The St. Paul City Council voted 7-0 on Wednesday to approve a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, ending their collective silence five weeks after protesters began filling council chambers with signs demanding action.

Council Member Cheniqua Johnson read a two-page resolution into the record that called for the state’s federal delegation and U.S. President Joe Biden to work toward halting Israeli military strikes that have killed upwards of 30,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians.

The lengthy resolution, which took five minutes to read aloud, also called for Hamas to free dozens of Israeli hostages held since the Oct. 7 attacks that killed more than 1,100 Israelis, which the council condemned, and for an end to discrimination against Arabs, Palestinians, Muslims and Jews alike. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada and the European Union.

Read the full text of the ceasefire resolution

The resolution also called for the U.S. to discontinue unconditional military aid to Israel absent clear guarantees for civilian safety.

“This is a time for our president to be brave,” said Council President Mitra Jalali, noting similar resolutions have been approved in Minneapolis, Hastings, Columbia Heights and more than 70 cities across the country. “The Twin Cities stand for a ceasefire.”

Council Vice President Hwa Jeong Kim spoke at length in support of the language, concluding her remarks with the statement, “Free, free Palestine.”

A resolution approved by the Minneapolis City Council this year was vetoed by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey but reinstated by the council, which overrode Frey’s veto in February. On Wednesday, a spokesman for St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s office said Carter would not stand in the way of the St. Paul resolution, which was sponsored by Jalali, Kim, Johnson, Anika Bowie and Nelsie Yang.

A difficult process

The St. Paul council meeting was heavily attended by members of the Anti-War Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace and other pro-Palestinian groups, as well as members of the St. Paul Jewish Federation.

At times interrupted by hecklers on either side of the crisis, each council member took the microphone on Wednesday to deliver lengthy, emotional words about the loss of life in Gaza and the difficult, time-consuming process of crafting a resolution that could be supported by all seven members.

“That’s unity, that’s cohesiveness,” said Johnson, acknowledging that completing the resolution language took longer than some members of the public had wanted. “When we look at what that conversation can look like, it’s not just a yes or no, often. … It wasn’t one way or another. … We have to answer to over 40,000 constituents.”

Johnson and three other members of the seven-member council were newly elected in November and sworn into office in January, and their introduction to consensus-building has been breakneck. Bowie said she once considered the war in Gaza a far-off concern that had no business before the council, which focuses on day-to-day issues of importance to everyday city residents.

Bowie said she had since had a change of heart.

“This is not an issue that we chose to ignore. This is not an issue that did not matter,” said Bowie, noting she has held a United Nations Human Rights-People of African Descent fellowship that provided key insights into the history of global diaspora. “This is an issue that needed time to process.”

“There are human beings who did not sign up for war who should not be casualties of war,” Bowie added. “There are people who came here with signs saying this is a local issue. There is truth to that. … This is not a stance on Israel or Gaza. This is a stance for humanity.”

Disagreement among council members

Yang, who had been the sole proponent of a ceasefire resolution two weeks ago, noted to widespread applause that the final resolution was missing “historical context (about) the 75-year displacement of Palestinians,” but she would support it anyway.

She thanked the council members for coming around, but said the process was troubling. Jalali blocked Yang’s attempt to introduce a ceasefire resolution a week ago, and then struck Yang’s proposed resolution from the council agenda late last week.

“I want to ask us to not have a repeat of what happened in the past five weeks,” Yang said. “A huge learned lesson is that silence doesn’t make the issue go away. It’s actually what’s going to be what energizes people, because people are looking for clarity.”

Following the vote, pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside the council chambers for rousing words from organizers. On Tuesday, about one-in-five Democratic voters — some 45,000 voters in the Minnesota primary — chose to vote “uncommitted” rather than cast their support to President Joe Biden for re-election, a sizable protest of the Israeli-Hamas war.

Protester Salah Abu arrived with a sign critical of Jalali for seemingly dragging her feet on a ceasefire resolution.

“Five weeks is way too long,” Abu said. “It didn’t start on Oct. 7. It started in 1948 with the forced displacement of Palestinians.”

Jalali, prior to this week, had told protesters she was in personal support of a ceasefire but did not have sufficient votes lined up for a resolution.

“Council President, you and I have disagreed on this and other issues, and you do not deserve to have your name up on those signs right now,” said Council Member Rebecca Noecker, addressing Jalali before the vote. Noecker noted that a former instructor who had taught in St. Paul at her children’s school had been killed in the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7.

“I continue to believe that passing resolutions on international matters is not what we were elected to do,” added Noecker, while calling the final language “by far more fair, nuanced and justified than any that I have seen to date. We have done this our own way. We have done this the St. Paul way.”

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