Supporters of Palestinians in Gaza took over the Tuesday, Dec. 5 meeting of the Greensboro City Council.
The first council meeting of the month is primarily devoted to a public forum, also called speakers from the floor on non-agenda items. It is the only City Council meeting of the month where the public is invited to speak on the topic of their own choosing.
At the Dec. 5 meeting, 47 people signed up to speak and all but a few of them were there to ask the City Council to pass a resolution in support of a ceasefire in Gaza.
Many of the speakers accused Israel of “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” and spoke of the horrible living conditions in Gaza where people are living without clean water, adequate food or medical care.
After listening to all the speakers, Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter said, “I know that our City Council cannot sway the minds of governments, that is the unfortunate part of this. But I have already spoken to several of my councilmembers and we are going to work on some kind of draft to address this situation. Unfortunately, I don’t know if our request for a ceasefire will work. However, I am willing to draft one and I would like to read what I would like to consider.”
Abuzuaiter continued, “I would first like to mention something about family. We’ve all spoken about family but I want to tell you about our family.”
She talked about her husband’s family that lives in Gaza and listed them by name and age from 99 to six months. She said the family was split, with half going south in an attempt to survive.
Abuzuaiter said, “But I’m going to present a draft to my fellow councilmembers and do hope that we all come together, and yes we need our Jewish friends to assist us as well.”
Councilmember Hugh Holston said he would support the resolution.
Councilmember Goldie Well said, “We feel your pain, but we represent all the people of Greensboro. We have just as many people probably on the other side as on your side.”
Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann said, “I really wasn’t going to comment tonight, and I do appreciate those who came to speak to us, but I want to talk about my personal situation too.”
Hoffmann noted that her husband was one of the few in his family that survived the Holocaust in Austria.
Hoffmann said, “The Jewish people deserve to be safe in Israel and what we saw happen several months ago was really the worst atrocity against Jews that we’ve seen since the period of the Holocaust in the ’40s. War is horrible and it harms mostly innocent civilians, and that is the worst aspect of it.”
How does this have anything to do with city business?? All people should be free! You want to protest, buy a ticket to Gaza and protest away. Protesters will not go to the location of were the action is. Instead they protest here and scream I am an American when they need protection.
Azubaiter and Kathy manning should move to the beautiful state of gaza
Anything 6,000+ miles away has no place in local politics.
What the ever loving hell is wrong with our councils? These morons can’t stop a war between Israel and Gaza! As much as they wish they had power like that, they don’t! How about you worry about Guilford County and not another country. Israel was the one attacked! Why is everyone forgetting that fact and supporting the country that attacked them! Israel did not start this fight and they have every right to defend themselves. And God bless them for doing it! I am glad to see them taking a stand. They are God’s chosen people and they are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing. Fighting for themselves and for God. They were the ones who were brutally attacked unexpectedly and thousands murdered in cold blood.
Guilford County has no right to draft anything on behalf of this war. Leave them alone and let them fight it out. As for the ones who support Gaza, please go over there and protest in person. Please, go over there and lend them your support since you care so much. We won’t stop you. Stand strong Israel!
The militant muslims of Hamas initiated an orgy of obscene violence on innocent people. They are still doing so, as they just shot dead three Israelis who were simply waiting for a bus. Rape, torture, murder, beheadings, random shooting at a festival of music… all these the Palestinians committed.
How any decent person can express support for these animals is beyond me. Their “hate” is so ingrained, so tribal, and so historic that the only solution is the same one that solved the Nazi problem: the complete annihilation of the perpetrators, and the “de-Hamasification” of Gaza (if that is possible).
And that is why the Israelis have every right to prosecute this war until those objectives are achieved. I hope they eviscerate Hamas, Hezbollah, and all those who are really trying to implement genocide – against the Jewish people.
