Kansas City officials stand beside Jewish community, condemn Hamas attack
A group of Kansas City leaders delivered a strong message of support for Israel on Thursday in the aftermath of an attack on Israeli citizens by the militant Islamist group Hamas that thrust Israel into war over the weekend.
Organized by the Jewish Community Relations Bureau, local elected officials and civil rights leaders spoke out against the atrocities and condemned terrorist acts against Israel.
“All of us are here because we know what was wrong. And what was done was wrong. And we stand together to make sure we make that clear to everyone in our state, in our country and everyone who will listen to us when we say: Barbarism, terrorism should never be accepted, and should never be justified,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Thursday, speaking from a Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce hall in Union Station.
“You can disagree with the politics of Israel or America,” the mayor later added.” You can find concerns with anything going on in the world. But to support, to rationalize, or to justify the barbaric murder of Jews is antisemitism. And we can say that clearly, strongly, proudly and bravely.”
Johnson County Commission Chairman Mike Kelly called the bloody incursion “barbaric,” saying the killing of Israeli civilians by Hamas was “in no way consistent with international law.”
“We unequivocally condemn the terrorist actions of Hamas,” Kelly said, adding: “And we very much stand with Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism.”
Visiting Kansas City on Thursday was David Harris, an internationally renowned Jewish activist and former leader of the American Jewish Committee. Harris, whose parents survived the Holocaust, said the attack by Hamas “was an act of genocidal intent to further the mission of Adolf Hitler.”
Other speakers on Thursday included longtime Kansas City civil rights leader Alvin Brooks, who shared his support for the people of Israel and Kansas City’s Jewish community. Brooks called the event “an attack against humanity.”
The Hamas attack Saturday began with a barrage of missiles launched from the Gaza Strip followed by an unprecedented, bloody incursion of militants who stormed into nearby Israeli towns, killing civilians and taking hostages, including from a music festival. It was swiftly met by a days-long campaign of airstrikes in Gaza by Israel’s military.
The assault by Hamas has killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, including 247 soldiers, while the Israeli bombardment has killed more than 1,530 people in Gaza, according to authorities on both sides.
Israel has said roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed inside Israel, and that hundreds of the dead in Gaza are Hamas members. Thousands more have been wounded.
The Israeli government publicly shared on social media jarring photographs of dead babies, including some that appeared to have been set on fire, said to have been killed during the Hamas attack Saturday.
Meanwhile, international aid groups have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which is home to about 2.3 million people.
Speaking at the Kansas City gathering Thursday, Gavriela Geller, executive director of Overland Park’s Jewish Community Relations Bureau/American Jewish Committee, said the Jewish community and Israel will never be the same. She also applauded those “standing on the right side of history.”
“We will be forever grateful to those in this room and to those who have spoken out and continue to speak out,” she said, adding: “We will remember those celebrating our murder, and we will remember those who stayed silent.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
