Studying counterterrorism in Israel upsets Cambridge residents

should hold around understanding public safety?” she asked.

Councilor Ken Reeves agreed, saying that that he was saddened by what had happened.

“This is quite incredible. No matter what your position is on Israel or not Israel, this as a municipal happenstance is so sorry,” he said. “To anybody who wants to know whether certain individuals have more clout with what happens in your government — over and above the people who you have elected, because nobody here knew this at all. We might have multiple governments that we didn’t know.”

Decker stressed that Barron himself had done nothing wrong by offering to pay for the trips. She said that city staff should not have approved the trips without informing the council.

“You don’t get to buy the democratic process,” she said. “You don’t get to give millions and then decide what’s best for the community.”

Even after questions and public comments about the trip and its purpose took up almost a majority of the council’s 28 February meeting — and after Reeves met with City Manager Bob Healy to discuss the trip — the council did not learn that Barron had paid for the trip until they received Barron’s letter on Monday.

“If this was the deal in the first place, why hasn’t (Healy) told us this by now?” Reeves said. “This city manager has to understand that he cannot do this. This is beyond the pale of anybody’s expectations. Since we began discussing this last week, nobody in the first floor of this building has taken it upon them self to say‘‘Oh by the way.’”

Twice since bringing the original order, Decker has amended it to temper criticism that it is critical of Israel. The original order contained a clause that described Israel’s counterterrorism as using “tactics which are associated with indefinite detention, illegal occupation, torture, lacking any constructional guidance.” Decker deleted that clause 28 February.

At the 7 March meeting she further amended the order to get rid of all of the listed reasons for her request for information — those clauses that began with “whereas.” She said they were becoming a “distraction” from the request for information.

“I want to delete all of the distraction around this and get straight to: I want information,” she said.

The request for an overall policy on training and travel came from Councilor Craig Kelley.

“To pick out the Police Department and Fire Department for what apparently some people thought was useful training, I think misses what else we might be sending people to,” he said. “It might be great stuff. It might not be. If we’re concerned about it we should be concerned about it all.”

For the agenda of the city’s council meeting, Councilor Marjorie Decker had submitted an order noting that Police Commissioner Robert Haas had described a similar 2009 trip as “not particularly useful.” The order asked City Manager Bob Healy to investigate the rationale for and the substance of both trips.

Resident Alan Meyers said he was “deeply disturbed” by the trip.

“What Israel euphemistically calls counterterrorism is for the most part an assault on a defenseless, unarmed civilian population,” he said. “It is a mechanism of oppression suited to employment in a police state, a status I do not regard our city as having obtained. At least not yet.”

Resident Gerald Bergman told councilors to “wake yourself out of your stupor and put a stop to it.”

Resident David Slaney had his own theory as to the reason for the trip: “All I could figure out is: Is it true that Cambridge is planning to invade and occupy, annex and sell parts of Somerville — possibly the line through Union Square and Davis Square?” he asked the council. “Because if we were going to do that then it would make perfect sense to learn how the Israeli police work. If we were going to do that we would have to expropriate people, expel people, we’d have to knock down their houses.”

ADL spokesman Sean Martin provided the Cambridge Chronicle with a written, bullet pointed, response to the allegations. It noted that the council had not reached out to the ADL for information and called the organization, “one of our nation’s most important organizations fighting hate, promoting inclusion, and keeping our communities safe.”

The ADL noted the training in Israel was especially valuable for Cambridge, which has a bomb squad.

“Like their American counterparts, Israel’s police must balance preventing terrorism and crime, and respecting the law and values of a democratic nation,” it said.