Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.

Westport has been celebrating jUNe Day for over half a century. This town’s paradigm of tolerance, inclusion acceptance of everyone regardless of their race, creed, color, sexual preference, and generally their political perspective is bedrock principal here. This year was no exception however it was the first year that such a large group of perhaps 100 people respectfully confronted in public, the UN’s position on the horrific events of October 7th in Israel with which we are all familiar.

And in keeping with the tone of civility which is also a part of Westport’s heritage for much or all of the time we have been celebrating people of all nations on jUNe Day, this year was a little different. Protesters challenging how the UN has addressed the hostage crises gathered alongside the sluice for the Great Duck Race and spoke loudly, not with megaphones and clever chants, but with posters, flags, and T-shirts including several a stark and bold hashtag message, “#END JEW HATRED” which, when Googled brings you to the website EndJewHatred.com where their banner reads “Justice For The Jewish People”. What started as a small group of folks when the word went out turned into a large demonstration of unity and solidarity between the people of Westport and beyond, with the people of Israel in their silent, yet very loud cry for the end to the hostage crises.

Below are the comments of one of the organizers, Dori Bomback who provided them to WestportLocalPress. They are Ms. Bombacks views and are not a statement by WestportLocal :

“A few of us have organized a silent protest rally against this year's invitation of UN employees for jUNe Day. We will be partnering with the CT chapter of #EndJewHatred. The rally will be taking place in the morning during the breakfast and welcome speeches.  It will be SILENT out of respect to the town and some of the superfluous events taking place tomorrow.  Selectwoman Tooker and DPC Paulson are completely aware of our intentions.  I do not know how big or small it will be.  We will be holding up signs and wearing t-shirts. 

We are Westporters. We are Westport neighbors who support the town's economy. We are Jews.  Maybe some of us are non-Jews. We are Zionists. We are parents.

Maybe some of us have college students who are facing extreme anti-semitism on their campuses.”

Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.

Bomback continued, “We are angry about the UN's egregious bias against Israel and the fact that our tax dollars are being used to host representatives of the United Nations, particularly this year, after the horrific events of October 7, and the consistently glaring antisemitic/anti-israel efforts to delegitimize the only Jewish state.  Here is a little context for you to understand better what we are protesting.

The UN has done nothing to release the remaining 116 hostages, representing 54 different countries— not just Israel, over the last nine months.  The UN was silent on the rape and sexual violence used against Israeli women on 10.7 for months. Staffers of the UN agency of UNRWA were directly involved in the 10.7 Hamas attack and subsequent murder and kidnapping of Israelis. The UN will still not condemn Hamas using its name.  The UN singles out Israel with resolution after resolution while countries like N. Korea and Iran are barely sanctioned.  And, finally, the preposterous false charges of genocide against Israel are meritless, counterproductive and hypocritical. 

Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.

We understand that jUNe day has gone on here for 50 + years.  We understand that in its inception, it was not meant to be a political statement or event, however, today, the UN is a highly politically divisive organization and inviting their employees to our town for a day in the sun is simply no longer acceptable to us.  Sometimes, the status quo needs to change and just because we’ve operated one way for 50 years, doesn’t mean it’s appropriate going forward. We are all for international hospitality, but we should be hosting an organization that stands for universal equality for all.”