Anti-war speakers disrupt Raleigh City Council meeting, forcing early adjournment
Activists and community members calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas War disrupted the Raleigh City Council meeting Tuesday night, forcing it to adjourn early.
The Raleigh City Council met with nearly 140 people signed up to speak with most calling for a cease-fire resolution and to show their support for Palestine. It was the first meeting since Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said the Raleigh City Council would not vote on a ceasefire resolution.
On Tuesday, about 45 minutes into the meeting and after a few dozen speakers, attendees began chanting and singing.
“Y’all, we can’t keep the meeting going if you guys chant,” said Mayor Pro Tem Jonathan Melton, who was chairing the meeting in Baldwin’s absence.
Melton then called for the meeting to be paused while people continued to chant and sing, including “Cease-fire now,” “Stop killing babies” and “Stop the genocide.”
After about 20 minutes, the crowd had left the chambers, and Melton adjourned the meeting. City council members and staff also had left the room, which Melton said “is what we’re instructed to do with there’s an issue of safety or I guess, lack of decorum.”
“It was determined that we would not be able to, I guess, regain composure of the room,” he said in an interview after the meeting. “And so with the city attorney I adjourned the meeting.
“I really wanted this evening to create a space for everyone felt like they were heard, whether we agree or disagree on any particular issue, and so I obviously hate that the meeting had to be adjourned,” Melton told The News & Observer. “But I do hope that everybody who was there felt like they were heard and that everyone got home safely.”
Response to mayor’s statement
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel and took 240 hostages, the ongoing Israel-Hamas War in Gaza has reverberated around the world.
Locally, hundreds of activists and community members have repeatedly attended public meetings to ask leaders to issue a resolution calling for a cease-fire. On Feb. 6, Baldwin said Raleigh would not do so, saying the community is divided on the issue. Others have asked the city to remain out of international affairs or to support Israel.
Instead, she read a statement of peace.
“Yes, our community is conflicted. But our values are evident,” Baldwin said then. “We call for the protection of all civilians and humanitarian relief. We call for the safe return of all hostages. We, like many others in our country, call on world leaders to work toward an end to this conflict and a peaceful long-term solution. We call for peace at home and abroad.”
On Tuesday, community members read from a statement, signed by over 40 groups, in response to Baldwin.
“With this statement, Mayor Baldwin and her supporters in the City Council reveal that they do not care about the thousands of Palestinian and non-Palestinian constituents who have shared their grief and pain over the past several months, and who have clearly demanded that their City Council stand in opposition to the ongoing indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinians,” said Angie Elhuni.
While meetings in Raleigh have been forced to recess, this is the first time the issue has forced a meeting to end early.
Council members Jane Harrison and Megan Patton addressed the crowd before the start of public comments. Harrison said she intends to join groups on Wednesday in delivering a petition calling for a cease-fire to office of U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross of Wake County.
Patton thanked people for holding elected leaders accountable, including herself. She reiterated that she believes a cease-fire resolution is the right course of action.
“When it became clear that there was not consensus on our council, I thought an answer was better than our continued radio silence,” she said.
