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Amid growing movement, Santa Rosa protestors call for ceasefire in Gaza

Oct 31, 2023

Amid growing movement, Santa Rosa protestors call for ceasefire in Gaza

Joining an international upsurge in Palestinian solidarity protests in late October, roughly 150 people gathered in downtown Santa Rosa on Oct. 29 to call for an immediate end to Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza following Hamas’ attack on Israel.

During Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise assault, the group killed 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 hostages.

As of Monday, Oct. 30, Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip—a bombing campaign paired with severly limited supplies of food, water and other necessities for 2.2 million residents—had killed an estimated 8,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children. More than 1.4 million people in Gaza had been displaced from their homes due to bombing and evacuation orders.

While international bodies and nongovernmental organizations have raised humanitarian concerns about Israel’s ongoing response to the Hamas attacks, American politicians still largely support Israel.

Sonoma County for Palestine, the newly-formed coalition which organized the Oct. 29 protest, is urging the North Bay’s Congress members, Rep. Jared Huffman and Rep. Mike Thompson, to sign on to House Resolution 786. The non-binding statement written by Rep. Cori Bush calls for an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation. It has been signed by 18 Congress members.

In a press release issued on Saturday, Oct. 28, Sonoma County for Palestine highlighted some of the historical context leading up to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack—“At the root of violence in Israel and Palestine is the 75+ years of occupation [by Israel]”—and stated the “Forced displacement of over 1 million Palestinians from their homes, depriving people of essentials of survival, and subjecting them to constant bombardment is dehumanizing and genocide.” Longterm, the group supports “an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, and an end to ongoing U.S. aid to Israel.”

Huffman and Thompson have both weighed in on the conflict multiple times since Oct. 7.

On Oct. 27, Huffman issued a lengthy statement on the “worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” After condemning Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and restating Israel’s “right to defend itself militarily” against the Oct. 7 attacks and ongoing missile attacks, Huffman wrote, “Every effort must be made to minimize non-combatant civilian casualties and avoid any form of collective punishment. Israel can and should punish Hamas, but not the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have nothing to do with Hamas.”

In the statement, Huffman makes no mention of a ceasefire, but does support calls for a “humanitarian pause,” a more limited option backed by the Biden administration and others last week. J Street, an advocacy organization which leads politicians on tours of Israel and has endorsed both Huffman and Thompson, also came out in support of humanitarian pauses last week.

However, the scale and length of the pauses politicians are calling for is often unclear. According to the United Nations’ definitions, a humanitarian pause is a “temporary cessation of hostilities purely for humanitarian purposes… usually for a defined period and specific geographic area where the humanitarian activities are to be carried out.” A ceasefire, meanwhile, is defined by the U.N. as “A suspension of fighting agreed upon by the parties to a conflict… intended to be long-term and [which] often covers the entire geographic area of the conflict.”

On Oct. 13, Huffman signed a letter to President Joe Biden with 54 other Congress members, repeating concerns from the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) that a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip called for by some Israel Defense Forces leaders would be “a violation of international humanitarian law.”

Weeks later, as Israel’s campaign continued, humanitarian concerns from the same bodies heightened. The UNCHR released an Oct. 27 statement beginning, “All parties to the conflict in Israel and Gaza have shown reckless disregard for civilian life and must comply with international law to prevent atrocities from continuing.”

The same day, the U.N. General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution calling for “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities,” along with other demands. The resolution passed with a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstensions. The United States and Israel were among the “No” votes.

Thompson’s public statements since Oct. 7 have been brief by comparison to Huffman’s, with little to no mention of humanitarian concerns for Palestinian civilians. In an Oct. 26 Facebook post, Thompson wrote, “Last night, I voted to pass a Congressional resolution condemning the horrific and savage war crimes committed by Hamas terrorists and to reaffirm our commitment to standing with Israel. We must work to free the hostages being held by Hamas and support our ally in their fight against terrorism.”

Huffman and all but ten other congressmembers voted in favor of the resolution, HR 771, which makes no mention of the thousands of Palestinians killed in Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign.

‘Inflamed’ highlights some of the heroes of the Tubbs Fire

Will Carruthers

Oct 31, 2023

‘Inflamed’ highlights some of the heroes of the Tubbs Fire

A new book provides an in-depth account of the rescue of residents of two opulent Santa Rosa retirement care homes from the rapidly-spreading Tubbs Fire in early October 2017.

Families of residents of the Villa Capri and Varenna facilities often shelled out over $10,000 per month for a room and full-time care at the facilities, which were built by developer and banker Bill Gallahers’ Oakmont Senior Living in the fire scar of the September 1964 Hanly Fire.

While the buildings were beautiful, the actual living conditions were subject to criticism, according to Inflamed: Abandonment, Heroism, and Outrage in Wine Country’s Deadliest Firestorm by Anne E. Belden and Paul Gullixson.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of four residents a month before the fires alleged that the Santa Rosa Oakmont facilities were understaffed, leaving residents at risk “of not having their care needs met and of suffering frustration, pain, discomfort, humiliation, and/or injury from inadequate care and supervision.”

During the fires, things turned dire. According to the book, the evacuation of the seniors was left at first to a few low-paid, largely unprepared night shift employees, juggling multiple jobs in order to get by in the ever more expensive Wine Country. The final 105 residents, many unable to move on their own, were evacuated by family members and first responders.

The account of the lengthy, chaotic and harrowing evacuation eats up a large portion of the book, but a few images that illustrate the problems stick out. For instance, as flames became visible from Villa Capri, a large bus sat in the parking lot, inoperable because none of the staff on duty knew where the keys were.

Although none of the residents ultimately died in the fires, residents and their family members were understandably left traumatized, and several residents passed away in the weeks and months after the evacuation.

The book is based on interviews with over 100 sources. Although Gallaher and employees of his companies did not agree to on-the-record interviews, Belden and Gullixson quote from depositions given by some company officials in the various lawsuits which followed the Tubbs Fire.

Inflamed rightfully touts the actions of those who risked their lives in the fires. However, by the end of the book, this reader was mostly left with a deep disappointment in the legislative and justice systems’ response to the problems highlighted by the Oakmont residents’ traumatic experiences.

When Oakmont faced multiple lawsuits and investigations by government agencies relating to the fires, the companies lawyered up, flatly denying the numerous allegations against them and successfully avoiding any jury trials. As part of the various settlements, the companies agreed to pay fines, accept additional oversight for a few years and make changes—some of them temporary—to their management practices.

Ultimately, Gallaher companies were allowed to rebuild and reopen the Santa Rosa facilities. Elsewhere, Oakmont Senior Living has continued to expand, becoming the 27th largest senior living company in the country in 2022.

Belden and Gullixson are scheduled to appear at Copperfield’s Books Santa Rosa store at 7pm on Friday, Nov. 3, and at Readers’ Books in Sonoma at 6pm on Wednesday, Nov. 8.