NC town board calls for Israel-Hamas cease-fire, pushes for US to send relief to Gaza

The war in Gaza and growing humanitarian crisis split the Carrboro town board, which traditionally has spoken out unanimously on national and international issues.

In a series of divided votes Tuesday, Carrboro’s Town Council passed a resolution supporting a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and calling on the United States to send humanitarian aid. Carrboro is the first municipality in North Carolina to call for a cease-fire. The Mecklenburg County commissioners voted unanimously in October to condemn the violence in Israel.

The resolution called on the local and state congressional delegation to push for action. The board also condemned rising Islamophobia and antisemitism, but, as some noted, did not condemn the terrorist group Hamas for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel or call for the release of hostages the group is holding.

Council member Sammy Slade, who sponsored the resolution and another one in October, said he wasn’t happy that the resolution also didn’t address U.S. military aid to Israel, “but this is the best we could do to get support.”

“I really hope my colleagues on this council have heard and understand that this is not about anything other than saving people’s lives and dignity and being human. We do have a responsibility as Americans in what we are doing … throughout the world, and not just in Palestine,” Slade said.

The board split 4-3 over whether to even consider a resolution, with three members — Randee Haven-O’Donnell, Susan Romaine and incoming Mayor Barbara Foushee — voting no.

Romaine urged residents, no matter their stance, to continue to protest, donate to aid groups, contact elected officials and talk with their neighbors, especially those with different views.

“At a time when the emotions feel so raw, the feelings are so conflicted and when the history of this region is so complicated, I don’t believe we should be considering this resolution,” Romaine said.

“There are no unifying words to capture the multiple truths and the multiple feelings right now. I worry that a resolution would further divide us and make some of our community members not feel welcome here,” she said.

A 4-3 vote on Oct. 24 kept the resolution from being considered at that meeting.

Council member Eliazar Posada, who voted against considering the October resolution, changed his vote Tuesday. He wanted to see the language in the previous resolution changed, because he didn’t feel like he understood the situation well enough, Posada said.

He’s had more calls and emails since that vote than on any other issue, from people on both sides, he said.

“While (the approved resolution) is not perfect, I do believe that life is sacred,” Posada said. “I do believe that while the cease-fire is a complicated issue, I would like to see and I would support further measures ... that include language calling for the release of the hostages, calling for more measures.”

His vote Tuesday reversed the October decision, moving the resolution to a lengthy, heated debate that ended with the 4-3 vote to pass the resolution and send it to federal lawmakers and President Joe Biden.

Worry for civilians, divided over war

Kathy Kaufman, who has family in Israel, was one of two speakers opposed to the resolution. The Oct. 7 attack on Israel, if committed at a similar scale in the United States, would have killed 50,000 people and left 8,500 as hostages, including 800 children, she said.

“What you’re asking Israel to do is abandon people at that scale or portion of their population ... and I ask people what do you think will happen the day after a cease-fire is declared?” she said. “Hamas is a terrorist organization. It is not a government. It does not take care of its people. It has been on Arab-language TV for the last month talking about how ... they want to do this over and over and over until all the Israelis and all the Jews are killed.”

Other Jewish community members, including Hannah Helmey, spoke in favor of the resolution.

Helmey called it an “expression of our basic humanity ... (and) the best step to negotiate the release of hostages who are also trapped in the heavy bombardment of Gaza.”

“Jewish safety and Jewish values are not compatible with apartheid and cannot be achieved through military domination or the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians,” she said.

Over 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the war began and 1.5 million have been displaced. Most lack food and basic services. This week, Israeli forces launched a raid on al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza City but under which Israel claims Hamas has built an underground command center connected by tunnels.

Ken Norman, former director of Inspire Dreams, which works with Palestinian children living in West Bank refugee camps, read the names of friends killed in the bombing of the hospital.

“These are people who live here,” he said. “These are people who had full lives, who had hopes and dreams, and they were needlessly killed by Israeli bombing. This is a war crime. It’s unacceptable and it’s not self defense.”

A March for Palestine calling on UNC to divest from Israel and promoting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement is scheduled for noon Friday at Wilson Library on the Chapel Hill campus.