Sam Hindi: Ericka? Hi, Ericka. A pleasure to meet you. Pleasure. Thank you for coming.
Maria Esquinca: Hi. Maria. Nice to meet you
Sam Hindi: Nice to meet you, Maria.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Maria, Alan, and I recently went to Foster City to talk with Sam Hindi. We took an elevator up to his office on the second floor of City Hall, which revealed a perfect view of the San Mateo Bridge in the distance. The bridge looks amazing.
Sam Hindi: Yeah.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: That’s really cool.
Sam Hindi: Yeah, yeah. I mean, this whole area here. Yeah. This used to be light industrial, And this year we have added so much needed housing.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Usually, Councilmember Hindi talks about stuff you’d expect from a local politician in the bay. Things like housing, public safety, access to parks. But we visited him to discuss his unique perspective as one of just a few Palestinian-American elected officials in the country. First Councilmember, I’ll have you just introduce yourself as your first and last name and then tell us what you do.
Sam Hindi: Sure. My name is Sam Hindi – last name H-I-N-D-I. I am a current councilmember here in Foster City. I used to be mayor and 2018-2019. My family’s story really begins with my grandparents from both my mom’s side and my dad’s side becoming refugees in 1948. They come from a town on the northern coast of what used to be Palestine. At the time it was called Akka. In English, it was called Acre, and my grandfather from my dad’s side, he let his family kind of go to Lebanon and he stayed behind, fighting for his village and for his country until he got injured and he had to evacuate and followed the family to Lebanon. You know, I’m someone who grew up in Lebanon during the civil war. So I understand I firsthand experience impact of war. My family basically ended up being scattered all over the world. I still have family in Lebanon. I still have family in Palestine. We grew up with Palestine in our mind. Our people has been subjected to colonization and occupation for 75 years.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: What brought you to Foster City specifically?
Sam Hindi: I immigrated in 1983 to the United States, and I was in Southern California. I went to college in Long Beach State, and that’s where I pursued my education. And while I was in college, I started a family business along with my brothers. And we had a career service. And then in 1992, we expanded from Southern California to Northern California. I actually stumbled over Foster City. I didn’t know that Foster City existed. I was shopping at a Middle Eastern store and started the conversation, and I told them I was thinking of moving to Burlingame and they said, ‘Well, you work in Union City. Why don’t you check out Foster City?’ I said, ‘Where is that?’ And I came to Foster City in 1992, fell in love with it. The community is such a great, diverse community that welcomes everybody. And after that, I got married and raised my children. My children were born in Foster City and went to Foster City schools. So, this is home for us. I’ve been here for so many years now, since 1992.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And what about your family? Are your brothers in Foster City as well? Are they still in Southern California?
Sam Hindi: You know, Palestinians end up being everywhere and scattered everywhere because we are homeless. That’s really what we are. We are stateless. So, I have two brothers in Southern California. I have one brother in Canada. I have one sister in New York. I have one sister still in Lebanon. And if I could tell you about my extended family, there’s some in Germany, some I mean, all over Europe, some in Dubai, Saudi Arabia. It’s just wherever you can make a living, wherever you could go, because, you know, wherever you are, the concentration of the Palestinian community in Lebanon or Syria or Jordan and the camps is not really a future to have a economic and financial future. So, you end up taking the opportunities wherever you can in this large world.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: On October 13th, Councilmember Hindi posted on his personal Facebook page saying, “The attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians, including killing, injuring and kidnaping, are reprehensible and war crimes.” He went on to write that “destroying and flattening entire neighborhoods in Gaza could not be justified or explained as self-defense. The footage from Gaza of civilian casualties is horrifying and beyond description.” For weeks now, Hindi has been glued to Al-Jazeera and sharing social media posts from the ground in Gaza. And he also believes very strongly that the U.S. is complicit in the killing of civilians in Palestine.
