Open Letter to the Arcata Chamber of Commerce and the Arcata City Council From the Redwood Peace and Justice Coalition
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![The “Palestine - Israel Talking Corner” is a space created for dialogue and debate among community members, held by the Redwood Peace and Justice Coalition (RPJC). [All Photos by Ryan Hutson]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/image2.jpg)
The “Palestine – Israel Talking Corner” is a space created for dialogue and debate among community members, held by the Redwood Peace and Justice Coalition (RPJC). [Photo by Ryan Hutson]
The Redwood Peace and Justice Coalition has been active in our community advocating for the establishment of a sister city between Arcata and Gaza City, Palestine.
We are actively collecting signatures in the community supporting the establishment of this issue in order to demonstrate to the city council that there is robust support for this project.
We were approached on Saturday January 18th by the Arcata Farmers Market management and told that the Arcata Chamber of Commerce complained about our long established and cooperatively conducted signature gathering and public dialog project.
We have had a presence on the Arcata Plaza and have been gathering signatures there and at many other public venues in our community since early 2024 for both the Palestine ceasefire resolution and for an Arcata sister city in Palestine.
As a result of this effort we successfully demonstrated to the city council that a ceasefire resolution had broad public support and the city council listened and passed a ceasefire resolution regarding Israel-Palestine in March of 2024.
In our current campaign for a sister city alliance with Gaza City and Arcata, we continue to advocate for this cause in the identical manner and methods that we utilized in our 2024 campaign for a ceasefire resolution by the city council.
We have continually collaborated with the managers of the Arcata Farmers Market when we gather signatures there on Saturdays, and we have followed their rules and requests obligingly and appreciatively.
We have broad public support for our mission to provide humanitarian aid and cultural exchange through our advocacy of an Arcata sister city in Palestine, including within the local business community and Farmer’s Market vendors. We prioritize meaningful community dialog. This is the public square and we have respectfully conducted public outreach with our free speech rights there for over a year.
Our activities will serve the interests of local commerce, just as the Nicaraguan sister city has. You won’t be able to point to any verifiable evidence that our activities have negatively impacted the farmers market commercial activity.
Now, however, it is evident that we are being targeted by a behind the scenes insider campaign from within the Arcata Chamber of Commerce to unreasonably curtail and intimidate our public outreach efforts.
Councilperson Meredith Mathews is the Executive Director of the Arcata Chamber of Commerce. She has made emphatic public statements registering unequivocal ideological opposition to an Arcata-Palestine sister city project.
We wish the Arcata Chamber of Commerce and City Council members to understand our concern that Ms Mathews may be using her position at the Arcata Chamber of Commerce to sow seeds of controversy with the management of the Arcata Farmers Market so as to limit our already long established community outreach free speech activities on the Plaza.
We are never disrespectful or threatening to the public and we never interfere with the commerce of the farmers market. We invite any members of the Chamber of Commerce to visit the Palestine Talking Corner any Saturday from 12-2pm on the Arcata Plaza on the corner closest to Cafe Brio. We’d love to share what we are doing, and we welcome a chance to address any concerns directly.
We call on the City Council, and the Chamber of Commerce to investigate whether the complaints against us were made in bad faith, and what role did Ms Mathews play in these complaints.Shawn Leon, Redwood Peace and Justice Coalition
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Trump is trying to claim credit for the ceasefire in Gaza but the true story is word of the March, 2024 resolution by the Arcata City Council finally reached Hamas and Netanyahu.
If only the Arcata City Council will pass a resolution calling for a sister city relationship with Gaza City lasting peace will finally come to the Middle East, right? ?♂️
The Peace and Justice Coalition might have missed it but Gaza City is in the heart of a war zone and there is no identifiable civil administration unless you count remnants of Hamas and Islamic Jihad – but those cool headbands will be a hit during cultural exchange!
It’s time for these clowns to quit riding on the backs of the Farmers Market and pick their own time to demonstrate.
Because being in a public space and doing community organizing on the plaza is against the law, right? Trump might now agree with you.
Reading Comprehension? I said they should pick there own time to demonstrate – not ride on the backs of the Farmer’s Market.
ya why not pick a time when the square isn’t as occupied with people.
