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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Observers in politically liberal San Francisco will vote Tuesday on a resolution calling for a continued cease-fire in Gaza, though its final wording is likely to reflect proposed amendments reflecting historic tensions in the Middle East. is undecided.
The proposal to be voted on by the Board of Supervisors has no legal authority, and is one of dozens that local US officials have considered despite being irrelevant to international affairs. Israel-Hamas war has begun This is the fourth month after Deadly attack of 7th October Hamas militants.
The draft resolution introduced in December by Supervisor Dean Preston, who is Jewish, calls for humanitarian aid, the release of all hostages and “condemnation of anti-Semitic, anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic and all xenophobic rhetoric and attacks.”
Preston rejected amendments from another observer, Matt Dorsey, who wants the resolution to include a more explicit condemnation of the attack by Hamas. Dorsey proposed the amendments in the board’s rules committee on Monday, which included nearly five hours of impassioned remarks from cease-fire supporters who rejected the proposed additions as extremist and racist.
Supervisor Ahsha Safai said at the end of Monday’s hearing that the conversation turned from whether the board should approve a cease-fire proposal to what that proposal would look like.
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Pro-Palestinian, Jewish peace and other activist groups have blocked bridges, closed highways, staged sit-ins and called for a ceasefire in the country earlier this month. Californiastate of Assembly adjourned for a moment After calling.
Oakland, which is another politically liberal city in the San Francisco Bay Area, approved unanimously A permanent ceasefire proposal followed in November after rejecting an amendment that would have included an explicit condemnation of Hamas.
But in Burlington City Council Vermont A cease-fire proposal was rejected last month and the city of Berkeley, California, has refused to consider it, with Mayor Jesse Arreguín saying in a statement that such proposals “fan the fires of hatred” at home. Do nothing to solve violence abroad. Both are politically liberal cities.
As has been the case at other public hearings, remarks in Monday’s crowded Rules Committee were impassioned and lengthy. Cease-fire supporters called the resolution a common-sense stance against genocide and a declaration of the value of Palestinian life.
Manal Elkarra, a San Francisco physician who is Palestinian American, said before Monday’s hearing that about 100 family members in Gaza have been killed and the rest have nothing, their homes destroyed.
“There is no clean water. There is no access to food. There is no access to fuel. There is no access to telecommunications. And this is being done with the cooperation of the United States Government. And we’re here to say a lot,” she said.
While the numbers were low, several speakers urged the board to reject the original proposal or pass it with Dorsey’s amendments. They said they feel unsafe as Jewish people and are horrified by calls for Israel’s destruction.
Tyler Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area, was strongly criticized when he said at the hearing that if Hamas surrenders its weapons, there will be a war, but “if Israel surrenders its weapons, there will be no war.” ” More Israel.”
After the hearing, he said that the cease-fire proposals were creating a hostile environment and encouraging anti-Semitic acts, such as Destruction of a large menorah By Oakland’s Lake Merritt last month.
“No matter what happens,” he said Tuesday, “no one is going to win.”
The resolution and any amendments will go before the full board on Tuesday.
AP journalist Haven Daly contributed to this report.
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