Letter to Boulder City Council: Tearing Down of Hostage Signs on Pearl Street Mall  

Dear Boulder City Council:

I am the lead in Boulder for a global initiative called Run For Their Lives, which is affiliated with Bring Them Home Now. On Sunday, 11/26, we had our first walk in Boulder, and we will continue to have them until every hostage is returned from Gaza and back to Israel. On Friday, 11/24, we also had a march organized by a Boulder citizen, and a brief gathering at the Court House on Pearl Street with speeches from community leaders. Afterwards, some of us stayed and posted flyers of the hostages on Pearl Street (these same flyers were handed out by me at the mayoral forum that took place at the Trident). In great contrast to the pro-Palestinian rally on 11/19 (which grew inflammatory enough that it resulted in the presence of at least five police officers), both of these events calling attention to the continuing plight of the hostages were extremely peaceful.

As I’m sure many of you have seen in the news, one of the fine examples of antisemitism taking place across the US and Europe is the tearing down of these hostage posters for no apparent reason. Is there seriously anyone who does not want the innocent hostages — including mothers and babies and elderly grandparents — returned to their homes in Israel? No matter what one feels about Israel & Palestine, it is hard to fathom why anyone would feel the need to deface the images of these people who were kidnapped by terrorists on October 7, or remove them.

And yet, this vandalism is now also occurring in the liberal city of Boulder, CO. I had two people reach out to me today about this, and one of them sent me videos. I was told by the person who sent me the videos that there was a police presence there (car is clearly visible), but that nothing was done. I also went down to the mall earlier today and saw that some of the posters had been vandalized.

I am asking that City Council reach out to the Boulder Police Department to request that if people are seen ripping down these posters, or vandalizing them in any way, they will be asked to stop. This is extremely painful to members of the Jewish community. We are witnessing more than enough antisemitism in speech and action on a regular basis on campuses, on social media, and in the loud silence from people we once thought were our friends, allies, and fellow activists. The tearing down of these posters is inflammatory, and it is certainly succeeding in causing the intended hurt. Please do something about this.

Rachel Amaru
Boulder, CO