ATHENS, OHIO – On a 4–2 vote, Athens City Council passed a resolution Monday calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, counter to advice from the city law office.
Athens joins over 70 U.S. cities in calling for a ceasefire, including Akron, Dayton, Toledo and Yellow Springs.
Introduced by Micheal Wood (3rd Ward), the Athens resolution calls for an “immediate ceasefire and de-escalation in Israel and occupied Palestine.” Specifically, the resolution urges state and federal leaders to “urgently end the current violence” and calls upon “the federal government to halt funding for the war, and calls upon the Biden administration to promptly send and facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”
When the resolution passed, the large crowd of about 100 — which spilled out of the main council chambers due to the room’s capacity — burst into applause and cheers. After leaving the council chambers, a crowd gathered in front of the city building and chanted for a free Palestine.
“The Athens community demanded, eloquently and powerfully, that Athens City Council speak on our behalf for an end to US-funded genocide in Palestine,” said Athens resident Heather Cantino in a text message. Cantino is Jewish and spoke in favor of the resolution at multiple council meetings.
“The exhilarating moment when those four hands went up left many of us in tears of joy and relief. The process restored my faith in our community’s strength, wisdom, and commitment to justice,” Cantino said.
Council passed the resolution despite a legal opinion from Assistant Law Director Jesse Branner Hittle, who discouraged a ceasefire resolution on the grounds that council has not adopted similar resolutions for other armed conflicts and that the resolution could prompt other discussions with “tenuous connections” to city government.
Council President Sam Crowl acted as mayor at the meeting in place of Mayor Steve Patterson, who is visiting Ukraine. McCarey acted as president pro tem at the meeting.
Residents call for ceasefire resolution
Monday’s meeting was the third in a row that brought a crowd reaching or exceeding the council chambers’ capacity. Four speakers during the public comment section waited for others to exit council chambers so that they could enter.
Most residents at the three meetings voiced support for a ceasefire resolution, although a few spoke in opposition.
Before Monday’s meeting, a large group of residents held a demonstration outside the council chambers — the latest in multiple local protests held in solidarity with Palestine. Cantino estimated that about 100 attended the demonstration, including about 20 members of Calliope Feminist Choir, to which she belongs. The choir sang multiple songs at the demonstration, including “Ceasefire” and “Peace. Salaam Shalom,” Cantino said.
Cantino is a member of an emerging Athens chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, whose members were among 14 Jewish Athens residents who shared a pro-ceasefire letter with council members before Monday’s meeting.
“It’s simple: we all need to do what we can to end this war, which is funded by our tax dollars, and to end the genocidal killing and human-caused starvation of millions,” the letter states. “We were taught Never Again means never again for anyone.”
Athens resident Barbara Lyons, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and a signatory on the letter, was among 16 attendees at the council meeting who spoke in favor of a ceasefire resolution. Her comments highlighted many of the points made in the letter.
“We have been calling our state and federal representatives but nothing changes,” Lyons said. “By adding this city’s public officials’ voices to the chorus demanding a ceasefire, we as a community can take a small but crucial step towards ending this genocide. We urge this council to stand with us when we say ‘Not in our name, and never again for anyone.’”
Further reading: Public officials respond to Athens’ ceasefire resolution
Athens resident Nancy Epling responded to council members who questioned the resolution’s impact, saying that she is disturbed by the council using words like “appropriateness” and “comfortability” when people in Palestine do not have homes. She said she was “disgusted” to see council members argue that the body should not take up the resolution because it had never been done before.
“If we use that rationale every time, where would we be today? How could we ever move forward to make change without making new strides towards liberation for all?” Epling said.
Ohio University professor Tom Hayes, who lived and worked in Palestine and has produced documentaries about Palestinian refugees, told the council that it faced a simple decision.
“Either it is yes to slaughter, or yes to life. That’s it,” Hayes said. “And it’s also a yes to your political careers in this city.”
Hayes added that the council members who voted no on the resolution “can believe that there’s a body of people in this city who will see you sitting somewhere besides those comfortable chairs.” Audience members clapped in agreement.
The vote
Wood and fellow council members Jessica Thomas (At-Large), Beth Clodfelter (At-Large) and Micah McCarey (At-Large) voted in favor of the resolution. Members Solveig Spjeldnes (1st Ward) and Alan Swank (4th Ward) voted against.
After Wood introduced his resolution at Monday’s council meeting, he thanked residents who contacted him about the issue before explaining why the council should vote in favor.
“There are forces of hate capitalizing on this conflict and bringing harm to vulnerable populations now,” he said, citing the recent shooting of three Palestinian students in Vermont and a Feb. 17 neo-Nazi march in Nashville.
Wood acknowledged that Athens City Council cannot stop a decades-long, multigenerational conflict. However, he referred to a section in Hittle’s legal opinion stating that resolutions are “less formal than [an] ordinance” and are generally more an expression of a council’s opinion.
“Resolutions are our way to effectively voice our opinion as a council,” Wood said. ”Why not use that to voice our opinion for peace, against hate, and again, against Islamophobia and antisemitism and say that we could be a loving, progressive community?”
Wood also noted that residents at earlier council meeting said they had already reached out to their state representatives and governor, to no avail.
“We get to be the one facet of government that they can interact with and we can be the one facet of government that gives voice to this feeling. We can respond,” said Wood.
Spjeldnes said she was touched by Wood’s words but maintained that the council should not adopt the resolution because, she believes, the majority of Athens residents do not want the city council involved in a resolution “essentially condemning Israel, because it’s divisive and compromises inclusion in harmony.”
Spjeldnes said she believes that the Biden administration is working toward a ceasefire. The administration this week proposed a temporary ceasefire at the U.N., but for a third time vetoed a resolution for a permanent ceasefire.
Spjeldnes added that she was pleased to see that there were protests against the actions of the Israeli government in the Israeli city Tel Aviv.
“The majority of people do want [the war] to stop, so I feel as though the efforts going forward are happening without our participation,” she said. “And again, I’m worried that this is harming our local area, even though I approve and agree that something needs to be done on the national and international level.”
She also said that the resolution would set a precedent that does not advance the city’s best interest, adding that Cincinnati recently came to a similar conclusion.
Similarly, Swank said that passing a ceasefire resolution was not the council’s responsibility. “I’m very, very uncomfortable getting into a position of picking and choosing which opinions that we receive from the law director we follow.”
Swank said he has listened to residents but “unfortunately, this is a battle that has been going on for close to 4,000 years.” The original proposed community resolution read at the Feb. 5 council meeting “while sincere, was awfully one-sided,” he said.
Although she voted to approve the resolution, Clodfelter had expressed reservations about the resolution at multiple council meetings, including a statement at the Feb. 12 meeting that while she supported a ceasefire, she did not support the resolution. Clodfelter previously said that passage could inspire future resolutions that would distract the council from taking care of the city and that it could incite violence and/or fear within Jewish and Muslim communities in Athens.
Member Jeffery Risner (2nd Ward) was absent but previously told the Independent he was sympathetic to calls for a ceasefire resolution.
McCarey said another resolution will be presented at the next city council meeting. According to McCarey, the resolution will offer guidance for addressing local impacts on global crises in consultation with the Strong Cities Network. McCarey added that the Strong Cities Network works with hundreds of cities globally to work through local polarizing issues. He added that the Athens Community Relations Commission, which had members at the meeting, is another resource charged with helping the city process community member concerns of this nature.
“So it may be that in the future, we might find ways to have citizens’ feedbacks and concerns reflected and documented through the Athens Community Relations Commission or some other means by which we wouldn’t necessarily have to have a resolution at each council meeting,” said McCarey.
