Columbus City Council approves Gaza resolution calling for end to violence
After months of pressure and protests from pro-Palestine constituents, and over the objections of local pro-Israel leaders, the Columbus City Council unanimously passed a resolution Monday evening calling for "an immediate, sustained and mutual end to hostilities in Gaza."
City Council also took action setting the stage for the owners of 13,000 city parcels — mainly those on main transportation thoroughfares — to have their zoning and all the associated rules that go with it changed under the city code over the summer. Property owners may begin receiving letters of the changes as early as next month, even though the city isn't required to notify them, officials said.
In the resolution on the Israeli-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, the council also called for "the release of hostages and detainees; and the urgent expansion of humanitarian assistance," as well as other measures.
As recently as three weeks ago Hardin and other members were resisting taking an official stance on the conflict, which began Oct. 7 when Hamas killed an estimated 1,200 Israelis and took some 200 hostages. An estimated 32,000 Palestinians may have been killed in the Israeli response, and famine conditions have resulted for fleeing civilians with nowhere else to go.
"It's the right thing to do," Columbus City President Shannon Hardin said before reading the new resolution, calling the ongoing violence happening in Gaza "unacceptable."
City Council's resolution came on the same day the United Nations Security Council finally passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages by Hamas. The United States had vetoed earlier resolutions, but this time abstained in a reflection of the Biden administration's growing disagreement with Israel's ongoing offensive.
By abstaining, the U.S. cleared the way for passage of a U.N. resolution and ended a five-month impasse.
Likewise, Columbus City Council members had resisted approving an official resolution statement on Gaza dating back to mid-October, when hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters crowded council chambers at City Hall to make the Israeli-Hamas war the focus of the meeting. They demanded city officials call for Israel agreed to agree to an immediate ceasefire, and shut down regular city business for roughly two hours.
"For months Columbus City Council members engaged in dialogue with all corners of our community about the conflict in Gaza and Israel," Hardin said. "We've listened, and we've welcomed perspectives from Jewish leaders, from Palestinian residents, from faith leaders across denominations, folks who feel we are living in a moment of conviction.
"And the vast majority of voices are calling for peace."
Taking action on the resolution, Hardin said, won't add to division or endanger residents: "Our community is already divided; many of our residents are already afraid," he said.
The resolution affirmed City Council's "commitment to combat anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Palestinian and anti-Israeli bigotry."
The council's resolution said it joined the United States government in stressing "international legal obligations to protect civilians, humanitarian workers and medical personnel; condemning the taking and killing of hostages, the murder of civilians; opposing additional resettlement in and forced displacement of civilians from Gaza; supporting efforts for the recovery and reconstruction of Gaza; and reiterating an unwavering commitment to the peace process."
It condemned both "Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel and hostage-taking of innocent civilians on October 7," and the "ongoing humanitarian crisis and the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza over the last five months of military warfare."
The council's Gaza resolution seemed to please neither side Monday.
"We support peace," said Julie Tilson Stanley, with JewishColumbus, a partnership of the Columbus Jewish Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Columbus, whose mission is to sustain Jewish life in Columbus, Israel and around the world.
While the resolution references the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, it fails to acknowledge Hamas' "significant exacerbation of the situation" after having attacked Israelis for over 15 years, Stanley told the councilmembers. "The fighting could halt immediately if Hamas would agree," but simply calling for peace doesn't achieve it, she said.
"We implore you to consider the full complexity of the situation."
Pro-Palestine leaders — who had pressured councilmembers for a ceasefire resolution for five months and called the widescale Israeli military reaction to Oct. 7 akin to genocide against innocent civilians bombed out of their homes and cut off from food and medical supplies — also weren't satisfied.
While Council is recognizing Palestinian suffering, "it still fails to recognize the brutality of the settler-colonial state and its attempts to ethnically cleanse an entire nation," said Mazen H. Rasoul, a local Palestinian attorney.
"Palestinians have a right to freedom like any other nation," Rasoul said, and "justice is a pre-requisite for peace."
