I am writing to share my deeply disturbing experience at the Northampton City Council meeting on Sept. 18. Many in the community were unaware until just two days prior that a resolution was on the agenda, sponsored by several council members, asking for the divestment of city funds from companies deemed complicit in human rights abuses. This was a thinly veiled, ceremonial BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) resolution aimed squarely at companies connected to the Israeli government. The financial impact is negligible — a divestment of $71,000, less than 1% of the city’s portfolio — but the symbolic damage is immense.

Upon arriving early to speak, it was immediately clear that the four of us speaking against the resolution would be a stark minority. The council chambers were filled with individuals in keffiyehs and “Free Palestine” shirts. While not surprising in the current climate, it was still heartbreaking. BDS movements do not hurt the leaders of the Israeli government; they hurt the people of Israel and those of us here who support them. Like boycotts against Israeli filmmakers and actors, this is not merely political; it is deeply personal.

When it was my turn, I spoke to the council about the blatant double standard being applied. As a city, we were publicly declaring Israel guilty of human rights abuses worthy of divestment, yet no such resolutions have been brought against Sudan, North Korea, Russia, or numerous other nations with egregious human rights records. By singling out the one Jewish state, the city of Northampton is sending a clear message: Israel is the only country that deserves this form of punishment. I stated the fact that BDS movements are antithetical to peace, common ground, and coexistence. I reminded the councilors of their duty to all of Northampton’s children, especially those of Israeli descent who are being told by this resolution that their heritage is a source of shame.

Shame on those councilors who brought this forth in the name of “solidarity,” and shame on the entire City Council for unanimously voting to approve it. You did nothing but sow further division.

But this letter is about something far more heinous that occurred that evening. As an Israeli-American member of our community stood to speak against the resolution, sharing her personal trauma following the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, she was met with sneers from the crowd. Then, loud enough for all of us to hear, someone shouted: “It’s not true.”

Let that sink in. In our City Council chambers, we have people who deny the documented reality of what happened. They refuse to believe Israeli women were raped and tortured. They refuse to believe children were mutilated and murdered. The evidence — countless articles, filmed testimonies, and forensic reports — is widely available for anyone who chooses to see it.

From a Jewish perspective, the denial of atrocities is not only antisemitic and deeply painful but is also a dangerous effort to erase history, delegitimize the suffering of victims, and excuse the perpetrators. This applies most poignantly to the Holocaust, but it applies with equal venom to the massacre of October 7.

At the meeting, I heard many speakers begin their statements with the words, “as a Jew,” often in support of this divisive resolution.

So let me be clear. As a Jew, I will always speak out against the poison of antisemitism when it appears in this community — whether it comes dressed in a keffiyeh, hidden in the language of a city resolution, or shouted as a vile denial of truth in the back of a public meeting. I hope more of my neighbors will join me.

Veronica Darmon lives in Northampton.