On October 7 last year, four Progressive Burlington city councilors wore keffiyehs to a public meeting in silent recognition of the death toll in Gaza. The wardrobe choice, on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel, angered and upset some Burlington Jews, who wrote a letter to the councilors that impugned their motives for wearing the Palestinian scarves.
“While long a symbol of Palestinian solidarity, [keffiyehs] have since October 7 become a symbol of support for the terrorist activities of Hamas,” the emailed letter read. “You have chosen to align yourselves with those who dismiss Jews at best and wish us dead at worst.”
The letter went public during the recent election season, spurring personal and political attacks that eventually prompted the mayor to get involved. One of its signatories, Allie Schachter, went on to win her first-time race for city council.
A week after the vote, the dust hasn’t settled. The ongoing discussions about what happened during the campaign make clear that the intractable conflict in the Middle East will likely prove a source of continued friction among Burlington councilors as they also try to overcome differences on matters closer to home.
“There’s a certain reality here that all of us on the council are going to have to find ways to work together,” Council President Ben Traverse (D-Ward 5) said. “I anticipate that I’m going to be working with my colleagues on the council and with the mayor’s office to support that.”
The council has debated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for several years and appears no closer to any real consensus. Each time the issue comes before the body, dozens of community members show up at meetings to make their voices heard.
In 2021, a proposal to endorse the global boycott, sanction and divest movement against Israel was pulled at the last minute after heated debate. The shooting of three young men of Palestinian descent on a Burlington street in November 2023 — just weeks after Hamas’ attack and the start of Israel’s extensive bombardment of the Gaza Strip — revived the issue.
Progressive councilors and pro-Palestinian activists have each introduced a ballot item to declare Burlington an “apartheid-free community.” But council votes on the issue have followed party lines, with majority Democrats blocking the measure each time, arguing, in part, that it would make Jewish residents feel unsafe.
At those meetings and several others, Progressive councilors have worn keffiyehs. But doing so on October 7 was a step too far for the Shalom Alliance, a nonprofit Jewish advocacy group whose members emailed the councilors several days later asking for “constructive dialogue” about the issue.
Besides Schachter, signers included Mike Kanarick, a manager at the Burlington Electric Department, and David Geddes, the Temple Sinai synagogue board president. One of the recipients, Councilor Gene Bergman (P-Ward 2), fired off a sharp response.
The letter “was anything but respectful or constructive,” wrote Bergman, who is Jewish and wore a kippah head covering that night, in addition to the scarf. “I find it to be bullying, weaponizing anti-semitism.”
Months later, Schachter was running as a Democrat in the East District against Kathy Olwell, a Progressive whose campaign platform included support for the apartheid-free ballot item. In late February, Councilor Melo Grant (P-Central District), who was running for reelection unopposed, made a post on Front Porch Forum that urged people not to vote for Schachter.
“Someone who would claim to want to engage someone in a constructive conversation in one breath then call them a terrorist in the next is not someone who will be collaborative on the city council,” Grant wrote.
Schachter, in her own forum post, dismissed Grant’s accusation while accusing her and other Progressives of attempting to smear her reputation so close to an election. Schachter wrote that she has no problem with councilors wearing keffiyehs — only that they did so on October 7 — and that she had reached out to Grant to discuss the matter but never heard back.
“I’m not feeling good about working with people who openly lied about me, and I won’t be silent about it.” Councilor Melo Grant
Grant denies the contention, and provided Seven Days with emails showing that she had previously offered to discuss Israeli-Palestinian issues with Schachter but that she was the one who never responded.
The candidates’ preelection exchange prompted a flurry of forum posts and a mass email from the Burlington Democratic Committee, in which Council President Traverse called the Progs’ campaign tactics “Trumpian,” referring to Grant’s post and to other Progs who had criticized Schachter for accepting donations from real estate developers. In a separate email blast, outgoing Councilor Joan Shannon (D-South District) accused a “sitting councilor” of harassing Schachter.
