Oakland has TikTok brain and it shows. A video went viral this week showing Oakland residents expressing strong support for Hamas during a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Hamas's war with Israel. After Jewish Councilmember Dan Kalb sought permission from the resolution's author, Councilmember Carroll Fife, to include a single-word condemnation of Hamas, the chamber erupted with disapproval from pro-Hamas activists. Kalb, a veteran progressive councilmember, was branded as an "old white racist" for his proposed amendment.
Last night the Oakland City Council voted on a resolution to call for a ceasefire.
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 28, 2023
A city council member tried to insert language condemning Hamas.
This was the reaction… pic.twitter.com/r7aTb2mkrQ
In the aftermath, Governor Newsom publicly condemned Hamas and said, "Hamas is a terrorist organization. They must be called out for what they are: evil." And State Senator Scott Wiener criticized the Oakland City Council for unanimously approving the resolution without incorporating the amendment condemning Hamas. Other reactions ran the gamut from disgust to outrage.
One thing no one should be is shocked.
The meeting was par for the course in today's "current thing" politics. The embrace of Hamas is just the latest iteration of the woke progressive mindset.
The truth is that these woke crusaders cosplaying revolutionaries don't actually care about the plight of suffering Palestinians or any Muslims, despite their screeches about Islamophobia. If they did, we would have witnessed a comparable effort to demand an end to the Myanmar Rohingya genocide and ethnic cleansing, where over 10,000 Muslims, including women, children, and newborns, were killed, more than 300 villages were burned down, and over 700,000 were forced to flee to Bangladesh in search of safety. And what about the Civil War in Yemen, where estimates suggest that more than 227,000 Muslims have died due to an ongoing famine and lack of healthcare? Or the genocide of Uyghur Muslims in China?
As a final testament to their hypocrisy, the sacred "intersectionality" has been abandoned for this latest thing. Note the conspicuous absence of "Black Lives Matter" or "Defund The Police" signs or rhetoric at Oakland's now-infamous council meeting. It all boiled down to "freeing Palestine" and bootlicking for Hamas.
Israel's blockade of Gaza is indeed reprehensible. Attempting to maintain two million people under the conditions prevailing in Gaza is a recipe for disaster. Yet it's obvious to anyone with eyes that Hamas isn't killing Israelis to liberate themselves or to achieve peace. Their brutality and barbarity in attacking the innocent belies any claims to the contrary.
Refraining from defending Hamas should be a straightforward and essential stance. Sadly, Oakland's City Council failed this simple test.
It's essential to note that this resolution prompted a special meeting, resulting in Oakland taxpayers covering the costs amounting to thousands of dollars for what appears to be a purely performative resolution.
Oakland, grappling with record property crime and rampant retail theft, alongside significant budget deficits hindering essential investments in public safety, cannot afford to indulge the nihilistic narcissism prevalent among politicians like Fife and her supporters. This trend of performative actions has contributed to Oakland's current state—a city without the rule of law, witnessing businesses shuttering and residents fleeing in unprecedented numbers.
Oakland deserves a functional government with well-ordered priorities. We will soon have the opportunity to effect change, with an imminent recall of a district attorney and crucial elections in 2024 for the majority of the City Council, including Councilmember Fife.
The performative pro-Hamas spectacle painted Oakland in an awful light, though sadly, an accurate one. It's time for change. Performative, hypocritical virtue signaling is the hallmark of white woke progressives, and wherever they exist, you can find average people paying the price for their vanity.
Seneca Scott is a former organizer with SEIU Local 2021 and the founder and director of Neighbors Together Oakland.
Correction: An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that Councilwoman Fife is associated with the Anti Police-Terror Project. We regret the error.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
