California Cities Pass Resolutions in Support of Palestine
As outrage at the genocide and collective punishment against Palestine continues, among the many ways people are providing support for Palestine is to organize to have local city councils pass resolutions. Doing so provides a means to build unity and give expression to the broad public support for Palestine.
A small California town, Cudahy in Los Angeles County, population 22,000, was the first city in Southern California, to pass a resolution in support of Palestine. Their resolution calls for a ceasefire and condemns Israel for "engaging in collective punishment." Organizers in support of the resolution withstood pressure from pro-Israeli forces, mobilizing many people to participate in the public comment portion of the Council meeting. Hours of comments for Palestine were given, with many women expressing their outrage at the genocide of women and children in Gaza. The many immigrants and peoples of Central and Latin America spoke about the need to stand against oppression and colonization. The resolution passed 3-1 on November 7.
The people of the town previously secured Cudahy as a sanctuary city, where undocumented workers can come and police and federal immigration officials are not permitted to arrest them.
The Santa Ana City Council is expected to pass its own resolution supporting Palestine on December 5. Long Beach, a major port city, and Anaheim, both just outside of Los Angeles, are likely to as well. Concerted efforts are being made to strengthen the unity of the largely Latino populations with Muslims and all those standing with Palestine.
The Cudahy resolution uses much of the language from a resolution passed in Richmond, California on October 25. Richmond, a city of about 115,000, on the East Bay area outside of San Francisco, was one of the first in the U.S. to pass a pro-Palestine resolution. It states, the "City of Richmond stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza, who are currently facing a campaign of ethnic cleansing and collective punishment by the state of Israel." It also denounced U.S. funding, "The state of Israel would not be able to maintain an apartheid regime without enormous military aid provided by the United States every year, thereby also depriving Americans of money for their own urgent needs." Like Cudahy's it concluded saying, "The City of Richmond takes seriously the entreaty of 'Never Again,' and that the historical memory of the Holocaust means fighting ethnic cleansing and apartheid everywhere." The resolution passed 5-1 on October 25.
Richmond, like the other cities, is a working class area with a large number of people of Mexican descent and from Central and Latin America. It also has a sizeable Black and Chinese American population. Like Cudahy, the effort to pass the resolution included organizing to bring people to the Council hearing, where hours of public comments in support of Palestine and denouncing genocide were made. People also brought out the common struggle against oppression that immigrants and people from former colonized countries and those now dominated by the U.S. share with Palestinians. In Richmond, as elsewhere across the country, people of many different nationalities, backgrounds and religions are standing as one against the U.S./Israeli genocide and in support of Palestinian resistance.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 26 - November 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/MS53269.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca