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After waiting more than three hours to address the Mountain View City Council, community members lined up on Tuesday evening to urge the city to support a cease-fire resolution in the Gaza Strip. Rather than agreeing to put a resolution on the city’s agenda, the council raised the possibility of issuing a mayoral proclamation against hate instead.
This was not the first time a request for a cease-fire resolution had come before the City Council, but it was the largest turnout in the council chambers so far. About 20 community members and youth activists attended the council meeting on Feb. 13 to express their support for a resolution.
The speakers cited the death and destruction caused during Israel’s war against Hamas, which began after a deadly attack by Hamas that killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 hostages on Oct. 7. Since then, the war has claimed the lives of more than 28,000 Palestinians with about 80% of the 2.3 million population displaced from their homes, according to the Associated Press.
Sami, a Mountain View resident and Palestinian-American with family in Gaza, urged the council to consider the resolution for both moral and humanitarian principles. “I’m asking you to agendize this resolution because it’s deeply impactful to members of this community and those who have family in the region and those who are experiencing anti-Arab racism. And because it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
Omar, a Mountain View resident and first-generation American, described a similar situation, stating that most of his relatives were in Gaza and that 80 of his family members had been killed in the last four months. “It’s our responsibility to speak up, being silent is complicit,” he said.
But it was not only Palestinian-Americans urging support for a cease-fire; so did scores of other Mountain View residents, like Ayelet Marinovich, who identified as Jewish with Israeli heritage. “Global Affairs affect our local communities,” she said to the council members. “Those in Mountain View and surrounding areas who hold Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Jewish and Israeli identities are all grieving – all experiencing increased fear, pain and immense loss as well as experiencing more hatred, discrimination and racism right here in our community.”
Following council protocol, the City Council members did not respond directly to the public speakers because the cease-fire request was not formally on the agenda.
However, Council member Alison Hicks addressed the speakers’ concerns at the end of the meeting. Hicks did not propose to put a cease-fire resolution on the agenda but instead raised the possibility of a mayoral proclamation against hate.
Mayor Pat Showalter agreed with Hicks’ proposal and also noted that the council had a history of supporting human rights issues. “We are a human rights city,” she said, adding that this could be an issue for the Human Relations Commission to address as well with a civility roundtable for the community.
In November, Oakland approved a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and San Francisco followed suit in January. Last week, Palo Alto’s mayor resisted calls for a cease-fire resolution, stating that it would only exacerbate community divisions.
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Where are these activists for all the other indignities in the world? Does the city council become a revolving door of political protests? There are larger genocides (Tibet, Uigher)….shouldnt we do those too?
Of course not. The city has zero impact and business in this space. Why doesn’t the water department also issue their own proclamation? The school board?
Please. Save it for the state and national level.
I agree with Ramirez. Our City Council should focus on city issues and avoid resolutions and proclamations that are likely to be divisive. There is pain on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, strong feelings and opinions on both sides, and hate crimes inflicted on Muslims and Jews (as well as many others) here in the U.S. A civility roundtable sponsored by the Humans Relations Commission would be much more appropriate and useful than a cease-fire resolution.