right for us to celebrate health care workers, as we have been doing for the past several years with covid
1:26 am
and then kill them over in palestine. and it's also not okay for us to use the money. speaker time has elapsed. my name is jill shenker and i'm a jewish resident of district seven here, calling on you to support this resolution, especially without supervisor dorsey's amendments. i am one of over a thousand jews who signed and sent you a letter explaining that jsi rc does not speak for us. my judaism taught me tikkun olam, repair the world by and our collective experience of oppression has taught me that we need all who see oppression to intervene. that solidarity and seeing each other's humanity is the path to safety, and that when we cry out, never again, it is never again for everyone and never again is right now. please support this resolution. it's
1:27 am
imperative that cities across the country represent the millions of people calling for a permanent ceasefire. for i am also the interim organizing director at chinese progressive association, who also calls. on you to support this resolution and to stand for peace and humanity. good morning. uh, my name is diana block. um, i have been a i am jewish, and i have been a resident and a worker here in san francisco for 50 years. i live in district ten, and i want to thank, uh, supervisor walton for supporting this resolution. i want to also say very strongly that you can't talk about balance when you're talking about genocide. you can't put conditions on calling for an end to genocide. all of the amendments that are being
1:28 am
raised by supervisor dorsey, respectfully, i think, are just that divisive. and they're trying to negotiate a date with something that all people of conscience know is wrong. the majority of the us people do not think that there should be a ceasefire. you need to you need to stand on the right side of history and put forward this resolution as is. thank you for your the courage of those who are willing to do that on everyone in this room . my name is jimmy shamiya, past president of the arab american grocers and small business association in san francisco. i stand before you today to urge
1:29 am
you to stand firm against accepting any amendments to that ceasefire resolution. these amendments, if passed, would effectively dismantle the very pillars of peace and humanity. this resolution embodies this resolution isn't just a piece of paper. it represents the yearning of not just our community, but of all who believe in the sanctity of life. we. cannot. we must not allow the noble purpose of this resolution to be gutted. to do so would be to turn our backs on those whose lives hang in the balance. the amendments would chip away at the core of this resolution, leaving behind a hollow shell void of its true power. if others have concerns, let them bring forth their own resolutions, tailor to address their specific issues. but let this resolution, a testament to our shared humanity, a champion of the right to life, remain unblemished. let your students know speaker time has elapsed.
1:30 am
uh, before the next speaker uh, provides their comment. i'd like to i'd like to remind the audience, if you can keep your audio support to non verbal and non audio, it would be appreciated so that we can proceed quickly with this. with public commenters in addition to that, i would like to ask that after you provide public comment, if you can leave the room and go to the overflow room for which is on the light courts downstairs, that way we can bring more people from the hallway into the room. um, it would appreciate it. thank you. please proceed. i am owner of a business for the last 36 years in san francisco. i am opposing the amendment of the resolution because this amendment is poisoning the spirit and the soul of the first draft resolution, uh, resolution and i
1:31 am
will say this amendment is full of lies, full of misinformation and has poisoning actually our community because all the information in this is not true. we all supporting the resolution, as is the humanity cease fire and, uh, release the hostages from both sides and humanitarian aid goes to the palestinians in gaza and stop the atrocity of the israeli. they're talking about terrorists . occupation is the highest form of terrorism. occupation is the highest form of terrorism. and we are still under occupation. in free palestine. and thank you . thank you for hearing us today . may i began my life as an adult in san francisco when i came here from palestine 23 years ago, and was just recently priced out by gentrification into oakland. i am calling on
1:32 am
you to support this critical common sense resolution we desperately need a ceasefire now . we are proud that the board of supervisors have heard the voices of their diverse constituents and are taking action to stand on the side of peace and humanity. we urge you to reject any amendments made by extreme lists and racists for increased violence, increased warfare and a deeper genocide. any amendments would undermine an overwhelmingly popular demand for ceasefire. now now we are witnessing a genocide unfold in front of us, and it is our response ability, your responsibility to be a part of ending it. call for a ceasefire now free, free palestine from the river to the sea. my name is
1:33 am
doctor nitha bajwa. i'm a family medicine physician at san francisco general hospital. i'm here today with a collective of health care workers who live and work in all districts of san francisco, six of whom will join me in delivering this statement together, we echo nearly 400 health care workers in san francisco who signed on to this petition, calling for an immediate ceasefire and unrestricted human and medical aid, which we presented to each of you last month. i want to ask represent dorsey, you want to lay out in detail the atrocities of october 7th, how many pages would this resolution have to be to lay out in detail the atrocities of the 90 days since the rage you are hearing in this room, however uncomfortable it may be, is the rage of 100 years of being called a terrorist while being the victim of terrorism. need i remind you, our tax dollars fund israel. they do not fund hamas. on december 5th, we stood in front of us health care workers sworn
1:34 am
by our duty to safeguard human speaker time has elapsed since 2012 hundred israelis have been killed. we told you of gaza's decimated health care infrastructure, of horrific attacks on hospitals, of the decomposing bodies, of premature babies, of traumatic amputations by bombs followed by surgical amputations without anesthesia to a forced mass, starvation and dehydration. thousands of children with diarrheal disease, astonishing rates of mental illness and traumatic brain injuries, a 50,000 pregnant people without prenatal care, or a place to deliver their babies of the unimaginable challenges faced by our health care worker colleagues now 110 kidnaped, 374 murdered in gaza and 600 killed throughout palestine. and yet
1:35 am
this committee delayed the vote. now thousands more people have been killed, many more hospitals have been bombed. hundreds more children have become amputees and thousands more orphaned. and we have entered an unprecedented man made famine, leading to death by starvation. then what should we tell you today so that you will not speak? your time has elapsed. should we tell you about white phosphorus is the illegal chemical and over 1000 israeli bombs that when contacting human flesh, immediate, begin burrowing in layer. by layer through fat, muscle and bone, eating away at human flesh until it is deprived of oxygen. should we remind you of the 25,000 palestinian children that have become. orphans in the past three months, that by week three alone of israel's assault, more children had been killed than have been killed in any other
1:36 am
global conflict zone in an entire year. should we state the staggering 61% civilian death toll of the assault on gaza, higher than the average civilian death toll of all wars in the 20th century? the century of world war one and two. should we, instead of statistics, humanize the 30,000 killed so that you may see yourself in them? your children, your mothers and your fathers? should we tell you about ahmed shah bat, a four year old boy who lost both his parents and both his legs in the same airstrike? the 18 year old nursing student at palestine polytechnic university, barack obama, who was kidnaped from her home in the west bank and remains imprisoned without trial. 13 year old dounia abu mazen, who dreamed of becoming a doctor who survived one israeli missile which amputated her leg, killed her parents and her brothers,
1:37 am
but was killed by a second israeli attack on a hospital on december 17th. mohammed saleh, the baby born by in-vitro fertilization, whose mom shrieked as. she held him wrapped in a bloody white cloth shortly after he was born and said to the camera it took me 580 injections to have him. should we tell you about medical student bissan aliza, 19 years old, who days before her killing in her own home, wrote on twitter i have dreams. i have not yet achieved. i have a life. i have not yet fully live, and i have a family that i love and fear. for hadiya nassar, born in 1944, who. lived through the 1948 nakba, only to be killed by an israeli sniper on december
1:38 am
7th. doctor akram abuhatzira, who was executed by a firing squad left to bleed to death. on the street with his wife beside him while his house was burned down. on december 21st, mahmoud matar, who fought against cancer but had to stop his speaker time has elapsed at a hospital and died on october. 15th. should we tell you about doctor hamama, a nephrologist who worked at al-shifa, who said this is not the medicine i thought i would be practicing? we want to live freely like other people. we want to be able to learn, think, grow, travel, dream. when asked why, he continued to work at a hospital under threat, he replied and if i go who treats
1:39 am
my patients? and if i go, who treats my patients? two weeks later, he was killed in an airstrike on al-shifa. we've shared with you a fraction of the stories and photos of people would you call these people terrorists? how many more. how many more children? how many more doctors? how many more nurses? how many more of our colleagues? as a cease fire today is a life saved. tomorrow it is restoration of critical health care infrastructure. it is permission for pregnant women to give birth in a hospital, patients on dialysis to receive life saving treatments. people with cancer to receive chemotherapy, mothers and children dying from starvation and dehydration to access food and water. it's saving the life of another doctor, hammam, another mahmoud, another hadiya, another bassan and thousands more. his protection for us, for
1:40 am
our loved ones and for everyone. and it is only option. as it stands, the resolution centers all victims and their humanity calls for the release of all hostages and condemns all anti-semitic anti-palestine and islamophobic violence. it is a humanitarian resolution whose purpose is not to craft a political future for another peoples, but to state what is blatantly obvious that human life is precious and must be protected at all costs. my name is karen. i am speaking as a physician and a resident of district six, and i'm urging the district board and the jewish. my district representative, matt dorsey, to support the resolution as it stands. my name is jude. i'm a nurse at san francisco general hospital. i'm here today, along with my colleagues, urging you to pass this resolution without amendment. it's racist, extremist amendments, pandering to israeli propaganda. and
1:41 am
without further delay, the health care infrastructure, health care workers and first responders in gaza are being intentionally targeted. infrastructure is being destroyed, and these health care workers are being killed to maximize palestinian death by decimating the system set. in place to care, heal and respond when needed. it is currently estimated that a quarter of gaza's population will die in the coming months from infectious diseases being forced on an internally displaced population of people who have survived endless bombardment. for 100 days. these diseases are spreading because gazans do not have access to clean water and sanitation, which are directly being intentionally targeted and destroyed. all of this is deliberate. all of it is calculated, and all of it is in line with seven decades of brutal occupation, siege and dehumanization of the indigenous people of palestine. please do not delay any longer. it is your job to listen to your constituents. listen to us. the majority of us are demanding a ceasefire to save lives every life could have been saved. speak. your time has elapsed of that move. you and if it doesn't make. hello my name is elizabeth
1:42 am
and i'm here today as a health care worker and a san francisco city employee to urge the board of supervisors to pass the ceasefire resolution. now i want to address supervisor dorsey's proposed amendment related to sexual violence. i'm a therapist who's worked with survivors of sexual violence for years. when a group of city workers met with you last friday, we shared our concerns about this amendment. given that central testimony from that new york times article has been retracted, and the amendment does not address the systemic sexual violence that palestinians have suffered for decades, this amendment is racist and inflammatory. past the resolution, as is, with only supervisor preston's unifying amendments. this board has already waited too long. thank you. hi, my name is doctor danny golomb. i'm a psychic tree resident at in san francisco,
1:43 am
and i'm also a resident of district 11. as a jew, i stand with the oppressed always, and i always stand against genocide as a psychiatrist, i vehemently stand against collective punishment. and i am standing with the by. as the palestinian people endured trauma of unfathomable. proportions. this is an emergent crisis. we need a cease fire now. thank you. my name is bridget rokos. i'm a nurse practitioner and midwife in san francisco, and i'm here today for the 50,000 pregnant people in gaza who do not have access to health care, who do not have anesthesia for c-sections, who do not have nicu support for their newborns, who do not have shelter, food or clean water for their families. i'm here for the tens of thousands of children who have lost their parents, and the tens of thousands of parents who have lost their children. this is a genocide in not a war. i. urge this board to pass a cease fire
1:44 am
resolution without proposed amendments. the support of this resolution is obvious in overwhelm thing. local politics and the voice of this board matters significantly. passing this resolution would send an important message of san francisco's commitment to social justice to human rights, and to vote against this resolution is to stand on the wrong side of history. free palestine. good morning. my name is doctor nora bilbassy. i'm a palestinian, an pediatric dentist, mother american, and most importantly, a human. 43 years ago today, i was born in occupied jerusalem, and my only wish this year is a ceasefire in gaza. humanitarian aid to the people of gaza and an end to american funding of the apartheid and genocide happening by the state of israel. my wish and most of the world's wish is freedom for all palestinians. using the word terrorism does not justify why a genocide this
1:45 am
is not about religious extremism . it is very clear. it's about apartheid and colonialism. i urge you to continue with the resolution as is and reject the extremist and racist amendments that encourage more violence, death and destruction. free palestine. and thank you very much. salam. my name is reem bilbassy. i am an educator. in the bay area. i have been for about 18 years now. i had to get a sub for my student. it's something that the students of gaza cannot get. they don't have subs, they don't have classrooms, they don't have buildings, school buildings anymore. um, they don't have most many of them don't have parents or even, um, classmates. they don't have counselors. i'm urging you to, to, to vote for the ceasefire as is the amendment without any amendments
1:46 am
. and please, this is very important because when i go to serve my students portion of my money is going to send those bonds, bombs over there. and we have to end that. thank you. hi my name is michael and i'm a third generation san francisco resident and live in district seven. i'm asking the board to support the ceasefire resolution with only supervisor preston's amendments, and tell the world that the people of san francisco stand against genocide. the 2.3 million people of gaza show us every day their ethnic cleansing with the indiscriminate bombing, the starvation, lack of medicine, electricity, fuel, clean water, warm clothing and safe shelter. the people of gaza need us to stand up for them. we owe it to them to fight for them, starting with demanding this permanent ceasefire. now please show the world. in san francisco, we fight for equality, for all, something our city has always strived for. we need this resolution to show the people of gaza that we see and hear them, that we stand for them and with them. never again
1:47 am
means for anyone. thank you. jack brown, san francisco resident i think every member of this committee must be aware that the overwhelming majority of san franciscans support an immediate ceasefire in gaza and an end to israel murdering palestinians with weapons paid for by america. and i think all three of you in your hearts must wish that this horror would end. so it seems to me that only cynical political calculus would make you vote for anything but the unamended resolution put forward by mr. preston. please do not play political games with people's lives. do your part to end this and vote for the resolution as is. thank you. good morning. i am deja dridi. i live in bernal heights district nine and i would like to thank hillary ronen, who supervises my district and supervisor, dean preston, for this resolution to supervisor dorsey, who is talking about the lives of the
1:48 am
hostages, i would like to remind you respectfully, that the only time where hostages were able to go back home safely was during a cease fire. it was through negotiation and was not won. while killing children and bombing hospitals. thank you. hi my name is chris. i'm a proud resident of district five. thank you. dean preston. uh, i'd just like to say i would like this amendment. uh, i would like it passed without amendments. i we don't have time for this people's lives hang in the balance. you could fill this entire room with dead children and our tax dollars are funding that. i didn't vote for that. did you? did anyone here vote for that? i see. spire now free palestine. it's not that
1:49 am
difficult. thank you. good afternoon. i'm sarah shaw, 25 year resident of san francisco, member of jewish voice for peace, uh, in hebrew school, in synagogue and texts and traditions. i was taught very consistently that justice and freedom from oppression were jewish. core jewish values, as we also learned about the history of our people over time and the fact that we had experienced violent oppression and injustice for centuries back to ancient egypt, to the more recent holocaust. and that is why i'm here to say that we need to stop the murder. in gaza, that it is a jewish value to support this cease fire for, um,
1:50 am
that it is absolutely consistent with our tradition and our faith to, um, demand that the senseless murder of civilians in gaza. and now, thank you. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is leslie dew point. i'm a san francisco resident. i urge your support for the ceasefire resolution, as it is written by supervisor preston with the support of amendments. doctor tedros, general director general of the world health organization , after a recent who staff visit to central gaza, said the bloodbath in gaza must stop. at this moment we are witness to genocide and ethnic cleansing of palestinians in gaza. in support of this resolution is urgent as it is. thank you so very much, supervisors. thank you so very
1:51 am
much. supervisor preston. hi. my . name is amna haq. i'm a resident of district two. um, and i support the ceasefire resolution as is without any amendment. i moved to san francisco 32 years ago. i love this city. its openness and love for all beings, and i'm hoping that this love and compassion, um, reaches the palestinians also that are being killed. uh, the ceasefire is not controversial. it is not complicated. it is about honoring human rights and prioritizing peace for all. people can we stop looking at this through israeli and palestinian or jewish or muslim or christian lens? can we look at it just through humanity? and i say that we need to stop this madness. i urge my elected officials to use this. their platforms to do so, and i'm begging for mercy for the palestinian people. thank you.
