Columbia Heights City Council to vote on cease-fire resolution
The Columbia Heights City Council will vote next week on a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, Mayor Amáda Márquez Simula said in a council meeting Monday.
At a meeting in which community members spoke in support of a cease-fire for over an hour, the mayor said a resolution is in the works and will be presented on Feb. 26.
If passed, Columbia Heights will join a growing list of cities across the state and country with cease-fire resolutions, as the death toll in Gaza continues to increase. Gaza’s health ministry said the Israeli military has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 Israelis, according to the Israeli government.
In Minnesota, resolutions have passed in Hastings, Minneapolis and Red Lake Nation. Across the United States, cease-fire resolutions and proclamations have passed in at least 49 cities, municipalities and counties, including Chicago, San Francisco and Detroit.
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On Jan. 9, the Red Lake Tribal Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution calling on Israel to implement a cease-fire, as well as for the United States to cease funding and military support of Israel.
The resolution acknowledges “loss of many lives on both sides” but accused the United States of fully embracing “Israel’s genocidal aggression.” It draws comparisons between Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and “practices that the colonists imposed on Natives in America from the time of first contact through the present.”
Last week, the Minneapolis City Council voted nine to three to overturn Mayor Jacob Frey’s veto of a cease-fire resolution. Frey had written in his veto letter that the resolution “uplifts the history of Palestinians, and all but erases that of Israeli Jews.”
“We are proud of the nine Council Members who stood by what most Minneapolis residents believe: The defense of humanity is a shared project,” Minneapolis Council President Elliott Payne and Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai said in a statement after the resolution passed.
The resolution calls for an immediate and permanent cease-fire; humanitarian aid; an end to U.S. military funding to Israel; and the release of both Israeli and Palestinian hostages.
After the vote, Frey issued a shorter cease-fire proclamation in support of humanitarian aid, hostage releases, funding for reconciliation and a two-state solution.
Last month, the Hastings City Council unanimously approved a resolution calling for a cease-fire and increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“It does not take sides in the conflict,” said Hastings resident Tom Bullington as he presented the resolution to the council. “The resolution simply calls for the bombing to stop and for all parties involved to move forward in a constructive way to end the bloodshed and ensure those caught in the middle can drink clean water, have sufficient food, and start the process of moving home to rebuild.”
St. Paul City Council members have said that they are unlikely to issue a formal measure calling for a cease-fire.