This evening, Lancaster City Council passed a ceasefire resolution concerning the ongoing war on Gaza. The resolution demands an immediate end to the conflict, the end of unconditioned military aid to Israel, and affirms Lancaster’s status as a welcoming city to all refugees, including Palestinians fleeing Gaza. However, we should be clear by saying that this resolution was not the same resolution that we and several other Lancaster-based organizations in coalition submitted to the City Council. Several key changes were made by the Council that give a false impression of equivalence between the parties engaged in the conflict we are demanding a ceasefire for. 

To begin, the Council has described the number of Palestinians killed or wounded as the result of “hostilities between Israel and Hamas”. Anyone who has been paying attention to events on the ground in Gaza would know that this intentionally vague statement is misguided and ignorant at best, and an outright deception at worst. The people of Gaza have been under a constant barrage of artillery, airstrikes from jets and drones, and sweeping ground invasions by IDF troops and tanks that leave dozens of Palestinians dead with each operation. There have been many days, far too many days, where the number of Palestinians killed in these attacks all over Gaza have reached the hundreds. In addition to being directly attacked by Israeli forces, Palestinians have long been suffering severe food and water shortages that extend from well before October 7, thanks to Israeli blockades. These shortages leave them constantly malnourished, and have only gotten worse since that day. Finally, Israel has shown no hesitation to strike hospitals, universities, journalists, and even international humanitarian and United Nations workers. Every university in Gaza has been destroyed. The government of Israel has been quite clear with both their actions and words that they have declared war on all humans inside Gaza, without regard for their opinions of or affiliation with Hamas or any other organization – civilian, militant, humanitarian, or otherwise. Any attempt to obfuscate these facts must be called out for the attempt at displacing Israel’s crimes that it is.

Most egregiously, in our opinion, the City Council completely removed a clause stating that the actions that occurred on October 7 do not justify the campaign of mass slaughter we have seen perpetrated by Israel since. While we do not wish to think the City Council believes that the murder of more than 37,000–over 15,000 of them children–and maiming of 85,000 Palestinians (as of June 20, per Al Jazeera) is justifiable in any way, the removal of this clause begs interrogation of this point.

Many of us who worked on and supported the ceasefire resolution have found these and other changes to our proposed version unacceptable. Their voices are valid and warrant recognition, and we felt the need to highlight some of the reasons why many of us are unable to accept the resolution in its final form.

Now that we have established some of the reasoning behind our inability to uncritically support this resolution, we will look at why we still consider it a success. As of June 25, only two cities in PA have successfully passed resolutions demanding a ceasefire – Erie and State College. Some municipalities have proposed legislation that was voted down. These include Coatesville, Philadelphia, and Allegheny County (Pittsburgh). The successful passage of this resolution in the heart of Central PA is a crucial sign that the movement for Palestinian liberation is growing, even in the unlikeliest of places. That we have succeeded in pressuring our electeds while Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have so far been unable to do so speaks to our collective strength.

The primary positive outcome of this resolution is the demand of an immediate end to unconditioned US aid to Israel. It is important for all Lancaster residents to hear this demand coming from the City Council. Right now, there are no limitations on what Israel can do with the $3,000,000,000 of our tax dollars they receive every year. Israel is using that aid to systematically slaughter, terrorize, and imprison Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank. Israel has also launched regular attacks on nearby countries such as Lebanon and Syria, incurring the risk of a wider conflict. Demanding restrictions to US aid that are contingent on Israel’s ability to not commit war crimes with our tax dollars is a baseline demand being made all around the country. When stated by elected officials it signifies hope that the tide is turning, and that the end of US aid for this apartheid regime is coming to a close. 

The language of the resolution as it has passed also confirms that we successfully identified and tugged on the contradiction between Lancaster’s status as a welcoming city to refugees and their hitherto silence regarding the war on Gaza, as Israel forces Palestinians to flee their homes. Over 80,000 Palestinians have fled Israeli terror since October 7, and this resolution is a first step towards ensuring that Lancaster is a place where they will be welcomed with open arms. We will certainly be returning to this contradiction in our struggle for peace in the future, as we strive to make Lancaster a city that actively combats the conditions that create refugees in the first place.

To sum up, we do consider the passage of this resolution to be a small victory. It’s one that could and should be much bigger. The resolution fails to accurately recognize the asymmetric reality of the conflict that we want to see ended. The suffering that Palestinians have suffered at the hands of the IDF has also gone unrecognized by the Council. We cannot forget that this resolution excludes our proposed clause stating that this suffering cannot be justified. However, to litigate each of our concerns with the City Council would drag the process out at a time when any pressure our city can provide is urgently needed. To do so would also likely result in our failure to pass any ceasefire resolution at all, as we have seen happen in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It is important to identify and call out the flaws in City Council’s changes to the resolution while recognizing it as a successful symbolic gesture with the aims of both pressuring the Biden campaign and sending the message to Palestinians seeking refuge that our city will welcome them. This legislation also signifies the growing number of Americans who reject the use of their tax dollars to murder people in Gaza and elsewhere. We are confident that the experience gained during this process will allow us to seek out bigger wins in the near future.