The Tucson City Council last week agreed to set aside 20 minutes during their April 9 meeting to publicly discuss calls from some residents for the city to pass a resolution seeking an end to fighting between Israel and Hamas.
City Council Member Lane Santa Cruz put the motion forward at the council’s March 19 study session after Tucson Mayor Regina Romero asked if there was anything that the council wanted to add for future agendas.
In her memo, Santa Cruz said that since December 2023, community members have been coming to council meetings requesting that the city join other cities nationwide in adopting a ceasefire resolution.
“It is my hope that the City of Tucson council can express the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire to our congressional delegation and ultimately the Biden administration,” Santa Cruz wrote.
Fighting in the Israel-Hamas conflict has reached the five month mark, and cities – including South Tucson – have begun to pass ceasefire resolutions calling for an end to the fighting that has devastated Palestine and the Palestinian people.
The City of South Tucson unanimously passed a ceasefire resolution on March 5, making it the first Arizona city to do so. The vote supports Congress’s House Resolution 786, which calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Richmond, California, was the first American city to pass a resolution only 17 days after the initial Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
More than 70 cities, including Chicago – the largest thus far – have passed resolutions urging state and national leaders to consider residents’ support for a cease fire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Activists and organizers who have continuously gone to the Tucson City Council meetings have included the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance, Jewish Voices for Peace and Mennonite Action.
“This is the fifth month of fighting,” Drew Fellows, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, told the council at one recent meeting. “Over 70 cities have passed ceasefire resolutions so we’re out here lobbying our city government to do the same.”
This isn’t the first time cities have moved to pass resolutions calling for the advancement of social movements. There have been examples of these kinds of mobilizations for different causes within the cities of Seattle, Tampa and Nashville.
Palestine Solidarity Alliance state Director Muna Hijazi said she wants to see the Tucson City Council join the effort.
“Our community by and large supports a ceasefire,” Hijazi said. “Passing a resolution here would add Tucson to the growing list of cities nationwide.”
Hijazi said that a resolution helps the federal government understand that this is what people want.
“I am a Christian here to push the City Council for a ceasefire,” Tucsonan Jessica Yoder told City Council members at the February meeting, saying that her faith brought her “here to support my Palestinian brothers and sisters in the few ways that I can.”
“Being here is what I can do and I feel led by my faith to do so,” she said.
But passing a resolution is only impactful if the city’s congressional delegation acts on it, said Mike Letcher, an associate professor in the UA School of Government and Public Policy.
In the case of the South Tucson resolution, he said he believes longtime Democratic Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva will listen.
Arizona Sonoran News is a new service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.
