Oakland’s leaders pressured to support ceasefire in Gaza as warfare continues

OAKLAND — City leaders are feeling pressure from residents to support a call for a ceasefire in Gaza as the death toll among Palestinians rises amid Israel’s continuing retaliation after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

On Wednesday, an Oakland school board meeting descended into chaos after its president, Mike Hutchinson, halted pro-Palestinian speakers, saying their comments were out of turn, before a ceasefire resolution could be introduced later that night.

A day earlier, members of the City Council struggled to maintain decorum when an animated group of pro-Palestinian speakers urged the city’s leaders to join the call for a ceasefire.

The statement would be a starkly more diplomatic resolution than the outright support for Palestinians shown by Richmond — the first city in the country to commit to such a declaration.

Ceasefire resolutions have since been taken up by a few small cities nationwide, including Providence, Rhode Island, Easton, Pennsylvania, and the tiny Southern California town of Cudahy.

The uproar at multiple public meetings illustrated the unique balancing act faced by the leaders of a city that is often at the forefront of political action but which, by outright support of Palestinians, would separate itself from the liberal mainstream, including President Joe Biden, who has opposed a ceasefire.

“I do want to work with you,” a flustered City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas told frustrated pro-Palestinian attendees at Tuesday’s meeting. She noted that any resolution for a ceasefire “has to go through our legislative process.”

Earlier, Bas had allowed the topic to be addressed — even though no resolution on the subject was on the meeting agenda — because the council had recognized November as Indigenous People’s Month, a designation that Bas reasoned could be extended to the Palestinian cause.

“Gaza is a graveyard for children,” Alisa Kazhni, who criticized U.S. support for Israel, told the City Council. “Can you imagine a graveyard of children on (our country’s) dime?”

The school board meeting on Wednesday ended on more contentious grounds.

Hutchinson, a known opponent of the Oakland Unified School District’s robust faculty union, had pointedly tried to limit comments on a “ceasefire” resolution introduced by fellow board Valarie Bachelor, one of the union’s most vocal allies.

Pro-Palestinian speakers were allowed to address the resolution later in the meeting, but they took up their cause during public comment on reports by the board’s student representatives — a clear violation of the rules.

Hutchinson abruptly called a recess and then, during the ensuing uproar, adjourned the meeting and exited the gymnasium at La Escuelita Education Center. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” Bachelor said of the ongoing retaliation by Israel. “These words haunt me, and they should haunt all of us during this time.”

Bachelor’s resolution, almost identical to the one approved by the teachers union, notes the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas — designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union — that massacred 1,400 Israelis, many of them citizens, and resulted in the capture of 239 hostages.

The ensuing war on Hamas by Israel had by Wednesday led to the killing of 10,500 Palestinians, including more than 4,300 children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

On Thursday, Israel agreed to “four-hour daily humanitarian pauses” that would temporarily pause airstrikes on Palestinians so that civilians could escape Gaza City, international aid workers could enter the region and negotiations could take place over the return of hostages taken by Hamas militants.

Still, the violence in Gaza, which many pro-Palestine speakers in Oakland likened to genocide, appears to have unprecedented political stakes for local leaders.

After the city’s teachers union approved a “ceasefire” statement Monday, more than one member told news outlets that they would stop paying dues. The union did not respond to requests for comment.

Kevin Jenkins, another Oakland council member, posted to his Instagram story Thursday his own statement supporting a ceasefire: “I am horrified by the videos of children being killed,” he said.

After Wednesday’s school board meeting was prematurely adjourned, the La Escuelita gym became the makeshift site of a pro-Palestinian rally with calls for the land to be liberated “from the river to the sea” — language that has been commonly interpreted to call for the eradication of Israel.

A man in attendance who stood up to bellow “Two-state solution! Two-state solution!” was booed by the crowd and told to quiet down, an indication that the stakes of the Israel-Palestine issue have transcended the once-popular catch-all term for diplomatic solutions.

When the Richmond City Council passed its pro-Palestine resolution last month, several pro-Israel speakers accused the local body of approving a resolution full of “half-truths, inaccuracies and distortions,” while others said they were fearful for the safety of Jewish residents.

No such speakers were present at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, where a resolution wasn’t on the agenda, but the public statements in support of a Gaza ceasefire drew resounding applause from even those present to speak about other subjects, such as homelessness or A’s baseball.

“Kamala Harris, this is Oakland, California — the money that’s going to Israel doesn’t represent us,” said David Ocasio, who ended his time by declaring, to cheers, “Free Palestine!”

Staff writer Katie Lauer and the Associated Press contributed to this story.