BRIDGEPORT
--- A City Council committee has voted to approve a resolution calling on congressional
representatives to pressure the Biden administration to facilitate a ceasefire
in the Israel-Hamas war.
The
Miscellaneous Matters committee voted overwhelmingly with only one dissenting vote
to approve the statement which will now be sent to the full council for a vote
on January 2.
If approved,
Bridgeport will join a number of other cities around the country to pass such
resolutions aimed at building support for ending the conflict in Gaza which has
left 21,000 people dead and nearly 2 million people displaced.
The proposed
resolution states that the City Council of Bridgeport calls upon congressional
representatives in both the House and Senate “to join us in urging the Biden
administration to immediately call for and facilitate immediate de-escalation
and a permanent cease-fire to urgently end the current violence in Gaza,
Israel, and the Occupied West Bank” and facilitate the provision of humanitarian
assistance to Gaza and the Occupied West Bank.
The
resolution makes note of the long and bloody history of the Israel/Palestinian
conflict and then says, “Hundreds of thousands of lives are at imminent risk if
a permanent cease-fire is not achieved and humanitarian aid is not delivered
without delay.”
It further
states that “All members of the Bridgeport City Council have a duty and a
responsibility to speak up in times of injustice and to also center the voices,
experiences and realities of the most directly impacted in a given situation,
including Bridgeport residents.”
In arguing for the resolution, Council Member Jazmarie Melendez said “I think we’re setting a precedent in the City of Bridgeport for moving this forward and taking a stand…We have a responsibility. We do.”
Normally, a
City Council committee meeting would draw only a few observers but on this
night there were 35 to 40 people in attendance who appeared to be supporters of
the measure. When Melendez first proposed the resolution in early December at a
City Council meeting the council chambers were packed with Palestinian-Americans
and others who backed the proposal and a number of them spoke passionately in
favor of the resolution.
There was
pushback, however, at the committee meeting to the proposal --- most notably
from Council Member Maria Pereira, who ironically is from the same East End district
as Melendez.
Pereira said
that the issue of policy related to the conflict in Gaza is a federal matter
and it’s not something that is in the purview of the Bridgeport City Council.
“This is not
in our wheelhouse,” she said. “This is not what we’re elected for in a
municipal government.”
Pereira also
said that “I’ve knocked on 2,000 doors in my district, and not one constituent
raised the issue of Israel and Gaza.”
She said that
her constituents care about issues like public safety, road paving and schools.
Pereira also
maintained that the conflict in Palestine and Israel is a “complex issue” and
city council members do not have the expertise to weigh in on it.
Melendez
responded that “when you’re saying that the people of Bridgeport don’t care
about this, you’re completely ignoring the room full of people that are behind
you” as well as the scores of people that attended the December 4 council meeting
when the resolution was first proposed and what she said were the “countless
signatures” of people in the city who signed an on-line petition calling for a
cease-fire resolution.
Melendez also
commented that “You said this is a complex situation. It is not. This is not a
legally binding document. We are speaking up and saying we are watching people
die and that is not OK. ”
 |
| One of the persons attending the City Council committee meeting discussing the proposed ceasefire resolution for Gaza. More than 21,000 people have been killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, mostly civilians. (Reginald Johnson photo) |
The resolution proposal got support from Council
Member Tyler Mack of the West Side who said that even though the Israel-Hamas war
is an international issue local governmental bodies around the country “have
been taking stands like this” and Bridgeport can do the same.
The co-chair
of the committee, AmyMarie Vizzo-Paniccia, sounded reluctant to go forward with
the resolution and suggested to Melendez that as an alternative she put a
letter together outlining her concerns and then gather signatures from other
council members send it out to the appropriate congressional and federal
officials to consider.
But Melendez
wouldn’t budge and said she wanted to proceed with the City Council resolution.
Committee
member Aidee Nieves, who is also president of the City Council, then indicated
that she supported the resolution in general but had a problem with some of the language. She specifically suggested that the wording about the “targeting of
civilians” and the violations of international humanitarian law was too harsh
and should be taken out.
A motion was passed
to amend that wording as well as to make other small changes in the resolution.
A motion was
then made to pass the resolution proposal with amendments and send it on to the
council. The motion passed with only Pereira voting no.
Aziz Seyal,
a board member of the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center, which has backed the
resolution, said after the meeting that there’s no reason to object to the
statement.
“The
resolution is so clear that it’s not favoring anybody. It’s in favor of
bringing the peace back,” he said. “It’s part of humanity to stop the killing
of innocent people.”
Detroit, Atlanta and Oakland, California have
approved ceasefire resolutions and New Haven is considering one.
The City
Council will take up the ceasefire resolution at its meeting on Tuesday,
January 2, at 7 pm in the City Council chambers, City Hall, 45 Lyon Terrace. A
public forum will precede the meeting at 6:30.
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