"We are humans as equal as any one of you, and saying 'free Palestine' is important."
Rasoul noted the resolution did not specifically mention the word "ceasefire" — what pro-Palestine supporters had been demanding — but said he understood it to be a call for a ceasefire nonetheless.
After councilmembers voted 9-0 to pass the resolution, chants of "ceasefire now" erupted in the chamber as several protesters filed out of the City Hall.
Following a meeting three weeks ago in which dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters also showed up and council did not act on their demand for a resolution, Councilmember Christopher L. Wyche posted a statement on Instagram personally calling for a ceasefire.
"I personally believe that this Council should have called for a permanent ceasefire. My office coordinated with other offices in trying to craft a Ceasefire Resolution that everyone could get behind," Wyche wrote. "Unfortunately, we could not come to a consensus … but at least when my children ask me what I did, I can tell them I tried."
Hardin's office declined a request for him to be interviewed on the decision during a break in Monday's meeting. "Council is letting the resolution speak for itself," spokesperson Nya Hairston said, adding that members Lourdes Barroso de Padilla, Shayla Favor and Melissa Green had also made various calls for a ceasefire since November.
In other city business Monday, the council laid out a process that will lead to a set of amendments to the city's current zoning code, which will eventually be completely replaced with a new code this year. This will allow council to rezone parcels in phases by ordinance, said Council President Pro Tem Rob Dorans, who is leading the rezoning effort. The first phase will amount to a rezoning of about 13,000 parcels, mainly along main city bus routes.
Council plans to unveil the new zoning code in the next month, Dorans said. After that, a series of zoning ordinances will transfer parcels to the new code's jurisdiction in phases, with required public hearings and public comment periods, he said.
Dorans said ordinances approved on Monday evening would lock any parcels moved into the new zoning code from being rezoned afterward. "... Once they move into a new Title 34 (the new code), they will stay there," Dorans said, adding that Council was to approve measures on Monday as "emergencies," disregarding a first reading and 30-day waiting period to take effect, so hearings can begin next month on schedule.
"Essentially what (Monday's) legislation does is sets up the process" to change the zoning code, Dorans said. "....The legislation that is in front of us is not the zoning code update or the changes to the map," which will be unveiled in April.
But Rachel Wenning, zoning chair of the Greater Hilltop Area Commission, said Council has been withholding the details of what it was planning to vote on Monday until after a public hearing, making it impossible for people to comment on its plans.
"This is common sense, but I think a lot of times Council seems to prefer that they appear to be taking input rather than actually be taking input," Wenning said. Council has deemed the measure an "emergency" to allow only one reading of the ordinance, but the emergency is "the city has set deadlines for itself that it wants to meet" and that's not an actual emergency, she said.
"All of this shows that the changes are being intentionally rushed through, I think, to avoid public input," Wenning said. She asked that council table the vote.
Dorans responded that residents will have months to comment on the changes over the summer, and acknowledged that "we need to do a better job" on the front end. It will be very clear what the zoning changes mean for the owners of affected properties, he said.
Councilmember Nick Bankston went further, scolding Wenning for not getting on board with the city zoning changes. He said he would appreciate that "you take the responsibility to not simply talk about the conspiracy theory that you made up, but actually put the post out there so that folks can know what's going on, actually do the work that we are meant to do."
As an area commissioner, Bankston said Wenning should "lean in" and engage "instead of coming up with these ridiculous scenarios that don't exist. ... Because it doesn't look like you want it to look doesn't mean it's a broken process. ... No one is going to get exactly what they want out of this."
Bankston apologized to Dorans "to take this kind of tone," but he noted that city employees are being yelled at and "lied on" about the pending zoning changes.
At the end, Wenning tried to respond to Bankston's lengthy attack on her, but he quickly shut her down.
"Thank you, ma'am, you've had your time," Bankston said.
@ReporterBush
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus council approves Gaza resolution calling for end to violence
