Berkeley: Gaza ceasefire protesters disrupt, postpone City Council meeting

The Berkeley City Council abruptly walked out of its Tuesday night meeting — only 20 minutes after protesters calling for a ceasefire to the ongoing violence in Gaza disrupted the agenda’s routine proceedings.

Shortly before 8:30 p.m., a few dozen public speakers took turns at the podium, standing in solidarity with Palestinians and speaking directly to attendees on Zoom who could still hear what was going on inside the boardroom.

Not long after Mayor Jesse Arreguín called a recess to try to regain order, Berkeley’s elected officials returned to the council chambers and quickly voted to adjourn the meeting early. The remaining agenda items and public hearings were postponed to Nov. 21 amid a cacophony of boos and shouts.

The meeting’s premature end was also preceded by roughly 30 minutes of public comment on issues that weren’t on Tuesday’s agenda, which was largely dominated by demands that the council pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire.

Many speakers asked Berkeley to follow the lead of the Richmond City Council, which approved an Oct. 24 resolution supporting Palestinians living in Gaza and protesting what the resolution characterized as an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing, collective punishment and war crimes by the state of Israel. Richmond’s vote was the first of its kind in the nation.

As each of Berkeley’s nine elected officials slowly left the dais, the litany of pro-Palestine chants died down and a handful of protesters took turns at the podium to speak. Some speakers recounted stories they’d read about the ongoing violence in the Israel-Hamas war, while others shared memories of Palestinian family members living in Gaza.

Russell Bates, a Vietnam vet now in his 70s who has found community — and protest — at People’s Park, recounted how the toll and guilt of being involved in that war still weighs heavily on him more than five decades later.

“How will (the Berkeley City Council) live with the guilt for not calling for a ceasefire now?” Bates said.

By 9 p.m., people started clearing out of the council chambers. Someone in the crowd asked, “So, are we gonna be at the next meeting?”