Calls for a Gaza cease-fire resolution reach another Wake County town government
For months, some residents in Wake County and the Triangle have been calling on local leaders to support calls for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Since Oct. 7, over 30,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in response to a surprise attack led by the terrorist organization Hamas on Israel that killed about 1,200 people.
The Israel-Hamas war has had an impact around the world. Tuesday night in Apex, two advocates, one of them a town resident, asked the Town Council to pass a cease-fire resolution. About eight people sat in the audience to support the speakers.
“Many residents ... have been affected by the massive and indiscriminate destruction and desecration of civilian homes, hospitals, schools, churches, mosques and historical sites dating back thousands of years since October 7,” the Muslim American Public Affairs Council in Raleigh said in a 2-page letter.
“We are aware that many residents are watching what our leaders do (or do not) in this growing humanitarian crisis,” the letter states.
Apex resident Julia Owen, a member of the public affairs council, referenced the town’s slogan when she asked the council to “show Raleigh that we are better than them, show them that we are not only the peak of good living for ourselves, but we are the peak of good living for more.”
Over 100 Palestinian and Muslim residents in Raleigh have unsuccessfully lobbied the Raleigh City Council for a cease-fire resolution.
“While we do not have a consensus among our community, we also do not have a consensus among our council,’ said Raleigh Mayor Mary Ann Baldwin. “With this in mind, the Raleigh City Council will not be issuing the resolution on this matter.”
So far, two municipalities in the Triangle have passed a resolution. Durham passed one in February, becoming the largest town in North Carolina to do so. Carrboro approved its resolution in November.
“I am demanding that you totally divest from Israel,” Owen told Apex leaders. “One day, we’re going to look back on this moment and we’re going to be appalled that we didn’t do more.”
Manzoor Cheema, of the People’s Power Lab and the Muslims for Social Justice, asked the council to consider a cease-fire resolution and create a human relations commission to address Islamophobia, racism, housing, and health disparities in Apex.
He spoke on behalf of Zohra Oumous, an Apex resident and mother of Noureddine Oumous, who is serving a 27-year term at Maury Correctional Institution for second-degree murder in a 2012 homicide. She believes her son is innocent, she said at the meeting.
In 2018, Oumous said, she was repeatedly denied visitation rights at the Greene Correctional Institution because she would not remove her hijab. The state Department of Public Safety has since investigated this matter.
“Since Israel’s war on Gaza, there’s a spike, a high increase in anti-Muslim bigotry and violence as well as antisemitism,” Cheema said. “(We) demand that Apex should have a human relations commission or defend the rights of the people.”
The Apex Town Council is not taking any action on a cease-fire resolution now, Town Clerk Allen Coleman said. Council members did not respond to the calls for one.
Two council members, Arno Zegerman and Audra Killingworth, have joined other area leaders in a letter calling on the Biden administration and North Carolina’s congressional delegation to publicly back a permanent cease fire, the release of remaining hostages, and the extension of Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure so that Palestinian families in the United States can remain safely here.
Other signers include Jennifer Robinson, a member of the Cary Town Council, and four members of the Raleigh City Council: Mary Black, Jane Harrison, Christina Jones and Megan Patton.
Call for Ceasefire in Israel-Hamas War in Gaza by Kristen Johnson on Scribd
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