Mayor Statement Urging Unity and Humanity

Published on October 16, 2023

At the October 16, 2023 City Council meeting, Mayor Lydia Kou shared the following statement urging unity and humanity:

Palo Alto is known around the world as a beacon of innovation. Because of our global recognition, it is appropriate that on occasion we speak to global issues, like the violence in the Middle East. But just as importantly, in troubled times like this, it is important that we speak to each other and comfort each other when so many of our residents are experiencing such deeply personal pain. I know I have been angry and grieving.

The attacks in Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas are atrocious and must be condemned. The further call by Hamas to cause harm to Jews around the world is deplorable. Members of our Jewish community have expressed deep fear following these attacks and threats, which have compounded the community’s fears already heightened by the rise of anti-Semitism around our nation. Members of our Muslim community also feel the pain and fear of rising Islamophobia and we are all shocked and saddened by the murder of a young American child targeted simply because he was a Muslim.

I grew up Catholic in a Muslim country in a family that had immigrated from Hong Kong to Sudan. They could have seen me, a Chinese-Catholic immigrant, as the “other.” My husband is African-American, and I see and experience with him the pain in those thankfully very rare occasions when he is reduced to the color of his skin and not seen as fully equal.

At the same time, I know the deep personal connections we forge with each other when we welcome all and embrace each other as humans – not ethnicities, ideologies or members of religious groups. I carry with me today the gratitude I felt when my Muslim neighbors embraced me as a young child and their example inspires me to this day. My husband does experience racism. He also experiences the loving embrace of a community that values him for his humanity and welcomes him without qualification.

It is a sad state of affairs in our nation that we need to say it – but the murder of innocent people is never an appropriate response to any question. The slaughter of innocent people must be condemned without qualification and so too must the clearly anti-Semitic and Islamophobic statements expressed here in America and around the world in the aftermath of these murders.

Today in Israel and Gaza innocent people are dying. And we do not diminish any suffering by grieving for those children as well. Children and innocent civilians in Israel did not deserve to die. Children and innocent civilians in Gaza do not deserve to die. Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies Hamas’ murdering of people.

Here in Palo Alto, we have forged a community that is multicultural, multi-ethnic and proudly diverse. We have welcomed and united the brightest minds and the kindest souls from all over the world to help shape a better future. Here, of all places, we must take a moment to care for each other, console each other and embrace each other not through the prism of politics but through the connection of our shared humanity.

Many of our residents are not “okay.” I know I am not okay. Let’s remember that and speak with kindness to each other. Our city is known throughout the world. In this time of division and even hate, let’s send the world the example that people of diverse faiths, races, and backgrounds can unite in common grief and move forward with common humanity.

Lydia Kou

Mayor, City of Palo Alto