OPINION: Christine Barber is out of step with progressive voters on Palestine
Two Medford residents argue that Barber's views on Palestine are dangerous and anti-Semitic.
By Chadi Salamoun and Joshua Eckart-Lee
Palestine continues to be front and center in elections from New York to Denver, and progressive voters clearly want candidates who will say what we all know: Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians, and we must do everything we can to end it.
In July, candidates for the 2nd Middlesex State Senate race were asked directly about the genocide. Massachusetts State Rep. Christine Barber refused to call it a genocide, and she continued to draw a false line between her constituents that protest genocide and a rise in antisemitism. This dangerous demonization promotes violence against Palestinians, Muslims, and other community members who are demanding an end to the genocide.
Rep. Barber, along with fellow candidates Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, Somerville City Councilor Matt McLaughlin, and Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem, were asked their positions on the genocide at the July 7 Mystic Valley Voters Forum in Medford. They were also asked how that informed their positions on local efforts in Medford and Somerville to end city investments in companies fueling Israel’s war crimes.
Refusing to call it a genocide, Barber acknowledged that “tens of thousands of civilians [and] children have been killed,” but she chose not to name Israel as the perpetrator of this violence.
Instead, Barber passively talked about “families starving” and “hospitals gone,” as if they were the consequence of natural disasters and not deliberate Israeli policies to starve Palestinians and bomb all of Gaza’s hospitals.
The longtime representative stressed that her refusal to directly address the genocide in Palestine is because she is concerned for all human rights violations, like those in Myanmar and China. However, she ignores that other countries do not receive endless supplies of American-made weapons and billions in U.S. taxpayer money to carry out these violations.
In the same way that reactionaries said “All Lives Matter” in response to Black Lives Matter, Barber refuses to confront the reality of the extreme violence committed against Palestinians and hides behind vague equivocation and dismissal of our direct role in the Palestinian genocide. If she truly believes what she is saying, she is notably silent in calling for any divestment from those other countries.
Americans aren’t protesting this genocide because we care more for Palestinians or less for Uyghurs in China; We understand that our country, our state, and our cities play an active role in what’s happening in Palestine and that our efforts can make a material difference. This is the same reason many Americans protested the Vietnam War and South African apartheid.
Barber went on to say that she held two things at once: her grief for Palestinians and a refusal to accept the rise of antisemitism. To bring up antisemitism, where it was unrelated to the question, perpetuates a racist-narrative that pro-Palestine organizing is antisemitic. This endangers Arabs and Muslims in her community. Furthermore, Barber’s pattern of associating criticism of Israel to antisemitism is itself an antisemitic conflation of Jews with Israel that endangers the Jewish community.
The state rep’s omission of concern for rising hate-crimes towards Arabs and Muslims is worrisome, particularly at a time when Palestinian- and Muslim-Americans are being murdered, attacked, kidnapped, and openly villainized, including the July 15 stabbing of a Muslim man in Utah. How can she insist on concern for all human rights as an excuse to not engage on this genocide, and then give special attention solely to antisemitism?
Medford has already passed a law to divest from this genocide, and more Somerville residents voted in favor of divestment through a Yes On 3 ballot question than in favor of the current mayor. They deserve a candidate who will stick with them in fighting against this current genocide. Christine Barber does not share our progressive values. Her statements about Palestine make that clear.
Chadi Salamoun and Joshua Eckart-Lee are Medford residents and members of Medford for Palestine.
