ROTHENBURGER: Why Coun. Nancy Bepple’s motion on Gaza is suddenly a non-starter

A key reason for lack of public enthusiasm for the motion is the belief it’s outside City council’s wheelhouse, that council should stick to issues that are within its jurisdiction, even though Bepple penned a well-constructed defence of her reasoning in a column that followed up on one I wrote a week ago.

Nancy Bepple’s motion didn’t arrive out of nowhere. Various groups — many with a pro-Palestinian narrative — have pushed for such motions from municipal councils since last fall. Some are national organizations with local chapters, such as The Palestine Project – Kamloops, Muslim Students Association at TRU, and Palestine Solidarity Kamloops.

The Palestine Project – Kamloops posted on Facebook yesterday that Bepple was “in hot water” with other councillors for her motion. “How dare she try to pass a motion calling on Israel to stop killing kids?!” the post said, in part.

Bepple, in her motion, tried not to take sides but neutrality isn’t easily accepted when it comes to this conflict. Those who do try are often condemned for the sin of “neutrality and two-sidedness.” There’s only one “right” side, and that happens to be whichever one you’re on. If you’re on the side of Israel, it’s about Hamas cutting off the heads of babies. If you side with Palestinians, it’s about Israeli “atrocities” and “genocide” against women and children, and bombing hospitals.

Words become defined as anything we want them to mean. They begin to lose their meaning.

“Genocide,” for example, is supposed to mean “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.” Both sides in this particular conflict claim the other side is committing genocide. Israel says it doesn’t intend to destroy the Palestinian people, but does want to destroy Hamas. Hamas freely admits it wants to destroy Israel.

It’s a well-known bit of wisdom that, in war (and some even insist that calling this a “war” isn’t appropriate) the first casualty is the truth, and in this case the truth certainly becomes murky.

If one side claims war crimes on the part of the other side, that side dismisses them as lies.

If videos are shown of alleged atrocities, they’re dismissed as “staged.” Claims by Israel that Hamas is using civilians as “human shields” are rejected as propaganda. Images of bombed-out hospitals are claimed by Israel to have been the result of Hamas hiding its fighters there.

And those who try to thread the needle between these extremes are dismissed as having no spine. Bepple says her motion was generated by concern for Kamloops families who have

friends and relatives both in Israel and Gaza but, for many of those entrenched in the “right vs. wrong” argument, that’s not enough. It’s impossible for them to contemplate the basic issue of “humanitarian crisis” in isolation.

Withdrawal of her motion will, without doubt, make some folks very unhappy but, for council, it was always going to be problematic. There’s no middle ground in this situation. You’re for us or against us. Politically, it becomes a no-win. Friends are made and lost on this highly political, religious, volatile issue.

It’s for the best that the motion will be withdrawn.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER: Why Coun. Nancy Bepple’s motion on Gaza is suddenly a non-starter

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