Sam Hindi: As the U.S. government, we are guilty of genocide just as much as Israel is guilty of genocide. There is no question in my mind about this. After October 7, people were talking about, well, especially elected official in the Western world and here, you know, Israel has a right to defend itself. I think every nation has a right to defend itself. Not just Israel. That goes without saying. Let me ask these questions: is laying a siege on 2.2 million civilians, not allowing food, water, medical supplies to come in, is that defending yourself? Is bombarding homes defending yourself? Is bombing mosques and churches defending yourself? Is killing over 9000 civilians – over 3000 of them are children – defending yourself? I cannot fathom how anyone, and mainly our US administration – how do you think what is happening, by having this genocide being committed, by the suffering of so many people, by shattering the lives of so many people, gonna get us closer to peace or security? I argue that it does completely the opposite. I say it will harden more people. You will have more militant because the scars of war do not to you in one day or two. I, for one, was one of those who was hopeful for a two-state solution. And I have a lot of reservations on the Oslo Accord, but I’m talking about the principle of coexistence, the principle of making peace, the principle of living together. Unfortunately, what has happened and transpired since: the constant land theft of Palestinian land in Jerusalem and the West Bank and expanding the settlement enterprise, taking the indigenous people, kicking them out of their homes, stealing the land and building settlement on it, and all the violations of human rights and all the crimes that has been committed against the Palestinian people. Israel has been getting away with it with impunity. Unfortunately, from our country, the United States and the rest of the Western world, most of the Western world, not all of them. So I don’t see how that could happen. It’s really – and it’s kind of ironic that you hear Biden and his administration we are for a two state solution. Either they are disingenuous or they don’t know what they are talking about. And I don’t think they don’t know what they are talking about.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: After the break, Sam Hindi talks about what role he thinks local elected officials in the Bay Area can play in this international conflict. Stay with us.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I want to ask you how you’re thinking about your role in this moment as a city councilor, as an American, as a Palestinian-American. What have your conversations been like?
Sam Hindi: So, that’s a very important question. I mean, I have different hats and I wear those different hats and different roles. My job as a city council member is to be representing my entire community, not just a Palestinian communities, and not just my personal views as a Palestinian American. My job is to make sure the well-being of my entire community, those on either side or those who are not even involved, that they are being respected, that we are careful how people on the other side in our community are mourning as well. We have civilians in Israel who got killed as well. And I mourn all civilians. I represent the residents of Foster City equally. But with that being said, you ask me, what do I do? I continue to reach out to our congressional representatives to share with them the perspective and the feelings of the Palestinian-Arab-Muslim community, and quite frankly, our allies, who most of them are Jewish. Jewish Voice for Peace [and] Not In Our Name: those two organization are advocating for a cease fire.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Have you had a chance to actually get on the phone with some of these congressional representatives you’ve reached out to?
Sam Hindi: I have. Our congressional representative for our district is Kevin Mullin. But we’ve been reaching out to other issues and not just our local representative. Obviously, you know, our community is in a lot of pain. Our children in school are scared and being called terrorists. They’re being singled out. We make sure we reach out to the attorney general of the state of California, Rob Bonta, to make him aware of these things. We continue to be anxious, continue to be scared, and we feel abandoned quite, quite frankly, by our leadership in Washington. We feel betrayed by the Biden administration, and he better be careful. He is losing, if not already lost a lot of votes, not just from Palestinians, not just from Arabs, not just from Muslims, but also from our allies. Actions have consequences and hopefully that will be reflected on the ballot.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: You are a city councilor of this one particular city. But we have seen Richmond, California, you know, pass a resolution standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine. I’m curious how you see your role in that way. Are there any conversations happening in Foster City, for example, about that kind of thing?
Sam Hindi: That’s a very tough and important question. And just to be clear, a resolution of any kind on international policy is symbolic, although it’s important sometimes to be symbolic. I’m not dismissing the importance. It’s very important. Basically, what Richmond said, in essence, we don’t want to be silent and we’re speaking out to what we see is wrong as crime. Others have reservations. I think it was an important move for the Richmond City Council to articulate their values for human rights and for freedom. Here in Foster City, I have not approached it. And…
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Would you like to see something like that?
Sam Hindi: I do. You know, on the city council. I’m one of five. To get anything done, you need at least two more people. I don’t think we’ll have three, so I weigh, is it worth going through the exercise and have the divisiveness in the community and not having the outcome? Because, you know, you’re going to open the debate and you’re going to have the divisiveness. For that reason, you way. What’s the point? What’s the value? I’m not here to divide my community. Yes, I’m here to lead. And I would love my community to see the injustice and to say that. To be fair to my colleagues, I have not approached them. I’m not suggesting that they are not or they are. I don’t know. But my gut feeling is I don’t have three.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: What are the conversations that you’re having with your kids right now?
Sam Hindi: So my kids are at an age now that they really understand everything on their own.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: How old are they?
Sam Hindi: I have a 26, 24, and 21. My wife and I never kind of put them in and really drilled in them the Palestinian issue. They organically have seen because, unfortunately, what we are seeing now is this is like what, the fourth time at least, in Gaza. So, they grew up experiencing these things just from far away from the United States. But it’s organically had the connection they did on their own. My parents actually, the one thing that they drilled in our mind, me and my siblings, is we don’t have a problem with the Jewish religion and the Jews. This is about Zionism and the theft of Palestine. So, that is what my parents drilled in our heads. Be careful when you speak and be careful who you target with your speech. This is not a religious war. This is about colonialism and settlement and occupation.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Thank you so much for taking the time and for speaking with us and sitting down. I really appreciate it.
Sam Hindi: Well, thank you so much for reaching out and really for providing me the medium to share.
