Across the United States, local governments are passing resolutions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza as pro Zionism sentiment continues its historic crumbling, under the weight of daily Israeli war crimes.
The third largest city in the United States, Chicago, also has the nation’s largest Palestinian community, who were thrilled to see their city council pass a resolution demanding a permanent ceasefire.
We were on edge honestly for a while and the fact that it was passed is just an amazing show of solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Palestine.
We know that it doesn’t necessarily change anything for them on the ground, but I think that this will definitely put pressure on our government to hear though the will of its people in one of the largest cities of America and, hopefully, this will influence some of their policy [sic] and we will get a permanent ceasefire soon.
Deanna Othman, American Muslims for Palestine, Chicago
Ceasefire demands have been approved from major cities like San Francisco, Detroit, and Atlanta to suburbs and small towns, which are insisting on taking a moral stand.
Words like ‘apartheid’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’, which were once heavily censored in public life, are now being voted into the public record.
And you would wish that people in positions of power, do things, do the right things because they are the right things because it’s the moral thing to do.
That doesn’t always happen.
But in Chicago, it’s a little bit different.
Hatem Abudayyeh, US Palestinian Community Network
The United States was the only member on the United Nations Security Council to vote against a ceasefire, and they have paralyzed the Security Council on the issue of the genocide in Gaza.
As congressmen in Washington reportedly refused to even engage with Palestinian activists, city councils have become the primary place with political power, which will discuss the issue and reflect the historic shift in public sentiment towards Palestine.
It really shows that when you vote for progressive politicians progress does happen.
We not only saw a vote for a ceasefire, but we saw a vote for solidarity and community building as well.
The ceasefire vote is not only for the Palestinian people, it’s for all communities.
Nasreen Hasan, Arab-American Centre, University of Illinois-Chicago
The local resolutions are mainly symbolic, but they aren’t so local.
They show support to Palestine and their allies around the world and they prove to Washington that their unshakeable support for Israel isn’t shared across the country.
