Library board hold special meeting to discuss and allow public comments on local peace organization’s program
DELMAR – The Bethlehem Public Library’s Board of Trustees held a special meeting on Monday, December 4 to discuss the library’s policy on opening its meeting rooms for public use and also to allow patrons to voice concern over an upcoming speaker.
The local organization, Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace organized a presentation of Israeli-American activist and author Miko Peled to take place at the library on Tuesday, December 5.
Both the event and Peled come with a high degree of controversy in the community.
Peled is an Israeli-born Jew that was born and raised in Israel and was the son of a top Israeli General. His experience in the military and life inside Israel prompted him to become a critic of Israeli and US policy treatment of the Palestinian people.
At the Library Board meeting, the Board of Trustees allowed people to voice concern over Peled’s views and the use of the Library’s public meeting room to spread what many speakers considered “hate speech.”
“This cannot happen here,” said Delmar resident Hope Grenz Amsterdamer who spoke during the public comment segment of the 2.5 hour long meeting.
“I left Israel after being in two wars to come home (to Bethlehem for) a safe haven for me and my children where we don’t have to run from rockets and hide from terrorist attacks. Not here, please not here,” she said.
The board also passed three motions pertaining to the patron conduct policy for groups which use the meeting rooms.
The board did not take action to disallow Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace from using the space or to restrict who could speak at it. It did, however, vote to require the library director, Geoffrey Kirkpatrick, be present at the event and to ensure that the patron conduct policy is not violated.
“By not taking action, the program moves forward as scheduled,” Kirkpatrick said.
It also passed a motion to have the library staff set up a “clear and accessible” reporting tool for people to report violations of the policy to the board. This tool is to report after the event has taken place to the Board of Trustees.
“The patron conduct policy states that people that violate it can be asked to leave the property,” Kirkpatrick said. “Although I was planning on being there, the board took the extra step of requiring me to be there.”
When it comes to allowing free speech, almost all of the speakers were in agreement, but the opinion differed on what would be considered “hate speech,” which would be a violation of the patron conduct policy.
“It is not the library’s job to protect the groups using the rooms from themselves,” Kirkpatrick said. “They have a right to free speech under the first amendment, but the same speech puts at risk (the group’s) relationship with the community and other groups within it.”
Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace said they are not bringing someone to speak to spread hate speech.
“Our goal is to bring someone who has a different perspective,” BNP member Trudy Quaif said. “If you define hate speech as any speech that you don’t agree with, that is not a good definition.”
“The situation in Gaza is so horrible,” she said. “It is a topic we all feel here needs to be discussed. We thought it would promote community discussion. We need to move in the direction of peace.”
The event takes place from 7-8:45 at the Library, 451 Delaware Avenue.
