Open the door, let's get going. Thank you for your servicing, good luck. Thank you for your work. Thanks, guys. Thank you for your work. That's where we did everything. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. Well, my friends. Good afternoon. The afternoon session of the Santa Cruz City Council will come to order in the clerk. We'll call the roll. Thank you, Mayor, Councilmember Newsom. Present. Brown. Here. Watkins. Here. Brunner. Present. Calentari-Johnson. Present. Vice Mayor Goldert. Here. And Mayor Keeley. Here. For those of you unfamiliar with how our council proceeds, let me explain to you how we're going to proceed and what we're doing at this point. What we're on now is called oral communication. That would be the opportunity for anyone to address us for up to two minutes regarding any item under our jurisdiction, but not on today's agenda. So that's what we're going to be hearing from you folks about. What we'll do is we offer people the opportunity to address the council in two ways. One is to do it as you're doing it here in front of us in person. The other one is online. And when we have people both online and in person, what we do is toggle back and forth. I'll take someone who's here, then we'll hear somebody online, then we'll take another person's here. That's how we'll proceed today. Ms. Bush, right now we do have some people online. Is that correct? So let me begin with the first person in line. Come forward. Let me make it clear. We ask you, I want to be very clear about this point, for the record, we ask you to state your name. You do not have to do that. There is no requirement to do that. It's simply for the record, but we're perfectly fine if you don't want to state your name. And good afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Kayla Kumar. I am a resident of District 4. Hi. I'm here today to stand up against the genocide happening in Gaza and ask my representative to do the same. Before I go on, to those in the audience today, please raise your hands if you want an ethical ceasefire resolution passed by this body in December 2023. Councilmembers, I have seen you show deep and genuine concern for children while in office. The photos of injured babies squirming in pain, bloodied children being pulled from rubble, and wailing parents with dead infants in their arms have those images broken your heart the way that they have broken mine. Please, I implore you, call for a ceasefire now. Please call for a special meeting of the city council in the month of December. Please agendize a resolution identical to the Oakland resolution, which we offer in good faith as neutral and apolitical. Please pass that ceasefire resolution at that meeting. We want to send a clear mandate to higher government to use its influence and call for a ceasefire now. This matters. You are in a position of power. You have influence. Albeit a small step, it is an essential step. Please hear our calls. Please do something. Thank you. Thank you. Let's see if there is someone online, Ms. Bush. We'll take the person online, then we'll take the next person in line. So person online, good afternoon. Everybody hear me? Good afternoon. We can hear you, yes. Perfect. Aslamu alaykum, everybody. My name is Musa. And I'm speaking on behalf of CARE, the Council on American Islamic Relations. We want to urge the city of Santa Cruz to propose and pass the ceasefire resolution and call for a cessation of hostilities following suit with Richmond and Oakland up here in the Bay Area. 20,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, nearly half of them being children. The average age of those killed is five years old. And 99% of those casualties have been innocent civilians. 25,000 Palestinian children have become orphans and Israel has displaced 90% of Gaza's population. There is more spilled blood and drinkable water in Gaza. And Israel is using dehumanizing language to justify their genocide in Gaza using phrases such as human animals and children of the darkness that abide by the law of the jungle. And that language has repercussions here at home. Many Muslims in the Bay Area and beyond are recalling the post-911 era of mass surveillance in Islamophobia. We've seen reports of employment terminations, hate crimes, surveillance, death threats, and more. By now, we've all heard about the six-year-old Palestinian boy in Chicago was fatally stabbed 26 times. And recently, the three young Palestinian men in Vermont who were shot, one of them left paralyzed. This is horrifying, and it won't end there. The language our electeds use matters. In a recent Reuters poll, 68% of respondents supported a ceasefire. Most of us do not support our taxpayer dollars going towards slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent people and babies. None of this is happening. We may have lost that, gentlemen. After you. Hi. My name is Sylvie Stein. I am a Santa Cruz resident and a mental health worker. And I am a Jewish person descended from Holocaust and pogrom refugees. I sent you all a letter at the time it was signed by 85 Jews in 24 hours. It's now been 36 hours. It is signed by over 100 Santa Cruz Jews, saying not in our name. What Israel is doing to Palestinians is and has been genocide. They are weaponizing our pain and our trauma to justify genocide. As I speak these words to you, Israel is bombing Gaza and murdering Palestinian human beings every single one of whom, as my Jewish faith tells me, contains the whole universe, every single one. Every single life is unspeakably precious. Santa Cruz can be a loud voice saying, stop. Cease fire right now. We understand the ceasefire resolution has not been put on the agenda today. This is what we want. One, call for a special meeting in the month of December. Two, put a resolution, one that calls for a permanent and immediate ceasefire and does not dehumanize Palestinians in any way on the agenda for that special meeting. And three, at this special meeting, vote to pass this resolution. With this resolution, Santa Cruz has the opportunity to be a leading voice against hate and violence and to stand up for the sacredness of all human life. Do not tell me. It does not matter for you to pass this resolution. There are Palestinians. There are Arabs. There are Muslims. There are Jews in this county. There are refugees of genocide. They want to hear from you. The state is listening. The country and the world is listening. Please pass this resolution. Our Jewish faith teaches us to kounolom that it is our responsibility to stop harm where we see it and try our best to repair the world. We would be so proud to live in a city that stands for the same. Thank you so much for hearing us. We'll now take the next person online. Good afternoon, person online. Yes, hello. Yeah, this is Garrett. I wasn't going to address this, but so far I haven't heard any of these speakers calling for a ceasefire. Acknowledge the atrocities of Hamas and the fact that the war is declared on them and people do die in war. And I'm not going to go through all the rest of that. But I haven't heard the other side here, and I don't think they're being objective. And our country has already vetoed a ceasefire resolution in the UN, so who are you to question that? Anyway, on to maybe a little bit of what I want to say, and I'm glad you're sitting down. I would say I have a few issues with your many unjustifiable one-sided adequacies. So first, I'm going to mention public unions. You are supposed to represent the entire city's people, not more so the city government or unions, and should tap the city manager on the shoulder and firmly explain no one is entitled to a job if their employer can't pay them nor has work. So you should be deleting the no furloughs concessions from future union contracts. It's not really negotiable.   It's the public saying the fringe behaviors of deniers of biological fact have gone too far when they go after recruiting and indoctrinating children, assaulting women's rights, and making bullying demands of others to validate their fantasy, for instance, of men becoming women, or claim that children are of the age of consent, which they are not, or that chopping their general thought doesn't deny them any sexual satisfaction whatsoever for the rest of their life.  I would stop with the far left narratives that concentrate on things that could never change. No one can ever change their skin color. No one can actually change the past. People will never actually be equal. They are different. And both of them have, of course, their quality of income, their protection of personal property, just by solely, by the mere existence of those differences, protecting the best in itself and in justice, is cultural doom and kind of pink a cost. Okay, that was... Okay, let me just ask, we'll all be, we may hear some things we disagree with. Let's be respectful of these comments. You have been so far. Thank you for that. Next person online, good afternoon. Nice to see you, sir. Let me, just before you begin, let me just tell you what the clerk just did. Clerk went over there, turned on the external speakers so folks outside could hear the comments going on here as well. There we go. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Eric Statz and I live in the city of Santa Cruz and District 4. Since the horrific events of October 7th, Israel has endeavored to defend itself by destroying Hamas and preventing any future threat from Gaza. However, two months later, countries from around the world are condemning the response and cutting diplomatic ties. The Abraham Accords are in shreds and the U.S. was the lone vote against a ceasefire resolution in the UN Security Council. International support is essential for Israel's security, but they are losing it by the day. As Israel's closest friend, it is incumbent upon the U.S. to speak some hard truths. Israel is more isolated now than ever and they are sowing the seeds for the next generation of terrorism. Their actions are threatening their own security. It's been 75 years and the military approaches have not made Israel any safer. We cannot stand by and watch as this continues for another 75 years or even possibly more. Therefore, I come here to petition the City of Santa Cruz to join our voices with others, including the City of Oakland and declare our support for U.S. Congress Resolution HR-786, calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Thank you. Thank you so much. Ms. Bush? Good afternoon, Person Online. Hi, this is Joy Shendledecker. I wanted to be there in person, but I have a little cold, so thank you for continuing to provide the ability for us to zoom in to speak. I would like to add my comments to those supporting a ceasefire. I do think that this has relevance to us as local constituents, both in terms of our tax dollars going to military spending, instead of coming back into our communities for social services and other essential things like infrastructure, it also matters politically because we know that what we do at the local level influences what happens at the regional level, other municipalities, government bodies in the region, and it moves on up. This is democracy and constituents here and across the United States overwhelmingly support a ceasefire. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, thank you. My name is Greg. I'm a registered voter in Santa Cruz, an independent, and I'm here to speak in opposition to the acquisition of license plate reading technology or any partnership with the department. Here's what I'm going to do. That's actually on our agenda. We will be to that later on the regular agenda and you can speak to that at that time. It's either our last or very close to our last item. I'm going to guess that's a few hours away right now. So you don't want me to speak anymore on that topic? At this point, right. This is not on our agenda today. So we'll hear from you in a bit. I also wanted to speak in support of the ceasefire resolution. Fair enough. In opposition to the genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, it is intimately connected what the Israeli government is able to do, it's intimately connected to surveillance technology. Thank you. Thank you. We'll take the next person online. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hello. Three. Two. Hello. One. Next person in line. There we go. Hold on. I'm very old. I didn't even hear somebody was talking. So excuse me. Person online. I beg your forgiveness. I didn't hear you. So please go ahead. Okay, great. Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity. Hello. My name is Sabina Holber. I'm a registered voter and a resident of the city of Santa Cruz.  My grandparents were Holocaust survivors. I'm calling in today to request that the city council call a special meeting to call for a ceasefire and to underscore that our community stands against genocide. A letter was sent to Mayor Keeley earlier this morning that myself and other Santa Cruz Jews have signed. Please call this special meeting to pass the resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire. Thank you. Thank you so much. Afternoon. Thank you for your forbearance. My name is Ellen and I'm a voter in Santa Cruz. I'm here in hopes that our city council does the right thing by passing a ceasefire resolution. I'm a Jew and the descendant of Holocaust survivors whose lives were ripped apart by war and genocide.  Their agony and grief ripples through their families for generations. You might be hearing that supporting a ceasefire resolution is somehow anti-Semitic. It's not. I'm one of the hundreds of thousands of Jews. Thank you. I'm one of the hundreds of thousands of Jews who stand with the Palestinian people's right to safety and dignity. And I know that bombing hospitals, schools, and refugee camps is not one of my Jewish values. I hope you'll find the courage to help end this humanitarian crisis. Thank you. Thank you. Another person online, Ms. Bush. Person online, good afternoon. It's your opportunity here. Three, two, one. Please proceed. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, please proceed. Thank you. My name is Carla Lobo and I'm currently on behalf of the Central Coast Democratic Socialist of America. We call upon this council to have a ceasefire. It is imperative that we stand in solidarity with those that are being murdered and children that are being taken far too soon. We know the importance of our taxpayer money and we do not agree for genocide to happen. I urge this council to continue the effort that these community members are currently doing now as a whole to have a ceasefire, hold a special meeting in order for us to have a ceasefire and set the example of what community, the United States, individuals want to happen. I yield the rest of my time. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, council. My name is Jared and I have lived in Santa Cruz for almost 18 years. It is uncommon for me to talk about my political convictions in relation to my background because I believe that truth and justice are universal values. But because the government of Israel is currently committing genocide in my name, I now feel compelled to speak out on these terms. As a Jew, I condemn the atrocities being perpetrated against the Palestinian people by the state of Israel. Israel has now killed 8,000 children, 8,000 children. Have you seen the videos of the children trapped under the rebel of parents holding their non-responsive infants covered in ash? Israel kills 700 Palestinians every 24 hours and it commits these murders with American-made bombs and with funding from American taxpayers. With its illegal blockade, it has systematically starved the people of Gaza, denying them not only the kinds of construction materials necessary to build up its infrastructure, but also food aid and lifesaving medicines. 