MINNEAPOLIS — A solid majority of the Minneapolis City Council has laid out plans to introduce a resolution Monday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and asking the federal government to withdraw support for Israeli military operations against Hamas.
They say the United States shouldn't be giving political or material support to the Israeli government for a military campaign that has claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians and created a humanitarian crisis for Gazans fleeing the invasion.
"We want an end to our tax dollars being used to contribute to this humanitarian catastrophe and unspeakable loss of life," Council Member Aisha Chughtai remarked during a Friday afternoon press conference.
"As a Muslim person, just watching the horrific violence in Gaza over the last few months has been a deeply painful and personal thing to experience, like many people in our community."
The event also featured speakers from a coalition supporting the resolution, including the Council on Islamic American Relations, TakeAction Minnesota, Jewish Voices for Peace and Minnesota BDS Community.
"To my community I say Jewish safety matters. And it must come through the safety and liberation of all people," Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg of Jewish Voices for Peace. "We will not find safety or peace through a wall or a gun as thousands of children are killed."
Jaylani Hussein of CAIR said that at least 100 of the Palestinians who've died in Gaza have Minnesota connections, including one family that lost 40 family members in one airstrike. He said the U.S. has become increasingly isolated by not condemning the deaths of civilians.
"Calling for a ceasefire is not a major step. Calling for a ceasefire is the least we can do. It is the most basic, human request."
Mayor Jacob Frey, at a separate press conference Friday, said he won't support any resolution that doesn't acknowledge the Oct. 7th attack that sparked this Israeli incursion into Gaza. At least 1,200 civilians were killed in those attacks, and 200 persons were taken hostage.
"I did not hear from enough people how horrible it was, I did not hear from enough organizations about how innocent lives and civilians should not be slaughtered. That is a universal truth that we should all abide by."
He said that, as a Jew, he would've expected that the council members talk to him about their resolution before launching the effort.
"There are resolutions out there that I would adamantly support. A resolution calling for an end to the atrocities and support for innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli, I would proudly get behind. It is not mutually exclusive to be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine. You can be supportive the state of Israel and simultaneously disagree adamantly with the administration that is running the government."
Frey bristled at the notion that Israelis are being condemned as colonizers when it was a nation founded by refugees fleeing prosecution. He noted his Jewish ancestors in Europe were persecuted and murdered first by Russians and later by German Nazis in the Holocaust.
He said he supports a two-state solution that recognizes that both Jews and Arabs have historical connections to that part of the world dating back thousands of years.
He was joined by Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman of Temple Israel. She noted she has worked for years to form bonds with fellow clergy of all faiths and to build bridges of understanding, but that fabric has been frayed since the Oct. 7 attacks and Israel's retaliatory military strikes against Hamas.
"The recent increase in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in our city has caused suffering and fear to many communities and to the residents of Minneapolis," Rabbi Zimmerman remarked.
"In this time of great upheaval, we need the council to be a unifying force that brings us together to fight hate speech and hate violence. We pray every Shabbat for innocent lives of Israelis and Palestinians who have died. We pray to return those kidnapped by Hamas on October 7."
Frey also invited Steve Hunegs, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. He acknowledged deaths of Palestinian civilians has been tragic but objected to term "genocide" being used to describe what's happening in Gaza.
"This accusation of genocide against the Jewish people and Israel, is wrong, it’s a blood libel. And on top of everything else it turns fact and history on his head when you’re talking about Hamas, which in its charter has the goal of destroying Israel.
The actual wording of the resolution won't be made public until Monday, but Council Member Auren Chowdhury conveyed a sense of what will be in it.
"The ask is to make it clear that in a Democratic society, where are public dollars are a part of our voice, that there is a broad voice saying we do not want to contribute to a humanitarian crisis. It does not speak for us," Chowdhury told reporters.
"We ask our US congressional delegation and our president to hold the state of Israel accountable, and to push for a permanent, immediate ceasefire to allow for humanitarian aid and to end further US military funding that is contributing to this humanitarian crisis."
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