By Jessyka Heredia
East County Magazine
LEMON GROVE, California – Lemon Grove City Council members adopted a resolution earlier this week calling for an immediate, permanent ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis affecting Gaza and Israel.”
Activists from Borderlands for Equity came before the Council, after former La Mesa Council candidate Mejgan Afshan approached Councilmember Jennifer Mendoza to propose the resolution.
Borderlands for Equity is “a pro bono civil rights 501(c)(3) nonprofit that serves those that have been discriminated against on the basis of ethnicity, gender orientation, race, religion within our borderlands region,” according to its website.
Together, Mendoza and council colleague Alysson Snow drafted the resolution to bring before the Council at a prior meeting, but the agenda was dominated by flood response issues. Mendoza said she received messages from residents saying, “stay in your lane, this doesn’t belong in Lemon Grove, but Mendoza stated, “We have a very diverse community here in Lemon Grove and East County. If not now, when?”
Councilmember Snow explained, “The reason I got into politics at all was because in I think it was 2019, I was sitting watching George Floyd scream out for his mom. That was a call out to all the moms in the community. We can’t watch other kids be slaughtered. Its not enough to stand still and sit by. We have to stand up.”
Joel Pablo, the City Clerk stated that over 78 messages were received in support by email on the resolution and 823 emails in opposition of passing the ceasefire resolution.
ECM took a look at the emails that the city received to discover that most all of the opposition emails were the exact same verbiage sent from different email addresses. They read,” A ceasefire resolution will not bring anyone peace. In fact, it will be divisive for Lemon Grove as it has been in every city in which a similar resolution has been passed. As you know, the Jewish community has seen a 400% rise in antisemitism and hare crimes recently. These resolutions only serve to further raise hate against the Jews. Israel’s war is now a much-reduced military campaign to try to bring home hostages held for five months by Hamas terrorists. A ceasefire would leave these hostages to die. Israel will not do that, nor should the United States. Lemon Grove has no jurisdiction over foreign affairs, nor expertise in the complex 75+year conflict that began before Israel was declared a state. We urge you to not pass any nonbinding legislation about a situation thousands of miles away that will put the local Lemon Grove Jewish community further at risk.”
On October 7, Hamas slaughtered some 1,200 Israeli civilians and more than 240 hostages. The Israeli Foreign Ministry announced, “We are at war.” Israel’s military actions to destroy Hamas have resulted in over 30,000 deaths Gaza, mostly civilians, including children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. Each side has accused the other of war crimes against civilians.
Hamas claimed it fired 5,000 rockets and claims to have captured Israeli soldiers including senior military officers. Hamas spokesman Khaled Qadomi told Al Jazeera that its goal is for “the international community to stop atrocities in Gaza, against Palestinian people, our holy sites like Al-Aqsa.”
The situation is complex, since Hamas hides in civilian locations including hospitals, but around the world, calls for a cease fire are growing as the death toll mounts while food and medical supplies run low. The Biden administration this week launched air drops to bring food to trapped Gazans, since Egypt has closed its borders to refugees.
The crowd at the Lemon Grove Council hearing was full of residents and neighboring community members from all over San Diego. They shared personal stories of the bloodshed, despair, and hunger some of their family members are experiencing in Gaza as well as commentors that come from several faiths and ethnicities.
Robert “Bobby” Wallace, Barona tribal member from the Kumeyaay Nation, gave public comment stating, “My people have lived here for 12,000 plus years. From these hills right here, I’ve had families hunt, fish, live a good life till they came and took care of us and there were only 700 of us left at one time. I can feel it in my DNA and I can feel it in my fire, I can feel it in my heart what all of these people are going through.”
Mejgan Afshan, founder of Borderlands for Equity, stated, “It has been 150 days of the unimaginable happenings to our Gaza siblings.in the name of American citizens — 150 days of watching in real time on social media as innocent women and children are being bombarded and driven out of their homes,” adding that basic humantarian needs are not being met and many are “now facing starvation.” She added, “We thank you Lemon Grove and the city council from the bottom of our broken hearts for having the courage to finally and publicly call for a ceasefire in Gaza.”
During deliberations Snow made a motion to amend the verbiage and take out wording that said, “terrorist actions of Hamas” after several speakers asked to take that language out due to decades of negative rhetoric towards Palestinians. Snow also asked to add the word permanent in regard to language that stated immediate ceasefire.
Mayor Raquel Vasquez however was concerned with the language in a section that said, “Whereas, many of our community members have suffered from an alarming rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia.”
Vasquez explained, “This resolution would be specific to Lemon Grove. It would not be universal for any other jurisdiction within San Diego County. With this language, who has suffered here in our city regarding islamophobia and antisemitism? If we are investing in public safety and our community is not safe, then Lemon Grove has a problem.”
