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Debate chaos
Editor,
“Disturbing the Peace” is a law. The protesters who disrupted the Jan. 31 congressional candidates’ debate were breaking that law. Even without it, if I want to stage a protest against, say, Palo Alto’s failure to build housing, I’d need a permit. Even with a permit, if I start ranting and tooting my horn, I’d be cited.
I understand that Embarcadero Media Foundation CEO Adam Dawes is new to the job. Bless his heart for taking on this struggling but so very important paper. But failing to shut down the protestors, as Jewish thought would describe it, missed the mark. The protestors got to sabotage the hard work the candidates put into preparing for the debate. Also, the main driver behind the majority of the “ceasefire/free Palestine” is institutionalized antisemitism. The protesters themselves are unaware of it. For example, there was a ceasefire. It was on Oct. 6, and it was the reason Hamas attacked the next day. They don’t know this.
It would behoove the Weekly to remember that Palo Alto has, relative to other Bay Area cities, a sizable Jewish community. There has been a “white flight” from this city, the exception being the “whites” who are Jewish. We have stayed. Committing to and participating in community is fundamental to Jewish culture. Since Oct. 7, we’ve been living under a firehose of antisemitism. Adam’s choice to allow the ranting to continue added to the abuse.
For the record, all of my Jewish family, friends and acquaintances abhor Netanyahu. Israel is a cautionary tale for those flirting with autocracy.
Deborah Goldeen
Birch Street, Palo Alto
Enforce the law
Editor,
Adam Dawes, the CEO of Embarcadero Media Foundation, is mistaken when he writes in the Feb. 2 Palo Alto Weekly that “no laws were being broken” by the dozens of anti-Israel protesters who brazenly hijacked the Congressional candidates debate held in Palo Alto City Hall on Jan. 31. For 45 minutes, the mob of protesters hurled hateful epithets at the candidates and at members of the audience, and they prevented the candidates from speaking.
This was a direct violation of Section 403 of the California Penal Code, which states: “Every person who, without authority of law, willfully disturbs or breaks up any assembly or meeting that is not unlawful in its character … is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
The police should have enforced Section 403, and escorted the illegal protesters out of City Hall so that the event could proceed. Furthermore, it would have been helpful if Mr. Dawes, who hosted the debate, had alerted the audience about this law before the meeting started.
It makes sense that Section 403 exists. Protestors have free speech rights. But so do candidates, and so does the audience. Free speech includes the right to hear what the candidates were saying. If we do not protect our own free speech rights, we give protestors a “heckler’s veto.”
In the coming days, a group of us who attended the event will be talking with the mayor, the City Council members, and law enforcement officials to make sure that everyone is aware of Section 403 of the Penal Code — and that the police are ready to enforce it when necessary.
We will not be able to maintain our democracy if illegal protestors are allowed to drown out our free speech rights.
I look forward to the next candidate debate for the 16th Congressional district debate — this time without disruption from illegal protestors.
Alan Crystal
Byron St., Palo Alto
Ezran’s excellent column
Editor,
Claude Ezran’s guest opinion (Feb. 2, Palo Alto Weekly) did an excellent job explaining the root causes of local antisemitism. It is a tragedy that antisemitism persists anywhere, including in our supposedly enlightened environment. The scary thing is that ignorance and misunderstanding of the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is only going to get worse with the ethnic studies curricula that will be taught in all California high schools that are very biased and one-sided in favor of the Palestinian point of view. I fear that antisemitism is only going to get worse in the future.
Todd Kaye
Jackson Drive, Palo Alto
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