A couple of cops were among the 150 or so folks in the standing-room-only crowd that turned out for Wednesday night’s State College Borough Council meeting. They weren’t needed.
The meeting, which culminated in Council unanimously passing a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, was emotional, but civil – amazingly so.
Mayor Ezra Nanes stated the ground rules up top: No applause, cheers, catcalls or interruptions. Respect each person’s right to be heard. The audience complied – with one exception. The young son of Rami Alhellu, president of the Islamic Society of Central Pennsylvania, got a warm hand after he spoke in favor of the resolution. Wisely, Mayor Nanes encouraged the breach of protocol.
All told, the meeting went four hours. About 60 people spoke, most in favor of the resolution. When it passed, audience members, some of whom had blasted Council for its earlier unwillingness to take a stand, gave their elected leaders a standing ovation.
The process had been a slog. Council first took up a ceasefire resolution on Nov. 20. On Dec. 4, seeing that some community members vehemently opposed it, Council backed off, on a 4-2 vote. On Monday, a succession of speakers persuaded Council to revisit the issue. That set the stage for Wednesday’s pivot to approving an amended version. (I thought those who protested that two days’ notice wasn’t enough time for the public to arrange to attend had a point.)
When I wrote about Monday’s session, I ended by saying how impressed I was to see so much community engagement. Reader Phil Edmunds had a far different reaction.
“I’m dismayed by the fact that this community has any residents who are foolish and naive enough to believe that a cease-fire in Gaza would favorably alter the mind set/core beliefs/objectives of HAMAS and other terrorist groups.”
Edmunds may be right – I, too, would prefer to see Hamas surrender first, then a ceasefire (like that’s gonna happen). But as one who is skeptical that municipal resolutions have much impact beyond making their proponents feel good, I only wanted to say how heartened I was to see so many people look beyond their own narrow daily concerns and care about what’s going on in the wider world. That feeling was reinforced on Wednesday night. The respectful way in which people conducted themselves only made it sweeter.
Compare the civility in State College to the scene in Berkeley, California, when a similar ceasefire resolution came under discussion (as reported in the New York Times):
“’People heckle and disrupt and try to stop us from conducting business,’ said Jesse Arreguín, the mayor of Berkeley. ‘Pro-Israel residents don’t feel safe. The last in-person meeting we had, we had to adjourn to a different room because the crowd was shouting hateful things, condoning Hamas, attacking the council.’”
Perhaps the wisest comment at the State College Borough Council meeting last night came from an audience member who said, “I think we’re overthinking this.” When I spoke to Rabbi David Ostrich of Congregation Brit Shalom the other day, he scornfully invoked John Lennon: “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” Like Phil Edmunds, the rabbi thought this naïve.
But that is all the proponents of the resolution were saying: Forget taking sides, the endless arguments, going back to 1948, about which party is more aggrieved, forget stipulating that this must happen before that happens: Just stop the killing of innocents. Again and again, audience members invoked the children of Gaza, killed, orphaned or injured by Israeli bombs.
A recurring theme of the discussion was whether it makes sense for local government to weigh in on matters of war and peace in the Middle East. The best articulation of one side of this question came from a city council member in Long Beach, California:
“I wasn’t elected to weigh in on foreign affairs,” Kristina Duggan told the Long Beach Press-Telegram. “We shouldn’t be spending time and resources on it. We should be focusing on things within our control.”
In the end, though, I found State College Borough Councilmember Gopal Balachandran’s counterargument more persuasive. Balachandran said he had “no illusions” that Joe Biden is waiting for a resolution from State College. Its passage would be “a drop of water.” But “with enough water, canyons are formed.”
Indeed, ceasefire resolutions are being adopted by municipal governments all across the country, including in Seattle, Atlanta, Detroit and Oakland, California. At a certain point, you’ve got to figure that all that opposition to the Biden administration’s support for the Netanyahu government is going to get the attention of the men and women working on the president’s reelection campaign.
Particularly concerning are views like those of a San Francisco voter quoted in The New York Times: “If it’s Donald Trump, we can kiss our democracy goodbye. But I can’t support someone who supports genocide.”
The possibility that many voters will stay home next November if given a choice between “Insurrection Don” and “Genocide Joe,” as a sign I saw at the University Gates called the president, worries me more than the ruffled feathers of those who opposed the ceasefire resolution.
