Call for Middle East 'ceasefire' comes to Maryland state capital through joint resolution

Dozens of individuals testified on Monday before members of the Maryland Legislature regarding a resolution that calls for a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine, with the vast majority echoing the sentiments of the vice president of the United States, who called for an “immediate ceasefire” over the weekend.

The calls come as about 100 hostages remain captive of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel (that killed about 1,200 people). More than 20,000 Palestinian people have perished in the Gaza Strip since then, as the war between Israel and Hamas has proceeded.

“All human life is precious, and the targeting of civilians, no matter their faith or ethnicity, is a violation of international humanitarian law,” some of the first lines of the joint resolution stated. The two-page document, sponsored by less than a dozen state lawmakers, is not an attempt to change the Maryland’s lawbooks or code.

The reasons why a veteran legislator (and the sole state senator to back the resolution) weighed in were both simple and personal.

“War and violence is not the answer to any problem,” said state Sen. Joanne Benson, D-Prince George’s, during a March 4 interview. “My personal experience of traveling in the Middle East compelled me to want to step up to the plate because of what I experienced when I was there.”

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‘Ceasefire’ resolution and combating Islamophobia, antisemitism

While testimony on the resolution occurred in the Rules and Executive Nominations Committee in the House office building, Benson, from a chair in her Senate office, relayed her experience on a trip she took about a decade ago to Gaza and Jerusalem where she talked with Palestinians and Israelis. “At that point and time, there didn’t seem to be any discord among the people,” she said.

Of the 151 people who signed up to testify, 143 were in favor of the Benson-backed resolution, according to documentation provided by committee staff. Eighty individuals signed up to speak to the House Rules and Executive Nominations Committee, which includes Annapolis leaders such as the chair of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus and the top House Republican, among others. Scores more provided written testimony to the committee.

Del. Gabriel Acevero, D-Montgomery, who led a ceasefire press conference in the morning and introduced the resolution to the committee in the afternoon, called what is happening in Gaza a “crisis of humanity.” Testifying next to Acevero, a Palestinian resident of Howard County then noted the thousands in Gaza dead while a representative of the organization “Jewish Voice for Peace” sat on the other side of the second-term state delegate at the desk.

One of the half dozen signed up to testify unfavorably regarding the resolution began her remarks by indicating that her organization understood the “idea of supporting a ceasefire to prevent further loss of life.”

“We abhor the innocent loss of life whether Jewish, Muslim, Arab, Israeli or Palestinian. War is horrible,” said Sarah Mersky Miicke, deputy director of the Baltimore Jewish Council. “Hamas does not want a ceasefire,” she said.

During her testimony, a handful of resolution supporters, including one wearing a black-and-white fishnet-style keffiyeh (a pro-Palestinian symbol) as a scarf held a letter-sized paper sign adorned with a map of Maryland calling for “ceasefire now,” sat quietly with one another in the rows behind her.

“Wanting peace is not the same as having the circumstances that allow for peace,” said Deborah Miller, director of Maryland government and community relations at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, another individual who spoke unfavorably of the resolution.

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In a Dec. 25, 2023 opinion article in the Wall Street Journal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the destruction of Hamas, the demilitarization of Gaza and a “deradicalized” Palestinian society the “three prerequisites for peace.”

Even when those supporting the state ceasefire resolution resumed their testimony before the committee in Annapolis, the five or so individuals who held the “ceasefire” signs continued to quietly hold their paper petitions aloft in the in-person audience of about 30, not including the delegates.

Several individuals had left the room after testifying on previous resolutions, including one on “Condemning Islamophobia, Anti-Palestinian Hate, and Antisemitism.” On that resolution, a question came to those individuals opposed from Del. Jazz Lewis, D-Prince George’s, regarding whether their position would change if “anti-Israeli Hate” was added to that resolution. At least one individual testifying said she would “be open to that” if “anti-Israeli Hate” were added too.

The “ceasefire” resolution, as drafted, contained similar language in its closing section, calling on the General Assembly to affirm its commitment to “combat antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti–Palestinian/anti–Arab bigotry.”

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‘We cannot sit idly by,’ veteran state lawmaker says

The questioning of word choice took place in Annapolis over 5,000 miles from on the ground in Gaza City and over 800 miles from where U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her call on Sunday for an “immediate cease-fire for at least the next six weeks” near a historic bridge in Selma, Alabama. The call for the resolution took place about 35 miles from Washington, D.C., where U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address on Thursday.

Benson, a state lawmaker since 1991 and the only one of Maryland’s 47 state senators to sponsor the resolution, said she hopes the words of the past couple days and the proposed resolution lead to more action.

“I am hoping that with the reputation that I have here in Annapolis and also from the conversation that was held (in Alabama) yesterday by the vice president of the United States that this will send a message to everyone down here that they need to stop, pay attention, step on board,” Benson said. “The president of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the governor of the great state of Maryland, the congressional people — the elected officials here must understand that we cannot sit idly by and see this travesty to continue.”

State Del. Sheree Sample-Hughes, D-Wicomico/Dorchester, said in a March 4 phone interview that she co-sponsored the resolution because “there’s so much pain and so much hurt.”

She said some of her constituents came to her and know people that have been affected.

“There’s got to be a better way to solve the issues,” she said. “As a state legislator, I look at it from a legislative and a policy lens, understanding the things that the president of the United States and our senators and our congressmen are having to grapple with, but again we are closer, boots on the ground in the state level, to really hear constituents.”

Monday’s House hearing on the ceasefire resolution lasted about two-and-a-half hours and several of those holding “ceasefire” signs stayed until the end. Witnesses were told by the committee chair at the outset they would have two minutes to testify.  A joint resolution follows the same process as a bill and must pass both houses.

“The governor does not veto joint resolutions and may or may not sign them,” the Maryland Manual On-line states.

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Dozens testify to Maryland delegates on ceasefire resolution for Gaza