A person holds a sign reading "Ceasefire Now" at an April 3 Bloomington City Council meeting. (Lucas González, WFIU/WTIU News)
Correction: This article has been updated to accurately reflect Daniel Segal's title.
Community members are split on the Bloomington City Council’s call for a bilateral ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
The council unanimously passed a resolution April 3 following weeks of public input both for and against the action. The resolution condemns operations by both Israel and Hamas and calls for humanitarian aid to Gaza, the release of hostages, and a lasting solution to the conflict.
Council members Isabel Piedmont-Smith and Dave Rollo co-sponsored the resolution. They consulted voices both for and against the resolution when drafting it.
The controversial action garnered both support and condemnation. Regardless of their leanings, many said the resolution was disappointing. Others said the council never should have considered it.
Leslie Lenkowsky, now retired, taught for many years at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI and IU's O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He critiqued the resolution before its passing and said the version that passed was an improvement over the first draft, but added the council should not have voted on it.
“There is no need for the city council of Bloomington to have a resolution,” Lenkowsky said. “I told councilors Piedmont-Smith and Rollo, as did other people, that consideration of this resolution would invite expressions of hatred of the sort that we did not want to see in Bloomington. I’m sorry to say our predictions were right.”
The night the resolution passed, some people attending the meeting remotely spouted hateful rhetoric, including comments such as “White power” and “Heil Hitler.”
Lenkowsky, who worked in former President George W. Bush’s administration, said while he understands the council’s desire to address the suffering in Gaza, President Joe Biden is already moving toward a ceasefire.
“The final text of this resolution essentially tells the Biden administration to do what it is already well on the way of doing,” he said. “Why would you introduce a resolution that is going to allow the expression of hatred in a public forum when the resolution will make no difference, even if it is enacted?”
Biden has called for Israel to push for a ceasefire and said future U.S. support depends on Israel taking new steps to protect civilians and aid workers, according to The Associated Press.
Following Iran’s attack on Israel Saturday, Biden said he won’t support an Israeli counterattack, Axios reports.
Lenkowsky added Bloomington should have followed the example of West Lafayette. There, the city council president has said the council won’t address issues not directly pertaining to governing the city, according to The Lafayette Journal & Courier.
Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson has said she will likely veto the council’s resolution, and any other resolutions not directly affecting city business. Lenkowsky said she should do so.
Pro-Palestinian activists disagree. Aidan Khamis, president of the Indiana University Palestine Solidarity Committee, said he largely supports this resolution. He said he hopes mounting expressions against the war will encourage leaders to withdraw support for Israel and demand an end to the violence.
“Citizens of the United States do not support this genocide, and they refuse this complicity,” Khamis said. “Israel is aided, abetted and facilitated by the United States — and so hopefully, a ceasefire resolution in a city like Bloomington, which makes up a small part of the larger contingent — will add to the list.”
At least 48 other U.S. cities have passed ceasefire resolutions, while six others have passed resolutions advocating more broadly for peace, according to Reuters. At least 20 other cities have passed resolutions condemning Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the current conflict.
The resolution includes a clause condemning the attack. Khamis said he opposes this.
“This genocide is not a reaction; it’s not an isolated event. It’s a manifestation of 75 years of settler colonialism and apartheid that’s baked into the Israeli state,” he said. “Setting a starting point manufactures a so-called reason for genocide when actually, there's no reason to commit genocide. There’s no justifying genocide.”
Khamis said some of the inflammatory comments at the council meeting came from people attempting to hijack the pro-Palestinian movement. He said those people do not represent the cause and only seek to create excuses to delegitimize it.
David Szonyi, a freelance writer based in Bloomington, said he supports the inclusion of the Oct. 7 clause. However, he added the resolution should have called for Hamas to give up political control and military activities in Gaza.
“(Hamas) is a terrorist organization,” Szonyi said. “It acted with particular brutality and sadism on Oct. 7.”
Szonyi described his reaction to the resolution as a combination of both relief and disappointment. He said even though the resolution is not exactly what he was hoping for, it is not overly one-sided.
“Isabel and Dave worked really hard on developing the resolution and talking to a lot of people on all sides of the issue,” he said. “I was disappointed that there was a resolution at all, and I was disappointed that the resolution didn’t do something I think is really essential if there’s going to be a better life for Jews near Gaza and Palestinians in Gaza — and that is to remove Hamas.”
Szonyi said he recognizes the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and understands peoples’ anguish. But like Lenkowsky, he said the resolution wasn’t necessary because the Biden administration is already moving toward a ceasefire.
He, too, hopes Thomson will veto the resolution.
Daniel Segal lives in Bloomington. He is on the state coordinating committee of the Indiana chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace as well as a professor emeritus of history and anthropology at Pitzer College and The Claremont Colleges. Before moving to Bloomington, he was a member of the Los Angeles chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Segal said the resolution is a contribution to decency — even if a small one.
“Municipal ceasefire resolutions are one of the ways to let leadership and the top of the Democratic Party — the top of the federal government — know they are on the wrong side of history,” Segal said. “It is past time for the president and the leadership to follow the democratic will and social justice vision of the base of the Democratic party.”
Segal said he would be disappointed if Thomson vetoed the resolution. He said he generally understands her reason for wanting to do so but added she should make an exception.
“I can agree with the mayor that the city council of Bloomington should not be spending its time, as a general rule, on foreign policy — but does that mean it never should?” he said. “When there’s genocide, it’s all hands on deck; we cannot do too much. That’s the time to make an exception.”
Historically, such a resolution is not unprecedented for the council. It has previously passed resolutions against the Iraq War and the Vietnam War.
If Thomson vetoes the resolution, the council can then vote to override the veto with a two-thirds majority.
In an emailed statement Monday, Thomson reiterated she will not sign any resolution she does not consider immediately relevant to Bloomington.
“I will not spend city time on issues well beyond the scope or influence of our city’s government,” the statement reads. “Instead, I will do what I have always done as a committed lifelong Democrat: address such issues with the policymakers who can influence change.
“From the lack of attainable housing to the growing number of neighbors living on the streets, from public safety to critical investments in our neighborhoods, infrastructure, economy, and culture, there is much work to be done right here at home — and that’s where my focus will remain.
“While I respect the council’s right to legislate on any topic it chooses, as Mayor, I will not sign any resolution or ordinance that distracts from the mission at hand: creating a better Bloomington for us and future generations of residents.”