1:52 am
good morning. my name is lori wager. i'm a 40 year jewish resident of san francisco. i'm here to urge you to vote in favor of the resolution as originally presented. and to reject the proposed amendments. supervisor preston's resolution was crafted with with as much careful discussion with constituents from all over the city. it succeeds in expressing the consensus of a majority of people in san francisco. know that we need a permanent ceasefire in gaza immediately. it unites our community by calling for an end to the killing of civilians and by condemning equally islamophobia and anti-semitism. it is humane response to the heartbreaking crisis by contrast, the amendments to this resolution are divisive and political. by condemning the actions of one side while remaining silent about the injustices committed by the other, and by requiring specific conditions that these amendments divide our community do not reflect any broad
1:53 am
consensus here or abroad. please vote for the resolution as written to declare that san francisco stands firmly on the side of peace and justice. one moment of silence will not be enough. permanent silence. now. my name is judy gerber. i'm a resident of district nine and a retired sfusd school teacher. as a jewish woman, i support passing the resolution as is or only with supervisor preston's amendments. 50 years ago i went to israel as a zionist, but when i got there, i was horrified by the treatment of palestinians that i saw. i came home an anti-zionist and still jewish. the genocide against palestine started long before october 7th. supervisor preston's description of what has happened over the past three months makes clear
1:54 am
that adding san francisco's unequivocal call for a cease fire is important to ending this genocide. pass the resolution as is. thank you. good afternoon everyone. my name is danny. donnie's known as the flower lady. did it takes no brains to know that this is a genocide. i'm a mother, a grandmother, and it is 20,000 children being killed in palestine right now. there houses are being taken out . this is genocide. this is not a war. a war is when the two countries are fighting against each other with the same amount of arms. united states is providing israel with. weapons to murder children. when there are people under the gravels that they are not even counted. this this is murder. this is genocide. it doesn't take much
1:55 am
of a brains to know that this must stop a palestinian leader from the river to the sea. beaver palestinian libre. viva palestina libre. we have blood in our hands. all of us. blood in our again. the speaker time has lapsed. and genocide. is genocide. life is genocide. genocide. life. next speaker, please. mormon i'm
1:56 am
a jewish. good morning. my name is sarah norman. uh, please do not litter in the chamber. do not litter in the chamber. you are. allowed in our head. my name is sarah norman. i'm a jewish resident and voter in district five, and i fully support the passion and emotion of that. that last speaker, i strongly support the cease fire resolution as is, or with supervisor preston's reasonable amendments. san francisco must stand against genocide. as a jew, i oppose genocide whenever and wherever it occurs. as the amendments from supervisor dorsey are one sided, divisive and should be rejected. i want
1:57 am
supervisor preston to know that you have the support of your district for your humanity and your leadership. i also want you to know i did not vote for you in the past, and i will be campaigning. i will be joining your campaign as a volunteer in the future, and i thank you from the bottom of my heart for your leadership on this issue. good morning, supervisors. i appreciate your attention. i'm mindy. spatt, a gay jewish taxpayer in san francisco for 40 years and a member of awschalom jewish community. i want to be clear that jsi rc does not speak for me, nor do they speak for all israelis, many of whom also want a cease fire, many of whom don't want to send their children to gaza to be killed. the question before you is a very simple one. do you support murder bombing and war, or do you support peace supervisor dorsey's amendments are irrelevant, but they do nothing
1:58 am
to address the central question before you, which is which side are you on? the side of war or the side of peace? dear supervisor myers, i'm a bay area native and when i travel i often say i'm from san francisco because i say it with pride. and who doesn't? right? i'm here today requesting you pass a ceasefire resolution without amendment. the situation in gaza is die right now with innocent civilians with over 22,000 dead, 40, 50% children. you already know this specifically, the link between local governance is international catastrophe is one. the manner in which our taxes are being utilized. militaristically and two to represent the majority of the voices in your local populace. in conclusion, i acknowledge the notion of voting yes on this resolution may elicit fear and the possibility of political retaliation. if so, we are at a
1:59 am
pivotal point in us and world history. we're voting yes will ultimately be vindicated on a global level. furthermore, south africa, as you may know, recently submitted a document to international court of justice accusing israel of genocide if indicted and if convicted, the biden administration also will be implemented as well. please don't associate us with these crimes. i vote yes, we'll. greetings my name is ty gregory, and i'm proud to serve as the ceo of the jewish community relations council. and i speak for jcrc. i want to thank supervisor dorsey for amending the resolution, which strikes a compromise that we feel doesn't go far enough. but addresses one of our core concerns, because if hamas puts down their weapons, the war will be done tomorrow. and if israel puts down its weapons, there will be no more israel. and i will wait for
2:00 am
order. i will wait for order. speaker uh, one moment. i'd just like to ask the audience to respect the speaker and not interrupt them. otherwise you will, um, basically respect each other's speaking time. i did pause your time, so you may continue. thank you very much. jcr sub believes that the palestine does deserve a right to self-determination. like the jews with the jewish state of israel, we believe in a two state solution and the city of san francisco has stated before that a two state solution is policy. so supervisor safai, the same ayatollahs that removed your family from iran are funding hamas. activities in gaza. they must be removed from power. supervisor walton, the last time i stood before this podium was in support of eric mcdonnell and the black reparations task force, because jsi rc believes in justice and the black-jewish relationship is sacred to us. speaker time has elapsed.