Vasquez asked Lieutenant Barry of the Sheriff’s department how many reports of antisemitic or Islamophobic hate crimes had been reported in the last year as well as against Mexicans, African Americans, and LGBTQ. The sheriff responded, “We in the last year had one case, which we document as a hate crime. I’m not going to get into too much of the specifics of the case, but it was simply a case of a mentally challenged member of the community, who had a rock thrown at him.”
Tensions in the audience rose and someone shouted, “You’re asking a white cop. Ask another police officer.”
Vasquez stated, “I documented here how many comments were not from Lemon Grove residents, and while we appreciate you coming here for this resolution, there were 23 people who spoke in support of a resolution for this city and out of all the speakers there were only 12 people who actually live in this city. Our priority here in this city is the city of Lemon Grove.”
More shouting came from the audience. “My prayer house is right here in Lemon Grove Ma’am. I pray here,” one attendee said.
Vasquez confirmed her position. “I have a problem where it says, ‘many of our community members have suffered from an alarming rise in antisemitism and islamophobia.’ This is speaking specifically to Lemon Grove. My question to the maker of this resolution, how can we modify it, so it speaks truth to Lemon Grove instead of being a broad statement of other jurisdictions not only here in San Diego County, the State of California, but also across America and beyond?”
Snow responded, “Because I’m a nerd and a lawyer, this is not limited to strictly Lemon Grove. We see ourselves as a larger community. We have at least two mosques in Lemon Grove, and we heard from people who actually came here to our community. But in addition, in my research, it said there is a 700% rise in Islamophobia and a 400% rise in antisemitism (nationwide). That permeates our community.”
Snow explained that an incident doesn’t always rise to the level of a crime and that it’s important to send a clear message against hate.
Vasquez reiterated that the language is specific to Lemon Grove and that Snow is referencing a global issue.
Vasquez made the recommendation to change this specific language “from community members to our nation, because this does not speak to the character of the city. This is a national issue. We need to make sure this language accurately depicts what is going on. You’re giving me a very broad statistic that does not apply to Lemon Grove.”
Mendoza responded to the Mayor, who is Black, “I think it does apply to Lemon Grove. You yourself have suffered extensive prejudice, your tires were slashed. I’ve spoken to people who have been treated unfairly and discriminatory, at their colleges. Maybe their college isn’t in Lemon Grove, they live in Lemon Grove.”
Mendoza told Vasquez, “I don’t know why it’s that important to you.”
No motion was made to change this specific language.
Before allowing the vote, Mayor Vasquez made clear, “Our city has faced significant challenges with the recent storms, extensive damage to our infrastructure, streets, property and storm drains. It is imperative that we devote our efforts to addressing these urgent local concerns. Ensuring the safety of our residents. I’m concerned about this particular request” regarding the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. Vasquez said that the conflict needs to end but found it inappropriate to create a resolution at the city level and instead should be done at the federal level.
Councilmember Liana LeBaron had a sharp warning for the audience as she placed her vote. LeBaron stated, “I wanna point out something. That woman right there, Raquel Vasquez is running for 79th State Assembly District and she’s also probably going to be running against this lady here. Ms. Alysson Snow is running for Mayor. So, what you guys all just witnessed here was political theatre. She (pointing to Vasquez) doesn’t want this to pass because then that would be a victory to this woman right here (points to Snow) or perceived as a victory. It’s going to make her (Snow) look good when she runs for Mayor. I’m just calling this out. That attempt to block this is self-benefitting.”
LeBaron contended what Vasquez said was hypocrisy, that at the beginning of the meeting she again called for her colleagues to agendize storm drains. But nobody including the mayor seconded the effort. LeBaron has been asking for the storm drains to be agendized for years, long before the recent flooding, but can never get a second from any councilmember.
School Board trustee Cheryl Robertson shouted, “Shut up” to LeBaron. Robertson is the campaign manager for Vasquez’s run for the 79th State Assembly seat and a harsh critic of LeBaron.
LeBaron continued, “Yes there are a lot of people in Lemon Grove who are being impacted by failed infrastructure and there was crickets coming from the Mayor at that point. How odd.”
LeBaron announced her support for the ceasefire measure.
Snow denied that it was political theatre.
Vasquez said, “I refuse to play politics at the platform so I will abstain from this vote.”
The Lemon Grove City Council voted 3-0 to adopt the amended resolution, with Mayor Racquel Vasquez abstaining and Councilmember George Gastil absent while recovering from heart surgery.
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A previous version of this story was published in East County Magazine with which San Diego Jewish World trades stories under auspices of the San Diego Online News Association. Jessyka Heredia is a former candidate for the Lemon Grove City Council who contributes articles to East County Magazine.