Rob Smoke wants to clear the air.
He doesn’t necessarily see himself as a pro-Palestinian candidate for the Boulder City Council. Though he has aligned himself with fellow candidate Aaron Stone, who is proudly pro-Palestinian, he has distanced himself from the dramatic interruptions and clashes that have defined City Council meetings over the past two years.
So as a vocal opponent of the city’s investment policies, what does he see himself as?
“I would describe myself as being pro-humanity and pro-stopping genocide and, for the city of Boulder, pro-divestment,” Smoke said.
Smoke is referring to the city’s investments in corporations that a United Nations report pegged as culpable in Israel’s military actions in its war against Hamas in Gaza. Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people. Since then, more than 60,000 people have died in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry. Amnesty International, the International Association of Genocide Scholars and an inquiry from the United Nations say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Israel pushes back on that claim.
Smoke is a longtime activist in Boulder and was on the city’s Human Relations Commission in the 2000s. He grew up in New York City and has lived in Boulder for 39 years.
Smoke ran for City Council in 2007. He threw his hat in the ring 18 years later because of the city’s investments in corporations involved in the Israel-Hamas war.
The Boulder City Council has repeatedly declined to revisit its investment policies.
“It’s about representing how people feel in their hearts, people feel as humans and you can’t do it by doing anything other than putting morality first,” Smoke said. “It should be the first order of business for the city to be discussing and going over and coming up with an answer.”
Multiple City Council members believe that the city faces larger issues, from the economy to wildfire resilience. They fear that addressing the city’s investment policies would take valuable staff time away from addressing more immediate issues.
Smoke said he thinks that’s full of, well, you-know-what.
“We’re making money off the killing, we’re giving all kinds of tax dollar support. So to say that, ‘Oh that’s not what we’re about here,’ it’s just obvious on its face that it’s an invalid approach,” Smoke said, referring to another argument that the city shouldn’t be involved in international issues
Smoke also takes issue with the city’s new open comment rules.
The council recently gave a makeover to the open comments section at regular meetings. That was done in an effort to rein in unruliness and interruptions by protesters calling for divestment from Israel, and others accusing those protesters of harassment or antisemitism.
Smoke, while a regular at those meetings, has largely avoided engaging in the spectacles.
Smoke is one of 11 candidates running for the four open City Council seats. Incumbents Matt Benjamin, Nicole Speer, Mark Wallach and Mayor Pro Tem Lauren Folkerts are running for re-election. Joining Smoke as challengers are Stone, Jenny Robins, Rob Kaplan, Rachel Rose Isaacson, Montserrat Palacios and Max Lord.