97% of the water in Gaza is unfit for human consumption. The list of horrors goes on. As a Jew, Israel's existence does not make me feel safe. In fact, it terrifies me. The war and the violence always comes home. The equation of Judaism with Zionism has been the latter's most powerful weapon on the battlefield of ideas. It's important to understand that the idea of a Jewish state has been championed not only by Zionists who think that the Jewish safety can only happen on the basis of expelling Palestinians from their homeland. What does that mean? So what that means is that your time is up, but what I would like you to do is take a few more seconds and finish your remarks, not five minutes, but a few more seconds. I appreciate that. Let me close just by stating to the council that it is our moral responsibility to fight for peace. That fight can only begin when Israel's American main bombs stop falling on the Palestinian people. I know that it takes courage to call for a ceasefire and that there are powerful political and financial forces allied against it. Nevertheless, should you adopt this resolution, history will be on your side and you will have the support of the Santa Cruz community, which includes all these peace-loving Jews that have come here to give you the support you need to carry the resolution forward. Happy Hanukkah to all of you. We'll take the next person online. Good afternoon. Greetings council. My name is Rachel Kippen and I'm employed in the city of Santa Cruz. I believe in our local governments and I believe in you, our elected officials and your accountability to us and your taxpayers. I believe that you're all good people and you've chosen to represent your community. So I thank you for considering this topic. I know it's become very divisive. I want to urge you, like so many others, to agendize and support a resolution that calls for immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Calling for a ceasefire does not equate to supporting Hamas and it does not mean you are an anti-Semite. Calling for a ceasefire reminds us that we are human and that nothing will be achieved and no lasting peace will be attained by obliterating apartment blocks of innocent civilians, by dismembering bodies and dismembering families, by creating orphans, by inflicting generational trauma on an entire population and by viewing tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths as acceptable collateral damage. These deaths cannot be considered self-defense. It is great disrespect to the thousands who have lost their lives. We must do everything within our power to urge the Biden administration to stop bolstering this massacre. The United States effectively blocked the UN's vote for a humanitarian ceasefire on Friday and their isolated stand reflects a growing fracture between Washington and some of its closest allies over Israel's month-long bombardment of Gaza. France and Japan were among those supporting for the call for a ceasefire. We believe this is your work at the city of Santa Cruz because our residents pay taxes that support these horrific decisions and because it should concern all of us when any population faces extermination. We learn as toddlers that violence begets violence. You can call for an end to this violence. Like so many others, I also encourage you to look towards the city of Oakland's resolution for a ceasefire and I thank you so much for your work and time. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Chelle Mandel. I'm a trans queer Jew. I love living in Santa Cruz. I work at the University of San Francisco in the Jewish Studies and Social Justice Department, pushing progressive Jewish values and educating thousands of students a year. I also serve the Jewish community out here as an Arab rabbi. I'll be ordained on May 27th at 2 p.m. After studying for five years full-time to understand deeply Judaism, Jewish values, and ideals. I founded the SimSum Collective about a year and a half ago and I've served over 150 Jews in the Santa Cruz area. And every week I get more and more Jews reaching out from other communities, looking for something new and fresh. So we're growing and expanding. Before this, I've been working in Jewish education for 12 years, teaching young Jews Jewish values. Let me share three of those Jewish values, three of the core Jewish values.  That is the most profound and important Jewish law we are obligated to save lives. Second, haknasah or heim. Mentioned 33 times in the Torah, the most common command, welcoming the stranger, someone who's different than me. I must open my space to them and care for them. And third, most importantly, low ta'amod aldam reachah.   That being the Palestinian people. What is happening right now is trauma. Jewish trauma is playing out. That is not being done in the name of Judaism. That is not my Judaism. And that is not the Judaism of many people here today. Judaism teaches B'tzelem Elohim that we are all made in the divine image, each and every one of us. Jews, Palestinians, equally. Palestinian lives are important and sacred and they must be protected. I'd spent many weeks in the West Bank witnessing horrible things done to the Palestinian people before October 7th and it's only increased and the war on Gaza is absolutely atrocious. So I ask that you please pass a special meeting and a ceasefire resolution as a Jewish leader in Santa Cruz. We need this to protect Jews, but also Arabs in our community, Palestinian people. This needs to happen. This is urgent. Hello, can you hear me? Very good. We'll take the next person online. Good afternoon. Hello, can everyone hear me? Good afternoon. Hi, my name is Isabel and I'm a Jew living in Santa Cruz. I'm here to implore the council to call a special session and pass a resolution for a permanent and immediate ceasefire. Every day I scroll through videos of parents carrying their children's bloodied and dismembered bodies through the rubble that was once their homes. This is a magnitude of abject suffering that I don't know how to metabolize. These 66 days and 75 years of apartheid ethnic cleansing and genocide that my tax dollars have purchased and enabled. According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Israel has killed at least 24,000 Palestinians since October 7th, including 9,420 children. 93% of those casualties are civilians. Hospitals, schools, residential buildings, refugee camps, government buildings and libraries have been blatantly targeted, amounting to obvious war crimes and showing that this is an attempt to exterminate Palestinian life in our name. A permanent and immediate ceasefire is the necessary first step to stopping this loss of life, which 66% of all Americans and more than 80% of Democrats agree with. Please, city council, use your power to call for a permanent and immediate ceasefire. I yield the rest of my time. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Ellen Stone and I'm a proud, very proud Jew and resident of Santa Cruz District 4. I'm here in solidarity with the Palestinian people and I'm here to urge city council to hold a special meeting to support a ceasefire resolution today. What I see happening in Gaza right now reminds me of the stories that I've heard from my own family from a time when antisemitic pogroms resulted in the killing and displacement of so many of my people, my family. The Jewish values that I hold today pass down to me through the resilience of my ancestors, guide me in my belief that every living being deserves safety and freedom. I am also coming to you all as an elementary school educator. When I see images of children in Gaza crying, bleeding, broken, dead. Hold on just one second. I'm getting something else going on here. Just give us a second to correct this. I started it as in solar unit. We're going to pause here for a moment while we get this technical glitch figured out. Just one second, we'll be right with you. We good now? Whatever it was, we're okay. Please continue. Thank you. Like I said, I'm coming to you all as an elementary school educator. When I see images of children in Gaza crying, and bleeding, and broken, and dead, I can't help but think of my students. Every day that I'm with them, I feel an overwhelming sense of both joy and sadness with the knowledge that they are healthy and safe, and I pray that they'll never know the horror and unimaginable pain that the two children in Gaza are experiencing right now.  And immediate and permanent ceasefire is a first step to ending this violence and to ensure the safety of all human beings. Please, please, please support a ceasefire. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next person online. Good afternoon. Person online, we're ready to hear your testimony. Yeah, Zoom's kind of glitchy sometimes. I was having trouble unmuting. Hi, Councilor Bradley Snyder. Hello, am I audible at this point? Yes, you are. Thank you. I just, well, it's Bradley Snyder. I just wanted to, I guess, you know, I don't wanna exacerbate anybody's strong feelings on this matter, but I do feel like one of the reasons I dropped out of UCSC when I was a student there was kind of the fact that it had become a soap box for some very strident and I feel, you know, irresponsible expressions of political opinions. Obviously, a ceasefire would be a wonderful thing in Gaza. And I don't think, I don't think in Gaza, they would observe a ceasefire resolution any more than Israel would. And, you know, kind of for that reason, on a very primary level, I mean, I'm not trying to suggest that, you know, cobblers should stick to their last, but I do feel like it's kind of beyond the scope of the city council of Santa Cruz, California, to somehow affect the outcome of any world conflict. There's civil wars in Myanmar and Sudan and then Ukraine has been going on for two years now, it seems. And I just, I failed to find the logic in how city council should be involved in taking a stand on this, thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Hi, my name is Isabella and I'm the founder of Black Surf Santa Cruz. I'm a local Santa Cruz resident living in district two and I'm here to urge our council to urgently denounce genocide and call a special meeting in December to pass a ceasefire resolution similar to the one in Oakland. As a black Jewish person living in Santa Cruz, I can't help but highlight and acknowledge the intersecting points of hate, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and racism in our community and how they're a major threat to the quality of life of our Santa Cruz residents. The opportunity to call for a ceasefire as a community can send a message not only locally, but globally that our community does not tolerate and stands firmly against genocide and ethnic cleansing. I firmly believe that if we can acknowledge the systems of deep hate and intolerance here in our own community that we can all be more free. I ask our council members to take the requests of our community here today seriously and call a special meeting to move forward. Let's all maintain courage and lean into the call to do it differently and to do it better. We do have the power and an opportunity as a community to set lasting precedent locally and influence change on a state, national and global level, an opportunity and call to action to come learn, heal, grieve and move forward together towards a world that would never allow that pain to be repeated to anybody else ever. I ask you to please join us in our demand for scheduling a special meeting in December to call for a permanent and lasting ceasefire resolution identical to the Oakland resolution. Thank you all. Good to go. We'll take the next person online. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hello. Hi. Guys, I'm Palestinian. I'm local. I did not have a statement ready. I'm stuck in work, but I was just so inspired by our Jewish brothers and sisters out there in the crowd and everyone's speaking up about the matter. And I'll have you guys know every moment that I'm at work.  And I just wanted to remind everyone that Lockheed Martin operates outside, right in Santa Cruz, that, you know, they were testing anti-missile bombs just the other day off the coast of Santa Barbara. I do believe that the least that we can do as a community is urge you guys to help us in our mission of calling for a ceasefire. And I know that we're, you know, we're nobody at the end of the day. We're just local citizens and we don't run the state or run any of these big powers, but we couldn't, I mean, personally, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't come on here and speak today. So thank you guys so much for entertaining this conversation. And I truly really hope that something can come of it. Thank you guys so much. I know the rest of my time. Thank you. Ms. Kumar, right here at the microphone, I'm going to acknowledge you. You look like you have something urgent to say to me. I'm just saying the folks in the outside can't hear if the speakers could be turned up. They just texted me to say they- They should be able to now. I turned them up. Oh, okay. All right, that's it. Thank you, Ms. Kumar. Good afternoon. Hi. Hi, everybody. My name's Emma Ledvina and I'm here today to join the hundreds of people present to urge you to agendize and support a ceasefire resolution identical to the one passed in Oakland. For the past several weeks, I've been imagining that there's a woman like me with a 10-month-old baby in Gaza. I imagine how worried she must be about how she'll feed him tomorrow, about where they will sleep, about the bombs dropping around them. I imagine that she wants the same things for her baby that I want for mine, for him to grow, to learn, to live. So often, when we hear of tragedies, we say I can't imagine, but we can. We simply don't want to because it is too painful. So why do I do this? Because it reminds me that the 23,000 people dying in Gaza are not just numbers. They're humans. Mothers who want their babies to live just like I do. Many of you are mothers and so I know that you already know what I have recently learned. There's no such thing as other people's children. I am urging you to pass this resolution as a way to live into this vital ethic. I truly believe that if we put mothers in charge, no child would be unnecessarily killed in war ever again. I know that this is hard. My brother is an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man living in Israel with his wife and six children. Families have gotten real awkward as of late. I have been learning yet again that I can survive uncomfortable conversations and that I can survive disappointing the person who is most important to me in my childhood if it means that I get to stay in my integrity. I know that you all are hearing from Jewish and Israeli community members that are carrying so much grief and trauma. I understand their fear. I am also terrified of anti-Semitism for myself and my baby. And we can hold space for their pain and tend to their fears while also saying unequivocally that genocide is not okay. Not only can we, we must. A permanent ceasefire is the only solution that will lead to peace, safety for all people and create the baseline conditions necessary to begin to find a way forward. Fear is not the boss of us. Please lead with love and support this resolution. Help us create the world that we want for our children. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, next person online. Three, two, one. Hello, yes. My name is Rabbi. Good afternoon, Rabbi. While we're teaing that up, come on, let's go. Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon. My name is Max Kaplan. I'm a resident and voter in the city of Santa Cruz. I'm probably Jewish and I am here to invite you all to join in the call for a ceasefire. Other community members here have eloquently presented the facts. We have come with our pain, our love and our hope. We are here because we cannot be silent. I unequivocally support the adoption of Oakland ceasefire resolution, the genocide in Gaza must end. Thank you. Back to the next person online. Good afternoon, person online. Yes, this is Rabbi Richard Littback. Of course we feel the pain and suffering of all the civilians that are being killed, but what will actually help them? It won't be this ceasefire. Keeping Hamas in power actually hurts the Palestinians. They have torpedoed every time that there's been a negotiations that's gotten Israel and the Palestinians close to a settlement for two states, they have undermined it. They have caused the conditions of suffering in the Gaza Strip, taking billions of dollars that would have gone through the Gazans and put them into terrorist tunnels and missiles raining down from civilian centers in Palestine to kill Israeli civilians. What we need to do is call on Hamas to move from using human shields of the Palestinians while they kill, murder and launch bombs upon Israel civilians. We need to call on Hamas to give the doorhouses of food and medicine that they've taken from the Palestinian people and given to them so they can have relief from their suffering. We need to see that Hamas not only is sworn to kill every Israeli and said recently they would do it over and over again October 7th again and again, but having their charters sworn to murder all Jews as a jihad, they shout Allah Akbar when they murder and massacre Jews in Israel. The Jews that have spoken in actually in the yet supporting Hamas. Do not realize that Hamas actually has the goal of killing them too. That is their sworn goal. But we do need to help the people in Gaza. We need to help the civilians, but this kind of resolution is absolutely free. Thank you. We need to turn on Hamas and pass resolutions that will actually create conditions of safety for the Palestinian civilians. Thank you. 50% of the Palestinians have said they did not want to be ruled by Hamas any longer. Thank you. And the head of Hamas is known as the butcher. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Windsor. I'm a community mental health clinician here in Santa Cruz and today is my nephew's birthday. He turns one year old today. He lives just down the road from here. And as I think of him, I can't help but think what his birthday would be like if he had been born in the occupied lands of Palestine. I think about the horrors he would be watching amidst ethnic cleansing, the hunger he'd be feeling and the immense possibility that he would not make it to this birthday. I think of the children who last month held a press conference in Gaza pleading for peace, inviting us to protect them. They told us they want to live. We have not listened. As of yesterday, it was reported that over 10,000 infants and children have been killed in this genocide. How many birthdays have been stolen? How many parents must mourn the loss of the soul of their soul before we say this has to stop? Let us show the people of Palestine today that we listened, that we recognize the sacredness of their lives. I'm calling for a ceasefire resolution identical to the Oakland resolution be passed here in Santa Cruz. I'm asking that the city join in the right side of history. Free Palestine, thank you. We'll do the next person online. Next person online, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Next person online. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Rebecca Gross, and I live in the Seabright neighborhood where I'm a registered voter. I also learn and work in Santa Cruz. I'm a graduate student and teaching assistant at UCSC. I'm here today not only as a Santa Cruz resident and worker. I'm here today as an anti-Zionist Jew and a member of UCSC Jews Against White Supremacy. I'm here to call for an immediate end to the siege on Gaza and the ongoing genocide in Palestine. I am here to say not in my name. The necklace that I'm wearing today is a high, the Hebrew letter that symbolizes life. It is one of the most sacred Jewish religious symbols. It has been unbearable to see Israel use US-produced weapons made with my tax dollars to kill Palestinian civilians, 9,000 children and counting among them. This is not representative of the Jewish commitment to high, to life that I wear over my heart. This is not representative of the Jewish value of sadik, justice is not despite my Jewishness, but because of my Jewishness that I condemn the US-backed actions of Israel. It is because I am a self-loving Jew that I cannot sit idly by as Israel continues to occupy Palestine, as Israel continues to desecrate Palestinians in their land, as Israel continues to turn what should be sacred into something profane. It is because I am Jewish that I am here to ask the council to call a special session and pass an immediate ceasefire, the first step towards a free Palestine. Thank you. Thank you. Next person online, good afternoon. That's your opportunity. Three, two, did I hear you? Hi. Hi. My name is Michaela Igno. At least 23,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's bombing and ground campaign since October 7th. This includes at least 9,000 children. As members of your community, we are calling on you to represent us by calling for a permanent ceasefire. 66% of all Americans, over 80% of Democrats and a majority of Republicans, support a ceasefire in Gaza. Call for a ceasefire and we will stand behind you in support. This issue is critical for us as residents because the genocide happening in Gaza is made possible by our tax dollars. A permanent ceasefire is the only solution that will lead to peace and create conditions where all people are safer. Israel has bombed hospitals, schools, and refugee camps. Israel has cut off all access to water, food, medicine, and medical supplies, internet, and telecommunications. The treatment of the Palestinian people is grossly inhumane and the situation must be treated with urgency. Do the right thing, hear the voices of your community and represent us. Call for an end to this senseless killing, to this genocide. Santa Cruz, Arab, and Muslim communities have never been so vulnerable. This resolution will send a message that we care about their safety. You have seen millions across the globe marching for Palestine. You already know what the right thing to do is. Permanent ceasefire now. We will not give up as long as it takes. We will not quiet down or stop until Palestine is free. Thank you for your time. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Max, and I'm a student at UC Santa Cruz. I want to address the words of the rabbi that just spoke on Zoom and just say that this isn't about Hamas. It never was. On October 8th, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told the world, and I quote, we will turn Gaza into an island of ruins, end quote. The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, said, quote, it is an entire nation that is responsible, and we will fight until we break their backs, end quote. Israeli Army spokesperson Daniel Hagari proclaimed, quote, we are dropping hundreds of tons of bombs on Gaza. The focus is on destruction, not accuracy, end quote. In Israeli Reservist Major General in an article titled, It's Either Us or Them, declared, quote, creating a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a necessary means to achieve the goal. Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist, end quote. The actual violence that has fulfilled these promises made by the highest leaders of the state of Israel, children being crushed by the rubble of their own homes, has been livestreamed to us for 66 days straight. Israel has indeed made Gaza a place where no human being can exist. My Jewish voice should not matter more than the voices of those children under the rubble. My Jewish voice should not have to come to you as a descendant of many ancestors murdered in the genocide of the Holocaust to explain how what we are witnessing is genocide and that what we are hearing from the perpetrators is admissions of guilt said so proudly it should shake us all to our core. Along with my other Jewish comrades here, I am demanding that the city do the absolute bare minimum of passing the ceasefire resolution in the face of this genocide. A city that cannot condemn genocide is a city that cannot deliver care and justice to its constituents. Our ancestors are waiting, Santa Cruz is waiting, Palestinians are being bombed at this very moment. You must act now. Next person online, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Next little thing. Next person online. Stay right here. Stay right here, you're fine. First person online, you need to react quicker so you're gonna be queued up next. Hi. Hello, my name is Gabiella Lerman. I'm a student at UC Santa Cruz and I run the Mixed Race Organization which has numerous anti-Zionist Jews of color as well as our entire community wanting a ceasefire. My dad is an Ashkenazi Jew and my mom is not Jewish, she's Venezuelan Spanish. Even why the images and horrors of the Palestinians over the past 75 years and especially right now look no different than Nazi Germany is because Theodore Herzl himself looked to Europe which just massacred millions of Jews for an economically successful country it would look like. He wanted a country that had a majority that wasn't indigenous to the area which made ethnic cleansing essential. He wanted a settler colony like all of Europe. He wanted to subjugate all Arab people including Arab Jews and he wanted to build a country that he knew was going to have resistance. These weren't Jewish ideas, these were the ideas of Europe at the time. The Wikipedia page for self-hating Jews has a quote from the Israeli ambassador, Abba Iban at the United Nations in 2014 advising the American Jewish community that the goal of Israeli propaganda should be to show that criticism made by Jews is an erotic form of self-hatred requiring psychiatric treatment. No country on earth makes criticizing a country built on the same white supremacist values as Nazi Germany make you speaking out of it consider it a mental condition requiring psychiatric treatment. A couple of years ago my Jewish family visited my mom's family in Spain, in Girona, Spain, a city we accidentally stumbled upon, a city that from 1627 to 2014 was called Castrilo Matajudeos, Jew killer camp. As many Arab Jewish writers discuss when Spain made it illegal to be alive in Jewish for 400 years during the Spanish Inquisition they also made it illegal to be alive and be Muslim.   During the 400 year period Eastern Europe Jews faced the programs and it was the Arab countries that accepted Jews fleeing Europe along with their Muslim counterparts when nowhere else in Europe would. There's so much connection to the oppression that our communities have faced together under Christian white supremacy. The community in this room is asking for a ceasefire is practicing radical love, compassionate connection that consists of many intelligent loving Jews who do not require psychiatric treatment for their ability to imagine a community of love and connection without violence. Next person online, good afternoon. Yeah, hello, good afternoon, Fred Keeley. Wow, it is absolutely so wonderful to see so many people in the community actually showing up. It would be amazing what would change if more people showed up to address other issues besides this very important issue. You know, I'm the only person that I know of with the initials due. My name is James Ealing Whitman. I didn't have an opportunity to share this in the supervisors meeting. The city council, fortunately, is more than a thousand fold more of a constitutional republic than the county of Santa Cruz. This is what I would have liked to have said. We, the people of the United States and the world we have been facing attacks by Zionists, members of secret societies run openly as philanthropic organizations, such as recently Andrew Carnegie, created what we have now, the World Homicide Organization. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hang on just a second. No genuine anti-Semitism here, buddy. Hold on, hold on just a second. Ms. Bush just cut that off. Next person in line, let's go. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Jennifer Kelly. I'm here as a Santa Cruz community member, a scholar of Palestine and a mother. I'm a professor at UC Santa Cruz in feminist studies and critical race and ethnic studies, and both my scholarship and my teaching center Palestine and Palestinian studies. I'm one of two moms to our two year old daughter who has come with us to every action over the past two months, a child marching for other children in a world that shouldn't necessitate that. I'm here to support a ceasefire resolution that stands unequivocally against colonial state violence and the state sanctioned murder of a besieged population, the majority of whom are refugees from successive waves of displacement by Israeli settlement and ethnic cleansing since 1948. As we speak, Israeli bombs continued to raid down Angaza, murdering over 23,000 Palestinians, including over 9,000 children. Israeli airstrikes have destroyed hospitals and universities targeted first responders and bakeries, murdered journalists and professors, eradicated entire families, leveled neighborhoods and demolished safe routes on which Palestinians were told to flee for their lives. 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced and over 42% of homes destroyed. Israel has denied Palestinians in Gaza water, medicine, food, electricity and fuel. These war crimes are supported by US tax dollars at the rate of 3.8 billion per year and 66% of constituents are saying no and demanding a permanent and total ceasefire. With deep respect for the organizing, many of you are already doing toward a ceasefire and with the belief that local ceasefire resolutions will pressure state and federal levels to act, I'm asking city council to one, hold a special meeting in December to pass a ceasefire resolution and to use Oakland's ceasefire resolution as a model for Santa Cruz's. Oakland's ceasefire resolution accurately names the genocide we are witnessing and demands that it stop. Please know we are with you. We will support you in calling for a ceasefire as your constituents and as your fellow community members. Every day in Gaza right now, Palestinians are teaching life. In the words of Palestinian poet Rafiq Zayada, while they are being subjected to death, they're making sure children have space to play in between bombs, they're comforting their babies as they flee and they're cooking for each other, they're pulling each other from the rubble, they're risking their life to make their stories heard. As they teach life, the very least we can do is amplify their pedagogy and demand a ceasefire. Good afternoon, next person online. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, council, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, thank you. I've been having some technical difficulties trying to get in. Good afternoon, my name is Zov. I'm a resident of district two, a Jewish person living in Santa Cruz. And I'm here to talk about the idea of Jewish safety. I grew up hearing a lot about Israel and the occupation of Palestine and a lot about the justification that Jewish people need a state. We need this place to be safe from anti-Semitism which rears up all over the world in many places where we've lived. And I have to say that there is no long-term safety for us in murdering Palestinian people. I'm sorry if I get emotional, but there can be no lasting peace or safety for Jewish people in Palestine as long as the Israeli state is allowed to keep bombing not just in Gaza, but also to continue its policies of mass incarceration without trial, dispossession of land, arbitrary detention, murder at checkpoints, stopping people from taking ambulances to hospitals to set a security checkpoint. Palestinian people in the West Bank live under a system of apartheid that many good liberals thought we did away with when South Africa abolished its apartheid regime but Palestinians live under one in Palestine today. Passing a ceasefire is necessary to set us on a path towards taking apart these systems which kill and dehumanize Palestinians on a daily basis. And I'm asking you to please pass a ceasefire resolution as a Jewish person who's scared for my own safety, the safety of other Jewish people and Palestinians everywhere. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Melissa and I'm a registered voter in the city of Santa Cruz. I have lived here for a decade and I'm here to ask you to support a ceasefire resolution. Gaza was already a humanitarian disaster before October 7th due to the Israeli occupation and blockade. And certainly the attacks on Southern Israel were shocking to the world in a tragic event. The violence, collective punishment and the mass killings of civilians are unconscionable regardless of one's identity or religion. Due to Israel's indiscriminate attack on Gaza, my best friend who has been a resident of Santa Cruz since 1994 lost 12 family members. In one day, they were children, parents and grandparents. As Israel has continued to bomb homes, hospitals and refugee camps for more than two months, my friends have continued to lose family members. An unknown number are crushed under the wreckage that was once their home. As of yesterday, more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's bombing and ground campaigns since October 9th and 70% of deaths are women and children. 9,000 children have been killed. A permanent ceasefire is the only solution that will lead to peace. Recent polling suggests that 66% of all Americans over 80% of Democrats and a majority of Republicans support a ceasefire in Gaza. We ask you to support a ceasefire resolution sending an unequivocal message that our community stands against genocide and ethnic cleansing. We believe passing ceasefire resolutions at the local level will pressure state and federal levels to act according to the will of their constituents. I hope our statements today help give you the courage to do the right thing and pass a ceasefire resolution. Thank you. Thank you, online. We have two more. Okay, we'll take the next person online. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Three, two, one. Good afternoon. Peace be upon you. My name is Evan Robles. I live in District 5 and I work in downtown Santa Cruz. I'm here today to support a ceasefire resolution. The siege on Gaza has been called a war, is an Israeli defense and other misnomers that help perpetuate the genocide of the Palestinian people. I have been fortunate enough to have lived in the Middle East with a significant portion of that time with Palestinian refugees who welcomed me into their homes, worked with me on community projects and taught me how to cook. I feel indebted to them and I must do everything I can to save their beautiful culture and people. Santa Cruz must answer this call to action. Our community must stand against the use of tax dollars to make violence and genocide possible. Thank you for your service to this great city. Thank you. My right, this would be the last person currently. I have two more of the other questions. Oh, very good. Okay, so the next person online, good afternoon. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Rex Hine, Western Electrical Contractors Association. Here to speak in opposition to the consent calendar item, creating a subcommittee to explore the feasibility of project labor agreements. Here's what we're going to do. That's on our consent agenda calendar. What we're currently on right now is oral communication on items not on our agenda. My guess is we're probably an hour or two away from the item that you are considering. So stay tuned. When we get to the consent items, we'll be glad to recognize you. Good afternoon. Hello, council. My name is Lori Palmer. I am a resident of Santa Cruz. I'm a voter here. I also am a professor at the university. I didn't actually prepare remarks. I'm so humbled and honored by everything my community is saying to you today. I came also to support the call for a ceasefire resolution. And I wanted to stand up and say something because I feel like that why does this matter that this body does this? And I think that part of it for me is not only that every time I brush my teeth, every time I cook dinner, I'm thinking of the people in Gaza who are not able to have the most basic life essentials. And so there's an immediate response with that. And at the same time, I realize our government in our name is sending billions of dollars and we're sending the precise bombs that are being dropped on the Gaza. And we are doing this. And so if this body can stand up and call for a ceasefire, it's one piece of representing a different set of values to the world, to the rest of the country, to ourselves. And I really want to urge all of you to do this. And I also support the Oakland version of this because it is a resolution that makes sense. So thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. No one. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, council. My name is Cassandra Borreco. I'm here today as yet another proud Jewish voting resident of Santa Cruz. I plead with you to do whatever you can in support of an immediate ceasefire resolution in Gaza. With my eyes, ears, and in my bones, I can recognize what I'm witnessing as a genocide. Anyone who has objectively studied the patterns of history can also see this. The needless suffering will not bring peace or safety to anyone here or abroad. 66% of Americans are calling for ceasefire. Please amplify our voices and stand with our broken, yet activated hearts. As our tax dollars are sent to rain down terror upon Gaza, the West Bank, and now Lebanon, so many of our own people here in Santa Cruz can barely afford health care or food and housing. Our unhoused population continues to rise. I ask you to consider why are we exporting any of our monetary potential for local resilience? How can we allow these tax dollars to contribute to exponentially greater issues in health, hunger, and houselessness elsewhere? We are witnessing a genocide live streamed directly into our hands. I wondered as a child, learning about history and critical thinking skills, how were similar terrors ever possible? We're seeing the unfold now. We know Hamas is corrupt. We know Netanyahu's government is corrupt. We cannot rely upon any corrupt entity to do the right thing. We are witnessing forged evidence and blatant propaganda continue to be used to justify the slaughter of Palestinian life. We must check our biases, and we must do whatever is within each of our powers to peacefully fight back with truth and humanity. I humbly urge you to tap into whatever first moved you to become involved with politics, to lead with the same fervor and tenacity that led you to the chairs in which you sit today, to use your power with the same compassion and bravery that got you here. Please do whatever you are capable of in pursuit of a permanent and immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Thank you so much for hearing our voices today. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Eva, and I'm a member of the county and a student at Carrillo. I wanted to say this to amplify some of what we've already heard today. Recently, Israeli activist Yuval Abraham wrote that one category of Israeli military targets consists of family homes or operative homes. The purpose of these attacks is to destroy entire households in order to assassinate a single resident suspected of being an operative. This includes those not involved in military activity, such as spokespersons. Palestinian testimonies show that many families killed do not include any operatives. An intelligence officer also said nothing happens by accident. When a three-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it's because someone in the Israeli army decided it wasn't a big deal for her to be killed, that it was worth it in order to hit another target. Everything is intentional. We know exactly how much collateral damage is in every home. Right now, the civilian deaths amount to more than 200,000, 20,000. The population of this city is roughly 60,000. That would be about 1 third of everyone in Santa Cruz. In a resolution for ceasefire, we want to communicate that the community of Santa Cruz calls for an end to this killing. If our resolution were to prevent the death of even one more child, wouldn't that justify our effort? Is that not worth our time? I know that many people are afraid to speak on this for fear of controversy. It is an uncomfortable discussion. However, discussion is the least we can do. Our inaction is compliance. Oakland resident Isabel Diamond said, I'm a descendant of people who have survived genocide, displacement, ethnic cleansing, and persecution because of who they are. And I refuse to be silent. Never again means never again for anyone, including Palestinians. Never again is now. To withhold our opinion is to say that this massacre is not worth our time. To watch safely from our comfortable position in the United States is shameful. Instead, let us act. Thank you. I have another person who is called in online. We'll take that person now. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Nairi. I'm a Santa Cruz resident and a voter on the West Side. And I'm here to ask you to pass a ceasefire resolution, similar to the one passed in Oakland. I am a descendant of survivors of the Armenian genocide. And I can't stand by, well, history is repeated yet again in Palestine. None of us should. It brings me a lot of hope to see so many people here in my community speaking up against the status quo of both our international and national politics and condemn what is undeniably a genocide of the Palestinian people. I want to see the city of Santa Cruz to condemn this genocide, too, and call for a ceasefire immediately. It matters for our city and community to stand up to injustice and genocide, no matter how far away it may seem. Thank you. Good afternoon, sir. After all, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. My name is Arthur Burns. I'm a registered voter in the city of Santa Cruz. And I'm calling on the council to, one, hold a special meeting in December. Two, put a ceasefire resolution similar to the Oakland resolution on this meeting's agenda. And three, pass the resolution. And here's why. In 1898, Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, wrote in his diary, I have created a Jewish state in Palestine. The problem with this statement is that you cannot establish a Jewish state in a land full of Arabs. You have to remove the Arabs. The plan conceived 125 years ago has reduced Palestinian land from 90% in 1900 to 44% in 1947, 22% in 1967, and 10% to 15% today, due largely to the addition of 700,000 Jewish settlers appropriating additional land in the West Bank. In parallel, the people of Gaza have endured 75 years of refugee status and displacement, 56 years of occupation, and 16 years of living in concentration camp conditions. In other words, history did not start on October 7. This history demonstrates the clear intent of the Zionist movement to remove all Palestinians from the land of Palestine, as envisioned by Theodor Herzl, Klein-Wetzmann, Zeb Jabotinsky, and a host of other Zionist leaders. These are the true motivations for the destruction of hospitals, mosques, churches, schools, 60% of the housing stock, not to mention the denial of water, food, and electricity towards the goal of ethnically cleansing Palestinians using the genocidal attacks perpetrated by the people of Gaza by the IDF. Santa Cruz must adopt a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Thank you. Thank you. We'll take the next person online. Good afternoon. Hi, good afternoon. My name is Sarah. I'm a local midwife and a Jewish person descended from program refugees. And I want to second what's been said so beautifully by the people there in the room with you this afternoon, who are calling on you to adopt a ceasefire resolution like that passed in Oakland. A ceasefire is the only and first step towards breaking the generations-long cycles of violence, occupation, and dehumanization in Palestine, and its ripples into our own community. By standing for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, you have the opportunity to stand also for the dignity, sanctity, and basic human rights of the many displaced peoples living in our own county here in Santa Cruz. Our liberation is undeniably intertwined. I yield the rest of my time. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, sir. What's good, Joe? My name is David Antonio Rodles. I work with youth here in Santa Cruz County. And I just want to say, I know Santa Cruz is a very politically active place, but I don't normally do this kind of thing. I've never spoken at a city council meeting. But I've never felt this level of urgency. I started history for four years at UCSC. And I just want to say that this level of violence, some of the worst I've ever seen, if not the worst. And I just want to say that I'm here because I feel that city council is in a position to make a very powerful statement, not only about the children in Gaza, but also about children here in Santa Cruz. When children are dying, it's not hard to figure out what side of history you should be on. Whether you see it as war or genocide, whatever, this is a level of violence. 9,000 dead children, that should never happen. For perspective, we have 7,000 students enrolled in elementary schools, junior highs and high schools from Davenport, Soco. 7,000, imagine in a matter of weeks if every single one of those students was killed with a bomb that we paid for, I would expect every single person in every corner of the world to get up and say no. And that that's not right. So I'm calling on the city council to support a ceasefire resolution. In a statement that says not only would we not want that to happen to children in any part of the world, but we would never stand for it to happen here in Santa Cruz either. Thank you. Good afternoon. Hello. My name is Teddy, and I'm a proud anti-Zionist Jew who's lived in Santa Cruz for 15 years. I want to voice my support for a ceasefire resolution and urge city council to do the absolute bare minimum and hold a special session to pass a resolution identical to the Oakland one. My heart breaks more and more every day watching the tens and thousands of Palestinians be murdered by the Israeli government, aided by my tax dollars. A local resolution can pressure the state and the federal government to follow suit. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Please be upon you. I am Santa Cruz District 2 resident. My name is Joelle, and I am here to ask for the calling of a permanent and immediate ceasefire. As over 23,000 Palestinian men, women, and children have been massacred, we have borne witness. As Santa Cruz residents, we are uncompromisingly against the genocide taking place in Gaza, the dispossession of homes in the West Bank, the starvation, the dehydration, the cutting off of fuel and electricity by Israel's illegal blockade. We cannot allow this to go on. We implore you to use your position to call for a permanent ceasefire in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. We empower you to refer to international humanitarian law and to speak on our behalf that we do not want any more children buried under the rubble, any more babies left to wither and die in hospitals as doctors caring for them are forced out at gunpoint to abandon them, any more families ripped apart literally and figuratively. If we do not take heed and call for an immediate permanent ceasefire, as well as an end to the funneling of monetary and military resources that make this genocide possible, the United States will be rightfully deserving alongside Benjamin Netanyahu of that shameful title, The Butcher of Gaza. We encourage you to show the mercy we know you have and call for a permanent ceasefire resolution. It is the only way forward. Ceasefire now and forever, Free Palestine. