Durham becomes largest NC city to call for Gaza cease-fire in divided late-night vote

In a split vote at nearly 1 a.m. Tuesday, the Durham City Council passed a resolution calling for cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, becoming the second and largest municipality in North Carolina to do so.

The vote was 5-2, with Mayor Leonardo WIlliams and Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton dissenting. Williams said he thought the vote should be divided.

“I think it should reflect Durham,” he said, adding that he believed the resolution will “tear the community apart.”

The resolution calls for an end to U.S. military aid for the current Israeli government, urges the Biden administration to facilitate a cease-fire and calls for the release of hostages.

Anti-war protesters filled the Durham City Council chambers for the second time in two weeks, with hundreds forced to wait outside.

The protesters have been demanding for months that Durham’s elected leaders issue a resolution against the war, which has claimed more than 30,000 lives since Oct. 7, most of them civilians in Gaza, according to Associated Press reports.

“We should not be providing unconditional funding to a government actively under investigation for perpetrating genocide in violation of international law,” Elizabeth Johnson said during the public comment period.

At the previous meeting, protesters held red roses in the air and stopped the meeting entirely to sing for 15 minutes. This time, they held clementines. Both are symbols for the Palestinian lives lost.

The clementines focus especially on children, chosen after the death of 3-year-old Imad Abu Al-Qare’a, reportedly shot by Israeli snipers when his cousin took him out to get clementines.

Swarnali Sengupta raised one as she spoke Monday night, recounting her memory of reading Anne Frank’s diary as a child.

“I always wondered, if someone read her diary as it was happening, would the world have saved her?” Sengupta asked. “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

“Many of us are here today because we have the moral courage to call a genocide a genocide as it’s unfolding, rather than decades later,” added Julie Gras-Najjar, who descends from survivors of the Nazis and the Armenian genocide.

Discussion on the resolution was pushed to the end of Monday night’s agenda, and didn’t begin until nearly 10 p.m., three hours after the meeting started. The overflow area had thinned to a few dozen by then.

About 40 people spoke, most supporting a strongly worded resolution.

A smaller group of Jewish Americans spoke against it. Brad Young said he was troubled by the “mind-boggling absence of the word Hamas” and Marcy Goldstein said it was “divisive” and “in bad faith.”

70 cities have called for ceasefire

Jewish Voice for Peace reports about 70 cities around the U.S. have passed resolutions calling for cease-fire. In November, Carrboro became the first North Carolina town to do so.

Raleigh’s mayor said earlier this month that Raleigh leaders will not vote on a similar resolution.

“We should have done this earlier,” Durham City Council member Nate Baker said Monday, offering a list of 10 reasons he voted for it.

Durham’s resolution was authored by a newly appointed council member, Chelsea Cook, who is Jewish. It is her first act as a public official.

“I know there are members of the Jewish community who are going to feel pain at the passage of this resolution,” Cook said. “I know that for everyone that’s going to feel hurt by this resolution, there’s so many of you who are going to be frustrated by its limitations. And I’m frustrated too.”

Council member DeDreana Freeman supported the resolution, but said she believed the word “genocide” should be in it.

“It’s really problematic to not to say what the thing is — I don’t want you to say anything. I don’t want any snaps,” she interrupted the crowd, which was indicating its approval. “This (resolution) is not the best representation of Durham right now, and that is what’s most hard to swallow.”

She said she felt irritated by the “white liberalism in the room.”

“It hurts, because you weren’t here last year,” Freeman said, referencing the difficult year experienced by her and two other Black women who have since left the council. “If you really want people who fight for justice, you have to support them.”

Middleton said he voted against it because he thought the language needed refinement, perhaps mentioning the need for a two-state solution.

“I think we can get there if we did more work,” he said.

This story was originally published February 20, 2024 at 7:59 AM with the headline "Durham becomes largest NC city to call for Gaza cease-fire in divided late-night vote."