The following announcement was provided by Watertown Citizens for Peace Justice and the Environment:
The Peace and Common Security Working Group of Watertown Citizens for Peace Justice and the Environment will present a film at 2:00 PM, Sunday, December 29 at the Watertown Free Public Library – Watertown Savings Bank Room.
The film is “The Night Won’t End: Biden’s War on Gaza.” The Group experienced a rough time securing a venue for this screening. Showing the film was twice canceled at the last minute by two different churches in Watertown. Thus we are hoping for a strong turnout. Thank you for your support.
The Night Won’t End. Biden’s War on Gaza
From air strikes to field executions, Fault Lines investigates the killings of civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza and the role of the United States and Biden administration in the genocide. Discussion to Follow.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29 from 2:00 PM
WATERTOWN FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, 123 Main Street, Watertown MA 02472
Plenty of Parking and on the Route 71 Bus Line.
Please share with members of your organization, your place of workshop, your community organizations, and your family, friends, and neighbor.
There are several movies about the massacre launched from Gaza, by Hamas and eager civilians, on Oct. 7th. Why not make it a double feature? If a war to free hostages and defeat a terrorist group bent on annihilating Jews is genocide (it’s patently not), what is the slaughter of women and children, some burned alive? What is the abduction of over 200 hostages, some murdered, some still held captive over 14 months later? Just a few topics for discussion.
Of course the churches cancelled. The film is totally one-sided and anti-Semitic. And how crass to show it right in the middle of Hanukkah.
Shame on Watertown Citizens for promoting this offensive one-sided “documentary” by Al-Jazeera and Fault Lines. Then again, it’s not surprising. Please let us know how many people show up.
Are taxpayers being charged for any of this? Or is Watertown Citizens picking up the tab?
Perhaps the City should follow the churches’ example and cancel as well.
Show us a shred of evidence of “taxpaper money” being spent here. This is an advocacy group with a point of view. It’s still a free country, whether you agree or not. Typical MAGA deception tactics. Scare people and God forbid anyone actually talk about the real issues. But that ok. Trump is gonna fix all of this on January 20th…right after he annexes Greenland, takes back the Panama Canal, and makes Canada our 51st state!
What is “taxpaper money”? What are you quoting? Reading what you write is already a difficult task, particularly the obsessive MAGA comments. I know how unhappy you are after losing the presidency, and the senate, and the congress, but you need to work on those anger issues.
By the way, I need to show you nothing; that why I am asking “ Are taxpayers being charged for any of this? Or is Watertown Citizens picking up the tab?” If you don’t know the answer, spare me the useless, misplaced commentary.
Are taxpayers being charged? Wouldn’t that be taxpayer money? Enlighten me. You try these silly semantics to cover up the MAGA agenda in everything you say. And nice dodge on Trump’s priorities. Can’t wait to hear you after January 20th. All the winning will be exhausting. And yes, the GOP carried the table this time. You people act like there will never be another election to change that fact. Trump won in 2016 and lost Congress in 2018 and the entire table in 2020, despite the endless delusional lies to the contrary.
Read Kim Hewitt’s response below. That’s how is done; staying on topic and being respectful. Go educate yourself.
And stop using “You people”. It is discriminatory and derogatory.
Erratum:
That’s why I am asking, it is.
Unfortunately, people forget that it is the government that shall not curb free speech and so the puic library does not have the same leeway to say no to this as a church or corporation. And per free speech people are free to organize and show a film about Israel from any perspective they want. Free speech is not to be banned; it is to be countered with other speech. Freedom requires the responsibility not just the benefit to organize. Others are not responsible for doing that.
I highly recommend “When Olive Trees Weep,” a film about the colonization of Palestine. There are several Holocaust survivors interviewed in the film, as well as former Zionists. Very powerful and moving. I don’t really know about the movie cited above, but another good one is “Incarceration by Degrees.” The history of that area is not well known to Americans NOR to Israeli citizens (just like what happened to Native Americans in this country is not widely taught in American schools). I also recommend a fascinating book on the subject, “The Holocaust and the Nakba: A New Grammar of Trauma and History,” edited by Bashir Bashir and Amos Goldberg. Balanced and informative.
Also:
Genocide in Gaza: Fact or Myth?
An exploration into the meaning of genocide and its widespread use in public discourse since October 7th
By Catherine Perez-Shakdam and Elisa Tovel
White paper available online.
Thanks for those recommendations. I recommend Bonehoeffer, it is a film that renforces the idea of speaking one’s consciousness and shows that when things are extremely unbalanced, there are always people like Bonehoeffer pointing to truths.
There is a genocide occurring in Gaza. I am really shocked that so many otherwise good people, good Jewish people would be so obsessed about the harm that is coming to some people that they consider family that they would not see the terrible harm that is happening to other equally important families. To point out a genocide is not anti-Semitic. To be pro Palestinian is not to be anti-Jewish. To be pro Palestinian is to be pro human.
If everyone is not important, and only some people, than maybe no one is.
So you would agree that Hamas should release those hostages still alive, as well as the remains of those they have murdered in captivity? And then surrender w/o conditions? That would have ended the war any time they offered it. Worth mentioning, I think.
Somehow the “pro-Palestinians” fail to condemn October 7 atrocities, gang rapes of Jewish women by Hamas sadistic animals, murders of Jewish children in front of their parents and vise versa, burning Jewish children alive and talking hostages including 9 months old baby. This group is openly or covertly supports Hamas which is the root of Gaza people problem. This war was started by Hamas, it will end immediately if Hamas lays down the arms and releases hostages.
Can you make your point without spreading disproved allegations about October 6? It was bad enough!! Does it need exaggerated misrepresentations? Do you have to call other people animals? This is a real red flag for me. Authoritarian governments, including the Nazis referred to Jews as animals. Say what you want to say, but you don’t need to add a lot of misleading embroidery and hate speech.