2:01 am
hello, my name is alexa asher, and i'm a native san francisco and work for congress. emanuel. and i'm here today with an urgent plea to reject the biased cease fire resolution. the world witnessed the cruelty of hamas on october 7th, when they butchered entire families, murdered children in front of their parents, burned people alive and raped women to death. so proud they were of their savagery. they filmed their attacks for the entire world to see. and even with all the evidence, i, a jewish woman and granddaughter of holocaust survivors, have to beg that you condemn hamas as terrorists. since october 7th, hamas leaders embolden by the iranian regime, continue to reject israel's right to exist and publicly express for an unyielding commitment to further acts of terrorism against israeli citizens and jewish people worldwide. as representatives of san francisco passing any resolution that lacks balance absolves hamas of their heinous crimes of terrorism and omits a call for their removal would be an insult and an affront to the citizens of israel, gaza and san francisco. if hamas surrenders
2:02 am
today, there would be a cease fire tomorrow. hold. on. i'm sorry, mr. chair. i just sorry that last level of swearing and name calling, the longer you all do that, the longer people have to wait to comment. people have been waiting for a very long time. i ask that you keep decorum in here. you can disagree by putting your thumbs down. do not taunt. do not name call. do not cheer. you can do your shaky hands, but please be respectful here. please be respectful. hi,
2:03 am
my name is yevgeny vlasov. i'm a resident of nob hill. um, i just , um, want to add that this amendment, um, adding an amendment that condemns hamas does not negate other aspects of resolution that many here support. thank you. supervisor my name is sarah and i'm an algerian american college student who grew up in district five. i am also with ayo and bay youth for palestine. the last time we were here, 20,000 palestinians were murdered. today we are above 30,000 and imagine carrying your dead child's remains in a plastic bag. i don't think any of us have the courage to do that. we are calling on san francisco to support the ceasefire resolution as is, and to be the right side of history. the chase center arena has a capacity of 18,000 people. imagine twice the amount in there, all being dead. this
2:04 am
is what's happening in palestine. imagine having to mourn the death of your entire family all at once, while having nothing there are thousands of children right now with no parents. how can someone watch an innocent child be in this condition? having no food, no water, no home or a safe place to go? support the ceasefire resolution without amendments and free palestine. hi my name is kayla and i'm jewish and a resident of district eight. i urge you to support this resolution as written or only with supervisor preston's amendments. um, the amendments proposed by supervisor dorsey undermine the aleppo ceasefire in this resolution. and are unnecessary and divisive. um. we need to call for a ceasefire. um, because every day that there's not more people dying. um, as a jew having, um, innocent people
2:05 am
told in my name does not protect me. i'll tell. um, please pass this resolution without supervisor dorsey's amendments. thank you. great. hello. my name is nadine, and i live in san francisco. now i've been living in the bay area for almost ten years, and i'm asking the board to vote yes on the ceasefire resolution without any amendments. the resolution, as it stands, reflects the most moderate, fact based and broad based consensus of public opinion and we just want to save lives. don't be bullied into adding racist and biased language. for those with a pro genocide agenda, stop trying to justify genocide. and calling for a ceasefire is not controversial. calling for unity and claiming unsafety in a community when it's based on the silence of palestinian suffering that is controversial. while justifying the indiscriminate
2:06 am
maiming of palestinian women, children and men is controversial and makes the community unsafe, it makes the community unsafe for palestinians, for jewish people and anyone who wants to stand in solidarity. labor unions, health care workers, business owners, tech workers, entrepreneur, others representing a diverse, a very diverse community. today stand and say speaker time has elapsed. good afternoon supervisors. i'm a san francisco worker and i've lived in the bay area my entire life. i'm calling on you to support this critical cease fire resolution without any further amendments. myself and hundreds of others here today have taken hours from our work schedule to speak before you because this issue matters deeply. there's no business as usual while this genocide continues to rage on, according to bbc, the daily death toll is around 300 people per day. we must act now with a massive
2:07 am
sense of urgency. as a palestinian with many family members in gaza, i want to thank you for voting on this resolution. over 70 of my relatives have been killed since this assault on gaza has began, and every family in gaza has suffered casualties as a result of israel's genocidal tactics. the people there are enduring a living hell. enough is enough. act in accordance with what 70% of americans support and vote yes on the cease fire resolution . our blood is not cheap. please act that way and support this resolution. thank you. good afternoon. my name is zana hindi. i'm the co-founder of reims, california, a palestinian bakery and restaurant. on 25th and mission in d9 with an outpost in the ferry building in d three. my family members in gaza just relocated to a makeshift tent because their home in northern gaza was reduced to rubble. they thank
2:08 am
god, to be alive and to have shelter from rain and the cold. my co-founder. and the chef owner of our bakery, reem aseel, has lost at least 40 members of her family in gaza in the last three months. on saturday, we hosted a letter writing session at our mission restaurant for folks to come through and write letters to their elected, represented to support a cease fire. for the first time since march 2020, before the pandemic began, we had a line out the door for hours with people waiting to come in and take collective action to support a cease fire. now the people of san francisco support a permanent and lasting ceasefire in gaza. now the people of san francisco are hungry for justice and for humanity. speaker time has elapsed. hello, my name is martha hawthorne. a long time resident and worker in san francisco. i'm a proud member of
2:09 am
seiu 10 to 1 10,000 members in san francisco. so 60,000 members in northern california. to stand in solidarity with the majority of san francisco citizens and the majority of people here, the majority of anyone with any heart and conscience that wants a complete permanent ceasefire. for now, thank you. supervisor preston, your resolution is perfectly in line with the public position of our executive board. we've had teachings, we've had rallies, we've talked with all our committee members, and we know that union solidarity in this moment is critical. we support supervisors resolution to go to the whole board tomorrow. we need to know what every supervisor feels on this position. we run the city. you come to us and ask for our donation. you ask for our work and we need you to come. thank
2:10 am
you. i'd just like to let the audience know you cannot hold signs above your head. you must keep them at chest level or lower. thank you very much. you may begin. okay. good afternoon. supervisors i stand with the vast majority today who have spoken for a cease fire. my name is rick girling and i'm a former high school teacher at lowell and galileo, and a member of usf. the teachers union strongly supports the cease fire resolution with the unifying amendments added by supervisor preston. this resolution, calling for an immediate cease fire is not controversial in this city of peace, as the resolution has everything to do with the governance of san francisco. while government claims it has no money to give to cities to build affordable social housing, it finds tens of billions to destroy housing in gaza, south africa knows apartheid and genocide, which is
2:11 am
why it has brought the charge of israeli genocide to the united nations in support of palestinian children, women, men and civilians who are the vast majority of the victims in this unyielding assault. do the right thing for san francisco and for humanity by supporting the resolution to stop the war on palestine. hello, my. name is damien rashid, a union ironworker out of local 378. i've been working out here in san francisco, oakland my whole life. uh, well, the last 20 years at least. um, i am palestinian, and it's. i don't get you. you're elected official out here spitting out lies and propaganda about babies being raped, knowing damn well that ain't true. but we do know that these rabbis are saying it's okay to rape palestinians because we are less in. we are less than human. but me sitting here, i don't look no different from anybody else. i'm human, just like you. ceasefire that's
2:12 am
all i want. free my people. stop killing them. stop treating them less than human. you know, it's a time and a place. 75 years of this going on, and you guys are still trying to. oh, they're the victims. they're the victims. it's not the jewish people. it's the zionist scum that needs to be taken out. my name is eli and i am an sf resident. like millions of people around the world and within sf county, i am devastated. i am so frustrated. palestinians are being ethnically cleansed by the israeli military with us tax dollars. i hate that i am unconcerned funding genocide. it's not complicated. imagine if it were. you living there. we don't decide where we are born in the world. imagine we are born and right out of the womb. the reality you face is the sound of bombs. the smell of flesh, decaying disease spreading, no access to water or food. people are freezing to death. people are sick. people lost limbs. people are starving to death for over 90 days. wouldn't you want the suffering
2:13 am
to end? worst part is, i am seeing videos of the idf smiling and cheering, counting down and bombing whole neighborhoods. whole neighborhoods. that is terrorist ism. 42% of the housing in gaza has been destroyed with families inside them. all of a sudden gone. it is your responsibility to advocate for human rights and protect people and listen to the thousands of constituents demanding a ceasefire. if you look, if you took this job to make a better world call for a ceasefire, now keep the resolution as is. my name is sara, and i've been a community health care worker serving the people of sf and the bay area for years, passing the ceasefire resolution, as is, is a bare minimum step towards ensuring safety for palestinians in gaza and for arab, muslim and jewish communities in sf. you cannot ignore the thousands of sf residents that support an end to this genocide. you have a responsibility to listen to the voices of your most vulnerable constituents. the collapsed
2:14 am
medical system in palestine has been dealing with mass casualty events that would overwhelm our infrastructure in the us, over 1.2 million displaced people are being left without reliable food, water, electricity and are haunted by a constant soundscape of bombing and screams. my siblings and occupied palestine are going to die from disease and starvation. in addition to gross injury inflicted by israeli bombs manufactured in and paid for by the us, this genocide is only accelerating as each minute passes, and i hope you feel that immense weight on your shoulders as a community health care worker. future doctor and neighbor, i implore you to stand against the racist extremism that has already claimed over 22,000 palestinian lives. hello so my name is harriet cutler and i'm a jewish nurse working in public health and living in district seven. i grew up in the jewish community of san francisco, and as a jewish nurse, i'm compelled to speak up today because of the parallel values in judaism and
2:15 am
health care. pikuach nefesh and do no harm. both values teach us that the preservation of human life is more important than anything else, and we must do everything we can to protect it. it is through the lens of these values that i stand here today with health care workers and jews from my own community and around the world, to advocate for this board to pass a resolution for permanent ceasefire as is. i. want to urge the board to listen to everyone here today and the families of the hostages themselves who are refusing to let their trauma be weaponized and are pointing out that calling for a ceasefire and releasing the hostages are one and the same. we must reject the false dichotomies. our struggles have always been interconnected, and therefore so is our liberation. in order for true collective healing to happen, we need to pass a ceasefire resolution today. as it stands, thank you.
2:16 am
excuse me. good afternoon. my name is chris toomey. i'm an epidemiologist and i'm in my eighth year living in district four and working for sf. on december 5th, supervisor preston, supported by supervisor . ronen, motivated a measured and balanced amendment resolution seven i urge you to bring the resolution before the full board, as is my health care worker colleagues have already spoken to many atrocity is happening in gaza here are a couple of more children are intentionally maimed and now limbless. for the rest of their lives. countless children are starving and they aren't counted among the number who are dead. and there's constant bombing day and night. depriving men, women and children of sleep and countless men, women and children are now at risk for ptsd. the ceasefire now. hello. good afternoon. i stand before
2:17 am
you as a very proud jewish woman whose heart aches for the loss of all innocent lives as we clearly know it is a fact that on october 7th, 2023, hamas brutally attacked, sexually abused, killed and kidnaped innocent men. and women and children in israel. this was an unprovoked, disgusting and horrific. thank you, thank you. peace, peace, peace. this was an unprovoked, disgusting and horrific terrorist attack on jewish people. and hamas declared war that day. we need to call for and support the immediate release of the hostages in gaza before we can even start to have a conversation about a cease fire and any hope for peace in the middle east. i do not support the board of supervisors resolution as it is currently stated. we send we support sending humanitarian aid to reach the innocent victims of a war provoked by hamas, who are in dire need, and request the immediate release of the
2:18 am
remaining innocent human beings being held hostage in gaza. if the board of supervisors calls for a cease fire, they are putting jewish residents in danger and will only. speaker time has elapsed, but. i would like to remind the audience not to interrupt the speakers. can we have our next speaker, mr. clark? mr. clark, hold on. there's some new folks that have been in line, um, that have come into the room. do not taunt. do not call people names. do not speak out. you can wave your hands. you can put your thumb down. if you raise a sign above your head. if you call someone a derogatory name, the sheriffs will ask you to leave the chamber. people have been waiting for hours to speak. please show some decorum and
2:19 am
some respect. i understand that there's hard feelings on every side, but that's no reason to call people names and taunt them. please proceed on october 7th, hamas committed a horrific terrorist attack, killing over 1200 innocent lives. they raped innocent women, kidnaped over 200 innocent people as hostages. if the resolution is issued, i encourage you to include the language to state this and call for the removal of hamas from military and governing control in gaza, call for the immediate release of innocent men and women and children being held in hostage in gaza. call for the humanitarian aid. call for a two state solution. if the board of supervisor calls for a cease fire alone, they're putting the jewish people in danger and it will intensify anti-semitism in our city. the board of supervisors responsibility. is to govern all of us, all of san franciscans, and to protect all residents, no matter what side they're on. thank you, boo boo.
2:20 am
good afternoon. i'm here in support of gaza and peaceful coexistence. but against the resolution, i speak from counterterrorism experience. uh. saying that hamas must be stopped. it is a threat to everyone, including the palestinians. it oppresses and murders. and i will add, i'm appalled by the hatred and the propaganda in this room. i think it tells you everything you need to know. my experience has taught me both humility and humanity. humility because of the depth and the complexity of the conflicts in the middle east, the issues there, uh, the challenges of al qaeda, isis, hezbollah and hamas that barely cracked the depth. we've seen this in nine over 11. we've seen this with 1400 people murdered in one day, including more than 200 hostages. in addition, humanity, because a fight against terrorism is a fight for everyone, including innocent
2:21 am
gaza. thank you. thank you. dear supervisors, my name is serene, after my grandmother who was born in jerusalem, palestine in 1920 and was forced to flee the zionist. militias massacres in 1948. i work for gaia, an environmental ngo network that represents more than 1000 organizations in 90 countries that has fostered this city's. leadership in zero waste, gaia has called for a cease fire and an end to genocide in gaza. a cease fire is not about hamas versus israel. it is not about arabs versus jews. it is not even about gazans versus israelis. it is about human life , including the lives of children, of journalists, of medical workers and of hostages. it is about human rights and international law versus a settler colonial war machine that has already stolen 30,000
2:22 am
lives, including those whose bodies remain under the rubble and still uncounted. it is threatening to set fire to the entire. region where many of this city's residents are from. speaker time has elapsed. hello, my name is jenny. i'm a lifelong bay area resident and educator, and a mental health professional . tomorrow, i urge you to vote yes on this resolution as it stands, without supervisor dorsey's amendments, i'm asking you to answer the thousands of calls, emails and comments that have been calling for you to prioritize human lives. stand on the right side of history, and stand against genocide that is being carried out with our tax dollars. i urge you to reject supervisor dorsey's amendments that undermine the overwhelming demand for ceasefire and continue the dangerous and violent, dehumanizing of palestinians. opposing a genocide should need no
2:23 am
amendments. the original resolution reflects consent of public opinion across the political spectrum. i call on you to honor the city's commitment to social justice and represent your concern patients well by voting yes on the cease fire resolution tomorrow with no amendments. thank you. my name is nina block. i've lived here for 68 years. thank you. supervisor dorsey, for your hard work. and i think that if the board really absolutely needs to pass this amendment, which i think it shouldn't, that they should add your amendments to it, the resolution. okay, hamas could have averted this war and could end it at any time by releasing the hostages as if time has been paused. i will ask the audience to honor the request to not interrupt other
2:24 am
speakers. thank you. you may proceed. okay um, yeah. i think that. if the board passes the amendment as it is, as is, or with supervisor preston's amendments, it will be giving the nod to terrorism. and if we live okay, do we want to live in a city where the government says, okay to terrorism? i think not, thank you. hello, supervisors. hello my name is nathan. i walked, i lived in san francisco for 40 years, worked as an interpreter for served people of all religions and origins. my family's were massacred, relatives were massacred during the holocaust. just like on october seventh. yahya sinwar the monster was actually saved by israelis in prison because they operated on his tumor. in return, he organized a massacre where people, babies and old people were burned alive, women raped
2:25 am
while being stabbed and shot, nails driven into groins, breasts cut off where is the mention of these atrocities? hamas is the genocide of jewish people in their charter. they were glad to repeat it again. they do not want a ceasefire and will shoot rockets as they do now. they will take advantage of any time the israel is bombing our hospitals, they say, and then the kamal adwan hospital admits that the hospitals used as a base ambulances are to be used first for military operations. they say israel is killing our children and admit that the children get together explosives to spare them. they're hiding under gaza as innocent children are. speaker time has elapsed right now. good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for hearing us. my name is mohammed abdul rahim. i am a san francisco resident in district eight, the son of palestinian refugees who were forcibly removed from their homes during the nakba. and i support the resolution as is as a diversity, equity and inclusion leader. i
2:26 am
moved to san francisco because of its long standing history of social justice and standing up for what is right as a queer palestinian, arab and muslim immigrant. i have found a home in san francisco on a loving and accepting community. however i have recently felt silenced, invisible, and ostracized. i've been called a nazi terrorist in the streets by these residents for wearing this keffiyeh, a symbol of my palestinian culture. but what i'm feeling cannot compare to those who are enduring seven years of israeli occupation and the escalation since october 7th in the ongoing genocide. over 25,000 palestinians have been killed, 1.2 million displaced their homes, hospitals and schools destroyed. why are my tax dollars funding this instead of supporting those who are right here in san francisco outside these doors, who need access to health care, housing and education? thank you. hi. my
2:27 am
name is tucker owen and i'm an attorney and an artist and a proud resident and voter from district five. i want to say thank you for taking up this really important issue and this resolution. thank you for introducing it. and most importantly, i want to encourage you, urge you to please pass it without any amendments. certainly not. supervisor dorsey's, uh, there is a genocide. hide the convention. the un convention on the punishment and prevention of genocide clearly articulates the definition. we anticipate that the icj is going to give a ruling that clarifies that israel is indeed committing genocide, and we don't need to wait to see it. uh, we're not asking you to pass historical judgments on a 75 year apartheid. we're just asking for a cease fire that needed to happen three months ago. do not delay another day. the resolution, as written, clearly articulates that it is opposed to anti-semitism and condemns it. it opposes and condemns islamophobia, and it values all human life. ceasefire now that's
2:28 am
all we're asking. and free, free palestine. thank you. thank you. my name is deborah. francoist. i'm a jew and i have lived in district eight since 1978. i consider it deeply jewish to protest israel's occupation and specifically to speak out against the ethnic cleansing and genocide that continues in gaza. the death toll is still climbing. anti-palestinian violence in the occupied territory and in israel keeps rising, financed largely by my tax dollars. this is unacceptable. i've been calling on national officials to reverse their course, and i call upon this committee and the board of supervisors to stand up for me and for all san franciscans who say, not in our name, not with our. dollars. speak up for san francisco, whose family and friends in gaza are trapped, injured, missing or dead. speak up for all san franciscans who pursue justice and bring this
2:29 am
resolution to the full board, as is without amendments. cease fire now. hello, i'm gwen mclaughlin and i'm born and raised in san francisco. i currently live in district one and i'm a member of the dsa san francisco. and i'm urging you to vote in favor of this resolution as is, or only with preston's friendly amendments and not with dorsey's hostile and divisive proposed amendments. uh, many of us here today are trying to appeal to your humanity as people elected by us to represent us. while some of you may agree with some aspects of dorsey's amendments, they are ultimately extremely divisive. racist and take the focus off of what this resolution is about demanding a cease fire. now that will allow for political.