We know not to vote for Abuzuaiter in the next election. Suggesting a cease fire will do nothing, except cause Abuzuaiter and her friends to say. . .Yes, we were heard. My thoughts? Pull the lever against Abuzuaiter in the next election. Her thoughts need to be on city business, not political issues in other parts of the world. If they go though with this, then demand equal time to the Jewish citizens about how their lives have been ruined by Hamas.
I suggest we should have a resolution in support of Israel. Their right to exist and for sure their right to defend themselves and strike obvious terrorist threats on their borders as any other country has. The fact that these threats are above and below ground and stretch all through Gaza brings into to question the desire for peace in Gaza. I am old, I have watched this same saga play out for decades between these two groups.
Peace talks start
International aid $$ flows into Gaza,
HAMA builds its tunnels and digs up freshly laid water pipes to make rockets
HAMAS strikes Israel,
Peace talks break down
Israel retaliates
HAMAS hides in their freshly built tunnels
Citizens of Gaza are killed & Gaza is destroyed
Ceasefire is called
Peace talks start
International aid $$ flows into Gaza,
HAMA builds its tunnels and digs up freshly laid water pipes to make rockets
HAMAS strikes Israel,
Peace talks break down
Israel retaliates
HAMAS hides in their freshly built tunnels
Citizens of Gaza are killed & Gaza is destroyed
Ceasefire is called
Peace talks start
International aid $$ flows into Gaza,
etc…..
on and on it goes…..the Palestinian wheel of woe never ends and they use it so well
Stay out of foreign affairs. You have problems enough trying to run this city.
Succinct and perspicacious.
Thank you!
Ole Johnny Freelance hits the low hanging fruit these days. Roy could just hire Sal Leone or George Hartzman and get the same product it seems.
Since Greensboro is a journalism desert, let me break a news story from that meeting like the Ole Rhino once would.
Remember the Wray Legal Fee Lawsuit, John?
https://www.rhinotimes.com/archives/even-behind-closed-doors-attorneys-cant-explain-citys-david-wray/
https://www.rhinotimes.com/archives/david-wray-files-slander-lawsuit-time-personal/
https://www.rhinotimes.com/archives/city-forgot-wont-pay-chief-wray/
https://www.rhinotimes.com/archives/nc-supreme-court-rules-wray-can-sue-city/
It was finally settled this year for $74k and the legal fees were $813k. Not one soul in Greensboro reported it has been settled. The city paid $884k to fight a $220k lawsuit. Where is Big Bad Tony Wilkins when Greensboro needs him?
Enjoy reading the spread sheet and seeing your tax dollars pissed away for some sick corrupt political plan. Payment after payment after payment for what? If I don’t fight for the closed session minutes to be released, we will never know.
https://www.scribd.com/document/683755390/WraySpreadsheet08012023-1?fbclid=IwAR13bcRlVbKVdTBtRbDNo9fyWHc-i-3CKoRTEXiwRgOEIMneoBubTwnM6vQ
At the same council meeting (Gaza), I challenged the city legal team about the answer they gave me regarding the minutes and videos of all the closed session meetings regarding the Wray legal fee lawsuit. They are public now. This isn’t ancient history. The city settled in May of 2023.
The legal team claims “In response to your public records request concerning a copy of the minutes of that closed session and any audio or video recordings taken during that meeting on September 19, 2017, the Greensboro Legislative Department responds, “The requested closed session minutes have not been unsealed by the City Attorney’s Office for release. This is pursuant to NCGS 143-318.10(e), which says “Such minutes and accounts shall be public records within the meaning of the Public Records Law, G.S. 132-1 et seq.; provided, however, that minutes or an account of a closed session conducted in compliance with G.S. 143-318.11 may be withheld from public inspection so long as public inspection would frustrate the purpose of a closed session.”
Nothing can frustrate the purpose of the closed session after the settlement is made public. The media never once reported that it was settled earlier this year. I’m sure Rhino readers would have appreciated a story about their tax dollars being used for protection of a sick secret and not your replay of Greensboro’s council thoughts on Gaza.
