Rockne Roll, editor of the Jewish Review, a Jewish Federation of Greater Portland publication in Oregon, used his name and affiliation to register for an Oct. 17 press conference, during which four progressive members of the Portland City Council pledged to challenge “U.S. complicity in Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestine.”
After logging in to the virtual event and before it began, Roll was kicked out. “What were you thinking? That was just dumb,” Marc Blattner, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, told JNS. (Blattner said that Roll had preregistered with his name and the publication name.)
The lawmakers’ pledge “galvanized” the Jewish community, according to Blattner. “This is not the role of the City Council,” he told JNS.
The council members—Mitch Green, Sameer Kanal, Tiffany Koyama Lane and Angelita Morillo—are self-described socialists who are part of a group called “Peacock,” short for “progressive caucus.”
In a press release announcing the event, the council members stated that they aimed “to build a national groundswell of local action for an arms embargo and to end municipal support for what the pledge describes as ‘Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid or genocidal violence against Palestinians.”
The Portland Democratic Socialists of America subsequently stated that the Jewish reporter was barred due to an “inadvertent exclusion” that “was not intentional.” (JNS sought comment from the four councilors.)
“Events related to Palestine are often disrupted by trolls,” the Portland chapter of the group said. “The volunteers running the tech, who were making quick decisions to try to mitigate potential disruptions and distractions, mistakenly identified Rockne Roll as a fake name.”
The group said that when the moderator “realized their error,” a recording of the event was sent to Roll. It added that city councilors who were part of the event had “no role in, or visibility into, the tech administration of this event.”
Randy Kessler, Northwest director of StandWithUs, told JNS that the councilors committed “a stunning act of exclusion.”
“Whether intentional or not, as the DSA now insists, this incident reeks of selective censorship. It silences Jewish perspectives at a moment when open dialogue is essential to bridge divides, not widen them,” Kessler said. “Portland’s Jewish residents deserve to hear from their elected officials without fear of being deemed ‘disruptive’ simply for existing as journalists.”
Blattner, of the Federation, emailed the councilors on Thursday, stating that “whether accidental or intentional, it astonishes me that none of you have reached out to Rockne directly.”
