“Never again means never again for anyone. Never again also means ppl of conscience have a responsibility to prevent the past fear & indifference to Jewish suffering from ever happening again to anyone anywhere. Ppl have the right to call out elected leaders’ complicity w/genocide”
The First Amendment is intended to protect the people’s right to speak out against the government. Government officials (e.g., State Senators, members of the Board of Supervisors) are obligated to listen to their constituents, not to lash out against the free exercise of speech.
Avalos’s social media post supported criticism of an elected state senator who refuses to call for a ceasefire in a war the International Court of Justice and a federal court in Oakland called “plausibly” genocidal. Like countless jurists, academics, human rights groups, and other experts around the world—including some of Israel’s leading Holocaust scholars—Avalos believes Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. So do we. And like Avalos, we condemn any elected official who is complicit.
During the McCarthy era of the Frightened Fifties, people were intimidated by the government for the exercise of their rights of association and freedom of speech. Many lost their jobs, employment and careers—even their families.
Now we are confronting books bans, library closures, study restrictions, job loss, even violence, all designed to silence opposition to genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Condemning John Avalos for his public, personal expression is the rearing of the McCarthyist Snake.
The San Francisco Berniecrats reject a return to those times. Please join us. Speak out. Call for a ceasefire NOW and an end to Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and throughout illegally occupied Palestine. Oppose the New McCarthyism.