Also from that meeting Ian McDowell reported from his facebook page:
“……at Melvin Municipal Office Bldg.
1d
· Greensboro, NC ·
Margaret Moffett alleged the city essentially shut down a News & Record investigation into Greensboro Police Department officers getting naked and having their genitals fondled while investigating massage parlors & that the daily paper she used to report for meekly allowed itself be muzzled. This the first time I’ve heard a print journalist take the podium at a Greensboro City Council townhall.”
That’s two stories that would have been way more Rhino reader friendly than the council’s thoughts on a ceasefire in Gaza.
Dear Greensboro City councilmembers. Speak for yourself, not the city.
And lower my taxes.
With respect to Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann, please stop playing the Holocaust card. Jews deserve a homeland, free of torment from others. However, using the Holocaust as a reason for Israel’s existence is no different than Blacks using slavery to receive preferential treatment. Zionists were actively pursuing an Israelis homeland long before the Holocaust. The Holocaust gave impetus for a Jewish state. Without the Holocaust, would there be a state of Israel today? Probably not.
You fools. You can’t even run this city. Clean up your messes here and stay out of world politics.
Greensboro has done MANY International resolutions over the years. And, we have done many that do not concern “local” issues.
When a large portion of the community is hurting, I do believe it is not “wrong” to be addressed and acknowledged on a local scale. We have people from the Jewish community who are hurting and people from the Palestinian community who are hurting. I am grieving for anyone who has lost a family member in this conflict. No innocent on either side should be dying. I do believe it is wrong, however, to equate everyone who lives in Gaza with Hamas. The war is between Israel and Hamas not Israel and the innocents in Gaza.
Many, many more lives are being ruined by this conflict- for many of our Jewish friends along with many of our Middle Eastern friends. I would think a ceasefire or a pause in the fighting would be accepted by all. I suppose I may be wrong.
Maybe Hamas shouldn’t have started a war.
yes, you are wrong. This is your personal feelings, therefore send a personal note to the powers to be, and the signature should only be your name, not as a city council member.
You suppose correctly. Try taking care of the citizens who voted you into office instead of supporting all the pet projects that consistently waste tax dollars year in and year out. Try concentrating on tax reduction.
By voting Hamas into authority over Gaza, the Palestinians sealed their destiny. Hamas is a terrorist organization and the various actions of unspeakable cruelty on Oct 7 should move every Palestinian to overthrow (eliminate) Hamas. They could work with Israel just as the French resistance was instrumental in aiding the allies in freeing France. Oh well, just a fantasy. Golda Meir was right: “The Arabs will have peace when they love their children more than they hate Jews.”
I acknowledge Abuzuaiter’s concern for family, but with 90% of Gazans supporting Hamas, I can have little sympathy with them. If only half the family went South to evacuate the zone of hostilities, does that mean that those that stayed were there to fight for Hamas? Regardless, the current police action in Gaza has nothing to do with the myriad of problems facing our city. I would suggest Abuzuaiter stay in her lane and concern herself with her duties as a city council member and not try to drag the rest of the council into what is of a personal concern to her.
George Washington: “beware of foreign entanglements”.
Oyvey!
This City Council can’t do a decent job of handling local affairs, they need to stay out of issues that raise the ire of people that they have no control over.
Get your inflated egos in check and get about the business you were elected to do!
Councilmember Abuzuaiter, your response was written on December 7, the day that will live in infamy. The United States was attacked that day. Did the US retaliate? Of course, it did. The same with Israel. It seems there should be an ending to the Gaza problem by ceding Gaza to another country to govern. Ceding Gaza will not stop Hamas’ hatred for Jews and Israel, but it will transfer the problem to another country to manage. No known country was willing to open its doors to the Palestinians since this war began, so the wholesale transfer of control of Gaza makes sense. If Israel refuses to act on a resolution, it can expect a continuation of war, and maybe a lack of support from others in the future.