By HIND AKAR

The Peoria Township meeting on April 9 was monumental, indeed.

A proposed referendum on Ranked Choice Voting passed — a positive outcome.

However, another proposed nonbinding referendum to include an item on the November ballot did not pass. The ballot item would have asked the citizens of Peoria Township to express their position on U.S. taxpayers providing military funding to the state of Israel. It was intended to take the pulse of how Midwest citizens feel about the use of their federal taxes toward the ongoing and widely recognized genocide and intentional starvation carried out by the apartheid state of Israel.

Alas, the pro-Israel group packed the City Hall to prevent the rest of their community from having a chance to say what they really think about how their tax dollars are spent on this foreign policy issue. For decades now, our voice as U.S citizens has been repressed under various pretenses on the issue of Israel and we are forced to support this occupying state unconditionally — as if our community can spare millions to fund a genocide rather than using these millions on our social programs, schools, roads and other dire needs. The question was critical because our citizens cannot — dare not — speak their minds when it comes to Israel. Depending on their circumstances, a person of conscience may risk harm to their reputation, retaliation from their employers, or other social pressures. Hopefully in the privacy of the voting booth they would have stated their honest opinion. We saw it at the meeting and on social media that we, the group proposing this agenda item, were erroneously called Nazi sympathizers and other derogatory terms. Freedom of speech in this country ends when it comes to our position on one particular foreign country.

What are the pro-Israel extremists that packed the Township meeting afraid of? I pose this question to our community: Why would a group so confident in its ideological righteousness reject an opportunity to promote a critical examination of the truth?

Kudos to Urbana Township, which approved in the same evening the same referendum that failed here. The American people are awakening to this skewed and hijacked position of the U.S. in its unconditional support of a rogue state. Neither the Pro-Israel extremists nor our City Council will stop the tide of justice and peace that is coming. We will continue our work for human rights, equality, and a just peace.

— Hind Akar is a long-time resident of Peoria and is currently a member of the Peoria for Palestine coalition.