At its regular meeting on Monday, the Durham city council could vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
If the resolution passes, Durham will become the second municipality in North Carolina, after Carrboro, to call for a ceasefire. Raleigh and Chapel Hill leaders have declined to consider resolutions due to lack of consensus and concerns over deepening existing divisions.
At least 28,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, when Israel began its bombardment of the territory in response to a surprise Hamas attack that saw 1,200 Israelis killed and more than 200 taken captive.
Triangle residents distressed at the rising Palestinian death toll—and at the U.S.’s role in backing the Israeli military—have spent the past several months urging local leaders to pass ceasefire resolutions. They argue that, while symbolic, such resolutions can function to send a message to federal officials and make constituents feel safer by taking a stance against indiscriminate violence. Other residents say it’s inappropriate for local governments to weigh in on international conflicts and describe ceasefire resolutions as antisemitic.
In its current form, Durham’s “Resolution Supporting an End to the Violence Between Israel and Palestine” acknowledges both Israeli and Palestinian casualties and asks the Biden administration to call for a “sustained, bilateral ceasefire.”
To help contextualize the upcoming vote, the INDY compiled a timeline of relevant protests, events, and municipal public comment sessions that have taken place in the Triangle since October.
November 2, 2023
Protesters organized by the Triangle branch of Jewish Voice for Peace block traffic on NC Highway 147 in Durham. They spend much of the sit-in trying to reach U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee on the phone, saying they will get out of the road if she agrees to meet with them to discuss a ceasefire resolution. Foushee, a Democrat, is a focus of the protest in part because she represents all of Durham County but also because she received more than $2 million in bundled campaign contributions from the American-Israel PAC in 2022. Some residents have concerns over undue special interest group influence.
November 3, 2023
Foushee releases a “Statement on the Ongoing Crisis in Israel and Gaza” in which she asserts that “Hamas’s brutal and orchestrated terrorist attacks on Israel is an unprecedented assault on humanity that must not be ignored or go unpunished.”
November 8, 2023
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, introduces a bill to make blocking roads a federal crime “in direct response to radical tactics of pro-Palestine protestors.”
November 9, 2023
Less than 24 hours after his election to the Durham city council, Nate Baker tweets that he stands “with Durham’s Palestinian community and others in urging” Foushee “to call for a ceasefire in Gaza” and that he will explore the option of a resolution after he is sworn in.
November 14, 2023
Carrboro’s town council is the first in the state to pass a ceasefire resolution. The resolution notes that “the Federal Government holds immense diplomatic and appropriations powers to save Israeli and Palestinian lives” and requests that the North Carolina congressional delegation “urge the Biden administration to facilitate a ceasefire and the entry of needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
December 12, 2023
More than 100 people express support or opposition to a ceasefire resolution during a Raleigh city council meeting. Pro-Palestine and pro-Israel supporters start to become a regular presence at council meetings in Durham and Raleigh.
December 16, 2023
Families gather in Durham Central Park to sing, march, and fly kites in honor of Palestinian youth. The demonstration kicks off a string of weekly pro-ceasefire actions organized by local activist groups Mothers for Ceasefire, Jewish Voices for Peace, Durham Beyond Policing, and Southern Workers Assembly, among others.
January 4, 2024
Durham residents continue to debate whether the city should pass a ceasefire resolution during a city council work session. Williams announces that he has assembled a group of community members with varying perspectives on the issue to discuss next steps. In subsequent weeks, Williams meets with the group to workshop language for a ceasefire resolution.
January 24, 2024
In Chapel Hill, where elected officials have faced less pressure to pass a ceasefire resolution than their counterparts elsewhere in the Triangle, mayor Jess Anderson announces that the town will not consider a ceasefire resolution. Such a resolution “could serve to add to the divide,” Anderson says.
February 5, 2024
Hundreds of Durham residents gather in front of City Hall at 6 p.m. for a music-centered pro-ceasefire demonstration. Forty-five minutes later, demonstrators enter City Hall and pack the city council chambers ahead of the council’s 7 p.m. meeting. The chambers reach capacity so more than 100 demonstrators are left in the hallway. It’s unclear what the demonstrators—many of whom are holding roses—plan to do at the meeting because there is no ceasefire item on the agenda, but then, during a public hearing for a zoning map change, speaker Quay Weston delivers remarks that connect gentrification and displacement in Durham to displacement in Gaza. “We are not only in a housing crisis, but also in a crisis when it comes to our priorities,” Weston says. “As we witness increased housing insecurity and displacement of Durham residents, it must be connected to the displacement of Palestinian people through genocidal actions that are being funded by our tax dollars.” Demonstrators begin stomping their feet and singing “We breathe together, stop the occupation.” Demonstrators who have been standing in the hallway stream into the chambers. The meeting screeches to a halt. A handful of people who are holding Israel and U.S. flags exchange back-and-forths with pro-ceasefire demonstrators. (WRAL reported that one attendee allegedly stole a woman’s Israeli flag and assaulted her.) A dozen police officers are called in as backup, forming a human barrier between the crowd and the council. Livestream footage of the meeting is cut off. Demonstrators place 250 roses on the floor in front of the dais to symbolize the number of Palestinians killed on average each day since October 7 and then clear the room. The rezoning hearing resumes.
February 6, 2024
The Durham city council’s draft resolution is made public. In Raleigh, Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin announces that the city council will not consider a ceasefire resolution. “While we do not have a consensus among our community, we also do not have a consensus among our council,” Baldwin said.
February 8, 2024
At the Durham city council’s regularly scheduled 1 p.m. work session, more than 35 residents speak for or against passing the resolution during a public comment period. When one pro-Israel supporter says that “Durham is known as a hotbed of antisemitism” and likens the tumultuous February 5 council meeting to “Nazi Germany in the 1930s” some in the audience start hissing. Williams gavels for order. Council member Chelsea Cook announces that the resolution will be on the agenda at the council’s next meeting on February 19. Cook, who proposed the resolution and is also the council’s only Jewish member, says the resolution is “a small part of a dream I think we all share for liberation and for peace.”
February 13, 2024
Two hundred residents pack the Raleigh city council chambers and interrupt a public comment session with chants for a ceasefire, forcing the council to end the session early. After they’re evacuated, residents gather on the sidewalk and declare that they’ll be back.
Follow Staff Writer Lena Geller on Twitter or send an email to [email protected].
Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at [email protected].
Comment on this story at [email protected].
Support independent local journalism.
Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
You must be logged in to post a comment.