2:30 am
conversations to continue without tens of thousands of civilian deaths to continue in our name, funded by our tax dollars, something that everyone here or the vast majority of people here are really urging you to, you know, take a stand against that. many of us in this room are parts of organizations, unions, parts of communities who understand that 2024 is a critical election year. thousands of us who have reached out to you will only support a speaker. time has elapsed. hi, my name is joe and i'm a resident of district five urging you to pass this resolution as written. i was ten years old the first time i was called a terrorist by my classmates. i was 15 years old when i was falsely accused of bringing a bomb to school and held in the principal's office. i was 20 years old the first time i was unjustly detained by the police. it would not be the last time. the experiences that i have had are a fraction of what our palestinian community members are dealing with. while witnessing the us funded
2:31 am
massacre of their people. so supervisor dorsey's proposed amendment to this moderate and peace focused resolution will only serve to empower discrimination against people who look like me, which has risen by 200% since october 7th. please remember, the actions you take have a profound effect on the lived experiences of all of us. and rest assured, our loved experiences will influence how we show up. when you seek reelection in. hi, my name is linda berg. i am a san francisco resident of district nine and a union member. i'm calling on you to support this critical common sense resolution. without supervisor dorsey's amendments. uh, after one of the largest public turnouts in history of this board just a few weeks ago, we're proud that the san francisco supervisors have actually heard our voice and are taking up this call. we ask you
2:32 am
to support the resolution as it's written, sending an unequivocal message that san francisco stands against genocide. as someone. who works with health care workers regularly, it's appalling to see the targeting of health care workers, hospitals and patients in palestine every single day. we urge you to reject any amendments that would radically intensify or excuse me, that are racially insensitive, factually incorrect and overly supportive. of war. uh, the. entire state of california looks to san francisco as a leading voice in social and racial justice. your constituents expect nothing less of you than to pass the cease fire resolution as it was originally written. thank you. good afternoon. my name is tania lafleur. i'm an educator, union member, and jewish resident of district eight urging you to vote yes on this resolution without supervisor dorsey's amendments. because this conflict did not start with hamas. i am here because the
2:33 am
genocide that we are witnessing in real time against the palestinian people with us dollars that should be spent on education, health care and housing is happening in the name of jewish safety. as a jew, i know there is no legitimate justification for genocide and that it cannot make any of us safer. what did we learn from the holocaust, if not to recognize genocide? when we see it, and to be willing to take action to end it while this is an emotionally complicated issue for many of us, it is also very simple. there are times in history when we when you must take a clear stand. this is one of those times. city hall was lit up blue and white for israel on october 9th, so you surely recognize this is a local issue. i urge the board to join the simple, unifying worldwide call for a cease fire. now. umbrella barony i live in berkeley. um, i
2:34 am
understand the people who went through war. i remember 1944 war in amsterdam. hunger and bombs. so i know what you're talking about. but now some history. in 2005, eric. sharon, then israeli prime minister, moved all israeli civilians and soldiers out of gaza to give the palestinian people the opportunity to be under the direction of the palestinian authority to build their state. in 2006, palestinian elections. were won by their fatah party. in 2007, hamas did a power grab and threw the palestinian fatah members. off their roofs. i saw that myself on television. i'm 87 and a retired nurse. i since then hamas groups have been terrorizing the palestinians, using them as human shields, where hamas is murdering israeli
2:35 am
. thank you. i'd just like to remind the audience that please do not raise signs above your head. thank you. martha golden, i'm a resident of district. can you pull the microphone down? we can't quite hear you, sir. my time. start again. yes. thank you. my name is martha golden. i am a resident of district one. i am a very, very, very old jewish woman. i haven't any profound words to say to you. my grandmother, mother and other members of my family were wiped out in a different ethnic cleansing, in a different genocide. i learned from that. that we cannot have ethnic cleansing. we cannot have genocide. and any time against
2:36 am
any people. and that includes right now. and so i urge you to speak up, to speak up and say no to the bombings, no to the bullets, a cease fire is the only way that we can bring peace to this. world. cease fire now! amendment, amendment now. speaker. time has elapsed after resolution. my name is laura golden. i'm a resident of district one. i've sent you letters. i'm not going to repeat what was in those letters. instead, i'd like to read to you a poem that my san
2:37 am
francisco native daughter brought to my attention. i want to live in a world where palestine men grow old amid the laughter of their children and grandchildren, where they sleep deeply in. a quiet night, secure that the walls won't crash down upon them. where they leave to buy their children treats and come home to find them waiting. where the only thing they must dig out of the dirt are flowers or vegetables. things of beauty and nourishment, where when it is time to leave this place, the last thing they see is the sacred tears and reassuring smiles of those who love them, saying goodbye. i have to believe this will happen. i need us to fight for a world where this will happen, cease. speaker time has elapsed.
2:38 am
my name is zeina. i was born at kaiser on geary. i am a queer jewish palestinian and i'm here to speak for the cease fire resolution, as is by opposing a cease fire. the jcrc, while claiming to speak for me, is actively calling for the deaths of my family in gaza. i have lost at least 40 family members in this genocide, and that number was from around a month ago. on december 20th, my great aunt sent my family this message . during the past hour for the house of elhanan in central gaza were friends from al-jilani han'in and elashi. reside was surrounded. i received calls for distress amid a sense of helplessness. male youth and men were executed. women and children were placed in one room where they tossed grenades. i don't even know how to express
2:39 am
how it feels to be watching this all from here. i urge you to call for an end to the death to pass this resolution without amendments. thank you. good afternoon. my name is emily. i was born in san francisco general hospital. i attend shabbat services here in san francisco and i'm a jew who opposes zionism. and i am one of a thousand signers on a letter that reveals the jcrc as extremist in its calls for increased violence, warfare and genocide. i have a special personal interest that my great great grandfather, jacob diaz, was dispatched by theodor herzl to the united states to establish zionism in this country. so i come with a special urgency to address the members of the jcrc and those who are giving them their
2:40 am
friendly ear. they are the legacy of my great grandfather, great great grandfather. today they represent a minority of bay area jews, least of all me. for the sake of all our humanity, not just some. i urge you and the members who will convene tomorrow to vote for the resolution as is, without doubt, amendments cease fire now. my name is jan riker. i'm a liberal jewish zionist and resident of dolores heights. i'm saddened that we are here today and our beautiful. city with so many needs, and instead of addressing addressing them, we are here being divided by an international issue. the introduction of this resolution is not keeping us safe or helping our city in any way. i'm a believer in a two state solution and diplomatic means to bring peace, safety and dignity
2:41 am
for all israelis and palestinian means. hamas and their atrocities, atrocious attacks on october 7th of mass murder, kidnaping and systematic sexual violence, as well as their continued vow to destroy israel and the rejection of cease fires and returning of hostages, is diametrically opposed to a two state solution. i call for the removal of hamas and the return of hostages, and reject any sentiments that undermine the self-determination of israelis and palestinians alike. speaker time has elapsed. allison, a proud jew and san francisco resident. our great city, san francisco, has an endless list of issues and problems to solve for all, ensuring that our city remains a safe and healthy place for all should be a top priority. fighting the
2:42 am
injustices of anti-semitism. and islamophobia locally should be our great city's priority. god bless all the innocent people who have been pulled into this horrific situation. on october 7th, hamas committed the most heinous and atrocious acts of violence against innocent jews in israel. these acts are shockingly horrific and extraordinarily tragic. it was the worst nightmare that could have befallen israel and the jews since the holocaust. i personally advocate the following. hamas must be condemned for its unimaginable acts of terrorism and evil. hamas must end its nightmarish rule of gaza. all the innocent hostages must be returned immediately. israel's right to exist should never be undermined . god bless israel. god bless. the innocent palestinians. god bless america. hi my name is eric levi. i am a queer male and have lived at the corner of 18th and castro for 17 years now. i
2:43 am
was in the streets when we invaded afghanistan. i was in the streets when we invaded iraq and i'm here now while we bomb and slaughter the people of palestine because make no mistake, so much of our tax dollars expertise and bombs are being used. it really is. israel and us perpetrate this genocide. i fully support bringing them home, all of them home, including the hundreds of palestinian hostages held long before october 7th. please pass this resolution as it's written. no pride in genocide. cease fire now. free palestine. hi, my name is deborah levy. i'm the president of a local synagogue, retired instructor at city college, a fourth generation san franciscan. and i've worked for years with an organization which has worked to bring safe water to palestine. i was last here speaking for reparations. i'm also an israeli citizen, and i support a cease fire. but not this resolution, especially as introduced before the amendments in the current version, the
2:44 am
massacre of october 7th is only mentioned briefly near the end. how can you omit those atrocities? those things happened as someone with loved ones who lost loved ones in both israel and gaza. i'm heartbroken , hurt and astounded to hear so many voices doubting the terrorist acts inflicted. by hamas on israel. many peace activists and humanitarians were killed, which is why so many local san franciscans know people over there. this kind of forum only encourages increased polarization and the spread of misinformation, decreasing safety for all of us in san francisco. why not take action to bring our communities together instead of this kind of thing that allow for misinformation and hateful bias? offer community trainings for educators and leaders, facilitated conversations. we. there's so much speaker time has lapsed. thank you. hi. my name is ola and i am an sf district eight resident and i'm also a worker. i am calling on you to support this critical ceasefire resolution. as it has been written, sending an unequivocal
2:45 am
message that san francisco stands against genocide. we need a ceasefire now. the previous statement by the white speaker with dreadlocks are symbolic of the 75 year long zionist tradition of appropriation, theft and dispossession. after the killing of 30,000 people, including 10,000 children, calling for a cease fire is the bare minimum moral requirement. in this moment. every day that passes without a ceasefire and an end to the israeli occupation, not only brings further trauma, death and destruction to palestinians and makes further monsters of ourselves, the issue directly impacts the diverse communities of our city. as a black muslim woman, i have not been this fearful for the safety of my community since post 911. the tragic hate incidents against palestinian arabs and muslims will continue to occur when we endorse the dehumanization of palestinians. the board of supervisors not only has the opportunity to do the morally right thing today, it has the obligation to do its job. we are calling on the board to reflect the calls of tens and thousands of constituents and support the cease fire resolution, as it is.
