A journalist representing The Jewish Review was preemptively removed from a press conference hosted by four members of the Portland City Council and the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America last Friday where they announced a pledge to investigate the city’s connections to Israel.
Jewish Review Editor Rockne Roll had registered to attend a virtual press conference hosted by Portland’s DSA chapter featuring Portland City Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane and Councilors Mitch Green, Sameer Kanal and Angelita Morillo announcing the four councilors’ pledge to “investigate any complicity our city may have with Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid, or genocidal violence against Palestinians.” (see story, page 11) After logging onto the webinar and before the event got underway, Roll was removed from the webinar without explanation and was blocked from rejoining.
“I recognize that the Jewish Federation shared its thoughts about the pledge. But for The Jewish Review, a member of the press, to be removed from the press conference is censorship at its worst,” Jewish Federation of Greater Portland President and CEO Marc Blattner said. “Why did the four city councilors and the DSA hosts not feel comfortable having a member of the Jewish press present? Because they have totally dismissed the thoughts, feelings and sentiments of many in the Jewish community – including those who are their constituents.”
“We live in a city that could be headed towards an urban doom loop in which businesses close or move out of the city, tax revenues decline, and basic services get cut; this on top of a homelessness crisis and the imminent prospect of federal troops on our streets. Yet, for these four DSA city councilors, their hatred of Israel and the Israeli people runs so deep that it becomes their priority for Portland,” Federation Chief Community Relations and Public Affairs Officer Bob Horenstein said. “The fact that they would remove the editor of The Jewish Review from their press conference only underscores their total dismissal of our community’s concerns.”
Shaniqua Henry-Davis, Kanal’s Senior Communications and Policy Advisor, told The Jewish Review that Roll’s removal from the press conference was “concerning.”
“That is not something that we would have done if we were in charge of the meeting,” she said.
In an email to The Jewish Review, Sprout Chinn, an aide to Koyama Lane, said that the Council Vice President “was not running the technical side of things and did not have [Roll] removed.”
Maria Gabrielle Sipin, Green’s Chief of Staff, said in an email to The Jewish Review that, “we are unaware of the invite list and which media outlets successfully entered the press conference.”
Meredith Wadlington, Morillo’s Community Liaison, said that “DSA organized the event, and Councilors showed up to speak. We were not involved in the planning, outside of coordinating on our talking points and messaging,” in an email to a third party that was carbon-copied to The Jewish Review.
Emails to the Portland DSA from The Jewish Review received no response as of press time.
Roll succeeded Deborah Moon as The Jewish Review’s editor in May of 2023. After graduating from the University of Oregon with a master’s degree in journalism in 2012, Roll has covered a wide variety of subjects as a reporter and photographer for newspapers across Oregon and as a freelancer for clients including The Oregonian, Willamette Week, The Columbian and Baseball America magazine. His work has appeared in The New York Times and other newspapers. Roll has won awards from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, the National Newspapers Association and the National Press Photographers Association for journalistic excellence and was selected for the prestigious Missouri Photojournalism Workshop in 2020.
DSA city councilors to investigate Israel ties
Four Portland City Council members affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America announced a pledge to investigate local connections to the State of Israel at a DSA-hosted virtual event Friday, Oct. 17.
Portland City Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane and Councilors Mitch Green, Sameer Kanal and Angelita Morillo presented the pledge at the event and encouraged municipal elected officials elsewhere to sign on and conduct similar investigations in their communities.
In addition to the four city councilors, the event featured Dr. Travis Melin, an anesthesiologist at Oregon Health and Science University Hospital in Portland, Maxine Fookson, a Jewish Voice for Peace activist and retired pediatric nurse practitioner and Olivia Katbi, a Co-Chair of Portland’s DSA chapter and North America Coordinator for the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) Movement against Israel.
