Should the Tacoma City Council demand a ceasefire in Gaza? These people think so
Roughly two dozen speakers went before the Tacoma City Council this week to demand local leaders pass a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Seattle has approved such a resolution. So have local governments in Bellingham and Olympia. Why then, the speakers wanted to know, has Tacoma City Council not followed suit?
During the community forum section of Tuesday’s council meeting, Aysha Kloub said that pro-ceasefire advocates have sounded the alarm for several months.
“We call on you to act now,” Kloub told council members. “The time is overdue.”
At least 31,923 Palestinians have died in Gaza since Oct. 7 when Israel began military operations there after the terrorist group Hamas launched an attack from the enclave that claimed the lives of some 1,139 Israelis, according to a live tracker by Al Jazeera last updated Wednesday. Tens of thousands more Palestinians have been injured or declared missing.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Victoria Woodards offered an update for those who have been pushing for a resolution. The city, she said, is working with a local rabbi and imam “with the intention of bringing something forward to this council that’s crafted by both of them.” Woodards reasoned that it’s important to engage representatives from Tacoma’s Jewish and Muslim communities.
Not everyone was thrilled with that strategy.
Zev Cook with Jewish Voice for Peace classified the potential resolution as “a step in the right direction” but cautioned against framing it as a religious conflict.
“This is a genocide,” said Cook, who also serves as co-chair of the Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America. “It’s settler colonialism, and you don’t have to be Jewish, Muslim or religious at all to absolutely and unequivocally condemn it.”
Other local governments across the United States have called for a ceasefire in Gaza in recent months, both in Washington and nationwide. Officials in Jefferson and San Juan counties are pushing for peace in Palestine, as are cities elsewhere in the United States, including Chicago, Detroit, Austin and St. Louis.
Many pro-ceasefire Tacomans are frustrated by the city’s lack of action. Kloub spoke with The News Tribune ahead of the meeting.
“It feels like there’s a lack of transparency with the community as to what the holdup is,” Kloub continued. “I mean, we are asking for the most basic, basic of statements from our elected body, which is to say that the ongoing killing has to stop, and it has to stop for good. The reluctance at which we are facing from City Council members boggles my mind.”
In November, protesters blocked traffic at the Port of Tacoma, where they believed a military vessel carrying weapons would soon embark for Israel. In February, local demonstrators disrupted a City Council meeting to urge leaders to broadcast support for Palestine, according to Fight Back! News.
Supporters of a campaign called Tacoma for Justice in Palestine gathered at an adjacent park ahead of Tuesday’s council meeting. Some handed out snacks; many aired frustrations with the city. At one point, they broke out into a sing-along ditty decrying Palestine’s occupation, sung to the tune of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”
Tacoma for Justice in Palestine has launched a letter campaign on the petition website Action Network.
“We urge the City Council to pass a resolution that calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire; unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza; an end to long-standing U.S. military aid to Israel; and an end to Israeli apartheid and the occupation and blockade of Palestinian land,” the group wrote. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 4,525 letters had been sent in support of the effort.
Advocates demand ‘integrity’ from City Council
Although the City Council has yet to pass a ceasefire resolution, some members have issued written statements about the conflict.
In an Oct. 17 news release, City Council member Sarah Rumbaugh noted a marked rise in antisemitic incidents amid the Israel-Hamas war.
“There is no place for hate in Tacoma or in Israel, and we must stand against antisemitism in all forms,” she said at the time.
Council member Kiara Daniels backed “an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East” in a March 5 statement posted to the city’s website. (Kloub bristled at this wording, arguing that precise language should be used, such as “Palestine” and “Gaza,” when describing the region.)
Multiple speakers at Tuesday’s meeting highlighted the number of children killed in Gaza: some 13,450 to date, according to UNICEF USA. One person stated that the figure represents roughly half of the kids enrolled in Tacoma Public Schools. Another referenced the city’s fundamental values.
“Tacoma City Council’s guiding principles: integrity, service, excellence and equity,” Kelsey Centeno told city leaders. “We are faced with seeing a genocide every day, and yet there are those who choose to ignore it. Where is the integrity in that?”
Ilā Ravichandran with Tacoma for Justice in Palestine believes that all cities, including Tacoma, should take a stand against the suffering in Gaza. That show of solidarity is critical at a time when Palestinians nationwide are facing an uptick in discrimination. (Antisemitic incidents have also sharply spiked in recent months.)
Speaking with The News Tribune, Ravichandran drew parallels between today’s climate and the aftermath of 9/11. Hate groups targeted Arabs and Muslims following the 2001 attacks, making many fear for their lives.
“People shouldn’t be afraid to say who they are, to grieve openly, to receive support from other people,” she said. “Showing that Tacoma City Council stands for a cease-fire and to end all U.S. aid to Israel is important, because then Palestinians here — Palestinians in the diaspora, which are so many of them — feel supported.”
