During the November 13, 2023 City Council meeting, Beacon Councilmember Paloma Wake dedicated her Report session to an acknowledgement of the Israel-Palestine [war that escalated on October 7, 2023, in which she expressed her disappointment of Congressman Pat Ryan.

On November 27, 2023, while the Israel-Palestine war is in a ceasefire over the American Thanksgiving, she continued with her message. Unable to attend the City Council meeting that evening, she tapped Councilmember Justice McClain to read her words for her.

Her sentiment is published below in full:

“Apologies that I cannot join live tonight and Thank You to Councilmember McCray for conveying this portion of my report on my behalf:

“In follow up to my comments last week expressing disappoint with Congressman Pat Ryan’s censure of Congresswoman Tlaib and his prevailing rhetoric around the ongoing genocide in Palestine, I would like to share a summary of my comments to Congressman Ryan during a recent lobbying call which called for, among other things, an immediate Ceasefire or halt of hostilities in Palestine which is now tentatively in place and a call for a change in rhetoric that stops conflating calls for Palestinian freedom and critiques of Israeli apartheid with anti-Semitism which we all unequivocally condemn. We also called for him to condemn acts of Islamophobia & Palestinian genocide with the same vigor as his righteous condemnations of anti-Semitism.

“Congressman, I am speaking to you as a fellow elected official and from the City of Beacon which you have (rightly) invested a lot in, and you know is an active constituency in your district.

“You also know that your district includes the Indigenous, ancestral homelands of the Mohican, Lenape, Wappinger, and Mohawk people who either have diplomatic ties to or are a part of the Haudenosaunee confederacy, the longest running Democracy in the world, recognized by the UN and recognized by our founding fathers in their time as inspiration for our founding documents.

“It should not be lost on you that as officers of American Democracy, we must understand the lineage of settler-colonialism that built this country as it stands today and take into account our failures in that enterprise in current affairs, not repeating or perpetuating mistakes of the past.

“On one of the last days of Native American Heritage month, and days after the National Day of Mourning which recognizes the true history of the genocidal Dutch encounter with Native peoples in our region, I ask all Beaconites to reflect on the systems of power and control which separate us, as everyday citizens, from an honest relationship with the land. Our love of Mt Beacon, our appreciation of Fishkill Creek and all waterways that lead to the Mahicannituck (Hudson) River, and the wildlife that support these ecosystems all lead to the logical conclusion that non-Indigenous Beaconites like myself have a debt to pay to the land and to the generations who stewarded this land before us.”