{"id":11530,"date":"2023-10-24T23:35:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T03:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=11530"},"modified":"2023-10-28T13:57:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T17:57:46","slug":"chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-complicit-in-the-murder-of-wadea-al-fayoume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2023\/10\/chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-complicit-in-the-murder-of-wadea-al-fayoume\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson is not on our side"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>he recent Tempest\u00a0 article<\/a> on the murder of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume and its call to \u201cbuild a mass anti-racist movement which is in solidarity with the people of Palestine,\u201d is an important one. The tragic death of the young Al-Fayoume reminds us of the enormous stakes for doing so. This work has literally become a matter of life and death. Nevertheless, I thought the article fell short on any mention of Mayor Brandon Johnson\u2019s crucial role in letting the Pro-Israel resolution<\/a>, sponsored by Alderwoman Debbie Silverstein, pass overwhelmingly.<\/p>\n

By tossing pro-Palestinian demonstrators from the council chambers during the debate on the resolution, Johnson made his position clear. This shouldn\u2019t surprise anyone. During the runoff election this past spring, Johnson said<\/a>, \u201cAny speech or any effort to delegitimize Israel and its right to exist, that’s how I view antisemitism.” For those of us in solidarity with Palestine, Brandon Johnson is not on our side, and we should say so.<\/p>\n

Johnson, a favorite of the labor-left, upon taking office has disappointed many supporters on several fronts, including signing a no-strike pledge<\/a> with the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) during next year\u2019s Democratic National Convention, signing a contract with GardaWorld<\/a>, a dubious Blackwater-like security, to house the burgeoning migrants, and appointing Larry Snelling, the former head of the Chicago Police Department\u2019s Counterterrorism unit, as the city\u2019s next police chief.<\/p>\n

The article also fails to mention Jim Gardiner, the 45th Ward Alderman, a so-called new \u201cfriend\u201d of Palestine. Gardiner spoke eloquently against Silverstein\u2019s resolution. \u201cPalestinian people in our community are some of the nicest, kindest, warmest I\u2019ve ever met as well as Jewish people. But I cannot again \u2026 if Palestinian members of our community are not in support, I cannot be in support,\u201d Gardiner told<\/a> the council.<\/p>\n

Literally, within days of the city council vote on the resolution, Gardiner was slapped with a $20,000 fine by Chicago Board of Ethics<\/a> for \u201cretaliating against a frequent critic and political foe by directing a city employee to issue \u2018unfounded citations\u2019 that could have forced the Jefferson Park man to pay more than $600 in fines.\u201d Gardiner has a long history of thuggery<\/a> and is under investigation by the FBI<\/a> for corruption. Like Johnson,\u00a0he is no friend of Palestine.<\/p>\n

Let’s be clear that the Chicago City Council pro-Israel resolution will further encourage hate crimes. The sight of Governor JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson, along with a phone call from President Joe Biden, visiting Wadea Al-Fayoume\u2019s family and expressing condolences after their offices and the city council expressed support for Israel is obscene. The Left must be clear-eyed in its analysis and willing to place blame where blame is due.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Allen<\/strong> responds to a Tempest article on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s role in passing a pro-Israel resolution before the city council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,209],"tags":[517,102,520],"class_list":["post-11530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-readers-views","tag-gaza","tag-islamophobia","tag-palestinian-resistance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Joe_letter_feature_card.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}