Following a raucous public comment session that stretched from Tuesday evening into the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the Santa Cruz City Council voted down a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire “by all parties” in Gaza, and calling for the release of all hostages. Instead, the council approved a more generic resolution calling for “collaborative efforts supporting peaceful dialogue among all parties involved.”
The vote was the culmination of some 10 hours of debate that ended at around 3 a.m. Roughly 75 percent of commenters favored the resolution calling for a ceasefire, with around 25 percent opposed, according to Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley. Once it became clear that the ceasefire resolution was going to fail, Keeley said several protesters rushed the dais, throwing things at council members and breaking two windows.
A Santa Cruz police spokesman confirmed the disturbance, and said that there were no arrests. Keeley had to clear the council chamber before the final vote.
“I was left with the one tool in my tool bag available at that point, when I feel that the public's health and safety is in danger,” Keeley said in an interview.
The substitute resolution, which Keeley supported, passed on a vote of 5-1. Council member Sonja Brunner, who helped draft the original ceasefire resolution, was the lone dissenting vote. Council member Sandy Brown, who also drafted the ceasefire resolution, left the meeting during the protest and did not cast a vote.
Keeley said he is under no illusions that the issue is over.
“The issue has not been settled for thousands of years. It is highly unlikely that a resolution by the Santa Cruz City Council, irrespective of what it says, is going to end debate and discussion in the city of Santa Cruz or anywhere else,” he said.
Still, Keeley said it was right for the council to take up the issue.
“We do it probably a dozen times a year. We convey to our state legislators, our federal legislators, what we think, what they should do on a Senate bill or a House resolution, or an Assembly bill, or a state Senate bill, or a regulation or a budget appropriation. We communicate with them all the time, using this kind of format to do so. So I have no trouble with the matter being in front of us,” he said.
Indeed, the city has a long history of weighing in on world events. Keeley issued a proclamation last year in solidarity with the people of Ukraine in the war with Russia. And, in 2002, the City Council became among the first in the nation to oppose a U.S. invasion of Iraq.
