Letter: BNSCP Is Now Censoring Fair Public Comment

Letter: BNSCP Is Now Censoring Fair Public Comment

Dear Mayor Brockett and Taiysha Adams.

BNSCP’S Facebook page is a facility in service of its status as an official City approved sister city relationship with Nablus municipality.

BNSCP has now taken to limiting public participation, by deleting fair and reasonable comments to its Facebook posts. Please see the attached screenshots of Comments made by myself and Rachel Amaru to BNSCP’s July 1 and July 7 postings. 

Do you condone this? That BNSCP can limit public participation in order to immunize itself from fair and reasonable public comment concerning matters that the City has authorized BNSCP to conduct on behalf of all citizens? While the answer “no” would seem obvious, these provisions also suggest the impropriety of limiting public participation:

  • Resolution 631 Section 2(A)(3)
  • the several sections of BNSCP’s Non-Political Committments document requiring inclusivity of people of different backgrounds and beliefs, and prohibiting advocacy of political positions/policies and messaging that promotes anti-Israel perspectives. 

It is your duty to require BNSCP to restore the deleted Comments, immediately.  

Thank you.
Bruce Shaffer
Boulder USA 

About Bruce Shaffer

From Jerusalem and Boulder, photographer/contributing writer Bruce Shaffer muses on regional issues. Bruce photographs for several NGOs in Israel and the West Bank, and his work has been included in Ha’aretz, The Times of Israel, The Jewish Daily Forward and other publications, documentaries and organization websites. He leads combined Israeli and Palestinian Youth Photography Workshops in Israel and the West Bank, and freelances for feature writers, organizations, guides and tour operators in the region.

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