2:46 am
chair dorsey, supervisors. sapphire walton, preston, i'm amy beinart. i'm a 44 year resident of san francisco. so i speak to you as an american jew whose four grandparents ran from pogroms in eastern europe in the early 1900s to find refuge in the united states. i implore you to support supervisor preston's resolution, calling for an immediate and long lasting ceasefire in gaza. i'm telling you here that i'm a jew, not because jews have some. granted authority over us policy in the middle east, but because i know you are hearing from the jcrc that jews do not support the resolution, and i am here to tell you that jcrc does not speak for me. i support a ceasefire. i support this resolution in the name of humanity and in keeping with san francisco values, i beg you, i urge you to do the same today, and i urge you to accept. sponsor preston's amendments to reject those proposed by chair dorsey, which i view as extremely one sided and
2:47 am
inflammatory. there is nothing, nothing anti semitic in the resolution. that's before you, which seeks speak. your time has elapsed. my name is ruth. i'm a 25 year resident of san francisco. i live in district seven, in november i was the victim of a violent anti-semitic hate crime that took place right on the streets of west portal. this governing body has no place issuing resolutions that sow discord and hate and compromise the safety of the citizens you represent. if you must issue a resolution, please. don't hide behind cloaked language. please name hamas as the terrorist organization that it is, and for the atrocities it has committed and declare that no peace is possible until hamas is out of power. thank you. my name is
2:48 am
salam. i'm a mother bay area resident and physician assistant for of 23 years. i, along with all health care workers, live each day with the motto of do no harm. passing the resolution before you in its original form would be doing no harm. it cannot be controversial to call for an end to violence from our parties and to human suffering. the bay area has always looked to san francisco as leader in movements standing for equality and social justice, stating that you support a people to live to be free, have equal rights and access to basic human needs cannot be controversial. do not let propaganda sway you. we have seen propaganda lead to the worst events in human history. i'm also palestinian american and i'm devastated that my tax dollars are being used to murder my people. but i need you to know this is not a palestinian issue. this is a human rights issue. it's a humanitarian one. people of all races and backgrounds are here pleading for this statement without racist amendments, because it's
2:49 am
a humanity cause. it's why all major humanitarian organizations have been calling for a ceasefire. i ask san francisco to speak. your time has elapsed. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is nick nowicki. i live and work in district nine, and i urge you to reject supervisor dorsey's amendments to this resolution. the text is originally written, reflects a broadly shared centrist position across san francisco, across its many political, ethnic, and religious groups who wish to live in peace and safety with each other and all the other peoples of the world. some of you have remarked that it's not your place to write foreign policy, and i agree. i simply do not consider calling to end a genocide, which has killed parents and siblings of your constituents as foreign policy. i do not consider condemnation of racist and xenophobic attacks on your constituents and their children as foreign policy. instead i consider those things your responsibility. i consider it's your responsibility to oppose racism, hatred, and the violence. whose perpetrators in san francisco and worldwide have felt emboldened by your silence and your equivocation. but in
2:50 am
these amendments, they will see your encouragement. 50 years ago, this board voted to divest from the apartheid regime of south africa. history vindicated the members of that board, and it will vindicate those of you who vote to pass this resolution. without these inflammatory and divisive amendments. thank you very much. hello. my name is jen. i'm a san francisco resident and educator. for the past three months, we've witnessed unfathomable death and destruction in the gaza strip as bombs have been dropped on hospitals, schools, mosques, ambulances and quote unquote, safe zones. tens of thousands of palestinians have been killed, injured, and millions of people have been displaced, with around 70% of those being women and children. in gaza, the water, food, fuel, medical supplies and even the body bags are running out due to the siege. neighbors yards have been destroyed and turned to complete rubble, and palestinians in search of safety have nowhere to go. we are currently witnessing a humanitarian crisis and the world can no longer wait to act. it is our collective
2:51 am
responsibility to end this genocide. today we call on our elected officials to prioritize the preservation of human life above all else and support this critical common sense resolution with no amendments. we must take action to ensure the cease fire comes into effect immediately. it remains our only option. anything less will be forever. a stain on our collective conscience. past the cease fire resolution with no amendments. shame on dorsey and anyone else who thinks a ceasefire is negotiable, debatable or not enough in its own. hi, my name is ivy. i'm a resident of california. i would like to say that since december 31st of 1947, you guys have had a concentrated effort to annihilate and decimate people. the number is 45,000, not. 33,000. 45 to 48,000 people have lost their lives because people
2:52 am
sit down and take the passive view, dorsey. come on. if this was you living in palestine and your life was on the line, would you want us to stand up for you? or would you want us to ignore you and look the other way? we can't do that. i've seen the decimation of my people. indigenous, african, an cherokee . enough is enough. speaker time has elapsed. yes. hi. my name is bree. a
2:53 am
permanent cease fire is not controversial. it is in the name of humanity. more killing is not the answer. i'm calling for a cease fire resolution sent as it is without the amendments. what is happening is a horrific violation of human rights and international law. the palestine jews have been living under violence, oppression, apartheid, military occupation by the israeli state for 75 years plus without basic human rights. what is happening in palestine is a genocide. ethnic cleansing. the colonization of palestinian. land by the zionist settlers has gone on too long. palestine is fighting to keep the last tiny bits of their lands and this has been well documented by historians and scholars. ian
2:54 am
pape, noam chomsky, norman finkelstein, gideon levi, edward said to name a few. speaker time has elapsed. hi my. name is jessica doremus. i'm a resident of district eight and i am here to express gratitude that you will pass this ceasefire amendment. the ceasefire resolution as written. i am so grateful. i'm a global. witness, a global witness to the trauma that's happening. that's part of the big picture. and i urge you to pass the ceasefire now. all of these, all of these, we see it right here in san francisco. there are so many palestinians here. and it's and it's all of the people, all of the people. ceasefire. now. hello. my name
2:55 am
is kayla williams may and i am a resident of district 11. and i'm calling calling on you to support a to vote. vote yes in support of supervisor preston's resolution for ceasefire without supervisor dorsey's amendments. these amendments undermine the overwhelmingly popular demand for ceasefire to continue the dangerous and violent, violent dehumanization of palestinian. lives, and to and to and to. and it furthers the drumbeat of war against the people, of people of gaza as publicly elected officials, it is your duty to represent our values as we and as i, as we as you can see and hear from my comrades standing behind me, standing in the hallways. and i've sent you countless emails this resolution, as is, is over, seemingly supported by san franciscans. san francisco has a legacy long legacy of supporting human rights and if you and if you say that your intention is to end the killing of human lives, then the only response is for a cease fire. now over 9000, over, sorry, over 9000 children
2:56 am
have been bombed to death. and the correct response is to is to is to stop this atrocity and not speaker time has elapsed. my name is julia gonzalez. i'm a high schooler and i am in favor of palestine and of a cease fire resolution with no amendments. there are three members. or first of all, i would like to thank supervisor preston for introducing this bill. it really means a lot for the youth, especially, and for all the palestinians who are fighting for their liberation. um, there are three members on this committee. we have supervisor walton, thank you so much for supporting this. we have supervisor dorsey. i really wish you were supporting this. if you change your mind, would really mean a lot. but if right now it looks like you're going to oppose. and then the supervisor shafi'i sunni advisor, shafi'i, um, you are the tiebreaker in
2:57 am
this landmark vote. and you have the chance to make history if you stand with us. but if you don't stand with us, then you're standing with the racist, you're standing with the genociders, and you're standing with the. thank you. i just like, uh, one moment. i'd just like to remind the audience that please direct your your comment to the committee as a whole and not to individual supervisors. thank you. good morning. my. name is joy george. i'm a proud resident of district five in san francisco and a healing justice organizer calling on this board to pass the cease fire resolution before you without delay and without the amendments proposed by supervisor dorsey. because peace without justice is tyranny. i. want to draw your attention to how distracting it is to equate calling for a cease fire with supporting hamas. it is baffling to me that we are
2:58 am
still arguing about the qualifications, about what is right and what is wrong, when in reality palestinians have been under illegal occupation for 75 years and in three months, over 20,000 kids in gaza have been massacred by indiscriminate israeli bombing. in the words of al jazeera journalist wael dawoud, the world must see with its eyes and not israel's eyes. i ask you, with your eyes wide open, to consider how amending this peace only serves to normalize ties and provide cover for israel's grossly inappropriate military conduct in gaza. cease fire now. hello my name is nayeli maxim velasquez. i grew up here in san francisco in district one, and i currently live in district eight. please pass this resolution with friendly amendments only. i'm a member of bay area legal aid workers affiliated with united auto workers, both of which have
2:59 am
passed resolutions calling for an immediate and permanent cease fire. we represent hundreds of thousands of workers in this body. we talk a lot about homelessness and let me say we need these funds to end homelessness. poverty and suffering. here. we need to stop funding genocide and devastating human suffering. in my legal aid work, i represent unhoused folks here in san francisco who have disabilities and with understood left underfunded programs. this process is painfully slow. people wait years to have permanent housing and benefits instead of providing these cities and states with the funds that we need to confront our own housing crisis and help care for our disabled community members and end homelessness, our country is sending billions of dollars to the state of israel, as it not only kills thousands of beautiful humans, but funds.
