Credit: Eddie Velazquez | Central Current

The Syracuse Common Council rejected a resolution demanding a ceasefire to the war in Gaza and Israel at a meeting Tuesday, amid a sea of displeased advocates who had urged the council for weeks to call for an end to the conflict. 

The resolution was drafted partially by a group of 19 local Jewish and Palestinian organizations and introduced on the floor by Councilor At-Large Chol Majok. It is similar to resolutions passed by local governments in more than a hundred cities in the U.S.; a show of support for peace in the region and a nudge to federal elected officials to push for a ceasefire.

Seven councilors voted against the resolution in a tense, packed meeting that saw some members of the Cuse Ceasefire Coalition, the group that drafted the measure, walk out and yell “shame” at councilors once it became clear the measure would not be supported. 

Advocates then rallied outside City Hall continuing to signal to councilors for support in calling for a ceasefire to a conflict that has seen 33,137 die in Gaza since the Hamas attacks on Israel last October, according to a CBS report.

“We have a moral and ethical duty to advocate for Palestinians to not be murdered as they’re trying to flee violence,” said Aziza Zahran, a member of the Cuse Ceasefire Coalition.

Councilor Pat Hogan, D-2nd District, who acted as the council’s president pro tempore during the meeting, said the measure was divisive and a distraction from local issues. Above all, he added, the resolution would have no impact on deciding to cease fire as he believes the conflict is distant to Syracuse.

“Yet it has effectively created a rift in our community, pitting neighbors against neighbors,” Hogan told Central Current, noting that both supporters and detractors of the notion of a ceasefire were present at the meeting. “This is a gesture. I don’t do gestures.”

Hogan said the council should focus on local issues of homelessness and poverty instead.

“Gestures don’t get the job done of taking care of your people. It’s a waste of time,” he noted.

Syracuse politicians have before pushed the federal government to help broker peace during yearslong international conflict. Then-Congressman Jim Walsh was part of a delegation that helped set the foundation for peace in Northern Ireland in the 1990s.  

“Anybody that understands the history of social movements, knows that grassroots movements are the power that fuels democracy,” said Jess Posner, a coalition member. “Anyone that I hear saying that we aren’t important as individual citizens or as a small town are really trying to shut down the power of the people.”

For supporters of the resolution, the issue is local. They argue that Syracuse is a diverse city that is home to Palestinians and that their concerns and their pain should be acknowledged by their representatives.

Majok, who was the only “yes” vote, said he felt members of the council who voted against the resolution lack empathy. He said the stories he has read and heard from the war in Gaza and Israel remind him of the war-torn childhood he survived in South Sudan. Majok arrived in Syracuse in the early 2000s, as part of a group of 20,000 children who were displaced or orphaned during the second Sudanese civil war.

“To not recognize that the city is growing around you with people who are coming from another world, and to act as if their matters do not exist is concerning,” Majok added. “Even if we don’t understand what they are going through, we should at least stand with them in solidarity.”

Majok said the ceasefire initially had the support of five councilors but declined to name them. At a coalition meeting in the North Side in March, Majok listed Councilor Rita Paniagua as one of the sponsors of the resolution. On Tuesday, Paniagua voted against it. She did not respond to calls about her vote. 

Councilor Corey Williams declined to comment on whether he ever supported the resolution. Other councilors did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication. 

Some others skipped the vote: Council president Helen Hudson, who is a nonvoting member of the council, did not attend the study session including the resolution nor Monday’s vote. Councilor Jimmy Monto also did not attend Monday’s vote.  

The Cuse Ceasefire Coalition formed around the prospect of passing a ceasefire resolution through the common council. They packed the council chambers for meetings and circulated a petition that reached 1,000 signatures asking residents to call and email councilors and urge them to vote “yes” on the proposal. 

Despite the failures of that campaign, members say getting almost 20 organizations together to advocate for a single cause is a win.

“The connections that we’re making right now with Black people talking to white people, all of us being in solidarity with Palestinians and refugees in the city. That’s really powerful,” said MoAde Jagusah, a member of the coalition.

Group leaders say they plan to continue advocating for city leaders to call on the federal government to stop providing almost $3.8 billion in yearly military aid to Israel. 

Beyond that, the group also plans to organize around local elections. 

“We needed them to publicly show us their face, so that we can go and create a council that we want and a council that listens to us,” Zahran said.

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Eddie Velazquez is a Syracuse journalist covering economic justice in the region. He is focused on stories about organized labor, and New York's housing and childhood lead poisoning crises. You can follow...