Good use of irony and good comment. My only opinion on this that can fit in a comment section is; “it’s complicated” We’re better off minding our own business and dealing with issues at hand, here in Humboldt, which there are many.
Mathews and the other Zionist politicians in Arcata need to respect the 1st amendment and stop interfering with their constituents right to peaceful freedom of speech.
Americans are waking up to the fact that Israel is a genocidal regime engaging in ethnic cleansing.
Arcata’s possible sister might be dead soon and the land the Palestinians used to walk may be developed by a certain wealthy US President and his family. Surely Arcata would be happy to be aligned with the new Trump Majal on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean!
Gain of function escapes the lab again.
I’m sure it’s no coincidence that this group is coming after Arcata’s one Jewish council member. Sheer coincidence, yes?
Kinda underscores what this group is all about, and it isn’t about peace. What’s next, drawing swastikas on park benches and leaving “death to the jews” graffitti everywhere? Oh, I forgot. That already happened.
Ya let’s call this antisemitism too. Silencing free speech is what we do when we don’t like your opinion.
Ain’t cancel culture Grand?
Calling a spade a spade isn’t a violation of the first amendment. And last time I checked, it was the anti-zionists who were the ones shouting down and physically attacking everyone who disagrees with them, and vandalizing their billboards.
A proud Zionist who supports gentrification, ignores their constituents, and uses their power to promote conflicts of interest? Arcata deserves better.
Peace and Justice starts in our own backyards, right?
I fully support and stand by your right to advocate for this in the commons, but Palestine is SO 2024, bro.
So no evidence offered?
Slandering Meredith or any other Jews will not free Palestine! You are indeed enemies of peace in the community. I advise you to read the North Coast Growers Association statement about this opinion piece on their website indicating that the so-called “Peace and Justice Coalition” is a systematic problem for the Farmers Market community. Stop adding social toxins to our food!
Slandering Meredith will not free Palestine!
See response in attached image from North Coast Growers Association. Page 1. Page 2 coming…
Page 2, with the meat of NCGA statement.
Omg what a reactionary and telling response. Surely the employee was at fault. It’s not like Meredith Mathew’s hasn’t publicly stated her “fearfulness of being at the arcata market since 10/7” at city council meetings on record or anything….
I have avoided the market as well. Apparently, according to the letter Tamar posted, many others object as well. You assume Meredith is alone. She is not. The farmers market is no place for your propaganda.
I’m sure if you and your Zionist friends were doing your version of community organizing that there would be lots of complaints. And protesting genocide and calling for an arms embargo to end the ongoing slaughter of children is not propaganda. Just because you stand with the genocidal colony doesn’t give you a right to silence those who are organizing against our taxes going to support this horror.
Hiding behind the guise of free speech to break the rules of the Farmers Market and slander Ms. Mathews, who works tirelessly to provide a stable, rational Arcata? Free speech? I guess. But not responsible speech. The North Coast Growers Association put out a strong oppositional response calling the “Peace and Justice Coalition” statements about Ms. Mathews “completely unfounded and untruthful, and cause personal harm and further harm to our community”.
Also…yes, I do feel intimidated by your political signature-gathering as I try to enjoy my local market. Not to mention the ridiculousness of trying to make our legitimate local government join forces with an immoral movement in Gaza City. Are our goals the same as theirs? To rape, murder, and terrorize not only Jews, but the whole Western World?
No “Peace”, no “Justice”.
AAMOF, it’s because there has been “No Justice” for Palestinians who were driven from their homes and lands by a deliberate campaign of terror and ethnic cleansing, led by the founders of Israel, that there is “No Peace” for Israel.
Israel, an apartheid semi-theocratic state, continues to inflict terror on the Palestinians in the occupied territories (Gaza and the West Bank) either directly or by proxy by ignoring settler violence.
Looks like the facts are disturbing to some people, especially those who have bought into the creation myths for the modern state of Israel.
Meredith Mathews has stated in public at council meetings that she hasn’t “felt safe” at the Arcata Farmers Market since 10/7.
It was a malitious mob.