What are chances Fresno follows Madera in approving a Gaza ceasefire resolution?

For four months, members of local Palestinian community have turned out at Fresno City Council meetings to cajole, demand and plead for city leaders to adopt a resolution supporting a ceasefire in the war between the nation of Israel and Hamas, the Islamist organization that governs part of the contested territory of Gaza.

Supporters have renewed hope that their pleas could gain traction in Fresno following the Madera City Council’s unanimous vote on Wednesday for a resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire.

“The idea is that we want the war to stop,” said Yasir Amireh, a Fresno businessman and representative of the Palestinian Liberation Group. “People are dying, not just civilians but army people who are still young and have not lived their lives. We need a permanent peace, and we need all hostages to be released.”

But whether a majority of Fresno City Council members will have any appetite for a similar measure over a war in the Middle East, on the far side of the globe, is uncertain at the very least.

Councilmember Miguel Arias, who represents southwest Fresno, said he is open to the idea of introducing a ceasefire resolution, “if it’s in a balanced way that obtains support from both Jewish and Palestinian members of our community.”

But northeast Fresno Councilmember Garry Bredefeld emphatically said he would “absolutely not” support any such resolution.

The Gaza Strip is an area that amounts to about 141 square miles along the eastern Mediterranean Sea. By contrast, Fresno County covers about 6,000 square miles. The current war – the latest example in a long history of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians – was sparked when Hamas fighters crossed the border into Israel on Oct. 7 in attacks that killed an estimated 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages.

In response, the Israeli military launched deadly retaliatory strikes against Hamas in Gaza. The Associated Press reported this week that almost 29,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 68,000 wounded.

The AP reported that Hamas freed 100 hostages during a November ceasefire in which Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners. An estimated 130 hostages remain in Gaza, about 25% of them believed to be dead.

Amid international criticism over the scope of Israel’s strikes and the number of civilian deaths and injuries among Palestinians, there have been increasing calls for a cessation of the hostilities.

The fallout in Fresno

In Fresno, local tensions arose on Oct. 12, when Mayor Jerry Dyer and other city leaders raised the flag of Israel over downtown Fresno’s Eaton Plaza in what was described as a show of support for Israel following the Hamas attacks. Dyer set off a backlash at that event when he responded to people who shouted questions about why the Palestinian flag wasn’t being raised as well.

“We are not here today to alienate any part of our community,” Dyer said. “However, if people in this community or anywhere else support the terrorist activity that occurred on Saturday in Israel, then I would question their allegiance to the United States of America.”

In the months since the Israel flag raising, dozens of Palestinian residents and allies have protested along Blackstone Avenue in north Fresno and appeared at Fresno City Council meetings asking for the city to adopt a resolution calling for a cease fire in Gaza and demanding an apology from Dyer for what they perceived as a slap at the Palestinian community.

Dyer has since apologized to Palestinians at a City Council, and has also met with representatives of the Jewish, Muslim and Palestinian communities to stress a desire for peace in Fresno.

In December, Arias sponsored an event to raise the Palestinian flag over Eaton Plaza in a Dec. 8 gathering that was attended by several hundred Palestinian residents and their supporters.

The Bee reached out to Fresno’s elected leaders – the mayor as well as all seven City Council members – to gauge their attitudes about a ceasefire resolution. Four council members, Arias, Bredefeld, Luis Chavez and Mike Karbassi, responded to comment on the record.

Bredefeld, who was raised in a Jewish family and earned his master’s degree at Yeshiva University – an Orthodox Jewish university in New York – has been steadfast in his criticism of Hamas and of the rhetoric that some of Fresno’s Palestinian community have employed during their comments to the council and other public venues. At recent City Council meetings, Bredefeld has displayed photos of some of the people that remain hostage in Gaza.

“I would never support a ceasefire resolution,” Bredefeld told The Bee on Friday. “There should be a ceasefire only when the terrorist group Hamas completely and unconditionally surrenders and all hostages are released.

Bredefeld added that he had not spoken with the rest of his council colleagues about their thoughts on a ceasefire resolution.

Arias said he believed the Madera City Council “set a solid framework for other cities to take a balanced approach” in calling for a ceasefire.

“It’s very affirming that other communities around Fresno have seen the value of sending a complete message that the violence in Palestine and Israel should end,” he said, noting that the Madera resolution takes no sides in the dispute between Hamas and Israel. “I give quite a bit of credit to Madera leaders for a balanced approach.”

Arias said he is studying the details of the Madera resolution and said he may be inclined to introduce a similar measure in Fresno. Whether it would pass, however, is a much different matter.

“My colleagues have historically demonstrated a willingness to weigh in on international matters that impact our community,” Arias said, noting recognition of the Armenian genocide by Turkey’s Ottoman Empire in the mid-1910s and raising the Ukrainian flag in support of that nation in the wake of Russia’s invasion two years ago.

“But we won’t know until we know,” he added. “What made the difference in Madera is that people paid attention to the details of the resolution and didn’t get distracted by the public narratives (that are) meant to divide the conversation.”

Representing southeast Fresno, Chavez said he is open to supporting a resolution for a ceasefire, “if it has a message of peace and resolution, rather than a message of condemnation and finger pointing.”

“I understand it’s a symbolic gesture, and I also know it means a lot to our local Muslim/Palestinian brothers and sisters, … ” Chavez added. “It’s not enough to tweet or go on social media, or support a resolution; my hope is that people support the humanitarian efforts occurring aside from governments and terrorist organizations fighting.” He said he has contributed to relief organizations helping to provide water, food and medicine to Gaza.

“Children and woman being caught in the crossfire (of) the Hamas and Israel conflict is difficult to see,” he said, adding that he has friends with family that have family in Gaza “and check on them daily, hoping they are still alive.”

Karbassi, whose council district covers northwest Fresno, said he prefers that the city focus its attention on local problems such as homelessness and other issues.

“We don’t follow the city of Madera,” he told The Bee on Friday. “We do what we think is best, and if I felt a resolution by the city of Fresno would do anything to save lives (in Gaza and Israel), I’d be all for it. But it won’t. … This is a matter for Congress and the president and the Senate to deal with.”

Karbassi added that he appreciated members of the Palestinian community exercising “their absolute right” to express their opinions at the City Council meetings. “We’ve listened to the people. But their arguments have turned very personal, and it’s not constructive,” he said, adding that a Jewish temple in his district was vandalized in an anti-Semitic hate crime in the wake of the war’s start.

“Many of my constituents feel very threatened” by some of the rhetoric that’s been used at council meetings, he added, in particular the chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The phrase refers to the Jordan River, which runs along the eastern edge of Israel, and the Mediterranean Sea, and according to The Associated Press has become a rallying cry for a single Palestinian state on territory spanning Israel including Gaza and the West Bank.

Hopes for making headway

Amireh, who’s been in frequent attendance at Fresno’s council meetings insisting first for raising the Palestinian flag and for a ceasefire resolution, said the Madera vote gives him hope for progress in Fresno.

“We’re calling for an inclusive resolution; it has nothing to do with politics,” he said. “Nobody needs to worry about their political future to prevent the death of innocent people. There’s no sides to take.”

“I can’t believe the council members in Fresno would say no to a resolution against killing,” Amireh added.

“It does make a difference when a city like Fresno, which is the largest city in the Valley, joins other cities,” he said. “Hopefully it would lead other cities across the country to support a ceasefire.”