NEWFANE, Vt. (WCAX) – Town Meeting Day is one month away, an exercise in civic responsibility that can sometimes blend local issues with national and international matters. At least five towns this year will be addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
As the conflict in Gaza continues, thousands of miles away, communities across Vermont will be weighing in on the war this Town Meeting Day, including Newfane, where a ballot article is aimed at condemning the war in Gaza.
“We can sit back and say, ‘Oh my, that is really terrible,’ or we can do something,” said Dan Dewalt of South Newfane:
The article declares Newfane an apartheid-free community and calls for the end of all support for Israel and the ongoing war. Dewalt says different groups across the state organized jointly to bring the article in front of voters. “I’m a citizen of the world, and the world matters, the people of the world matter, they matter just as much as I do,” he said.
Other communities considering the ballot measure include Winooski, Montpelier, Vergennes, and Brattleboro. A similar ballot measure failed to make it on the Burlington ballot.
“I think it is a very important issue and I think it is important that people voice for what their opinion is — vote for who they want to vote for to change whatever they have to change,” said Henriette Mantel of Newfane. However, the lifelong resident questions whether Town Meeting Day is the appropriate forum for complex issues like the war in the Middle East. “We are on a very limited amount of time at that town meeting, it’s once a year and we have to decide a lot of things.”
Newfane last year passed a ceasefire resolution for Gaza which DeWalt admits had no impact on the war. This year’s ballot item will likely have the same result, but he says the efforts are worth it. “We are not powerless in symbolic terms and we are not powerless in communication and being able to communicate to the world,” he said
The exact language of the article is almost identical to the others across the state. It should be posted on the town’s website in the next day or so.