At yesterday’s meeting, the Hanover Selectboard voted unanimously to “take no action” on the anti-apartheid pledge passed at the annual town business meeting on May 12. The majority approval at the town meeting was “non-binding,” according to the town warrant.
Hanover residents previously voted 59 to 35 to approve the Apartheid-Free Communities pledge, which was proposed by the Palestine Solidarity Coalition. If the Selectboard had voted to sign the pledge, Hanover would have joined ten towns in Vermont and one in Massachusetts in adopting the symbolic commitment to ending what the pledge described as Israel’s “apartheid.”
“We declare ourselves an apartheid-free community and to that end, we pledge to join others in working to end all support to Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism and military occupation,” the pledge reads in part.
The PSC proposed the pledge during Article 23, which allows residents to vote on additional advisory proposals that must then be approved by the Selectboard. An “anti-terrorism” pledge proposed by Oren Poleshuck-Kinel ’26 during Article 23 failed 57 to 33.
Town manager Robert Houseman read a memorandum at the Selectboard meeting attributed to Hanover town “staff” recommending that the Selectboard “formally acknowledge that it takes no action on Article 23 due to its non-binding nature and the procedural concerns associated with considering the matter from the floor late in the meeting.”
The memorandum said the debate and vote on Article 23 was “held late in the evening” and did not “adequately reflect the broader democratic will of the Hanover community.” The town meeting began with 181 residents in attendance, but only 94 voted on both Article 23 proposals, according to reporting by The Dartmouth.
Selectboard member Athos Rassias said the Selectboard “understands, recognizes and is sympathetic” that “everyone feels strongly” about the pledge.
“The comments about the meeting being late … are not really relevant,” Rassias said. “My main issue is the procedural issue. Is this a topic for the town? We always hope that all politics is local.”
During the public comment section of the Selectboard meeting, debate over the anti-apartheid pledge continued.
Computer science professor Daniel Rockmore thanked the Selectboard for “recommending no action, and recognizing the nonbinding nature” of Article 23. Rockmore said the Article 23 vote “lack[ed] full town participation.”
“No action reflects the importance of process and debate,” Rockmore said.
PSC member Roan Wade ’25 said at the meeting that “the public was educated [about the pledge] as it was a community effort.”
“There were education events and event canvassing … dozens of people sat at the polls” to educate the public “and the town should take steps to listen to what the people say,” Wade said.
Hanover resident Tim O’Hara said the pledge’s “assumptions and assertions are simply false.”
“The pledge is a simple-minded view that is false on all its essentials,” O’Hara said. “The pledge itself was obnoxious in my view … I don’t understand why the town should be voting on these things. ...The pledge is externally well-funded and feels like a kind of invasion.”
The Dartmouth could not independently verify funding of the American Friends Service Committee, which organized the Apartheid Free Communities pledge.
Geisel School of Medicine professor and Hanover resident Donald Kollish said the pledge “was brought before [the town] in a legal fashion, albeit late in the evening” and “should be treated as such.”
Olivia Sapper ’29 is a reporter from Darien, Conn., and is majoring in Government.
