Frustrated by Washington, Pro-Palestinian Activists Take Their Fight to City Hall The New York Times
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The recent measures mark a distinct contrast with the response of local governments in October, when public officials widely condemned the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks and expressed solidarity with Israel. Leaders representing some of the largest jurisdictions passed pro-Israel resolutions, including Los Angeles County and Dallas, as did cities with large Jewish populations like Beverly Hills, Calif., and those with conservative voters like Huntington Beach, Calif. We have already lost precious time getting this agency set up and at work creating and preserving affordable housing in Los Angeles County.
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18 House Democrats sign resolution for Mideast de-escalation, ceasefire - JNS.org - JNS.org
18 House Democrats sign resolution for Mideast de-escalation, ceasefire - JNS.org.
Posted: Mon, 23 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The measure said the House “clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism,” an equivalency unacceptable to many Democrats. The resolution passed 412 to 10, with 10 actual “no” votes plus six representatives who voted “present.” Rep. Massie was the only Republican to vote against it, just as he was the only Republican not to cosponsor it. Pro-Israel groups note with concern that even before Oct. 7, hate crimes were soaring. Now, with the Hamas-Israel war on local government agendas, city halls have formally opened the door to potential hate speech and the public spread of disinformation, said Tyler Gregory, chief executive of the Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco. Local resolutions on international affairs largely amount to symbolic gestures that play no direct role in foreign policymaking. But they can send a signal to allies abroad over the domestic political temperature and provide a vehicle for some of the most opinionated voters to say their piece.
What supporters of the Ceasefire Now Resolution say
It has attracted 17 cosponsors, all Democrats, generally considered to be on the left wing of the party. Rep. Massie, the lone Republican holdout on the pro-Israel resolution, has not signed on to this one either. A simple resolution is used for matters that affect just one chamber of Congress, often to change the rules of the chamber to set the manner of debate for a related bill. It must be agreed to in the chamber in which it was introduced.
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Berkeley’s council, though not currently in favor of making a resolution, was one of the first to call out South African apartheid in 1972. In Los Angeles, council members passed a resolution in 2003 opposing the Iraq War, and many cities passed resolutions showing solidarity with Ukraine shortly after the Russian invasion. The city of Richmond voted to support the Palestinian people in Gaza with a controversial resolution after a marathon City Council meeting. An official vote is expected to take place at an upcoming meeting. Cudahy’s said Palestinians had “lived under violent and dehumanizing conditions” and that the council was “grieving all lives lost as a result of this genocide.” It passed with three votes for, one abstention and one absence.
Voting Records
Schneider, attending the funeral of his sister-in-law, did not vote. Underwood underscored in a Sun-Times interview what she said in a Nov. 29 statement. “Unequivocally,” she said, “antisemitism is wrong in all forms and all places.” Campuses “have a responsibility to make sure that they create a safe space for all students,” she added. On the Democratic side, there were 194 yes; nine no; six present; and three not voting. The Chicago area political turf includes the largest Palestinian and Palestinian-American population in the nation, with most living on the South Side and Southwest suburbs, according to Louise Cainkar, a Marquette University sociologist and Palestinian demographics expert. Chicago ranks fourth among the most Jewish cities in the U.S., according to Brandeis University.
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The resolution was Stefanik’s bid to leverage her grilling of the presidents of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and MIT at the hearing where they declined to say if calls for the genocide of Jews violated campus codes of conduct. Penn’s president quit in the wake of her testimony, and the resolution said the other presidents should resign. On the Democratic side, 95 voted yes; 13 no; 92 present; and 13 didn’t vote. This was a painful vote for Brad Schneider, the staunchest pro-Israel Democrat in the delegation and the co-chair of the Israel Allies Caucus. He joined Democrats objecting to the IRS funding scheme and voted no. “I also believe that there is no room for Islamophobia and the hatred and bigotry that is being directed toward Muslim people in our community,” creating “real fear” of “discrimination and the real sense of physical threat,” Underwood said.
California city first in U.S. to officially back Palestinians, accuses Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’
Mr. Martinez, 74, a longtime leader in the left-leaning Richmond Progressive Alliance, said that members of the city’s large Muslim community thanked him profusely, but national and international hate mail followed. “Stick to picking lettuce,” one angry critic wrote to Mr. Martinez. “I hope the terrorists cut your babies [h]eads off,” another wrote in an email. Those calling for cease-fire resolutions believe that this time, a critical mass of local gestures may ultimately convey to the White House that it has lost support for backing Israel’s military campaign. Especially if the resolutions come from Democratic strongholds that serve as President Biden’s base. The Dec. 5 vote on the GOP-authored resolution condemning antisemitism passed, , with one Republican voting no.
US HR786 2023-2024 118th Congress
The basic law of the government of the City of Los Angeles is found in the City Charter, first adopted by a vote of the people in 1924, effective July 1, 1925, and subsequently amended from time to time. The new City Charter, effective July 2000, provided for the creation of a Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils. The goal of the Neighborhoods Councils is to promote public participation in City governance and decision-making process to create a government more responsive to local needs. To get the buy-in of the powerful union, Kamlager amended the bill to require workers on projects under 40 units be paid the countywide prevailing wage for public works. Any project with 40 or more units would be subject to the city of L.A.’s Project Labor Agreement requirements on worker pay and the mix of skill levels on projects. The bill stalled in the Assembly last year over what, if anything, it should specify about wages and the distribution of skilled workers for construction projects.
Cudahy is the first city in Southern California to support the Palestinian people of Gaza with a resolution that calls for a cease-fire. Local governments have been taking stands on global issues for decades. But given the intense debate over the war, the resolutions have heightened divisions in some communities and raised questions about what governments get out of them. But while a ceasefire could save lives in the short-term, there’s no reason to think that if the Israeli government stood down, that Hamas would too — and the resolution does not address that longer-term problem. Launched in 2004, GovTrack helps everyone learn about and track the activities of the United States Congress. Initiated from Gaza, the region Hamas has effectively controlled since 2006, terrorists broke through border barriers to kill Israeli civilians with weapons, while launching 3,000 rockets at Israeli targets.
He said he heard from a Palestinian woman in San Francisco who has lost 100 family members in Gaza since the attacks began — including another seven in one recent day. In Southern California, the nonprofit Latino Muslim Unity pushed the Cudahy resolution and has urged Santa Ana, Long Beach and other cities near an Anaheim business district known as “Little Arabia” to pass cease-fire proclamations. Advocates for cease-fire resolutions say that they have few other options to get the attention of Washington, where Congress and the White House still support Israel’s military effort.
Oakland was unanimous in its passage of a resolution that included input from Jewish and Muslim leaders and called for a cease-fire in language that mirrored House Resolution 786, authored by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.). If the bill to create the agency passes, it would still need a financing mechanism. The best approach would be to ask voters to approve a local measure in 2024 to fund the agency’s initiatives since it’s too late for advocates to collect the signatures needed to place it on the November ballot. Mr. Preston, who is Jewish, said he’s heard a lot of pushback about the resolution not being central to what local supervisors should be focusing on — and he said that’s been true when the board has weighed in on other international topics.
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