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hi, everybody, and thank you for having us. And thanks for all the hard work you do to keep our community together. I know this is an issue that's tearing it apart. It's kind of you to say that. Thank you. And I also want to recognize the fact that I'm encouraging a no to agendize this resolution, this ceasefire resolution. And the reason I'm doing that is because I don't think that the resources we have available to Santa Cruz City Council are best purposed to call for a ceasefire on an international war issue. And so I'd like you to focus on the issues that most affect our community right now here locally today. I also want to remind everybody that there was a ceasefire. There was a ceasefire in place on October 6th. And it ended on October 7th. Israel didn't want this war. No, it was a humanitarian war. Thank you. Please, right here. Israel didn't end this war. It didn't want this war. And unfortunately, Israel is going to have to fight this war. The way that the ceasefire ended was by an organized terrorist organization, Hamas, attacking a peaceful music festival and beheading babies, kidnapping 250 innocent people. Hold on. Hold on for a second. I will not take this out of your time. Thank you. We are going to extend the same courtesy to every single speaker. We're clearing that. Thank you. Please proceed. Kidnapping 250 innocent people, raping women, murdering people in cold blood, that anybody can stand in front of this council and not strongly condemn these actions, highlights the morally bankrupt nature of some of our society.  You can always come around and acknowledge that these violences took place. Two things need to happen before you can have a ceasefire. And sadly, we don't have a whole lot of control over either one of them. Number one, all of the hostages need to be returned. It's shocking to me that nobody's mentioned this yet. The woman who has a 10-month-old? Come here. Right. You're addressing me. The woman who has a 10-month-old, I feel for you. I understand the pain. I also have children. Imagine if your child was kidnapped and held in a tunnel for the last 60 days. The second thing that needs to happen is that Hamas needs to be eliminated. Our ceasefire resolution will not do that, unfortunately. In conclusion, I'd just like to know why we're spending our time and resources here today talking about this. I'd like to ask you again to focus on the issues that are most important to the Santa Cruz community and keeping the community together. Thank you. Thank you. Next person. Good afternoon. Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for hearing us. My name is Jennifer Barnett. I live on the West Side. I'm an attorney. My husband is a medical provider at PAMF. And I have two daughters, a five-year-old, who attends one of our terrific Santa Cruz City schools, and a two-year-old who attends one of our Sweet Bree schools. I cannot help but imagine what would be our fate if we were in Gaza right now. Hospitals have been bombed for more than two months straight. And the brave health care workers who are working around the clock to save lives are themselves being killed or arrested and interrogated by Israeli forces. My daughters, if they were not among the more than 9,000 children who have been killed in this onslaught, would certainly have been forced to flee our home with the other 1.9 million displaced people in Gaza with no safe place to shelter, not enough food to eat, no access to clean water, and certainly no ability to continue learning in school. The physical and psychological trauma is unfathomable. As a mother, I would not wish that fate on any child, anywhere. Children in Gaza are just like my children, just like your children. They deserve to live healthy lives, to have access to sufficient food, clean water, medical treatment when they're sick, to play in the ocean, to learn in school, to hope and dream for a better life. All human life is sacred. Gauze and children have been born into a brutal occupation and are now living through the most violent military assault in modern times. They need to know that they're not alone. We need to show that our community supports life, peace, equal rights, and love. Calling for a ceasefire should not be a political act. It is an act of peace. And it is the only way to address the humanitarian disaster in Gaza. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Good afternoon. Hi, everyone. Ruby here, community organizer, educator, volunteer, prescribed firefighter, activist, land steward. I'm also here as a descendant of survivors of genocide at the hands of the Fascist nation and the State of India, who is also directly tied to Zionism and the State of Israel. For a Palestinian child celebrating their 18th birthday today, it means that they are truly celebrating life. By this time, they have survived five wars in their lifetime. These are people with hopes and dreams. These are children, elders, land offenders. For the last two months and 75 years, we have been watching entire lineages be killed. We urge you to support a ceasefire resolution similar to the one in Oakland to show that the community of Santa Cruz does not support genocide, that we do not want our tax dollars funding genocide. It is our duty on the grassroots level to apply pressure to the state and federal government. The US opposed a UN Security Council demand for a ceasefire. America is constantly on the wrong side of history. The community here, all of us, most of us, have the opportunity to create change. So from stolen, aloney lands to Gaza, may all indigenous people be free. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hello. My name is Bee. I have lived in Santa Cruz County for 10 years, and I currently vote in District 5. I agree wholeheartedly with all calls for a ceasefire resolution. And I hope to add to the facts and statistics by sharing my family's story as proof of how important it is to speak up in the face of genocide. I am here today as the granddaughter of two brave survivors of Taiwan's massacre in 1947. My grandparents got lucky, but 28,000 of us didn't. That genocide was covered up by the government that inflicted it. For 50 years, the first mention of it by an official was in 1995. I grew up not speaking Taiwanese. I don't speak Taiwanese. I don't cook my family's dishes. And I learned about this genocide on Wikipedia seven years ago. I am disconnected from my culture in a way that I am just starting to understand. But as a community, we have the opportunity to speak up in the face of genocide as it happens in real time, with proof of devastation being broadcasted directly to the computers in our hands. I am particularly disturbed by the staggering loss of life that we are bearing witness to. Thousands of children have been killed and displaced from their homes, schools, hospitals, places of worships, and cultural landmarks. I mourn this loss and I think too of their descendants and all of the richness to humanity that our diversity brings. I urge this council to pass a local ceasefire resolution and add our voices to the calls for peace around the world. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hi, I'm Matthew. I'm a resident of Santa Cruz and I'm a graduate student at UCSC. I don't really have any new statistics to share or maybe not a new perspective, but I don't think it takes more than a sense of human decency to recognize that the abhorrent loss of life in Gaza. And I think like many of us, I feel kind of isolated when I read the news all the time and I scroll on social media to see videos of bombings happening constantly. And then we wake up to see that the UN passes a resolution that isn't in accordance with the views of the community. And I don't have a way to talk to our UN ambassadors. I don't have a pipeline to Joe and Kamala and I'm not saying that you do either, but our perspectives need to be heard and if we want some change to happen on the national level it seems like this is where things need to get started. So we ask you to support a ceasefire resolution sending an unequivocal message that our community stands against genocide. Like passing a ceasefire resolution at the local level will hopefully pressure state and federal levels to act, to act in accordance with the views and opinions of the community. I think that's been made abundantly clear today. So like other people have voiced for it would be great if we can hold that special meeting in December and put this ceasefire resolution on the agenda and pass that ceasefire resolution again to hopefully adequately represent your community. Thank you so much. Good afternoon. Hello, my name is Tam Welch. I've lived in Santa Cruz for over 20 years. I guess I'm in D2, I feel like I'm in the Hunger Games but here we go. So I don't usually make statements, this is actually my very first time here in city council making a statement but I really wanted to uplift a fellow Santa Cruz citizen who was not able to make it here today because they had to work. And so in that spirit, I'm just gonna go into the notes that they shared with me. So Tyree Richie is a community organizer and activist. Maybe you've heard his name before. He had to work so here's his words. As we as a community must stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters suffering in Gaza. I am deeply disappointed by the Biden administration and other elected officials who have demonized those in support of Palestine and a ceasefire. We must set an example as future generations will be reading this moment in the words that we have left today in response to the legacy of the military industrial complex and war of terror that has profited of divisions and hate off of divisions and hate. As a community organizer looking at police reform in 2020 after the George Floyd tragedy, many police officers and departments have been trained by the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, who have been documented for acts of police brutality and violations of human rights. As the IDF continues to receive support and I'm assuming financial support by the US, they're supporting genocide. I say today, stand in solidarity with organizers and activists and community members and demanding a ceasefire and resolution. The fact that the city itself prides itself with a BLM mural painted on the streets as a result of some of those forces used for taxes by the IDF here in Santa Cruz. Thank you. Good afternoon. Hi, good afternoon. My name is Jane. I'm a resident of District 2 in Santa Cruz and the granddaughter of survivors of the Nekba of 1948 where 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced. 530 villages destroyed and 15,000 Palestinians killed. My grandparents were all expelled from their homes in Jerusalem, fleeing with only what they could carry and lived as refugees for the rest of their lives. My story is not unique. Every one of us, whether we are living in Palestine or a part of the Palestinian diaspora abroad has a similar story. There is no post in the PTSD of Palestinian lives. Every generation for the past 75 years has suffered as a result of the ongoing occupation by the Israeli government. And the devastating events that we are seeing now in Gaza is a continuation of the 1948 Nekba at catastrophic levels. You've seen the numbers, over 20,000 dead and missing 9,000 of those are children, 90% of the population displaced. When we look to our community of Santa Cruz, we all speak of the importance of human rights and our shared desire for collective liberation. But what happens when we, as a community, are called to put those values into practice and condemn harm? Collectively, we are now writing our history. Do we recognize the interconnectedness of all communities? Like we have seen here today, where this diverse group, my courageous Jewish brothers and sisters, all here seeking a ceasefire resolution. Do we recognize the current harm our own community here is experiencing by seeing so much death and destruction? Or do we continue to allow the erasure and ethnic cleansing of a people in the name of it's complicated?  Civilians, children dying, and years of ongoing trauma is not complicated. We ask that an immediate and permanent ceasefire be put on the agenda. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, my name is Michael. I've lived in District 3 in Santa Cruz. I've lived here for 11 years. I'm a retired professor. I've watched a lot of conflicts unfold around the world in my 75 years, but none has come close to this one in terms of the horrors. They're really unimaginable, but I'm gonna ask you once again, as you've been asked to do a number of times, to imagine them. Imagine an area, the Gaza Strip, one third the size of Santa Cruz County with almost 10 times the population of Santa Cruz County. Why such a large population? Because more than 80% of the Gaza Strip consists of refugees. Refugees who ended up there because they were forced from their homes in Palestine by Israel over the 75 years of the colonization of their lands. Imagine a place like this, that size and with us population, that's often been described as an open-air prison because Israel has total control over who and what goes in and comes out of it. Now imagine that same place, how hard it is to live there, being bombed 42 times every hour. Bombs that kill an average of 15 people, six of them children every hour, and destroy an average of 12 buildings every hour.  That's more than all the children killed in all the conflicts in the world in a year to put this in perspective, an area one-third the size of Santa Cruz County. When I see the pictures of the dead and the dying and the traumatized children, I really can't help but think of my two grandchildren, age two and five, around their ages. So it's simple, our tax dollars are funding this. They're funding genocide. And like most of the other speakers here, I urge you to call for a special session and to pass a ceasefire resolution modeled on the Oakland resolution. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, my name is Eddie. I live and work in this county, and I, along with all my community members that you've already heard from, are here to urge you to call for a ceasefire. We have all seen the atrocities committed by Israel and Palestine. We have all seen the videos and heard the first hand of counts of brutality, torture, starvation, displacement, and murder. The IDF has targeted civilians, children, schools, hospitals, doctors, the press, and cut off all access to basic necessities of life. And not only since October, but for the last 75 years. We cannot be neutral. Being neutral is taking the side of the oppressor. I will not be on the wrong side of history and I hope you all will not either. This is not a conflict, it is not a war. What is happening in Palestine is genocide. It is ethnic cleansing. We must call for a ceasefire as the very first step in ending these atrocities and allowing for the self-determination and freedom from occupation for the Palestinian people. It is our duty as humans and especially as citizens of the U.S. whose dollars can create ripples of destruction across the globe, especially since it is our tax dollars funding this genocide. It is U.S. made weapons destroying entire towns and entire family lines. It is our duty to see and to act and to call for a ceasefire and end the occupation of the Palestinian people. We urge you to take a stand for humanity, for justice, and do what is in your power to call for a permanent ceasefire. Thank you and may Palestine live forever. Thank you. Hello, my name is Mavie Hughes. I am a District 2 resident and I grew up in District 5. I am here today to urge you to call for a ceasefire. I stand here with people around me that I grew up with, people I work with, people I've built a community with, and people I love. And I think about how thankful and how privileged I am to see these faces alive and well. I'm horrified and heartbroken by every child blown apart and bloody, every partner, parent, sibling, and child mourning a loved one who has been martyred by Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people. We are witnessing an ethnic cleansing, violent displacement, arrest without reason, torture, starvation, dehydration and lack of medical aid leading to disease and death on top of a violent occupation that has taken the lives of over 20,000 Palestinians. I am appalled by the way that I have seen my county suppress the people's voices and I am appalled that my tax dollars are paying for the violent crimes against humanity that Israel has been committing for the last 75 years.  