Huge Turnout Supports Israel-Gaza Ceasefire Resolution

County Board committee room quickly reached capacity Monday. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Later this month, the Milwaukee County Board will vote on an advisory resolution calling for an “immediate and permanent cease-fire” in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

The board’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee found itself deadlocked Monday night, with only four members of the five person committee present. Therefore, the resolution will not go to the board with a recommendation from the committee.

The resolution was sponsored by Sup. Ryan Clancy, with co-sponsorship from Juan Miguel Martinez, Caroline Gómez-Tom and Steven Shea. If it passes, it commits the county board to supporting “an immediate and permanent cease-fire and the delivery of humanitarian aid and de-escalation in Israel and in Gaza and the West Bank.”

When the resolution was first submitted in January, the administration of President Joe Biden was not calling for a ceasefire agreement. The Biden administration has recently begun negotiating a ceasefire with other world leaders.

“We cannot sit back and think concern for the people of Palestine, while funding their deaths,” Clancy said. “And when the US finally stops providing both the direction and the dollars to kill tens of thousands of people in our name, it will stop.”

It’s because of U.S. support for Israel that Clancy believes “each of us have the duty to stand up against it.”

During roughly four hours of public testimony, supervisors heard a massive outpouring of support for the resolution and a ceasefire. Nearly 100 members of the public spoke in favor of the resolution, and more showed up in person to register support.

A number of the speakers in favor of the resolution identified themselves as Palestinian-American, and some briefly shared stories of their experience growing up in occupied Palestinian territories. Every person who spoke in favor of the resolution and a ceasefire expressed horror at the number of Palestinian citizens that have been killed. Many noted reports that the majority of people killed have been women and children.

“Thousands have been killed, injured, starved, displaced, humiliated and more. Areas that are considered sanctuaries like hospitals, schools, places of worship and more have been bombed,” said Sireen Jaber. “As a health care worker. I cannot imagine working in a hospital that’s currently getting bombed.”

Hoda Assad, who told supervisors she has family in the West Bank, said, “I urge you to call for a ceasefire. Palestinian children have long been subjected to wartime conditions for decades and what’s going on now is beyond anything we could ever imagine.”

Three supervisors submitted an alternative ceasefire resolution, which called for a ceasefire and the return of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 but omitted much of the language in Clancy’s original resolution, including references to genocide.

A small minority of public commenters spoke against the resolution; most identified themselves as Jewish and took issue with the fact the resolution did not mention Israeli hostages.

“I think all of us, Jews and Muslims alike believe in the infinite value of human life. We all want the violence to end,” said Rabbi Joshua Herman, executive director of Hillel Milwaukee. “However, the original resolution uses divisive and problematic and offensive language, which we’ve heard echoed in the disgusting and personally offensive… use of Nazi imagery in this conversation.”

Herman made this comment after speakers compared Israeli actions to the Nazis. Ann Jacobs, an attorney and state elections commissioner, also said Clancy’s resolution “is a biased attempt to whitewash the brutality of October 7.”

While the handful of speakers against the resolution said they found it one-sided about the conflict, many supporters said the issue is one-sided because they see it as the Israeli government committing genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people.

“This equivalency, this both sides-ing of the issue, is one of the most deeply insulting things I’ve heard in my entire life,” said Omar Hamdan.

Many of the speakers in favor of Clancy’s resolution also said they understood that its passage was not likely to have an effect on U.S. foreign policy or Israeli decision making. But they maintained that it was still important to make their voices heard and to add to the chorus of others around the country, and world, calling for a ceasefire. One speaker, Hana Masri, noted that supervisors represent the county in Wisconsin with the largest number of Arab-Americans.

“We are not here to solve the problem, but to express our community’s opinion about a humanitarian catastrophe being inflicted upon an innocent population by a racist supremacist violence regime using our tax dollars,” said Othman Atta, executive director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee.

Atta’s point that the Israeli military is in part underwritten by the U.S. government, including direct supply of bombs and other weapon systems, was a frequent refrain among supporters of Clancy’s original resolution.

Three supervisors — Shawn Rolland, Liz Sumner and Sheldon Wasserman — entered a substitute resolution, in line with some of the comments made by public opponents of Clancy’s. It called for a ceasefire, but also the return of Israeli hostages. Clancy said it “gutted” his original resolution as it did not include the language about genocide.

The supervisors said their resolution was drafted to create a resolution calling for a ceasefire that could easily pass the full board, gaining unanimous or near unanimous support. “If we are literally asking other world leaders to set aside their differences, look forward and come together, I think it would be unfortunate, let’s say, for us to do the opposite,” Rolland said. “Let’s come together; let’s vote for something that all of us can believe in.”

The substitute resolution was not voted on by the committee. When it did finally take up Clancy’s resolution, it was supported by him and Sup. Sequanna Taylor, but the committee’s other two members, Supervisors Felesia Martin and Steve Taylor voted against the resolution. Steve Taylor did not speak during the meeting, but Martin did several times. She too said Clancy’s resolution was one-sided, that “humanity is the goal on both sides” and that neither side “has clean hands.”

Read the full resolution on Urban Milwaukee.