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CityClerk
From:Jesse Buchanan <jbuchanancc@gmail.com>
Sent:Wednesday, May 1, 2024 8:00 AM
To:Stafford, Bob
Cc:CityClerk
Subject:This Is Within Your Scope of Responsibility
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Good morning Council Member Stafford,
I attended today's City Council agenda session via Zoom to hear the upcoming topics, as I have a vested
interest in several of them as a concerned and heavily involved Fayetteville community member. I
typically appreciate your thoughtfulness and diligence in addressing the concerns of the community,
which is why I was shocked by the comments that you made about the ceasefire resolution that was
brought forward to be discussed and voted on at the next city council meeting.
Your remarks that this is beyond the scope of responsibility for the city council were surprising initially
because I had assumed that any issue would fall within that scope when it is one that the people of
this community care about deeply. I then realized that you may not be aware of the systemic nature of
this issue, and how that means it does directly affect all of us. Here are a few examples of how we are
connected to this conflict as a city and as a state:
- The government of the United States contributes approximately 3.8 billion taxpayer dollars to the
government of Israel each year, of which $19,804,626 come from the state of Arkansas, and $1,410,695
come directly from the city of Fayetteville's federal income taxes. We, the taxpayers of Fayetteville, do
not consent to our money being used to fund the ongoing violence in Palestine, and we are asking our
local leaders to amplify that stance. (That is not even including the additional tens of billions that have
been sent since October 7th.) Numbers here are provided by USCPR.
- Arkansans have been repeatedly asking our state and national leaders stop misusing our taxes in this
way, and we have been repeatedly ignored. In fact, our state leaders have been some of the most vocal in
pushing for this funding to go to the Israeli military, despite public outcry. Tom Cotton even went so far
recently as to suggest that he would be proud if protesters of this were met with violence in our state
(read about that here). Because of this, it falls to our local community members to declare the intent of
the people here, and to defend our position when the leaders of our larger communities will not hear us.
- Arkansas is home to several facilities that directly provide weapons and supplies for the Israeli military,
including the Lockheed Martin facility in Camden, the new $63 Raytheon-Rafael plant that began
construction in February, and the Pine Bluff Arsenal. The Pine Bluff Arsenal is of particular interest
because it has been confirmed to be the production site for white phosphorous bombs used on Gazans
by Israel, and the use of white phosphorous is a war crime in direct violation of international
humanitarian law. For more on that specific issue, read this article from the Arkansas Times.
These are only a few of the ways in which we are connected to the ongoing injustices committed by the
Israeli government. I am not naive enough to believe that you will change your mind just because of these
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things, even though I hope that you would. If you would like to discuss this more, please reach out to me
and I can answer other questions or concerns you may have about this issue. I left you a voicemail after
the agenda session yesterday that included my phone number if you would like to speak over the phone,
and I would be more than happy to talk about this topic in more depth face to face. Thank you for your
time.
-Jesse Buchanan
he/him/his
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