3:00 am
so wave at me when my time is done. i am not here to ask your permission to beg for anything. my name is asha abdul rahman. i am a san francisco resident. i live in district three. and, um, what's your name, homie? supervisor dorsey, you are a necro politician. look, it up, necropolitics and if the rest of you guys do not want to be necropolitics, you will pass this resolution as it is. i am here once again. one month later . and now there are more. there were 16,200 people the last time i came that were dead. and i'm here for now. the 30,000 souls. so your time taking you guys are about the business of death and so are all y'all over there on that side that are pro-israel. you are pro genocide. i am pro-life, palestine loves life in gaza, deserves to live. i'm not here to hear anyone to
3:01 am
listen to anyone. i was broken the last time i came and now, now i'm no longer broken because you all are bereft of any any compassion. speaker time has elapsed. yes. i'm wind kaufman, newly retired from teaching 40 years at city college of san francisco. so and trying to be a proud jew, it's difficult when the state of israel and the jcrc claim to speak for me, terrorism did not start on october 7th. terrorism against palestinian civilians has been the hallmark of israel since its inception. 75 years ago. starting with the nakba, a precursor to what is happening now in gaza in gaza, the average number of children being killed per day is well
3:02 am
over 103 months into the ukraine . war, two children were being killed per day on average, and the un stated that the level of devastation had not been seen since world war two. the resolution before you is not controversial. don't make it controversial by adding one sided amendments. i know your heart breaks witnessing this genocide funded by our tax dollars. san francisco speaker time has elapsed against the genocide. good afternoon. i'm here to express full support for a cease fire with no amendments in this resolution. i'm a palestinian american, a first generation palestinian american, and obviously coming from displaced palestinians. my tata, my grandma used to say, there's no place like san francisco. and
3:03 am
she meant it with her entire chest, because this is a city that has always stood at the forefront of social justice movements in this country. as a palestinian american, i'd like to express that i understand that jewish people might feel unsafe right now, but we've felt unsafe in this country and in this experience as being brown in this country for the longest time. i'll never forget when a white woman asked me my culture in 2011 because she couldn't quite guess, and that must have made her feel unsettled. well, i told her i was palestinian and she had the nerve to ask me if i was sure i'm sure, and everyone deserves lives to live and exist without being carpet bombed every. i was born in san francisco, so my parents came to the united states and i. grew up
3:04 am
in el salvador. i came back in the 70s and i been i'm a lecturer emeritus at san francisco state. and i've been working with torture survivors. uh, and i don't understand that. supervisor melgar, you know, will table this discussion, uh, understanding that in fact, her family has similar. to everyone here, you know, that the her members were members of the fmln . uh, you know, they used to be called the terrorists. uh
3:05 am
speaker time has lapsed. for me to understand that because being jewish, she doesn't want to take that position. and keeping your time has elapsed. thank you. thank you, sir. thank you. nobody can keep. um. hi my name is amina. i'm a doctor of pharmacy here in san francisco, and i'm a san francisco resident as well. uh, it's important to keep in mind that these beautiful souls of palestinians and gazans are stories of intelligent souls with aspirations and goals. they are not dead bodies or casualties, as the media portrays them to be. with the carnage continuing and no ceasefire in place, at least a dozen children are dying as we speak right now. they are dying now. so what i want to say is there's nothing left to say that thousands of pictures of
3:06 am
slaughtered children, palestinian children, could not convey that. we say it's not the eyes that are blind, but the hearts don't make your heart blind. and i'd vote for a ceasefire. please. thank you. my name is ana gabriela. i live and work in district nine. i'm a registered nurse and a first generation ucsf student nurse practitioner, and i'm here with the bay area collective of health care workers providing public testimony. i call on all board members to vote yes to the cease fire resolution. as it is without amendments. there are many reasons that inspired me to be a nurse, but one thing that i keep coming back to is my intersecting passion for being of service to the community and for social justice and human rights. many have questioned me for caring about an issue that supposedly doesn't relate to me, but i do not need to hold certain identities to speak and stand against the ongoing violations on human rights. my capacity for empathy, love, and desire for justice has no limits, and my heart and lived
3:07 am
experiences are wise enough to know that these issues of injustice are all interconnected, and we must act urgently. this resolution must be passed or must be unrelated, unrestricted aid to the people of gaza and we must stop all funding to israel now, many push the fallacy that this is not a local issue, but it is our tax dollars are directly funding this genocide and killing our health care colleagues and destroying the health care system, which we never consented to speak of. time has elapsed. i urge you all to ask yourself, who are you entitled to? what you need to you are assigned to the people samuel alito and d.o.j. jen psaki that is responsible. guest speaker time has elapsed. ask yourself what you think about what happens without you, what you want to be remembered for. emergency shelter workers, emergency assistance jen psaki who are working. or parkinson's. prior
3:08 am
to addressing porterhouse. hi, my. name is kyle. i'm a resident of district six and a robot software engineer who's lived and worked in the bay area for five years. i'm here to express my support for the resolution passing as originally written without any of the racist devices and reductive arguments introduced by supervisor dorsey. anyone paying attention must understand the crucial moment in history that we are living through, and the necessity of an immediate cease fire to protect precious palestinian lives. proponents of settler colonialism love to pretend that this is a more complex issue than it actually is. the people of san francisco, as well as the majority of americans, overwhelmingly support a cease fire because they know it is the morally correct position and not they do not want their tax dollars funding a genocide. the palestinian struggle is the struggle of all marginalized persons and as a queer person from florida, i can recognize the need to strongly and unequivocally condemn apartheid, colonialism, and genocide and stand with international solidarity with all oppressed persons. i. hope for the sake of
3:09 am
your souls and your political careers that you reach the same conclusion. free palestine. thank you for your time. thank you. can we have? thank you. speaker we're going to take just a quick, um, just a pause in public comment for just a moment. i wanted to recognize supervisor preston. thank you. chair dorsey, i'm very sorry to interrupt public comment. um, i did want to. i am not a member of this committee, but i'm here because i'm the author of the resolution. i want to thank the committee members, uh, for having me. i also, in my duties as supervisor, am the vice chair of the land use and transportation committee, which is about to begin its meeting. so i will be leaving in just one of the public to know why i am leaving to attend that committee . and if public comment is still going on when that committee is done, i will be back. thank you very much. thank you. thank you, thank you. thank you, thank .
3:10 am
thank you to supervisor preston. and now we can resume public comment. good afternoon. my name is christina and i'm a resident of district six. i urge you to please pass the amendment or the resolution as is. um, the amendment proposed by dorsey are reductive, unhelpful, harmful, divisive, and ultimately, um, in their failure to be grounded in reality, cause racist harm. they do not represent what the what the residents of district six want. uh, honestly, i'm embarrassed that the representative of my district introduced these amendments. the voters of district six will remember when it comes time to vote. we if we fail to collectively stand against this genocide, the world will remember and it will follow your political careers forever. for the majority of my adult life, i have been proud that the call this city my home. but but if we fail to pass this the resolution unamended, i won't just be disappointed in the leadership
3:11 am
of my district, but genuinely embarrassed to be a citizen of san francisco. uh, please. we're just asking you to say genocide is bad. it doesn't need a racist asterisk. thank you. hi. i'm teero. and i'm a queer organizer in district six. the queer people of soma overwhelmingly condemn the genocide in gaza and do not consent to our taxes. funding the weapons used by israel to commit these unimaginable atrocities. yes, sorry. as our district is represented on this rules committee, i urge you to do your job, represent our values and move this cease fire resolution to a vote without supervisor dorsey's divisive. amendments. shame on you. by the way, i yield the rest of my time. um, howdy. uh, my name is iskander, and i live and work in district six. uh, i am here, like many of my fellow san franciscans, to urge you to pass this resolution on to the rest of the board of
3:12 am
supervisors tomorrow with no new amendments, which are divisive, one sided, and obfuscate, ultimately the issue at hand, which is that there are people dying for the crime of being palestinian in palestine. um, and to vote yes today and tomorrow. yes to ceasefire. yes to the very first step in ending genocide and attempted ethnic cleansing. yes to standing in solidarity with decent human beings across the globe. there is no such thing as peace. without ceasefire. there is no such thing as a resolution to the conflict. without the ending of bullets raining down upon people. um, and our government is meant to represent the will of the people. and i think that the people are here clearly demonstrating that these atrocities do not represent us. thank you. hi. my name is ellen, and i'm a resident of district two and a nonprofit worker. i wrote a whole thing about the numbers and the genocide that is occurring before our eyes. but we have just spent two hours listening to facts and stories,
3:13 am
and it is clear that it is beyond clear that it is time for this city to call for a ceasefire. i figured i would share this poem instead of my full speech. it is not 23,000 people killed. it is you 23,000 times over again with all your dreams, hopes and plans for the future. for it is you as a child crying for your mother and father. it is you as a mother carrying the body of your lifeless child. it is you as a father, digging through the rubble to find your family. you 23,000 times over again. look at that number. really feel it in your soul. support the resolution as it is written. sf has the potential to lead in this moment. what do you want the legacy of our city to be? ceasefire now? yes. hi everyone, my name is abdou. i'm an immigrant rights commissioner as well as representative for um residents in d5 d69 and a lot of families in san francisco who has been overwhelmed. but by what's happening, please, like i have, i came from a country
3:14 am
where like we lived in harmony. christians, jews and muslims together until zionists get inside and it was empowered by someone like you, someone who's opposing the resolution, someone who is debating for a human life, someone who voted for you and entrusted you, trusted that you will like, be their voice, not like you are dividing them now, but what you are doing. i'm sorry that we are debating a human life. just do your job. do your job. they voted for you. they trusted you, but you are not really in the same position as them. trust them. please vote for the for the resolution. thank you. hello. my name. is gabriela marbach. i'm a palestinian american. and a pediatric registered nurse at ucsf. and i'm calling on you to
3:15 am
support this critical common sense resolution action without any amendments. we need a ceasefire now. for over 22,000 palestinians have been killed by israel's bombing. this includes at least 9700 children, many of the victims of israel's bombing campaign include doctors, medical workers, journalists, aid workers and foreign staff to aid organizations, we urge you to reject any amendments made by extremists and racist calls for increased violence, warfare and genocide. hello board, my name is nico and i am calling on you to adopt the ceasefire resolution. as is without amendments. today marks 93 days since october 7th. as you know in these three months, the state of israel has intentionally murdered over 23,000 gazan
3:16 am
civilians, including over 9000 children. this morning, the death toll reported by the gaza health ministry is 23,084. however, this death toll is incomplete as it does not count those whose remains have not been retrieved or who have no remains left. the euro-mediterranean human rights monitor, on the other hand, estimates the actual total civilian death toll to be over 30,000 people, including over 12,000 child children. israel's actions are unconscionable. it should not be controversial to recognize this. this is not just a war. nearly every genocide in history was either hidden by or justified under the guise of war. they called bosnia just a war. they called rwanda just a war. call this what it is? this is a genocide and it is our duty and our responsibility to stand against these injustices in every way we can, at every opportunity. and i implore you to stand for humanity, cease fire now. thank you for your time. hello. my name is stephanie. i'm a san francisco
3:17 am
mission district community member and educator. it feels incredibly inhumane being ushered into an ornate building and then being asked to argue against a genocide and 23rd, 3000 palestinians dead, 50 injured, half 1 million to 1 million projected to starve in the near future. i think those numbers are low. maybe you should make an argument to us. your instruments. why our tax dollars flow unhindered over seas to vaporize palestinians against our will. i implore you to approve this resolution without amendments. do the right thing. be on the right side of history and change along with the maturing voter base. call. for a ceasefire now. thank you. hi, my name is michelle and i'm a san francisco native and i'm a district eight resident. i've never been so ashamed and embarrassed of my city as i have
3:18 am
been since october 7th. i'm asking you to vote no on the resolution as it is currently written. this resolution is a shame for our city. if our city is to make any resolution at all, it must contain a number of things in order to call out the atrocities of the terrorist group hamas and make sure that jews and the state of israel are supported and protected. first, it must lay out the atrocities that hamas engaged in. on october seventh, including the systematic rape, mutilation, torture and kidnaping of israelis and jews. rape is not resistance. second, it must include language that calls for the removal of hamas from government and military control in gaza. third, it must include language calling for a two state solution that will allow palestine and israelis to forge a path of peace together and this cannot happen with hamas, since their charter is to obliterate israel and jews from the world. thank you for listening. rape is not who. get out the middle east. hi, my name
3:19 am
is oren. i moved to san francisco in 1990. um i have two school aged kids here. um, myself and my kids do not feel safe and i would like to add that five members of my immediate family who used to come visit me in san francisco were murdered at kibbutz barry on october 7th, two of those family members is my first cousins were taken hostage, noga and sherry weiss, and they were released as part of that second day of the releases of hostages. and i can tell you that this resolution does one thing. it fuels anti-semitism and hatred as examples. died in this room right now. listen the pig noises and everything else, this is pure anti-semitism. and i have never since i've moved to san francisco seen this kind of hatred against a minority group ever a public demonstration of hate against a minority group. if you replace a jew with any
3:20 am
other minority, it would be unacceptable. but look at the behavior just in this room, and this is what it's like through the rest of the city. my kids and i do not feel safe in san francisco. and this resolution simply does. advertisement and pr for around the world and around and this country and this city for that lie and rape is not resistance. rape is not resistance. i happen to love. we shouldn't get to deal himself extended till himself. yeah my name is anthony and i'm a queer tech worker and resident in this area. i am here to relay common sense, passed a resolution as is. if you can't even do that every single one of us here who came in support of palestinian cause has more humanity and is more deserving of your position than you will ever be. especially, you know, who we hear a lot of people talk about ancestral heritage, who has the right to palestinian land, who
