Mayor Gainey’s ‘Building Bridges’ event marred by distribution of anti-Israel flyers
Dreaming peaceMiddle Eastern doves share Pittsburgh stage

Mayor Gainey’s ‘Building Bridges’ event marred by distribution of anti-Israel flyers

“We are representing the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement, and we are supporting each other and working together to build a better future for both people,” he said.

Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon on stage at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. (Photo by Jim Busis)
Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon on stage at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. (Photo by Jim Busis)

Keffiyeh-wearing members of the Pittsburgh Palestine Coalition distributed anti-Israel flyers at a Jan. 12 event attended by more than 100 people and organized by Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s office that featured Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli Maoz Inon.

The event, held at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater and dubbed “Building Bridges,” was intended “to create an opportunity to find common ground and make meaningful progress as a community,” according to Gainey’s Press Secretary Olga George.

But the flyer distributed by the PPC, titled “A Roadmap to Peace,” called for an immediate end to Israel’s war against the terrorist organization Hamas, an arms embargo on Israel and the release of Palestinians prisoners, among other demands. It made no mention of the 98 hostages still held in Gaza nor did it acknowledge that Hamas started the current war when it invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

For many attendees, the distribution of flyers after the conversation between Abu Sarah and Inon was a black eye on the event and contrary to the point of the discussion on stage.

Flyer distributed at the Jan. 12 Building Bridges event. (Photo by Jim Busis)

Stephanie Gagne, management analyst for the City of Pittsburgh, said that she was contacted before the event by someone who works for the University of Pittsburgh’s Global Studies Center, asking for permission to staff a table at the event for an organization called Americans for Palestinian Orphans.

Gagne said she responded by saying there would be no tabling at the event, “but if she would like to have QR codes for donation information, she’d be more than welcome to hand that out at the end of the event.”

“We did not approve those flyers,” Gagne said, explaining that she felt “a little bit deceived” by what transpired.

Nonetheless, no one stopped the distribution of the flyers.

Elaine Linn, an academic advisor with Pitt’s Global Studies program, was reportedly seen at the event wearing a keffiyeh and handing out the flyers in support of the Pittsburgh Palestine Coalition.

When contacted by the Chronicle, Linn denied duplicitous dealings with Gagne but said she was unable to talk while at work.

Attempts to reach Linn again, through both her Pitt email and a phone number she provided, were unsuccessful.

Linn’s Instagram page is filled with staunch anti-Israel and anti-Zionist posts. Along with a photo of her wearing a keffiyeh and claims like “Jesus was Palestinian,” there are photos of a wall with the university’s name on it doused in red paint, a hand-lettered sign reading “Pitt Divest from Israel Stop the Genocide,” and a banner hung from a bridge with the claim “Your tax$$$ killed 22,000 people in Gaza stop the genocide.”

Laura Cherner, director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council, said she was disappointed by what occurred following the event.

“Unfortunately, the program was undermined by a group who disrupted the speakers and then passed out a flyer filled with hate and misinformation to potentially over 100 members of the audience,” she said. “The content of the flyer is counter to the message of the presenters, which is about peace-building and a cooperative path forward between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Buttressing Cherner’s point were interviews conducted by the Chronicle with Abu Sarah and Inon before the event.

Inon’s parents were murdered in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel. His mother was burnt so badly, he recounted in an April 2024 TedTalk with Abu Sarah, that she couldn’t be identified.

A longtime supporter of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Inon worked to further that goal through tourism before Hamas’ attack. Since then, he said, he has been joined by many Israelis and Palestinians who envision a peaceful future.

“We are representing the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement, and we are supporting each other and working together to build a better future for both people,” he said.

Like Inon, Abu Sarah has long been a proponent of peace after experiencing personal tragedy.

Abu Sarah said that when he was 9 years old, his older brother Tayseer was arrested on suspicion of stone throwing and detained by the Israel Defense Forces for nearly a year. He died from internal injuries a few weeks after being released from custody.

It took years for Abu Sarah to recover from his brother’s loss and to begin working toward peace in the region.

“I started meeting Israelis when I was 18, who I realized were not on opposite sides, that we had much more in common than against each other and that we can fight for the same thing — we can fight for mutual dignity, mutual peace, mutual recognition and mutual safety and security for all of us,” he said.

It’s important to amplify voices of peace, Abu Sarah said, noting that there are many organizations working for peace in the region.

“That is our goal, to strengthen and grow this movement of peacemakers in the region and around the U.S., as well,” he said.

While neither Abu Sarah nor Inon support the BDS movement in broad terms, they both believe in some sanctioning of Israel or Israelis.

“I’m afraid that a total BDS against the entire state of Israel will only make the people of Israel feel threatened around the world,” Inon said. “What we are suggesting is sanction only those who believe in Jewish supremacy.”

Abu Sarah noted that he owns a business in Jerusalem with a Jewish friend that employs both Israelis and Palestinians.

“The person who runs my office, our company, is an Israeli,” he said. “I don’t look at all boycotts the same. I think some boycotts make sense. … I would support boycotting military stuff, military things that break international law. So, it depends what the boycott is and where the focus of it is. I don’t think a boycott is the best way to solve an issue.”

The pair spoke at a Combatants for Peace event at Carnegie Mellon University a few years ago and participated in NetRoots Nation, an organization that provides training, resources and connection opportunities for progressive activists. They were brought to the mayor’s attention by community members who attended their events in the past.

While the intent of the program was to find “common ground,” according to the mayor’s office, that message was lost on many due to the events following the talk. However, even before the program began, some questioned the apparent exclusion of Jewish community groups in planning the event.

The Federation “would have liked to have been involved in the planning process,” Cherner said.

Listed sponsors included the University of Pittsburgh’s Jewish Studies Program, 1Hood Media and Carnegie Mellon University’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Maoz Inon, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Aziz Abu Sarah. (Photo by Jim Busis)

Despite the controversy, both Abu Sarah and Inon hoped that people would leave their conversation optimistic that peace is possible.

“I want people to dream because dreams are where you change humanity,” Inon said. “Starting with Abraham — the common father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam — to Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, they all had a dream. I’m asking and suggesting people start dreaming of a better future and then act to make that dream a reality. We have a roadmap. It has to happen. We must amplify and legitimize the dream of peace and full reconciliation. We must change from the tools of destruction to the tools of construction and create the political will to make peace.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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