An Indiana city council was warned its actions would fuel antisemitism. Then neo-Nazis called

Two Indiana University professors said they warned Bloomington City Council members weeks ago that they would be inviting antisemitism if they pursued a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Neo-Nazis co-opted the April 3 city council meeting and, via Zoom, uttered antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ and racist hate speech, leaving council members and the mayor in or near tears.

Other city council meetings have been targeted in this way recently. After months of vile speech delivered via Zoom, the Walnut Creek, California, city council decided to stop allowing Zoom comments. In Worchester, Massachusetts, public officials cut off public comments being delivered at a city council meeting after realizing they were filled with hate speech.

Bloomington's common council rules include two opportunities for public comments on "matters of community concern" in each regular meeting.

Local experts issue warnings about inviting hate speech

“The council was warned that it would occur,” said Leslie Lenkowsky, professor emeritus in Public Affairs and Philanthropic Studies at Indiana University.

Mayor 'furious,' in tears: Neo-Nazis co-opt Bloomington City Council meeting

He said when he was sent a draft of the resolution the council was considering, he had conversations with city council members, including council President Isabel Piedmont-Smith and member Dave Rollo, to improve the document’s wording.

Lenkowsky, who worked in government in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, said he also warned them the resolution would “unleash antisemitism in the community.”

And Alvin H. Rosenfeld, director of IU’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, said in an opinion column in The Herald-Times he warned council members about rising antisemitism in the community.

Rosenfeld said the most important story to emerge from the April 3 council meeting was not the resolution, but the “open display of hate speech.”

Rosenfeld's column: Bloomington City Council was warned that Gaza resolution would unleash hate

“Some people were given a platform to espouse white supremacist hostility to Blacks and Jews and even to sign off with ‘Heil Hitler’ declarations,” he wrote. “Astonishingly, council members uttered not a word of disapproval in hearing such evil utterances until the very end of the session, when it evidently dawned on them that they have unleashed levels of hatred in our city that may not be easy to contain.”

Rosenfeld wrote that while council members say they oppose antisemitism, “it’s far from clear that they have much knowledge of its causes and manifestations and can be counted on to act decisively against the threats it poses. Those threats are real and growing, including in our own town, especially so in the wake of the City Council’s unwise hearings.”

Condemnation and apologies from council members

Time constraints and council processes left council members with only one minute each at the end of the April 3 meeting to address the resolution. In that minute, council members said the hate speech was “disgusting,” “disturbing” and “morally repugnant.” The condemnations came hours after the hate speech.

A week later, in the April 10 city council meeting, Piedmont-Smith called the neo-Nazi comments “very disturbing.”

“As president of the city council, I want to apologize for not speaking out against these comments immediately,” she said.

In the April 10 meeting, Piedmont-Smith acknowledged she was “warned ahead of time that an item on the agenda would be used as an opportunity for hate speech. I should have been better prepared and I wish I had acted differently.”

She said Thursday by phone after she received the warning she expected the council would get anti-Israel sentiment, not hate speech.

“I did not think that we would get the kind of blatant antisemitism that was relayed to us by the people on Zoom,” she said.

Council president: "We must speak out"

Piedmont-Smith said via email she still believes pursuing the resolution was the right decision.

“We must speak out against the man-made humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding in Gaza: The lack of food, potable water, and medical care, and the widespread killing of innocent civilians through military action. Why Gaza and not other humanitarian catastrophes in the world today? First of all, because our tax dollars are funding one of the military entities in this conflict. Secondly, because hundreds of local community members have asked us to speak out on their behalf.”

Rollo said the community must have a place for difficult conversations.

“We should not be intimidated or afraid to have discussions because of a small minority of hateful, bigoted people,” he said. “Indeed, we should stand strong against such repugnant voices, and call them out.”

Lenkowsky said he worries the council has unleashed things it cannot control.

“I think it’s going to take a while for that to die down,” he said.

He also worried about the council inviting additional hate speech if it takes up the resolution again after Mayor Kerry Thomson vetoes it. The mayor has said as a matter of principle, she would veto all resolutions that do not directly pertain to the business of the city of Bloomington. Piedmont-Smith said she would bring the resolution back to the council to be overridden — though she said she won’t allow public comment on the matter at that time.

City council members in West Lafayette recently declined to sign a ceasefire resolution, with council President Larry Leverenz reading a statement at the April 1 meeting that the council "will not address issues that do not directly pertain to the governing of the city," according to the Journal & Courier, a sister publication of The Herald-Times.

The statement did not go over well with meeting attendees, the newspaper reported. Chants of “ceasefire now, ceasefire now,” echoed through the meeting room, and one attendee screamed at council members, "Shame on you, shame on you! You all will have to answer to God about this.”

The Bloomington council will meet again at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and will discuss, among other matters, a planned new neighborhood that could bring as many as 4,250 new homes and apartments to the southwestern part of the city. You can attend the meeting in person at city hall or join via Zoom at tinyurl.com/yc5ymw8c.

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington city council members stand by decision to pass Gaza resolution