Letter to the Editor: Commissioner’s comment on protesters | Opinion
It is odd, if not outright upsetting, for a politician to publicly denigrate a concerned citizen in their city — an even odder choice for the Herald to publish it.
Renowned civil rights attorney Alan Levine recently expressed concern in an opinion article over how some Miami Beach politicians, Miami Beach Mayor Steve Meiner and Commissioner David Suarez, showed “hostility towards those with whom they disagree,” referring to recent demonstrations within the city.
Exemplifying the point, Commissioner Suarez publicly attacked Levine and his beliefs. More troubling is that Suarez’s article appears to employ dehumanizing language, a tool of racial violence and ethnic cleansing, the very ills that Suarez purports to stand against.
Suarez asserts that “...university campuses all over America are overtaken by far-left terrorist sympathizers, proudly supporting Hamas and attempting to frame the mass murder and rape of Israeli women and children as ‘social justice.’” The claim is not only factually incorrect, but it comes dangerously close to hate speech.
Students nationwide are calling upon their respective universities to divest from war, and specifically from Israel’s war against Hamas ravaging the people of Gaza. Of course, it is easy to find examples of bad actors or extremists on campus — as it was during the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War protests and even the contemporary Stand With Israel crowd.
Commissioner Suarez’s characterization of students demanding divestment as “terrorist sympathizers” sounds like a racially coded attack on Muslim, Arab and Palestinian individuals, and those who support their cause — many of whom, like me, are Jewish.
I am privileged to have met student organizers in Florida and throughout the country. I am brought to tears both by their bravery, and by the abuses that they suffer at the hands of police. Many of these students are literal teenagers. Children, just like those kidnapped by Hamas. Just like those bombed in Gaza.
I believe it was irresponsible for the Herald to publish Suarez’s comments, which attempt to conflate an entire anti-war movement with terrorism.
Adam Saper,
Miami Beach