The East District covers student-heavy wards 1 and 8. On March 2 — two days before the election — the UVM Students for Justice in Palestine group posted on Instagram, calling Schachter a “racist, Zionist, police-bootlicking apartheid supporter.” An image depicted the candidate with red laser eyes superimposed on a photo of Gaza under siege. The following day, Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, a Progressive, took to Instagram to condemn the “harmful and divisive rhetoric” in council campaigns.
Schachter, in a follow-up email to Seven Days, said she’d been targeted by others besides Grant who misconstrued her positions, heckled her at events and made her feel unsafe. “I felt repeatedly demonized and dehumanized,” she wrote.
When Schachter won on March 4, speech after speech at the Dems’ victory party that night condemned the attacks on Schachter.
“There is a difference between speaking up for what you believe is right and trying to take down your neighbor.” Councilor Becca Brown McKnight
The Progs and their allies resorted to “nasty personal attacks, outright lies and just bizarre accusations,” Councilor Becca Brown McKnight (D-Ward 6) said to cheers. “There is a difference between speaking up for what you believe is right and trying to take down your neighbor.”
Grant, meanwhile, appeared near tears during a live election night interview on Town Meeting TV.
“I talked about a way a candidate treated me, and I told the truth,” she said. “I’m not feeling good about working with people who openly lied about me, and I won’t be silent about it.”
Trolls on Reddit lambasted Grant for having a “meltdown” on television. Others labeled her “unhinged, crazy and narcissistic,” she said.
Several speakers during public forum at Monday’s city council meeting defended Grant against attacks she endured on social media, saying the councilor “tells things like they are.” Rachel Siegel took out her phone and queued up a song from the Wu-Tang Clan — one of Grant’s favorite groups and a nod to her longtime gig as a hip-hop DJ — and handed the councilor a bouquet of flowers.
In a subsequent interview with Seven Days, Grant said she stands by her social media post and decision to wear the keffiyeh, saying she meant no offense.
Schachter, meantime, walked back her association with the Shalom Alliance’s email, saying the draft she signed didn’t equate the keffiyeh with support for Hamas. She said she hadn’t seen the final version before it was sent out but that the expression of pain behind the message, however imperfect, was legitimate.
In a follow-up email, Schachter added that she is both concerned about antisemitism and pro-Palestinian.
“To me, these are not at odds,” she wrote. “Holding both of these concerns alongside each other is essential to bringing about lasting peace.”
The unresolved conflict could continue into the council’s new term, which begins April 7. Democrats and Progressives are already frequently at odds, particularly over public safety matters. In recent months, Dems have expressed frustration that Mulvaney-Stanak hasn’t more quickly addressed spiking crime and homelessness and have introduced resolutions meant to push the pace. But Progs say the other party doesn’t always consult with the mayor — or with Grant, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee — leading to some prickly debates at city hall.
The Israeli-Palestinian issue, too, could very well resurface. Organizers of the twice-failed apartheid-free ballot item pledged to try again.
Traverse, the council president, acknowledged that the tension between Grant and Schachter could make for a rocky road. But he thinks there will be opportunities to smooth things out.
“We all see the same issues before Burlington right now,” he said. “With everything going on at the federal level, it’s going to be important that we stand together for the benefit of Burlington.”
Neither Grant nor Schachter has contacted the other, though both separately told Seven Days that they’d be willing to meet — Grant with more hesitation than her Dem counterpart. Schachter has also reached out to the city’s Community Justice Center about ways to mediate a resolution.
Bergman seems willing to give Schachter a chance, noting that they had a lengthy and productive meeting not long after the email about the keffiyehs went out.
“I will use that conversation as a counter to what I thought was an outrageous letter,” Bergman said. “I w ould like me and other people to be able to move to a place where we are really working for a common good.”
Correction, March 12, 2025: A previous version of this story mischaracterized the content an email sent by Joan Shannon. The story was also updated to more precisely describe the Shalom Alliance.
The original print version of this article was headlined “War of Words | A campaign-trail spat over Israel and Gaza could complicate city council business in Burlington”
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This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2025.
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