'Our shared humanity:' Durham City Council passes Gaza ceasefire resolution
The Durham City Council passed a resolution overnight for a ceasefire in Gaza – becoming the second city in North Carolina to adopt the resolution, joining 70 cities across the country.
The resolution passed in a 5-2 vote just before 1 a.m. Tuesday. Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams and Mayor Pro Tempore Mark-Anthony Middleton voted against the resolution.
Williams said he had not spoken publicly on the issue prior to the meeting because he did not feel like it was his place to "tip the scale either way," but to do what was right and "embrace the pain of everyone" in the city of Durham.
"I'm exhausted. I am tired," he said. "When we passed this tonight, it's not over. I think words on a paper is no more than symbolic. Words have power and they have more power when we speak them because it causes us to act. I hope that's a practice everyone will adopt and adapt to."
The resolution "urges the Biden administration to call for and facilitate de-escalation and a sustained, bilateral ceasefire," as well as calls for humanitarian aid to Gaza and the release of all hostages and Palestinians unjustly held.
"Anytime you use weapons of mass destruction to kill children is not okay," said Councilwoman DeDreana Freeman said. "There is no other side to this."
Durham residents, the Durham Workers Assembly and Mothers for Ceasefire rallied outside city council chambers at 6 p.m. before going inside for the meeting, which started at 7 p.m.
“We know this was a big step for city council, and we know it is not enough, so we want to honor the gravity of this moment," one ceasefire supporter said before the meeting.
"This is a small piece of a bigger effort hopefully," said At-Large Durham City Council Member Javiera Caballero. "We have to do better. We all have to realize our shared humanity. And that we do need to move in a collective way if we have any hope for a different future."
Previous calls for ceasefires in the Triangle
The vote is a stark contrast to how Raleigh City Council handled calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Earlier in February, Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin, said the Raleigh City Council would not vote on a ceasefire resolution.
"Part of the reason why [Raleigh and Chapel Hill] did not pursue a resolution is because they would have been split votes," Middleton said.
The Durham vote comes as officials in Gaza say more than 29,000 people have died in the country since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel.
In the last four months, supporters of Palestine have gathered for mass demonstrations in support of a ceasefire, including a demonstration by Jewish Voice for Peace that stopped traffic on N.C. Highway 147.
'Intellectual integrity'
Middleton said that while it took the council months to respond to calls for a ceasefire, it doesn't mean they did not care about what was happening overseas.
"The way we experience horror and what is going on in Gaza is horrific," he said. "Not adopting your way of speaking about it, or your world view wholesale, does not mean we are not in the same place in terms of our horror."
While most people during the public comment section of the meeting voiced their support of the resolution, some were against its passage, saying it's not up to the Durham City Council to make foreign policy decision.
"Your so called ceasefire is a blood libel that Israelis call for Palestinian blood. It is a shameful work of a city council puffed up by American privilege and Western arrogance" said one speaker. "Using city government to whip up more Jew hatred is one of a thousand cuts to Durham's Jews."
Freeman and other council members said they recognized the pain there resolution would cause Jewish people in the Durham community, with some highlighting the pain caused by a vote made by the city council in 2018 prohibiting international police exchanges.
Middleton, who revealed he had to defend the decision to end the police exchange in Israel in 2023, said the issue of a ceasefire wasn't about the spirit of the resolution, but having the "intellectual integrity" in defending the resolution.
"If we get into a policy statement, I think it betrays what our original goal was...to capture as many voices of Durham as possible," he added. "Because from a policy point of view, I don't know how to explain a disproportionate response, but bilateral ceasefire absent a two-state solution."
