Chicago City Council’s Gaza resolution isn’t perfect, but a cease-fire is ultimately about saving lives

Thaer Ahmad’s work with trauma patients on the South Side and his previous visits to disaster-stricken areas fell drastically short of preparing him for the human suffering he encountered in the Gaza Strip during the last three weeks. 

When the Palestinians in that region aren’t trying to escape Israeli bombardment, they are wondering when their next proper meal will be or if they’ll ever have access to clean water and other necessities again, said Ahmad, an emergency room physician who flew back to Chicago Friday after volunteering at a hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

Ahmad is well aware that Chicago’s proposed cease-fire resolution is non-binding and won’t have the same impact as the negotiations now underway for a deal that would free hostages kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 in exchange for a two-month pause in fighting between the militant group and Israel.

We hope those negotiations are successful, and soon.

But if alderpersons approve the proposed resolution at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Ahmad said they will be upholding Chicago’s progressive ideals and sending a strong, supportive message to members of his Palestinian American community in Cook County — the largest in any county in the nation — and all other “people of conscience” from all racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds.

This editorial board advocated for a cease-fire in the Middle East last month. Mayor Brandon Johnson joined the call just a few days ago as the death toll of Palestinians, mostly innocent civilians, has skyrocketed to more than 26,000. The majority of Americans are yearning for a permanent cease-fire, which has been reflected in polls and in recent resolutions green-lit in cities across the country, including San Francisco, Detroit and Atlanta. 

The latest version of Chicago’s resolution isn’t perfect. But it rightly recognizes the 1,200 Israeli and foreign nationals killed by Hamas last fall, as well as the innocent Palestinians killed in Israel’s retaliatory siege since then.

We urge Council members to include strong, clear wording demanding that Hamas release all hostages as part of any deal, and end its rocket attacks on Israel. We also recommend Council members remove language that could be read as undermining U.S. authority regarding United Nations resolutions; leave that to the foreign policy experts.

But Chicago wouldn’t be a radical outlier, as some have suggested, by passing this cease-fire resolution. Instead, we hope it helps to strike while the iron is hot and show support for negotiators now working on the agreement for a pause in fighting. Such a deal would return hostages safely to their families and provide some relief, however scant, to those living in Gaza, where the U.N. says there is a “looming threat of famine, disease and displacement.”

The resolution, which has an outdated number of Palestinian casualties, will likely be amended slightly before it’s up for a vote Wednesday, a City Hall insider told us.

Some people are objecting to various wording in the proposal, but the bottom line is “both sides need to stop shooting,” said Richard Goldwasser, a Chicago-area lawyer who describes himself as an “anti-occupation activist.”

Goldwasser stressed that not all Jewish people in Chicago and surrounding suburbs align themselves with 50th Ward Ald. Debra Silverstein as she pushes back against the current cease-fire resolution, which he says urges the killing of civilians to end in the simplest terms.

“We are not a monolith,” said Goldwasser, who wanted a negotiated cease-fire just 10 days after Oct. 7.

“There is no question IsraeI has a right to defend itself” and carry out a “military response [to Oct. 7], but it has to comply with international law ... and we can see that has not been happening,” he said, referring to the Israeli bombing campaign.

Just days after Hamas’ massacre in Israel, 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume was killed by his landlord in unincorporated Plainfield Township because of his Palestinian and Muslim backgrounds.

Joseph Czuba, who has since been charged, apparently found the boy to be a threat after listening to conservative talk radio, so he stabbed him 26 times, Will County prosecutors said. Words matter, we said then.

The Council has spent a lot of time and energy on this resolution, and though there are undoubtedly local problems waiting to be solved, we get it: The Chicago area is home to thousands of Palestinians, other Middle Easterners, Muslims and Jews, for whom this war and its effects are deeply personal — and important to us as an editorial board. Just as we support a cease-fire, we also supported the Council vote to condemn Hamas for Oct. 7, in a resolution introduced by Silverstein.

Chicago’s cease-fire resolution won’t stop the bloodshed. It will take much more work to forge lasting peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians. But a straightforward, direct resolution collectively asking for concrete steps to save innocent lives is, as a city, worth supporting.

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