Calls for ceasefire resolution continue at Austin City Council meeting

AUSTIN, Texas - Members of the Austin for Palestine Coalition once again rallied outside City Hall and addressed city council members during Thursday’s meeting, asking for a ceasefire resolution.

Coalition members have attended every regular city council meeting since Nov. 30.

"You remain unresponsive and indignant," said one speaker during the public comment period. "The moral apathy and displacement of responsibility felt from the majority of the members on this dais is an all too recognizable phenomenon."

"It's important for us as a community in Austin to feel that our leaders are standing with us, morally, standing against the genocide that's happening," said Hatem Natsheh, with the Austin for Palestine Coalition. "To show our elected officials, the governor of Texas, that they are investing Texas money in Israeli bonds that release cash to Israel to buy weapons to kill our people. And it's a stand for humanity, for God's sake."

Members of the coalition also voiced frustration with local leadership response to a recent event that police are calling a hate crime.

Earlier this month, a 23-year-old Palestinian-American man was stabbed after attending a pro-Palestine rally.

"This incident adds to the horrible rise in hate-motivated incidents everywhere – including in Austin. We cannot, we will not, tolerate hate," said Mayor Kirk Watson in a responding statement.

Watson went on to address the calls for a ceasefire resolution. 

"The resolution is similar to what has come up in other cities, such as Chicago and Oakland, where the public debate devolved into division, shouting and recriminations. The international efforts and the negotiations of the parties in the conflict continue without success. The proposed resolution of the Austin City Council will not realistically end the violence on the other side of the globe. Nor will it stop federal taxes from being used to implement U.S. foreign policy. That is not in our power. The resolution, however, has the power to divide Austin — and will."

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Coalition members said they "strongly condemn" the Mayor’s statement, along with "the bias he has shown against Palestinians, Arab, and Muslim communities, and his dismissal of local organizing for a ceasefire."

On Thursday, Israeli forces stormed the main hospital in southern Gaza believing Hamas may have been holding hostages there. 

More than 200 hostages were taken, and more than 1,000 people were killed, in the terrorist group’s initial attack on Israel in early October. 

Governor Abbott visited Israel in November to reaffirm the state’s support for "Israel's right to self-defense."