3:21 am
started it all first. but what baffles me is none of that should take away from the fact that there is no valid reason to displace and cleanse millions of people who are already living in their homes. we took away their home, their right to self-determination, their lives, and now their future. zionists speak of hostages but failed to speak of the thousands of wrongly detained and mistreated palestinians. they talk of anti-semitism but ignore their blatant islamophobic and anti-palestinian actions. they live in abundance of food and water, yet cry victim. they speak of october 7th, but they don't acknowledge the thousands of innocent palestinians that have been murdered for almost a century and continuing, they hailed the ioffe as heroes yet demonized the hamas resistance fighters as terrorists. they called themselves generous for their pathetic, meager compromises while standing on the bloodied remains of palestinian land. they speak of the few unverifiable evidences to uphold their hypocrisy while ignoring palestinian children getting their limbs amputated, women having c-section all without anesthesia that doesn't even scratch the surface of all the pain palestinians have been facing for a long time. accept the pictures. the footages, the stories that brave gazan journalists have been sharing, risking their lives. let these
3:22 am
evidences feel your anger and fight for a ceasefire. do everything you can to save lives while their lives to save. if you have humanity, it is the very least you can do. cease fire now. hello, my name is sami ibrahim and i'm here again speaking to you as a resident of san francisco's potrero hill. as well as the proud queer child of nigerian muslim immigrants. um, last time i was here, i called you to vote yes on the resolution on december 12th, and though you have failed to do so, late is better than never. so i urge you to vote yes. now on the resolution as is without any of the amendments. cease fire now. thank you. hello, supervisors. my name is daniella oropeza, a proud resident of district 11. like you all, i had the privilege of waking up today
3:23 am
without the sounds of bombs dropping, homes crashing, sniper shooting, or buzzing of drones around me without the fear that i may be murdered today or fear of the murders that i will witness at the hands of israel. this has become the daily experience for humans in gaza. i am saying humans instead of palestinians, because then maybe you will care if i say humans do. 30,000 more civilians need to be murdered. do 65,000 more tons of explosive needs to be dropped? do more babies need to freeze to their deaths? do more journalists need to be targeted before we get to see true documentation of the horror that is today's palestinian experience, how much more will it take? i hope that as you vote, you are reminded of your humanity and the humanity of the palestine. so call for an immediate cease fire and keep the resolution. that is as is. let's not forget that they are the real indigenous people of palestine and of the land that the world recognizes. as present day israel. thank you. greetings. my name is tony. i'm from district ten. please pass this resolution without
3:24 am
amendments. the amendments and push to oppose the resolution is a divisive and shameful move by jcrc, an organized nation that does not represent all jews, including myself and semitism and judaism are being weaponized by the far right. don't be intimidated. take a bold stance, as san francisco has at other critical junctures like under apartheid south africa, stand in solidarity with our arab and muslim communities. this resolution does not turn your back on the jewish community. many of us support this amendment and oppose the genocidal and oppressive policies and actions of the israeli government. there is a long standing opposition to zionism, um, amongst the jewish community since the 19th century, because ethnic cleansing has always been a part of the zionist project. as we continue to witness to this day genocide, militarism and colonial ism do not keep jews safe or any of us take leadership. ceasefire now. hello
3:25 am
my name is karen lopez. i'm a resident of district 11. i'm an immigrant from colombia. i've lived here for 35 years of my life in the mission and the excelsior, and i work as a certified nurse midwife at san francisco general. and i have the honor and the privilege to receive the future generations of this city. and i am here advocating for my palestinian relatives to be held in the same safety and honor and dignity of their lives as i do every day at san francisco general. i feel disgust trusted that my taxpayer , my money is here and complicit in these crimes against humanity, that birthing people, families, children, babies are not able to be honored for the right to live, the right to live. this is important for all of us. i'm so sad as an indigenous woman that we will be complicit in more trauma against
3:26 am
humanity. all over the world. there's so much pain and heartbreak. it's sad that. we have to do this. i don't even believe in this system. i'm here . cease fire now! viva palestina ! viva palestina. my name is maz. i'm a physical therapist. i also work at san francisco general. i work with the amputees. i see the devastating physical and psychological consequences of losing a limb in gaza. at least ten children have lost one or both their legs every day. for 94 days. these kids have no working healthcare system to turn to for recovery. there are no physiatrists to oversee their care, no prosthetist to make them new arms and legs, no pts or ots to help them regain their mobility and independence. not only because there is no health care infrastructure left, but because those same healthcare workers, my colleagues, are being intentionally murdered. while we play around with the semantics of war. with dorsey's amendments, when i go to work
3:27 am
after this meeting, i won't place conditions on my patients care based on the circumstances of how they ended up seeing me. i will just help them because i took an oath because it is my job, because it is the right thing to do. we are asking you to do the same thing that is asked of health care workers. we both exist to serve and advance humanity. we are both held to a higher moral standard. please help. please do the right thing. please pass this resolution swiftly and without amendment. israel is being taken to the international criminal court next week. be on the right side of history before it is a stain on our city. hello my name is joe barth. i'm a licensed therapist to many residents in san francisco and all districts. i'm calling on the members of this board to please vote yes to the cease fire resolution. as it was originally proposed, without past amendments. this original resolution supports the mental and physical health of your constituents. my clients have
3:28 am
family in palestine and in israel. my client s are refugees from other war torn countries and my clients watch what's happening in gaza and the west bank, and they're not able to sleep. and their chronic pain flares up and they're scared to be in their schools and in their workplaces. and they have increased anxiety, and they're having panic attacks. and these are your constituents, ants. these are our people. we need. you to please vote. yes. we need you for our people here to acknowledge that a cease fire means speaker time has elapsed. thank you for this opportunity to address you today and ask for a vote to pass a cease fire
3:29 am
resolution. as it stands, my name is sheila ivlev. i'm a san francisco born and raised district seven resident. i'm a licensed mental health occupational therapist, and i've worked in trauma and rehabilitation with our local veterans and san franciscans for over a decade. i have daily interactions with people that can't eat, sleep, or function. their traumatized watching gazans die of cold, deliberate dehydration and starvation and bombs. our tax dollars are funding your yes vote means san franciscans will be assured that funds that go toward our health and well-being will remain here instead of funding a genocide. we did not ask for. that's killing more children, women, families, and health care workers than we can accurately count. for. my family, neighbors, and clients, i remind you that every one of us should have a home. should not go hungry, and should have access to health care and safety. we have so much work to do as a community. to protect the health
3:30 am
and safety of our people. please swiftly vote yes as is so that we can move on to healing. speaker time has elapsed. my name is donna. i live in district seven. i'm a registered nurse and i call upon the entire board to vote yes on the cease fire resolution. as is without any racist amendments. as a health. care worker, i am furious. israel is targeting and murdering my colleagues and making it impossible to access care. as a mother, i'm devasted and the stories and constant images of dead, starving, injured children continue to haunt me as they should. they should haunt all of us as a taxpayer, i am outraged that our tax dollars are funding their destruction instead of increasing access to health care here and as a voter, i will
3:31 am
remember when it comes time to vote, i will remember what you did when we asked you to stand up against genocide. thank you. cease fire now. free palestine. assalamu alaikum. which means peace be upon you. our culture and religion are rooted in peace, and it's very peace that we seek today. the situation in gaza demands urgent attention. the ongoing ethnic cleansing and atrocity is among the nothing short of a human, um, humanitarian crisis. it is important that a cease fire resolution is reached immediately, and the hope the senseless violence and prevent further loss of innocent lives. we implore all parties to reject any amendments that fuel extremism, racism and the horrifying respect of increased violence and genocide. the need for peace has never been more pressing. cease fire now. hello,
3:32 am
my name is daniel dunn. i'm a live in district nine and i'm part of a family that's mixed jewish and palestinian. i'm calling for a cease fire now, uh, without any amendments. um, we are not looking. that's right . this is a genocide. and there's no other word for it. there's not two equal sides. the gazans have already lost 1.5% of their population in three months. 1.5% are dead in three months. uh, for a point of equivalency, let's just say that my family and the west bank lives under siege, whereas my israeli members of my family are on vacation in thailand. uh, gaza is running out of food, water and medicine. israel is running out of bullets and bombs
3:33 am
cease fire now. thank you. hi there. my name is izzy pencha wolf, and i'm a queer, bisexual jewish sf resident of district six. i am here to voice my support of the passing of the resolution as is without supervisor dorsey's proposed amendments. these amendments draw attention away from the genocide that is happening right now against palestinians. the racially insensitive and factually inaccurate they are meant to detract and distract from the core issue, which is the israeli government's ongoing violence against palestinians. i grew up going to jewish day school, jewish summer camp, synagogue, and even studied abroad in israel, palestine. i am saddened, enraged and deeply offended by the ways judaism is being weaponized and used to justify ongoing violence against palestine. i am here not despite my judaism, but because of it. and i want to be clear that as a jewish person, jcrc absolutely does not speak for me as well as
3:34 am
1000 other jews who signed a letter showing this. i urge you all today to lead from a place of humanity rather than fear, and to pass the resolution as is. palestinians have a right to life and safety. please do. high my supervisors. are you all here for? is everybody here? i i dorsey, supervisor dorsey, are you here? thank you. uh, has my time started? yes. it has. can you start it over? because i was asking if their present time has already started. please continue. can i can you please start it over? yeah. they're not paying attention to me. one minute. only supervisors, please. can you can i start? can we start this over? did you. you're not. let me speak.
3:35 am
there's only one. are you starting it? reset. please continue. okay. thank you. my name is nader khoury. i'm a palestinian and a son of nakba survivors. is a terrible zine. is pedophilia. zionism is. apartheid. zionism is occupation . shame on israel. all right, i'm going to start over here. um my name is nader khoury. i'm a palestinian and a son of nakba survivors and have lived here on ohlone territory my entire life. and i'm urging you to pass this resolution with no amendments. if you were following along this is the same situation we were in for the oakland ceasefire resolution. oakland council member dan kalb proposed an amendment very similar to what supervisor dorsey is proposing, and only one person voted for it. council member kalb then turned around and voted for the
3:36 am
resolution as is, and it passed unanimously. we could sit here and condemn the endless war crimes of zionist entity has been committing for 100 years, but we chose not to, because condemnation will only bring more danger to all palestinians and jews here and there. let's focus on ending the slaughter happening to gaza and palestine so we can get back to doing the real work of bringing equal rights and justice to all palestinians. anything else is just a zionist tactic. that's being used to wipe us off the land for good. thank you. good afternoon. my name is ibrahim, a palestinian american taxpayer, sf resident. of district one and son of a father who was expelled from his home during the nakba. today is day 95 of the genocide of gaza, and we all know the staggering numbers of people murdered by israel thanks to our taxpayer money, south africa has experienced a brutal apartheid, has recognized this genocide for what it is and are calling the
3:37 am
state of israel to trial. why are we in the great progressive nation in this great progressive nation, still debating and trying to make racist amendments? zion is corruption runs deep and we need you guys to stand up for what is right. this board needs to support south africa again, like it did in 1973 and end the genocide in gaza. this is san francisco. we don't accept hate, racism and we certainly won't accept genocide. you the board, have the power to do something. and the response ability to stop your colleagues like mr. dorsey from being on the wrong side of history. please just do what is right. pass a ceasefire resolution as is without empty. but hamas arguments null thing that happened on october 7th can justify genocide. thank you. good afternoon, rules committee. my name is jamie richardson and i'm a san francisco resident living in district eight. i am also an employee of the city and county of san francisco. i'm here today on behalf of concerned sf workers, a coalition of city employees calling on each of you to support the ceasefire resolution without amendments. as you are aware, city workers have
3:38 am
submitted to all supervisors an open letter urging elected leaders to call for a permanent and total ceasefire in gaza. this letter has over 225 signatories from current and former city employees, with over 30 departments represented. city workers alongside the labor unions that represent us continue to hold firm in our solidarity with the people of palestine, the country and the world. has looked to sf as a resounding voice in social change and leaders in the fight for liberation. but now, over 90 days into this genocidal war, our city's leaders have chosen silence. it's time to change that. we must call for a ceasefire and call for it. now now, if thousands of people who made public comments last month weren't enough to convince you, look around the room today, all morning, wake up supervisor. as city workers, we urge you to the rules committee to pass a resolution without amendments and to vote yes on it when the time comes. thank you. good afternoon, supervisors dorsey walton and safai. my name is melissa chan and i grew up in d10, visitacion valley, where my immigrant parents had their
3:39 am
small business for nearly 40 years. i am also a city employee who is deeply concerned about the silence from our city leaders regarding the ongoing genocide and mass displacement. of the palestinian people. as public servants, we should all be committed to uplifting and protecting the humanity of all people, especially the most vulnerable. as noted in some of the proposed amendment, there's been at least 10,000 more lives lost and another million folks displaced since this resolution has been introduced, there have also been several articles retracting and disavowing the factually incorrect sources that supervisor. dorsey is referencing in his proposed amendments related to sexual violence. i can't believe i have to say this, but genocide is never the solution. hamas isn't the one bombing schools, hospitals and homes. it's the israeli government with weapons provided by our own government. there can be no peace or safe return of hostages until a cease fire happens, which means everyone lays down arms. please vote in favor. ceasefire now.
