The Sacramento City Council has adopted a resolution calling for an “immediate and permanent” ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
And yet, a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested after refusing to leave the city council meeting Tuesday where the resolution was approved.
The city council called on Hamas to cease operations against Israel and to release all their hostages, called on Israel to end all bombing and military action in Gaza and the West Bank, and for both sides to no longer point offensive weapons at the other.
The resolution also calls for President Biden to send humanitarian aid to Gaza and for the “immediate unconditional release of all Palestinians held without charge or trial in Israeli prisons.”
Protesters in the crowd repeatedly disrupted the proceedings, and Mayor Darrell Steinberg called for the room to be cleared just after 9 p.m.
Some people remained. After more police arrived and admonished the throng at 10:40 p.m., all but 12 left. The police arrested them for unlawful assembly and failing to disperse.
The Sacramento Police Department did not identify who was arrested.
Almost 80 people spoke before the council, most of whom took umbrage with the text of the resolution. Some were pro-Palestinian protesters who preferred a resolution drafted by Council members Mai Vang and Katie Valenzuela, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The resolution passed 6-1, with Council member Lisa Kaplan voting no and Ms. Vang being absent according to the newspaper.
Ms. Vang said she supported the mayor’s version.
“Words matter and while I have deep concerns and disagree with several of the whereas clauses, the most important aspect about this resolution clearly articulates the demand for a permanent ceasefire to preserve human life and end the genocidal killing of Palestinians,” Ms. Vang wrote on X.
Ms. Kaplan, a former president of the Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region that also opposed the resolution, said, “It is best when we … focus on issues that we can control and not on conflict in the Middle East for which this resolution will have no impact. … I fundamentally do not believe it is within the Council’s purview to weigh in on international conflict.”
For Mr. Steinberg, the resolution was about Sacramento.
“This resolution is not about the Middle East so much this resolution is about Sacramento. We have a long history of strong interfaith relationships … these bonds have been tested and in some ways they have been damaged over these past months. Only we together can change that,” he said before the vote.
Other members of the Jewish community, including the mayor, supported the resolution.
The Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations helped the mayor write the text of the resolution.
“Sacramento has taken a stand for peace by passing a resolution calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” the CAIR chapter wrote on X. “Leaders from both the Muslim and Jewish communities came together, contributing to the language of this resolution, embodying the principles of love, inclusion, and mutual support.”
The Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region said the resolution was wrong to compare the two sides.
The resolution said that “Hamas committed horrific atrocities against Israel” and that the “government of Israel has killed 25,000 Palestinian civilians and injured over 70,000 more.”
“We do have concerns about false equivalencies between an attack by a genocidal terrorist group, which is Hamas, and Israel’s justified defensive response,” Robert Layne, the federation’s co-president, said on KCRA-TV.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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