It is simple what we need, a ceasefire. This is the first step in many towards repairing and freeing Palestine, but it is vital we achieve this step. We the people will be heard and we will see a free Palestine. Make this community one that we can be proud to be a part of, stand on the right side of history, free Palestine and long live global solidarity. Now have another person online and then I'll be right with you. First online, good afternoon. My name is Vicki Winters. I'm a resident of district two and I wanna thank Sonya Brunner for meeting with some of her constituents to talk about this. And I just want you to refer back to Michael Gasser who spoke earlier about how many children are being killed, how many buildings are being destroyed just in the time that we have been talking to you here. And the time is now for you to take the action that you can. We have taken the small actions that we can and we're asking you to do the same. We have a faith that your resolution will make a difference in putting pressure upward in the leadership system to finally call for a ceasefire, call for ceasefire, put some kind of check or limit on what can be done with the arms we're providing to Israel so far unconditionally. And we've seen the harm and destruction that has happened from that.  And it has just so many lives lost. You're not any safer. The same thing is happening now where you're asking you to do this little thing that you can to help stop this destruction and this genocide. Thank you. Well, thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Aurora and I'm a resident of District 2. I am along with everyone else. I'm asking you to support a permanent ceasefire resolution following the example set by Oakland and other counties, sending the message that our community stands against genocide. Right now in Palestine, hospitals, schools, and residential buildings are being bombed. Children are being shot. Families are being crushed under buildings. Innocent civilians are being tortured in prisons for crimes they did not commit. Men are being rounded up, forced to walk naked through the streets and massacred in public view. It is our tax dollars and US-made weapons and bombs that have supported a 75-year violent occupation responsible for over 20,000 deaths just since October. That does not represent my values. It does not represent the values of our community. And we ask you to, therefore, do what we elected you to do and represent us in that too. A call for a permanent ceasefire, call for the US to withdraw aid, support, and troops from the apartheid state of Israel. We, the people, have spoken and it is now your turn to stand with us. Palestine will be free. Good afternoon. How's it going, everybody? My name is Alex. I'm a resident here in Santa Cruz. So a local business owner. I didn't prepare anything because this is easy. This is a no-brainer. We need to pass a ceasefire resolution locally. Every day we see children. We see elders. We see whole neighborhoods.  And as Westerners, we sit back and we can look at it on our phones. We have the privilege to look at it on our phones. And then we have the audacity to question and hold meetings about whether this is we're for this or against this. This is a no-brainer. Just do your part. Use the power that you have now to be on the right side of history. Thank y'all. Next person online, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Great. My name is Katie Spencer. I live and work in Boat and District 2 and have for seven years. And I'm calling in today to add to the voices asking the city of Santa Cruz to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Hundreds of Santa Cruz folks rode in with this request prior to this meeting. And now hundreds more are here to taking time off of work and school and caretaking to ask the same. And I ask that you hear their voices. It is too easy to say that this doesn't matter that Santa Cruz and the resolution is too small or out of scope. A resolution like this with a message that we stand with justice that we stand against genocide and apartheid and we stand for peace. I urge you to call for a special meeting in December. I'm in that meeting to use that time to pass resolution similar to what Oakland passed recently. Thank you for your time. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you, the council members. My name is Annie Stafford and I live in Santa Cruz in district four. And first of all, I want to thank you all for your service and for hearing our voices. Forgive me, I'm speaking from my heart but I wrote it down because I get nervous. I'm here in solidarity with the people of Palestine to urge you to hold a special December meeting and pass a resolution for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. One that sends an unequivocable message that our community stands against genocide. The genocide in Gaza is happening on our watch supported by our tax dollars. Passing a ceasefire resolution in our city is a way to send a clear message to the federal government that supporting the ongoing atrocities in Gaza is unconscionable and unacceptable. Many people have spoken about what is going on eloquently today and have been inspiring me as well as breaking my heart. I'm inspired by and I stand in solidarity with black, brown and indigenous people in our community and all over the world who know all too well the impact of state-sanctioned violence, racism and genocide. I'm inspired by and stand in solidarity with Jewish activists in this room, in our community and all over the world who know that opposing the actions of a genocidal state is not anti-Semitic who clearly and courageously say, not in our name. By passing a ceasefire resolution, Santa Cruz will join cities such as Atlanta, Georgia, Detroit, Michigan, Richmond, California, Akron, Ohio, Salante, Michigan, Providence, Rhode Island, Wilmington, Delaware, Seattle, Washington, and Oakland, California. This list will only grow. This is a moment that calls for our courage and our moral clarity. Bishop Desmond Tutu said, if you are neutral in the situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. Let us not be neutral in the face of this ongoing tragic injustice. Thank you. Next person online, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Hi, I'm Rachel Chavez. I'm a registered nurse, district two resident and another Jewish person begging the council to support a ceasefire resolution similar to the one adopted in Oakland. On November 16th, the UN Human Rights Commission said, there is evidence of increasing genocidal incitement over intent to destroy the Palestinian people under occupation, loud calls for a second Nakba in Gaza, and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory and the use of powerful weaponry with inherently indiscriminate impacts resulting in a colossal death toll and destruction of life sustaining infrastructure. As a healthcare worker, it has been devastating to see the way that Palestine's healthcare infrastructure at hospitals, providers and patients alike have been intentionally targeted and decimated by Israel. When I log into social media every day for the past two months and see fathers tenderly kissing their dead children's foreheads for people lying on the ground, hugging bodies wrapped in white cloths, stained red with blood, mass graves filled with people. Honestly, my first instinct is to give into the feeling of powerlessness and to shut down, but I fight that feeling and urge you to do the same. Instead, we can pull our power to do whatever we can to stop this mass and indiscriminate killing. As Palestinian activists and poet Rasha Abdelhadi has said, wherever you are, whatever sands you can throw on the gears of genocide, do it now. If it is a handful, throw it. If it is a fingernail full, scrape it out and throw. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Dylan. I'm a resident of Santa Cruz and a graduate student worker who was called to the solidarity with the Palestinian struggle through facing my own Zionist intimidation in classrooms and the kind that we felt briefly in this room earlier.  And that's all it takes. And I don't wanna be on that side of history and I hope you're not either. I also want to just recognize that the ceasefire that I support is just the beginning of the struggle and not the end. And the recognition of 100 year war against Palestine is mandatory and necessary. And recognizing that the technologies of war and genocide used against Palestinians is used at home here. And the laboratory of genocide in Palestine is reinforced by a laboratory of genocide here in America as well against brown, black and indigenous bodies and people where tear gas in Ferguson is the same tear gas used in Palestine. And the IDF soldiers are trained with American police abroad and at home. So this is the beginning and not an end. And I also want to just say that talking to Joe Biden is great, but you have your community's ear and whole hearted support here as well. So I wanna recognize that for people in this room to continue building mutual aid and if people here in this room that I'm looking at fail in their job that we have our own backs as a community and that will always be there and our heart will always be there. So thank you so much. Thank you. Next person online. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Three, two, one, you're up. Hello, council members. My name is Abby. I was born in Watsonville, raised around Pleasure Point area and now I'm a registered voter here in Santa Cruz. As we watch the genocide on Palestinians and Gaza surpass the two month mark, as we've witnessed upwards of 20,000 lives lost with the majority being children. And as many of these families gear up for the holiday season, our families gear up, we cannot and will not forget, ignore or leave behind our Palestinian siblings. I'm also a community organizer with Gabriella USA, a Filipino women's organization fighting for national democracy in the Philippines. We should be aware that what is happening in Gaza and in Palestine is not just happening to them but happening to all of us. Our US tax dollars that fund this genocide and the weapons and bombs dropped are the same from Palestine to the Philippines. The Philippines is the third largest purchaser of military weapons from Israel and those weapons that are used against Palestinians are used against Filipinos as well.  So although Palestine is not my motherland, I am committed to fight for it as if it were. I'm inviting the council members to please take a stand at this time in history where majority of not just the US but the world stands with the people of Palestine to defend our Arab and Muslim communities who are vulnerable to racism and violence, to defend our youth who are overwhelmingly siding with Palestine against censorship and attacks from their school administration and to call for a ceasefire that would prevent the loss of thousands of innocent lives and the siege on Gaza and the occupation of Palestine and free, free Palestine. Thank you. Next person online. Ready for you. Good afternoon. Let's go. Next person in line. Good afternoon. My name is Teresa Binnings and I grew up in Santa Cruz and I've lived here for 40 years. I do want to just take a moment to thank you all for being here and also to recognize that I know a lot of UCD council members do a lot in our community for all the children here. And I'm here because I believe and I want to say this out of the context of what some people have said, but I think this speaks for a lot of the people here is that I want the condemnation of Hamas to be said with the same breath of the condemnation of killing children. And I don't believe any of us are speaking against that. So that's one of the points I want to make. And I really want to urge you to call a special meeting in December to call for a ceasefire. I continually am thinking about what I would have done in the Holocaust. I think the Holocaust was brought on by a dictator that was completely out of his reins and we have countries throughout the world that are calling this what it is, which is war crimes. And I think we as citizens of Santa Cruz County, which is a place where I've been raised with these values of liberty and looking at ourselves and valuing people of all colors of skin and all cultural backgrounds. I want us to step into our truth and step in and be called to speak up against this injustice. Thank you. Get my time. Good afternoon. Hi, my name is Robin. I live in Santa Cruz and I work as a teaching assistant at UCSC. I'm a scholar of Middle Eastern politics and history and I've spent time in Palestine and Israel working for Palestinian society organizations. I have seen Israel's system of settler colonialism and apartheid firsthand. The segregation wall, the brutal military occupation, the Jim Crow style laws, the checkpoints and the daily humiliation of Palestinians. I also develop friendships with Palestinian and anti-Zionist Israeli organizers working to end this system. Today, Israel is committing genocide in its latest war on the open air prison that is Gaza, killing approximately 20,000 Palestinians in just over two months. We are complicit as US tax dollars are funding this genocide. I ask the council to be brave and to take a stand, much as the Oakland City Council did and hold a special meeting in December to pass a resolution calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire as a first step toward ending US support for Israeli apartheid and achieving justice in Palestine. Thank you. I'm getting an indication from the, just set the stage for a rat. Seems like we have probably five more people online so we'll be toggling back and forth. Next person online, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I'm Jasmine and I'm calling to implore you to pass a ceasefire resolution. I've been horrified about what is happening in Palestine. I have a friend who's Palestinian who's had multiple family members murdered in the genocide. And this issue is just very near and dear to my heart as well. I was born a Sunni Muslim in Bangladesh and adopted from there. America also turned their back on Bangladesh during the liberation war from Pakistan in 1971. It's actually a twice decolonized country. So I feel a lot of solidarity with Palestinians. I'd also like to urge you to do what Oakland did which is to vow counsel support of the US House Resolution 786 which calls for an immediate deescalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine. I've seen you write letters of support for other bills or resolutions. And I feel like this could bubble up to make an international difference. I know it might seem like we're asking you the city to do this and what will that do? But this is how it bubbles up. At the very least, this will put our city on the correct side of history, the humane side. It also goes a long way to making Santa Cruzans feel safer against hate and violence as an answer. Again, as someone born a Muslim in Bangladesh, I feel very supported by this outpouring of support for Palestine. I actually feel much safer in the city. It's hard enough to be a BIPOC in America but to know that people don't stand for Islamophobia has been very comforting. Lastly, please take note of what the people are asking for. I appreciate you letting so many of us speak. I know this went beyond our normal 30 minutes of public comment. So since we all took this time and you took this time, I really hope you will back this with some action. Thank