Denver, CO – StandWithUs Colorado applauds the Colorado Democratic Party (CDP) Central Committee for voting down a misleading ceasefire resolution. The resolution was introduced to the CDP Central Committee and voted on July 1st, 2024. The result of the vote was 40.4% in favor, 55.1 % against, and 4.5% abstained, with over 300 voters in attendance.
While the Colorado Jewish community was not consulted in drafting the resolution, the Colorado Jewish community, in partnership with StandWithUs and several Colorado Jewish organizations successfully mobilized to share our perspectives with Democratic Party Leadership. Members of the Jewish and pro-Israel communities identified many problems with the resolution. They highlighted its false moral equivalence between Israel, a liberal democratic country fighting a defensive war against a genocidal terrorist organization, and Hamas, which recently committed the worst massacre against Jews since the end of the Holocaust. The resolution also inappropriately compared the 250 innocent people, including children, an infant, the elderly, and the disabled, who were torn from their beds, homes, and a music festival to be held hostage for the crime of living or working in Israel, to Palestinians accused of violent terror-related offenses. Furthermore, it absolved Hamas of any blame for the suffering of Palestinians. Despite Israel’s efforts to minimize civilian harm, Hamas has intentionally caused death and suffering for the Gazans by committing heinous deeds in Israel and then running back to Gaza to hide among the Palestinian civilians.
The resolution was unproductive and divisive at a time when the Jewish communities in Colorado and in the nation are reeling from an unprecedented rise in antisemitism. While the CDP resolution would have no impact on a conflict 7,000 miles away, it would provide a platform for hate as has been evidenced in such resolutions across the nation. “This resolution comes at a particularly challenging time for the Jewish and pro-Israel community, as their identities are being questioned, targeted, and demonized in cities around the world. It is our hope that this defeat will empower the Jewish and Zionist community in Colorado and beyond, to continue showing up and speaking up against this bigotry, and moreover, to do it together,” said Miri Kornfeld, Director of StandWithUs Colorado.
We commend those who voted against this resolution for their moral clarity and intellectual honesty. We would like to particularly thank Regent Callie Rennison, Regent Ilana Spiegel, Senator Dafna Michaelson Jenet, Representative Judy Amabile, Representative Shannon Bird, Representative Edie Hooton, former Senator Evie Hudak, Boulder Valley School District Board of Education member Kitty Sargent, Adams 12 Five Star Schools Board of Education member Lori Goldstein, and many others, who are all CDP Central Committee members and courageously spoke out against the disingenuous resolution.
The Colorado Jewish and Zionist community has had several successes in recent months, including in city councils and with the University of Colorado Board of Regents. Out of all the of ceasefire resolutions presented to Colorado city councils, only one has passed. Additionally, the Jewish community came together to protect members of the board or regents when they were targeted in their homes in Superior and Englewood, CO by Students for a Democratic Society Denver. As a result, the Superior Town Hall and the CU Board of Regents condemned their hate speech, identified their chants and rhetoric as antisemitic, and stood in solidarity with the Jewish and pro-Israel community. “Defeating this ceasefire resolution is yet another testament to the unity and resilience of the Jewish and Zionist community of Colorado,” said an appreciative Kornfeld.
StandWithUs Colorado will continue to support to the Jewish and Zionist community in its efforts to educate their community, ensure the community’s safety and well-being, and to empower Jewish and Zionist community members to take an active role in bringing facts into conversations about Israel and fighting antisemitism.
About StandWithUs
StandWithUs (SWU) is an international, nonprofit and non-partisan education organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, as well as challenge misinformation and fight against antisemitism.
Through university fellowships, high school internships, middle school curricula, conferences, materials, social media, educational films and missions to Israel, StandWithUs supports people around the world who want to educate their schools and communities about Israel.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and programs throughout the U.S., in Israel, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, the Netherlands and Australia.
For the last twelve years, SWU has consistently received the highest possible ratings from Charity Navigator and Guidestar, two charity watchdog groups that assess hundreds of thousands of charities in the United States.
