There is nothing I can say about Gaza that hasn’t been said perfectly by the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert: “Israel is committing war crimes” and a proposed relocation of 600,000 Palestinians into a “humanitarian city” amounts to nothing less than a “concentration camp” that would be “part of an ethnic cleansing.”
As long as the United State provides unconditional and unquestioning aid and arms to one side, untethered from humanitarian objectives, there will be no lasting peace.
However, those Corvallis city councilors who voted for a draft resolution in support of the anti-Israeli boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement have done nothing to advance the cause of the people of Gaza. Their performative gesture has only put a big red target on the city of Corvallis.
Across the country, the federal government is pulling funding and grants from cities that are tied to the BDS or DEI initiatives. The virtue signaling by these city councilors is not helpful to the cause, nor is it without risk. What progressive programs and goals might be undermined when the federal government decides to pick on funding tied to Corvallis or one of its many vulnerable employers? I have many Jewish friends who are opposed to the current Israeli government, but have legitimate fears for their safety when our local government attracts attention as a soapbox for unrelated federal and international issues.
If this gesture of support for Gaza were helpful to Gazan civilians, I would be supportive. Full stop. But it isn’t. It reminds me of when I was in student government at Georgetown University: those elected by fellow students to have better soda machines in the cafeteria wrote meaningless amicus curiae briefs to the Supreme Court on issues that had nothing to do with the student experience, except for the sponsor’s law school application.
Likewise, these city councilors are wasting everyone’s time and taxpayer dollars by focusing on national issues at the municipal level. This has the potential to create huge legal and funding costs to the city! If they really cared about Gaza, they would apply pressure where it matters: at the federal level.
I will lead by example: what influence does the money given by pro-Israeli PACS have on our three federal representatives in DC? In total, Senator Ron Wyden has received $1,280,376, Senator Jeff Merkley has received $250,147, and Congresswoman Val Hoyle has received $70,551 in her short career from pro-Israel PACS, tied to a government most American Jews don’t even support. In 2024, only 41% of American Jews held a favorable view of the Israeli government. Who do these politicians represent?
Does this staggering amount of money have something to do with the unconditional and endless aid dollars and arms given to a government that a former Israel Prime minister says is perpetuating genocide? Maybe the first step on advocating for human rights in Gaza is to wonder what these donations to our federal officials are buying. If you want change in Gaza, follow the money sent to our politicians because that is directly tied to the arms and aid sent to the current Israeli government. But performative soapboxing and virtue signaling in local government is not the right path. It is highly risky and potentially costly to the city.
Bjorn Philip Beer is a businessman and advocate for affordable housing across the country. He graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He resides in Corvallis.
Corvallis Advocate Responds
We agree with Beer that the City Council should not ultimately pass Ward 2 Councilor Briae Lewis’ Resolution Prohibiting Investment in Genocide, Apartheid and Illegal Occupation. But our rationale differs.
The draft resolution doesn’t directly identify the BDS movement or Israel, but it does refer to Investigate.info as a place the City could find lists of companies to financially divest from. When you navigate to the site, their lists have titles like, Divesting for Palestinian Rights and Companies Profiting from Gaza Genocide. Those lists share numerous commonalities with BDS lists.
Many in Corvallis’ Jewish community will see this resolution as antisemitic.
The ADL, or Anti-Defamation League says, “BDS presents a biased and simplistic approach to the complex Israeli-Palestinian conflict, positioning this dispute over territorial and nationalist claims as the fault of only one party – Israel – while ignoring other actors and dynamics such as Palestinian shared responsibility for the continuation of the conflict. BDS advocates for self-determination for Palestinians while denying to Jews that same right.”
According to the ADL, the BDS movement often uses the words genocide, apartheid and colonialist so hyperbolically and inaccurately that they’ve reduced the terms to antisemitic epithets. They also see the movement’s requirements for people-to-people interactions and dialogue between Palestinians and Jews as inherently antisemitic.
Beer cites quotes from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. But quotes aren’t facts. Olmert can rightly be seen as given to rhetoric; he is a politician after all.
That said, as much as we think Israel had the right to defend itself after it was attacked, we also view their June engagement with Iran as marking the end of Hamas as a threat for the moment. This could have been a time to start offering aid to the people of Gaza. We think Israeli society will eventually come to a wrenchingly deep regret over their government’s actions in Gaza these last several weeks, or even months. Much like our country has come to see its destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as horrific.
Finally, we think Beer is right to worry about the Trump administration withholding funds from Corvallis. But for us, that wouldn’t be enough reason to not take a stand if we thought it was the right thing. However, it can be reasonably argued that the draft resolution is implicitly antisemitic, so it is something we would stand against.
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