you. Well, thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. And I wanna just echo what the last speaker said as well and thank you for letting so many people speak. I think it's clear that this is an issue that is close to many of us here in Santa Cruz. My name is Jess Fornir. I'm a Santa Cruz resident. I pay taxes here. I work here. And along with so many other members of our community, I'm calling on the council to pass a ceasefire resolution that condemns the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Other people have already spoken eloquently about the depth of the grief, the sacredness of the lives of Palestinians and our connections to them, first and foremost as human beings and acknowledging the horror that is close to home for many people in Santa Cruz who are Palestinian, who have loved ones and families in Palestine and the Muslim Arab and Palestinian communities in the US including in Santa Cruz who are facing racism and extreme levels of violence and hatred. This affects us at home. We are witnessing a genocide based on ethnic cleansing and an apartheid system that has existed since 1948. It seems impossible that anyone can describe a war taking place when one side is carpet bombing, a captive population that is under occupation, backed by our country, the most powerful military in the world. This concerns all of us. This is a deep shame for Americans and it is our tax dollars, the funding and researching that happens at UC Santa Cruz, the military weapons development at Lockheed Martin that ties us not only to the people of Palestine but to oppressed people around the world. We are not powerless. We have an ethical responsibility to shift the actions of our own government and to stand with the people of Gaza and millions around the world and calling the US government to support a ceasefire. In doing this, we would not be standing alone. By adopting a ceasefire resolution in Santa Cruz, we would join the Monterey Bay Labor Council and other cities in California including Oakland and Richmond and standing on the right side of history. Thank you very much. We'll go to the next person online. Good afternoon, person online. Good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yep, sure can. Thank you. My name is Nicole Zom and I'm speaking today to ask you to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and pass a resolution similar to that in Oakland. I am a parent, a service worker, a voter and a taxpayer. Over the past two plus months, I've witnessed the horrific violent and strategic actions taken by the Israeli government on the Palestinian people largely funded by the US and resulting in 20,000 deaths. I've listened to the staff of Doctors on Duty stationed in Palestine describing the many children stumbling into their hospitals badly wounded and with not a single living relative. I've imagined my daughter dead or alone. I've imagined an entire city, our entire city in rubble. If the city council were to turn away from this opportunity to speak for what will save lives and to acknowledge genocide, where it is happening now, you turn away from your own people, your own community, women, children, parents, the vulnerable people, where we live, that may be or are targets of hate now. Please use your power and show us that you are willing to take a risk for what is right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. My name is Riley Collins and I am a Santa Cruz resident. I'm here today to urge you to support an immediate and permanent ceasefire resolution in Gaza. This would not be the first time that Santa Cruz's city council led the way and passed a resolution for global justice that expanded beyond our city limits. In 1983, our city council became the first in California to proclaim Santa Cruz a planetary city declaring that we must extend our citizenship responsibilities beyond state and nation in order to solve world problems, namely that of war. I cannot imagine a more urgent and devastating world problem than Israel's relentless and indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians, which we know has now reached over 20,000 people in two months. That is more than 300 deaths every day for over two months, barring one momentary respite. Dr. Asma Al Ashkar, a Palestinian doctor who was killed in an Israeli strike, stated hours before her death, we are being killed one after another and the entire world is watching. Who is helping Gaza? I asked today that we stop watching. I asked that we follow the United Nations that just one hour ago voted to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. And I ask that you hold a special meeting in December and that you pass a resolution for a permanent ceasefire. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, person online. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Oh, hi, is that me? It is you. My name is Rosalyn Schurinstein. I have worked as a physician in Santa Cruz for over 40 years. I would like to say that the war will end as soon as Hamas surrenders and gives up the hostages. There would be no violence if Hamas had not taken over Gaza in 2007 and used it to wage an endless genocidal war against Israel's existence. A ceasefire will not end anything. It will not cause any justice or peace. It'll just allow Hamas to get away with brutally massacring, raping and kidnapping civilians from Israel and other countries. Leaders across the political spectrum including Bernie Sanders and our own Jimmy Panetta recognize this. And this war, for the sake of everyone, the Gaza must, must surrender. That they violated the ceasefire.  And you're not saving any lives of any Palestinian doctors, children or people by permitting Hamas to continue their genocide against their own people. And just to do a virtue signal for something that's going to be ineffective and actually counterproductive is not gonna signal anything but a complete disregard for the realities on the ground. So I thank you for taking this time and I urge you not to waste your precious time or taxpayer money on giving policy for foreign affairs that will be counterproductive and against what the crimes of humanity Hamas has committed and which it is committed to continuing in the future. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Camila Hawthorne. I'm a voter in district two. I'm a faculty member in sociology and critical race and ethnic studies at UC Santa Cruz, a founding member of our university's faculty for justice in Palestine chapter and a member of National Alumni for Palestine, a network of Ivy League alumni calling for protections of academic freedom and the divestment of university endowments from military contractors. I also stand here as a black woman, which means that I have an ethical, moral, political responsibility to stand with oppressed people wherever, whenever and it is worth noting that Israel's own human rights observer, Beth Salem, has called the occupation of the Palestinian territories apartheid. And I also stand here as the wife of an Iranian partner with Muslim family who worries every day about his safety because of this dramatic rise and violence against the Middle Eastern people in our community and around the country and around the world. I am mobilizing for an immediate and permanent ceasefire because collective punishment enacted on a trapped civilian population is a humanitarian emergency, a war crime and a massive human rights violation as recognized unequivocally by the United Nations, Amnesty International and countless other bodies. Several people have asked today why a ceasefire resolution in a small city like ours? This matters also because it says to our neighbors who are Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern that their lives matter, that we care about their safety at a time of rising hate crimes, violence and intimidation. I want to echo the overwhelming calls we have heard today for a special meeting in December during which a ceasefire resolution modeled on the Oakland resolution will be on the special meeting agenda and passed. And I also urge all of you to respond to the emails from your constituents and meet with them on this urgent matter. Thank you very much for your time. Good afternoon, person online. Good afternoon. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can. So my name is Elaine Miller. I've lived in Santa Cruz County my entire life and I'm here to support Santa Cruz joining Oakland in the passing of a ceasefire resolution. I'm sure you're all aware of the thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza and it's heartbreaking to see. I'm here to say that I am Jewish and there are many Jewish people like myself in our community who rejects the calls for further violence and want to see a permanent ceasefire. I want to highlight that Israel's crimes go back further than October 7th. And I decided years ago that they did not represent my values as the Jew. A ceasefire is the only way to ensure safety for all in this situation, including the Israeli hostages. I don't believe bombing the region where they are shows much regard for them. So we need to save as many lives as possible in this situation and I believe that starts at the local level in showing that we recognize the humanity of people in Gaza. So please hold a special meeting in December and if any of you would vote for this resolution, I would fully support you in that decision. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Schultz, good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon, council members. I am Jeffrey Smedberg. I'm a resident of District Two. Sherry Conable Presente. Sherry Conable, as you may remember, is the most prominent peace activist in Santa Cruz County for decades. If she were still alive, I'm sure she would be with us today. I am also the vice president of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, which is a union of the unions, 80 unions representing 35,000 union members in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. Last week, our delegate body of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council adopted a call for ceasefire in Israel and Palestine and I'm representing them in calling upon you as our local elected representatives to also pass a resolution calling for permanent and immediate ceasefire. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next person online, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Hi, my name is Stacy Garcia and I'm excited to speak with you today. I used to work at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History and also at the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County and now I work for an international human rights organization and I'm calling to urge you along with many human rights organizations around the world, many cities and counties around the world and countries around the world to call for a permanent immediate ceasefire and also a guidance to international humanitarian law which has been broken by Israel numerous, numerous times. Urging you all to call for a special meeting in December to discuss this and put forward a resolution similar to the Oakland resolution. I was just at the County Supervisors' Meeting earlier this morning where many folks were sharing how this is not a local issue and I want to correct that and say this is a local issue. There are many Palestinian Americans in our community who are facing a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiments. We even heard some of that in our comments this morning at the County Board of Supervisors' Meeting which was appalling. So I urge you to take action on this issue for the Palestinian Americans that are living in our community and also because this is a moral imparity. Our U.S. tax starters are funding this genocide and that means that money that could be going to help our community locally is going to fund a genocide which is killing thousands of innocent people. So I urge you to take action, you're called upon to take action and I hope you do so now. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Arshad Muhammad and I am a Santa Cruz resident and UCSC student. I stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people as a Muslim woman. My community is not free until Palestine is free. As of now, 90% of the Ghazan population has been displaced and over 20,000 innocent Palestinians have been ethnically cleansed. I'm reminded every moment of the privilege I have when I enter my home and I'm safe there, when I can have a meal, quench my thirst, when I can end a call with my family and not worry about whether I will speak with them tomorrow and when I sleep at night, knowing I will wake up tomorrow. These are basic rights and yet the things the Palestinians can only dream of. When a tax dollar that should be going towards supporting and improving Santa Cruz are being used to torture and massacre the innocent, it is our responsibility to call for justice. I'm here today to ask you to hold a special meeting in December to support a ceasefire resolution identical to the Oakland resolution and to return your constituencies' emails and meet with them regarding this matter. I worry about the precedent this is setting not only for the future of Palestinian citizens but for the safety of our local Arab and Muslim communities. Santa Cruz must pass this resolution and stand on the right side of history. A ceasefire yesterday would have saved the lives lost today. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, next person online. Welcome. Good afternoon. Hello, yes. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Hi, my name is Casey Saadi. I teach here in Santa Cruz. I'm also married to an Israeli and I've been there a few times I visited. I am appalled at the misinformation and disinformation I'm hearing in this meeting. If Hamas simply released the hostages, there would be an immediate ceasefire. It's as if no one in this room understands this. They have 138 hostages, including children that are there without their families. They have raped, murdered, slaughtered, burned families alive, tortured, dismembered, disemboweled civilians that are completely innocent. And for these people to sit here and say, there needs to be a ceasefire now, there's ethnic cleansing, there's genocide. There isn't a genocide because the Palestinian population increases every single year. The focus here is on Hamas, a terrorist organization, and the hostages they have. When they release the hostages, the war stops. It doesn't matter how many people across the world say ceasefire, ceasefire, Israel will make that decision. Hamas can do it now if they release the hostages. Hamas uses civilians as shields. Anyone that studies this history knows this. They embed themselves in homes, hospitals, schools, fire rockets from there so that when Israel responds, it kills civilians. Why? Because they get funding through the UNRWA. When people make donations, that money goes directly to Hamas. But leaders of Hamas are worth billions and they live in Qatar. They're nowhere near Gaza. They exploit the children, they exploit the civilians. They are impoverished, they keep them impoverished so that they will buy into this pay for slay where if they bring back hostages, they get $10,000 US and an apartment. That is why these terrorists went out. They grabbed these people to bring them back to exchange for prisoners in Israeli jails. People need to go out and get some vegetation before they come here and talk about things they don't know about. Good afternoon. That was disturbing. Hello, my name is Veronica Hamilton. I'm a resident of the West Side and a delegate to the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council from UAW 2065, the UC Student Workers Union. And today, I'm asking you to adopt Oakland's call for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the occupation. We've seen labor step up and play a powerful role on this issue with longshoremen supporting actions to slow or stop weapons transports. Starbucks workers vocally