Katbi indicated that two other city councilors, in addition to the four at the event, had signed the pledge, though she did not identify who they were. The Portland DSA’s Instagram page later claimed that Councilors Candace Avalos and Jamie Dunphy, both representing Council District 1 (East Portland) had signed the pledge.
Responding to inquiries from The Jewish Review, officials from the offices of Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney, representing District 2 which includes North Portland and parts of Northeast Portland and Councilor Eric Zimmerman, whose District 4 covers Sellwood and all of Portland west of the Willamette River, confirmed that neither had signed on to the pledge.
Emails from The Jewish Review to the remaining city council members asking if they had or had not signed the pledge were not replied to as of press time.
Melin accused Israel of intentionally targeting civilians and children, citing incidents of ordnance landing in marketplaces during his time treating patients in Gaza during the war – strikes which the Israel Defense Forces have said were in error.
“No accidents are happening there,” Melin said.
Fookson, who said she spoke on behalf of JVP, said that despite the ceasefire which came into effect in the days leading up to the pledge announcement, “there has been no change, and only an escalation in Israel’s apartheid.”
Fookson, along with Kanal, who represents District 2, accused Israel of violating the ceasefire, citing such violations as motivation for introducing the pledge now.
Morillo, whose District 3 includes much of Southeast Portland, said of the ceasefire, “The time for a ceasefire was 77 years ago, during the first Nakba,” using the Arabic word for the Israeli War of Independence, which translates to “catastrophe.”
Morillo, along with fellow District 3 Councilor Koyama Lane and Green, who represents District 4, likened the purpose of their pledge with the city’s opposition to the recent actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Portland and President Donald Trump’s efforts to deploy military personnel to the city.
“The war in Gaza is not just some distant conflict,” Green said. “It is connected to us, to our city, our economy and our own struggle for democracy.”
Green additionally said, in response to a question about facing intimidation for pro-Palestinian activism, that those engaged in such activism are liable to be “smeared as an antisemite.”
“That’s a conflation of a state and a people, and I think that’s problematic,” he continued. “I think we have an obligation to speak out for the constituents that don’t feel like they have a voice.”
Questions were submitted via the webinar’s chat function – the vast majority were submitted anonymously. Approximately 15 minutes of the 50-minute event was devoted to addressing questions, with participants selecting the questions they wanted to answer.
In response to a query about the choice of city councilors to address the Israel/Palestine conflict as opposed to local issues, Kanal cast the curtailing of city investments in companies doing business in Israel as an opportunity to invest in local firms, specifically citing the ice cream shop Salt & Straw, as well as social programs.
“We’re helping revive our economy. We’re helping continue the trend that we’re already on as a city to move forward, in addition to all the moral implications associated with it,” Kanal said.
“It’s a reasonable question to ask,” Green said, addressing the same topic, “and I would say that we’re in this situation because we elected [officials] at all levels have been too cowardly, frankly, to stand up against this complacency and fueling a war machine.”
“Listening to press conference was disheartening and angering,” Blattner commented. “I wonder which of the city councilors have ever been to Israel? To Gaza? During the call, each speaker could not say the word ‘genocide’ enough while no one once mentioned Hamas, the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, the horrific ordeal of the hostages, or the trauma of Oct. 7. The call was nothing more than an opportunity to demonize Israel.”
According to text of the pledge provided to The Jewish Review, the signatories commit to specifically investigate the manufacturing and transportation of weapons for use by the IDF, investments and contracts with companies “complicit in Israeli illegal occupation, apartheid or genocidal violence” and all diplomatic ties between the City of Portland and the Israeli government, specifically mentioning sister city relationships – Portland has maintained a sister-city relationship with Ashkelon since 1987.
“These four elected officials are amplifying their hate against the Jewish state. Their goals are divisive and inflammatory,” Blattner said in his “Marc’s Remarks” email newsletter Friday morning. “Our city has enough challenges. It would be best if our local elected officials focus their attention on serious issues in Portland.”