Beautifully stated David.
I agree.
I agree – with Yuri and Josh.
This organization clearly has an agenda. They have declined the request to show other films that share multiple perspectives of the atrocities happening in the conflict created by Hamas. This organization has chosen to take a one-sided position that is anti-Semitic and does a disservice to the City by withholding information that is critical to understanding the complexities of the war and the role Hamas plans not only in starting the war on 10/7/23 but also in harming its own people in Gaza for whom it governs. Shame on the Library and our City officials for enabling this.
Indeed. Their monthly Palestine Committee Meeting gives us a clue. And when you have a City Councilor, namely Tony Palomba, as part of this organization’s steering committee, I doubt the Sunday screening will be cancelled.
Well written, Rachael. Thanks.
It’s called freedom of speech. Meet at the Library to discuss your side of the story. It’s still a free country, for now. And for the record, I don’t agree totally with either side. Both need to be heard. Using the Library for public meetings isn’t an endorsement of any position.
Agreed in every detail, but one troubling question: what role should the town play in their exercise of free speech? When does a hateful point of view become unacceptable in the public square? Indeed, some of these same people are stationed in Watertown Square every weekend, and get honks of approval. Does that earn them space in the Watertown Savings Bank room at the Free Public Library? Not necessarily: even churches, which are free from oversight to present their own agendas, turned this group away. I always say the answer to hate speech is more speech. We are free to attend and answer their slander with truth, if they really want a big turnout. Sunday at 2 pm. And the Pats play on Saturday this week, so no conflict there.
The library like the town council cannot curb speech per the first amendment and the MA Supreme Court just reaffirmed this. A house of worshop, private school, corporation or anything that is not public can. This is why one can say a city council is blah blah and not get silenced, but one cant say blah blah about something and not get fired from a company. This is also why anyone can protest/hold signs in the square or march/chant in the streets like racists and Nazi are wanton to do. However, the cops cannot prevent anyone from screaming every expletive at them and their mothers. The cops can only keep people at a distance. I know this from the experience of having held signs and screaming at Nazis.
It is not the organization’s responsibility to do so. One is absolutely free to organize a screening of what they want. And people are free to attend or not. And people are free to say it is an agenda or not. And people are free to say they hate Hamas and Netenyahu or not. And people are free to ask what different Israeli think or not. And people are free to cry over the hostages and dead Palestians or not. What one is not free to do is make others do one’s bidding.
Somebody is paying to open and close the building, whether the group is reimbursing the town for or not.
As for the organizers, they have a serious amount of repentance to do: their website advocates taking action to oppose the internationally accepted definition of anti-Semitism.
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I asked the City about Sunday’s event. Here’s the response:
Your message was forwarded to me by the City Manager’s office. Thank you for taking the time to communicate your concerns regarding the program to be presented at the Watertown Free Public Library by the Peace and Common Security Working Group of Watertown Citizens for Peace Justice and the Environment on Sunday, December 29, 2024. Please note that this program is not sponsored, endorsed, or presented by the Library, but is a privately hosted program using the Library’s publicly accessible meeting room in accordance with Library policy.
The Library appreciates your expression of your views and opinions regarding this or any topic of discussion. The meeting room to be used for this program is a designated public forum at which free speech is protected. Therefore, in keeping with the protections of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the requirements of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Library is unable to regulate speech within a public forum based upon the content of that speech. As noted above, the Library is not the sponsor of this program, and in no way endorses the private views expressed by this or any program while using this public forum. In the interest of protecting free speech, the Library makes this room available for the expression of all manner of speech.
While the Library regrets that you may be offended by this program at the Watertown Free Public Library public meeting room, such use of the public meeting room is consistent with the stated policies of the Library in allowing for free expression within this public forum. You are welcome to book a room to share your view with the community here: https://watertownlib.org/739/Meeting-and-Study-Room-Reservations
Respectfully,
Kim Hewitt, Library Director (she/they)
Watertown Free Public Library
123 Main St, Watertown, MA 02472
Watertown Citizens’ showing of this biased film, which perpetuates lies and misinformation about Israel while failing to acknowledge Hamas’s accountability for atrocities of 10/7 and the resulting war, is their right, as antisemitic as it is. But the library’s willingness to promote the group’s event on their website is in fact, a tacit endorsement and completely irresponsible. That the group’s anti Israel and anti semitic agenda drives is promoted by a governing city councilor, Tony Palumbo, should be problematic for everyone.
Thank you Director Kim Hewitt for not censoring a film. Free speech should not be limited because people dont like the information being presented. What is happening in Gaza right now is not right. This wrong will never correct the wrong committed on October 7th. Two wrongs don’t make a right. The leadership of Israel deserves criticism as does any leader of any nation. Many Israeli citizens have criticized Netanyhu for over two years now as his coalition has stripped them of rights and sought to control the judiciary. While here see fit to defend his leadership at any cost, most in the world, including the Pope, see this failure to diplomatically settle the matter as a moral failure. Children of Gaza of all faiths are being killed and maimed at an alarming rates and the hostages still remain kept in appaling conditions when they could be at home and spared more trauma. Ironically those who want the bloodshed of all Semtic people to end (Jewish and Palestinian) are being called antisemitic, while those defending a nation who leader needs to do better by his people, are in many cases some of the same people descreate Jewish cemeteries and buildings them or spread bloodlibel about Jewish people. Are they defending the Jewish people or the access to oil? I personally cannot tell you how many times I have heard Jewish slurs or myths out the same mouths who now say defend Israel. And I hate that sort of speech!
Free speech and Al-Jazeera propaganda are not mutually exclusive; we just don’t care for the latter. Please let us know how many people show up today.