3:40 am
good afternoon. my name is nora. i'm a palestinian from the bay area and lived in san francisco for decades. and we are calling on you to stand with the people to support this critical resolution. and reject any amendments made by these racist, violent genocide deniers. and their transparent lies to try and cover up the genocide. taking place before our very eyes. that is amply documented, and for the world to see our only matched by their chutzpah. for over three months, we have witnessed israel's atrocious crimes taking place with full impunity. many of you may not know how bad it really is because they are killing journalists at unprecedented rates while denying access to outside witnesses. thankfully, that impunity changed on december 29th, when south africa filed an icj ruling. uh filed an
3:41 am
icj case to hold israel accountable as americans, we are complicit as elected officials. it is your duty and responsibility to stand against this genocide and in support of the icj case and with your constituents, please. speak your time has elapsed. hello my name is valeria suarez and i am a san francisco city employee. a month ago i was here along side thousands of people who asked you to urgently vote yes on the ceasefire resolution. we told you then gaza couldn't wait and said you had your break. your little holiday parties and got to have a nice meal with your families. well in the meantime, over 10,000 more people have been murdered. we have over 100 journalists killed. palestinian families are being starved and frozen to death, and we are here again taking time out of our
3:42 am
day, calling out of work, youth, taking time from school to come and beg you to say no. no to genocide and pass this resolution as is. i urge you to reject all the amendments proposed by supervisor dorsey, who. are rooted in nothing but racism, islamophobia and xenophobia. all of you are choosing your legacy now. you will be judged accordingly. dorsey already picked his. yeah good morning. i'm another resident of district six and like my supervisor, matt dorsey, i'm gay and sober. i'm here to speak to matt in the council, person to person and heart to heart. matt asked what the president is doing wrong. let me tell you, as a former emt, if i was doing my job in gaza, i would be considered a target by the israeli military, who has made over 304 attacks on health care in gaza since october. then if i was killed in my ambulance by an american made bomb, president biden would send more
3:43 am
ammunition to continue killing my colleagues. over 30,000 are dead, and biden has said no red lines for israel and no chance of a cease fire. does that sound like the president is doing nothing wrong? matt, your lgbt and leather district supports this resolution as is because we want to stop arming the slaughter of health care workers . pass the resolution without these racist and pro-war amendments, or we will not support your reelection. says a lot that you can't even look one of your constituents in the eyes as i'm addressing you. thank you . salamu alaikum. my name is kisimov. i'm a resident of bayview district. and shout out to mr. shaman walton. uh, i'm a landscaper in the ci, i'd rather our normal circumstances. i'd be here arguing for more funding towards the urban forestry department. but unfortunately, all the money that we have is being sent to israel to support genocide. i'm here to urge you to support the
3:44 am
ceasefire resolution as is, without those biased and racist. uh, addendum that, uh, supervisor dorsey put it there. um. whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, yeah. standing on the right side of history. if you have a modicum of political acuity, you would see where the wind is blowing. and if you don't do this right, choice, you do not do moral choice. you probably in the dustbin of history. thank you very much for your time. ceasefire now free palestine. supervisors. my name is lori lederman. i'm a resident of district seven and another jew outraged by the ongoing genocide committed by the state of israel and by their ruthless campaign against free speech by wrongly conflating criticism of israel with anti-semitism. please support the cease fire resolution as written by dean preston. without supervisor dorsey's amendments, it is only the us government that stands in the way of a ceasefire,
3:45 am
virtually alone in the entire world. by refusing to call for peace while sending planes and bombs to kill and maim tens of thousands of imprisoned palestinian civilians and to destroy the entire gaza infrastructure and those same us tax dollars going to weapons for israel are not spent on needed education, health care and housing here. it is our responsibility to call for this genocide to stop now. not a moment longer. support this resolution now as written. no amendments. thank you. hello, my name is allison and i work in one of san francisco's many public health clinics and in the name of public health and dignity for all palestinian people, i demand that the board of supervisors pass the existing ceasefire resolution. without any amendments or with only supervisor preston's amendments as opposing genocide is neither complicated nor controversial. bill, please let the deepest part of your humanity call for an end to these horrors. the people of san francisco call on
3:46 am
you to lend your voices towards permanent ceasefire, liberation and self-determination for all palestinians. free palestine. hello, my name is dasha yurkovich. i am the leader of youth bike america. i'm a d1 voter represented by connie. chan. i was born and raised in san francisco, and i'm a jew that stands against zionism. transportation restriction is one of the most powerful forms of oppression across the world. years of military occupation and now genocide inflicted on the palestinian people is the most extreme example of that. but we see it even in san francisco, west oakland, bart station. there's over 700 military checkpoints and segregation roads in the west bank. palestinians have resorted to mountain biking through the mountains just to travel between village to village. these restriction affects palestinians
3:47 am
access to medical care, food and most importantly, family and organization in gaza, people are trapped within the walls built by the iaf and the roads have been bombed to the point where ambulances and aid vehicles cannot even drive and deliver aid. i, along with my friends the gaza sunbirds, the para-cycling team in gaza, demand a permanent ceasefire in gaza. an end to the siege. speaker time has elapsed and the israeli apartheid. hi, my name is belle bueti. i'm a 13 year resident of san francisco. i live in d1 and i run a small business in d7. i am here today for my palestinian landlord at my shop who, out of empathy and generosity, out of a clear understanding of community, has supported me. year after year. at the beginning of covid, he comped me my rent for months. he
3:48 am
lowered my rent this year when i resigned. how many commercial landlords can you say that about? when i saw him recently, he told me that his sister, who is a nurse in palestine, has lost many of her colleagues in gaza to israeli murder. he said that she texts her colleagues in gaza who are still alive every day, and she says she asks the question, are you still alive? can you imagine that supervisor dorsey? can you imagine asking your colleagues next to you, texting them, asking them every day, are you alive? it's not. okay. we need your leadership. we need you to say no to this genocide. we need you to pass this resolution without any amendments. we vote you speaker. time has elapsed. my name. is
3:49 am
sarah powell, and i live in district nine since i last spoke here on this issue, thousands more have been murdered and hundreds of thousands displaced in palestine. starvation and disease are rampant, but i'm no longer here to speak to your compassion. if that would have worked, we would already have a ceasefire. we have standing to speak to this issue because it is done in our name and with our tax dollars. we are here again in a clear majority against again participating and demanding that you, our. representatives, represent us as we are making our voices heard here. you should represent our voices to the federal government . secretary of state blinken has just said, we want to do everything we can to ameliorate the situation for the men, women and children in gaza. the clear way to do that is to call for a cease fire. now. i ask that you
3:50 am
pass the resolution in its original form. speaker time has elapsed. resolve against the apartheid in south africa in 1973. extreme violence. hi. my name is erica and i'm here as the palestinian american, as a san franciscan living in potrero hill district ten, as a mother of two toddlers, i urge you to vote as soon as possible in favor of the ceasefire resolution. without this divisive amendment introduced by supervisor darcy dorsey. let's be clear this is not a two sided issue. this is a humanitarian crisis. in addition, this is a local issue for two reasons. one, our tax dollars pay for this genocide. enough lives have been lost. no more killing children with their tax dollars. number two, if you don't push for a ceasefire, you're not only saying it's okay to kill children in palestine, you're saying it's okay to kill palestinian children everywhere.
3:51 am
even here in america. because when leadership is complicit in this genocide and the dehumanization of palestine is, then palestinian americans are killed and stabbed, like in illinois and vermont. as a palestinian american, i don't feel safe here in my home in san francisco. so i'm afraid for my palestinian american children, i will take off my kufi when i leave today, and i shouldn't have. this must stop ceasefire now. hi, my name is qingshi and i am a constituent of district five and i am a tech worker. i am going to lay down the two reasons why i think the council needs to move forward with the resolution without any amendments. first, your constituents are going through trauma right now just by looking at all the videos of all the palestinians going through these atrocities during a genocide, i did not need to see one thing. i did not see 100 things and a thousand things that have happened. i needed one to be activated and i am, and i know that many others are. that's
3:52 am
first of all. second, people are getting organized. i am connecting with jewish, palestinian. people from all ethnicities and all stages of life that we are becoming a one issue voter on this issue, and this is up to you to show us that you care for the voices of ours, for us to advocate for you. because i know people who are willing to volunteer their time, who are willing to sign on to this, and who are willing to stand behind these organizations for the humanity of people. we're seeing we're being passed, and we are thinking of them as speaker time has elapsed. hi, i'm ali palestine, american d6 voter today makes it clear to voters in sf support ceasefire. look around and there's no moral case for killing 100 children a day by bibi and jcrc are standing against the hostage families who overwhelmingly
3:53 am
demand ceasefire with all for all hostage exchange back. in october, it was frightening to wear a keffiyeh now for everywhere, every group and its movement has grown more and more people are willing to get arrested for palestine if you see palestinians as human, you respect and support ceasefire without changes that were prefaced with israeli claims. israel refuses to let the un investigate changes that failed to condemn biden, bibi and the imf while they commit genocide for hostages in all of the lands. people support. cease fire if you want a huge leadership opportunity, then stand with this movement. stand with your voters and support a cease fire. now now. my name is yates. i live in d9. i work in d8. i go to school in d1 one. i'm a queer jew against
3:54 am
violence. it is the most jewish value to believe in the liberation and solidarity of all peoples. and that begins and ends with palestine. the state of israel is a killing machine fed by our tax dollars to wage siege and forced displacement of the palestinian people who have lived on and worked the land for centuries. 30,000 souls lost countless others since the nakba , 75 years of suffering. and of war. i am one of the thousands of jews calling for an immediate cease fire. the jcrc does not speak for me, and since rape has been weaponized in this chamber as a survivor of sexual assault, i urge you to reject the proposed amendments and pass this resolution as is. liberation is possible. liberation is happening in olam haba. the world to come. palestine is free. all love forever. all eyes, all hearts on palestine. hello hello. hey. um. uh hi. my name is floyd. um, i
3:55 am
am, i'm i'm, uh, just a drop of rain in this storm as well as a voter and a san francisco native and a resident. my whole life, and, uh, a survivor of gun violence in this city. look, i have the bullet wounds right here. you can see it. you know, but that's nothing compared to what the people in, uh, palestine in gaza are going through right now. and and if we have any power at all, uh, this is what it's for, you know, and, uh, if san francisco has any values at all, then we must call for an immediate end to the terrorist israel's perpetuating on innocent zionism. is anti-semitism free palestine? the world is watching. we cannot be bystanders to genocide. thank you. i yield my time. hello. my name is layla and i'm a phd student where i specialize in this very subject. but i'm here today to demand that the san francisco city council take a long overdue and unopposed stand in solidarity with palestinian people. this is your litmus test
3:56 am
and as we have made clear by now, the global is local. we will not be dissuaded by inaction, nor will we be passive by dorsey's cowardly amendments that undermine the integrity of our movement, weaponize religion, and misconstrue history. your arab and muslim community is under attack, and our mistreatment is not commensurate with the protection of our jewish brothers and sisters. if your system relies on us being invisible, then it is not one worth saving. taking a stance on this would not be divisive, but dishonest. apoliticism riddled in racist amendments would we have an opportunity to be better? imagine a liberated future and create that future together? we do. we will do that with or without you. but given your tenuous positions and the role civil servants are supposed to play in society, we hope that it is the former. thank you for your time and free palestine. i'm serbia, a constituent of district one. i still can't believe the horrors on my
3:57 am
screen. see cease fire, cease fire! i scream. does it bother you the same? do you not feel their pain? the tears flow endlessly. the blood spills endlessly. do they not belong. is the blood spilled? they're cheaper than yours. why is it taking so long to call for peace? for peace over the heads of children? how many more, how many more before the world is reborn? please, please, i urge you to pass the ceasefire resolution as is. no amendments for peace for all. of us. free palestine. i'm jennifer, i'm a constituent. in san francisco. i'm an israeli american jew, and
3:58 am
i am here in strong support of a ceasefire with no amendments. the jcrc does not represent me, and they continue to erase jews dissent. and that is anti-semitic. nothing in jewish tradition and spiritual tenets allow for the dehumanizing of the other. in fact, it is because of my jewish identity and jewish values that i must stand with palestine and with palestinians. my family of arabic background lived in peace and in protection in arab countries as jews. so this. false story that jews and muslims and jews and arabs are different is false and dangerous. islamophobe and anti-semitism are tied together. there is real anti-semitism in this country, and jcrc is making a mockery of the need for protection by pretending that advocating for palestinian humanity is in some way damaging our safety is not true. ceasefire now. no amendments. please. hi everyone. i'm a
3:59 am
refugee. my name is saadia kiswani. yesterday was the anniversary of the death of my son. my son, whom i have had never forgotten to remember. my son has a grave here, covered with green grass. but in gaza the majority had their body parts cut off under their stores home. and no one could bury them . i am amazed at how i stand here in front of you. the demand, an end to the fighting in gaza, which is under occupation and siege. i demand an end to the killing of children and women, the killing of doctors, the demolition of hospitals and the demolition of homes over the heads of their of their owners. as this massacre
4:00 am
left more than 30,000 dead. in addition to thousands of wounded . and missing and missing journalists, journalists, speaker time has elapsed. thank you. hi. i'm a constituent and i'm an educator. i'm in full support of the original resolution. and i think that anyone who is actually aware of what a 100 year old apartheid means would not even complicate, would not even bring this derailment. i think it's ridiculous. we understand everyone here understands why the us is continuing to aid this genocide. you understand, my little sisters and brothers understand. and i promise that my students will understand. it's not untrue to say that more people, especially in my age, are realizing the importance of local politics. so all due respect, if you want to