SHARE Community members are gathering to speak out against the City of Champaign’s continuing silence on constituent demands regarding acknowledgment of genocide, disregard for the local Palestinian community, and refusal to take a stand against genocide.
Champaign-Urbana, IL – Today, CU organizers announce the upcoming event: “One Year of Silence, One Year Complicit”. Since May 7, 2024, community members from across Champaign-Urbana who care about creating a collective future not embroiled in genocide and human rights violations have come together in coalition before the City Council of Champaign.
For the past year this coalition has asked the City to take actionable steps against supporting genocide. A petition in support of divesting from human rights violations has received over 1700 signatures from local community members and 47 organizations and businesses. Community members have offered City Council members a year’s worth of news articles and research from reputable sources, personal narratives, poetry, and more.
Community members have also made, both publicly and privately, specific suggestions to the City of practical steps the City could take to better align their investments with community values that would be of benefit to all.
Yet, no aspect of these demands has been publicly acknowledged in City Council meetings, nor has this petition or any of its content been put up for a vote by City Council members. The silence has been deafening.
“We cannot accept the slaughter of the Palestinian people being carried out with our country’s support and our city’s funds. When we say, Never again, we can only mean never again for anyone,” said Stuart Levy, a member of Urbana-Champaign Jews for Ceasefire.
Organizers invite the community to join them in holding elected officials accountable, utilize their basic civic rights, and stand up for each other as a community. The Coalition demands that Champaign City Council begin to demonstrate true respect of their constituents: apologize to the local Palestinians in this community who have been silenced, and divest city business from human rights violations.
Sana Saboowala, a member of CU Muslim Action Committee shares: “As our country descends into fascism, as students get their visas revoked, as U.S. citizens get detained, as our free speech is encroached upon, as the surveillance state gets stronger—we must hold our elected officials accountable. Their continued silence in the face of overwhelming demand from the public shows us that they choose not to do better.”
Organizers invite you to attend Champaign City Council on May 6th at 6:30pm to rally outside Champaign City Hall, attend the city council public meeting at 7:00pm, and use your public comment time to tell City Council that one year of inaction is long enough.