calling for a ceasefire despite legal threats from Starbucks. Congressional staffers walking out in protest of congressional support for Israeli war crimes despite public support for a ceasefire and even Belgian transport workers unions calling on their members to refuse to handle military equipment being sent to Israel. The UAW, UFCW and United Electrical Workers have sponsored a petition calling for a ceasefire which has been signed now by at least 50 unions, including my own. The Palestinian trades workers union has urged people of conscience and international union members to end all forms of complicity with Israel's war crimes. This is the deadliest conflict for UN workers since its founding. Labor stands with the oppressed. Labor will not allow the U.S. to continue supporting war crimes, especially on our dime. The Monterey Bay Central Labor Council representing over 80 affiliated unions in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, including more than 35,000 union members and their families, has voted to endorse a ceasefire in Gaza. Following a vote by the executive board on November 20th, delegates from the unions in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties voted overwhelmingly in support of the ceasefire resolution on December 6th. This resolution will be sent to the AFL-CIO and to our local representatives demonstrating that labor stands with the people of Gaza and calling for an end to their needless suffering. It's time for Santa Cruz to follow labor's lead. Listen to the voices of your constituents here. The atrocities against Palestinians are made possible nearly exclusively because of U.S. political support and military aid. It's beyond time for Santa Cruz to say that this is unacceptable. Join the majority of the world in supporting a ceasefire. Good afternoon, next person online, welcome. Hi there, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Hi, my name is Carisa. I work as a senior specialist with individuals with disabilities in the downtown area, and I am also a registered voter of Santa Cruz County. I wanna first thank our community for showing up for this cause. Council, I am calling on you to hold a special meeting in December for council members to return their emails and agree to meet their constituents on this matter and to put a ceasefire resolution identical to the Oakland resolution on this special meeting agenda and pass it. It is a privilege to be able to sit in front of our screens and witness this genocide instead of living it. This is why I urge you, council, to do more and act now. You have the power to support the greater good. Passing a permanent ceasefire resolution will add to Santa Cruz as a leading voice in social justice and racial justice. As Audrey Lord once said, sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time and the arena and the manner of our revolution, but more usually, we must do battle where we are standing. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Cindy Dawson. I live in district two on the east side. I first wanna start by thanking council member Brunner for responding to my email and meeting with a group of us on Sunday about this issue. It's really important that we feel represented by our council. I'm here today to add my voice to the hundreds of people you've seen today and really the countless number of people around the world that spans religions, spans cultures, spans across the globe, asking for a call for an immediate ceasefire. I want to add that passing a resolution here on Santa Cruz is not performative. It matters. And it matters to our community members. It matters to our Palestinian neighbors. It helps them feel supported and safe. And it sends a clear message that Santa Cruz stands up against genocide and we stand up against the mass murder of children and civilians full stop. Every city that passes a resolution elevates the call to stop the killing now. There is no way forward without a ceasefire. I urge you to be the leaders that you were elected to be. I urge you to show us your compassion and show us your courage by calling for a special meeting this month and passing an immediate ceasefire now. Thank you. Next person online, good afternoon. Welcome. Good afternoon, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Oh, wonderful. My name is Claire Schoenstein. I was born and raised here in Santa Cruz. I'm a healthcare worker. I'm a Santa Cruz. Oh, sorry, can you hear me? Oh, we can hear you very well. Oh, sorry. Okay, I just heard someone speak. Okay. I'm a healthcare worker, a Santa Cruz voter and I am a proud Jew. I am against a resolution for a ceasefire in the Hamas Israel war. Let's be clear, the current war was provoked by Hamas terrorists and is between Hamas and Israel, not between Israelis and Palestinians. There are many reasons why a resolution for a ceasefire is not helpful. First, Hamas has a long history of breaking ceasefire agreements, including the most recent one. Second, Hamas remains committed to the death and destruction of Israel and all Jewish people worldwide. They openly announced this. The brutality of Hamas on October 7th where babies were beheaded, women were raped and mutilated and elderly Holocaust survivors were gunned down illustrates that the terror group is not interested in peace of any kind. They don't care about their own people. They use them as human shields. I've heard people speak today about how all human life matters. Very few people have mentioned hostages. Very few people have spoken of the people who were killed on October 7th. Hamas will use ceasefire to regroup and rearm this break of deadly consequences for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Fourth, a ceasefire may delay the possibility of returning the hostages home and we need them to be returned now. Lastly, removing Hamas would lead to a better future for Gaza and the Palestinian people. Please stay focused on our community where we desperately need solutions for homelessness, the high cost of living, the housing shortage and other local issues of importance. We do not vote for you to make statements on foreign policy, especially ones that only serve to promote anti-Semitism here in our community. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Carlos and I live in district two and this is my third year as a Santa Cruz resident. I wanna start off by acknowledging all of city council and say thank you for having the willingness to hear and receive my words for the next minute. I recognize that these conversations come at a risk of backlash. Yeah, I'm proud of those of you who sit on city council who are willing to acknowledge and keep her hearts open and stay connected to our shared humanity and community. As I navigate my own heartache and in my own processing, the word that continues to come up is hope. And I stumbled on words from Grace Paulsy that solidifies how I feel that the only recognizable feature of hope is action. Action is our antidote. And the action step moving forward is a simple one. To support a ceasefire resolution, sending a unified message that our community stands against the deliberate killing of Palestinian people. Thank you. Next person, we'll take the next person online. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can. My name is Avichai. I live in Santa Cruz. I am wondering about what do you guys think a ceasefire would do? And what do you guys think a resolution from Santa Cruz will do to support the region? When you say ceasefire, how long of a ceasefire? There is this perception that Israelis are white and Palestinians are brown. And let me tell you, as a Mizrahi Jew born and raised in Israel, that is not true. Please focus on the facts. Let's support whichever side you want to support. There's no need for a town, city, a council, a district to make demands of different countries. This is lunacy. I understand the need to try to help. If you want to support your Palestinian neighbors, your Jewish neighbors, support the elimination of the terrorist organization that has terrorized both Jews and Palestinians for the past over 10 years. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, council members. Thank you for your time today and hearing everyone realize it's a long time. My name is Lisa Navara or Hart. I am a constituent here in Santa Cruz. I've been here for almost seven years. I'm a mental health professional, social worker. I work with our families and our youth here. And seeing what has been happening for the last two months in Gaza daily to children, to families is horrific. It's easy to say, okay, two months, but moment to moment. Imagine what they're hearing, what they're experiencing. And here we are, able to talk, able to move around freely, eat, take care of our families. We can easily be so disconnected, so easy to be disconnected. And we are here also with the ability to actually make an impact. And this is why I believe so many people are showing up today because we believe in our community, we believe in you all, and we have the opportunity to step up and make a difference. So it's also, we are standing with 66% of other Americans. We're not alone in this and there is no downside to calling for a ceasefire. It is basic. Shall I pause? I thought I was getting a signal about something, but please, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Okay. It is basic. People will stand with you for supporting peace. So I want to request that you have a special meeting in December that you respond to your constituents through email and that we support a ceasefire now. Thank you. Thank you. Next person online, good afternoon. Welcome. Welcome. Hey, my name is Reggie Meisler. I've called you many of these meetings before. I stand in solidarity with the calls for a ceasefire. And unfortunately, I feel like we're not gonna get a ceasefire resolution through the city council, but I would like to be proven wrong. And that's why I just want to call and sort of throw that out there. Like, I know that there are some people that are calling opposed to this. I know that this is not something that this particular city council has a history of supporting things of this nature, but I really hope to be proven wrong. And I guess that's what I'm trying to say here. And if you do the right thing and you support the ceasefire, that'll be great. It's good for you guys on city council. And hey, you get to like, not sort of prove to this large coalition and generation of people that working inside the system doesn't work. So there's a little ancillary benefit for you that if you support the ceasefire, you make it happen. You can show people that electoral politics actually does something. But by sort of not supporting the ceasefire, you're kind of moving the escalation forward. And you just think about that kind of cost benefit. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Very colorful. Hi, thank you so much for having me. My name is Brenda Garcia and I'm an immigrant to Santa Cruz. I came here when I was seven and I've gone to Sokala Elementary, New Brighton, Cabrillo, and then UC Berkeley. And I'm also a union leader. I helped organize the first union in civic tech and I led it towards the strike point. So I'm very active in labor and I'm really happy to see all of the labor unions support a ceasefire here for Palestine. I wanna ask Santa Cruz County, how can we continue to compartmentalize our values? How can we say that we value environmentalism in Santa Cruz, but stay quiet when Israel is raising Palestine's olive trees and dropping cancerous chemicals on the land? How can we say that we care about racial equity in Santa Cruz, but allow our tax dollars to fund an upper hide state? And speaking about tax dollars, from 2018 to 2028, the US sends the upper hide state of Israel $10.4 million every day. Because our taxes fund this genocide, I reject the notion that the upper hide state of Israel has nothing to do with our city. We also have a large undocumented population in Santa Cruz. They pick your berries, they serve you food, they are students, they pay billions in taxes, but don't have access to many government benefits. Yet, their taxes go to fund Israeli settlers in Palestine. They fund Israel's free education, their free healthcare, and various other benefits.  How many teachers can we train with the money that we send to Israel? How many injured undocumented workers can we give medical care to with the money that we send to Israel? I call on Santa Cruz County to pass a ceasefire resolution and to vow to divest and boycott any organization that upholds the illegal state of Israel. I call on the media in our city to have the integrity to accurately report on the genocide. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. First, thanks, the council, for spending the time to hear our thoughts today. My name is Weston Mossman. I am a constituent of Santa Cruz. I first moved to Santa Cruz in 2011. And I want to urge the council to move to put forth a resolution similar to the Oakland resolution for a ceasefire. So the situation is very complicated. And what isn't complicated is the overwhelming daily deaths of the innocents in Gaza. We are all human. We're part of a global human community. And our values as humans is to reduce the number of deaths of innocents. And being a member of a country, a citizen of a country that's whose military industrial complex has so much to do with this issue, it's our responsibility to take a stand and our responsibility to speak out and have our voices be heard on this issue. And our voices may seem small and your voices even may seem small on this issue. It's a huge issue. And we still need to speak up. We still need to make our voices heard in the same way that we're all lining up today to say to you that we need a resolution. I think if you make a resolution to our state, to our country, we can have a huge impact together. So thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Hello, my name is Skyler Sokulis and I am a voting resident in Santa Cruz. And I'm here with many others in support of an immediate and permanent ceasefire. And I'm calling on the city of Santa Cruz to hold a special meeting this month in order to pass a ceasefire resolution identical or very close to the Oakland resolution. We cannot turn away and ignore this ongoing genocide. Our city needs to do anything and everything we can to stop the genocide of thousands of people in Gaza. Our action cannot wait until January. Our tax dollars are supplying weapons of mass terror and destruction. Every day we lose more loved ones. Every day more children become orphans. Please listen to the people and support an immediate ceasefire and pass a ceasefire resolution as soon as possible. The city of Santa Cruz has an opportunity to do something. Please do it. Liberation for all of us or none of us. Thank you. Good afternoon. Yes. Good afternoon. My name is Myra Ventura and I am here as the daughter of parents who had to flee their motherland for their lives because of a civil war funded by the United States. The violence we're witnessing today in history is nothing new. A permanent ceasefire resolution is the least we can do for Palestine. Not staying silent in the midst of a genocide in Gaza is the least we can do. Acting in the name of resistance is the least our ancestors expect us to do. No one is free until Palestine is free. No one is free until all oppressed peoples across the world are free from the violent chains of settler colonialism. Change happens when we, the people, all of us hear before your eyes. Take action on the ground and elected folks such as you all, listen to us so I urge you to listen to us. I urge you all to find the humanity within yourselves because we will not stop and we will die trying in solidarity. So thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, thanks for being here and thanks for hearing us. My name is Gillian. I live and work here in Santa Cruz over a decade now and I'm also raising my daughter here. I stand here as a