Chicago City Council passes cease-fire resolution, Johnson makes tie-breaker vote

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson cast the tie-breaking vote as the Chicago City Council narrowly passed a resolution calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza Wednesday, bringing a monthslong battle over the symbolic declaration to an end.

The resolution passed with Mayor Brandon Johnson breaking a 23-23 deadlock in a meeting that saw him once again clear the Council chambers after disruptions from a crowd filled mostly by pro-cease-fire spectators. The vote makes Chicago the largest American city to call for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.

Opponents of the resolution successfully delayed the vote last week, but couldn’t overcome the cease-fire push after Johnson came out in support last week. The passage marks a key win for Johnson and City Council progressives.

“Do I believe that the words that we speak today, how we vote today influences directly international policy? I don’t. I don’t have those illusions,” sponsor Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, said. “But we vote with hope, we vote with solidarity, we vote to help people feel heard in a world of silence.”

The final push to pass the resolution included an endorsement Monday from powerful unions like the Chicago Teachers Union and a widespread school walkout Tuesday that included cease-fire calls from hundreds of high school students. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who attended the start of the meeting, also threw his support behind the resolution.

Aldermen expected a close count and a tense meeting in the days leading up to the vote. Spectators filled the Council chamber’s upper and lower viewing levels early Wednesday, many wearing Palestinian kaffiyehs to signal their cease-fire support.

The Council voted to consider a revised version of the resolution penned by La Spata. The resolution still calls for a permanent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, humanitarian aid and the release of all hostages as the war in Gaza rages on for a fourth month. It also includes support for a U.N. cease-fire resolution opposed by the federal government.

The latest wording of the legislation had only minor language tweaks, despite pressure from the council’s lone Jewish member, Ald. Debra Silverstein, and others to show greater support for Israel and criticism of Hamas.

The resolution’s sponsors agreed to delay a scheduled vote last week after Silverstein led a Council majority to request they postpone because of a conflicting vote on an International Holocaust Remembrance Day resolution. Still, Silverstein said her suggestions about the cease-fire resolution were not taken into consideration.

“The resolution you are being asked to consider is not a compromise,” she said. “We all want peace in the Middle East. We all want an end to the bloodshed and an end to the war. But it is vital to understand what caused the conflict.”

As Silverstein spoke, one pro-cease-fire spectator stood up and shouted, “Wadee was killed because of your lies,” a reference to death of Plainfield Township 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, who was fatally stabbed in October in what authorities have described as an anti-Palestinian hate crime.

The man moved to leave as police approached to kick him out. Moments later, as Silverstein continued her remarks, more disruptions broke out.

Suddenly, Johnson called the meeting into recess.

“Sergeant, please clear the room,” he ordered.

Most spectators promptly left, though a group of young pro-cease-fire spectators initially refused to exit as police stood around them.

“Does this look like democracy to you?” one shouted.

After an hourlong delay, the Council’s meeting began again, with spectators filling only the chamber’s upper viewing area. The meeting resumed with Silverstein giving the same speech that had earlier abruptly ended.

Many supportive aldermen, including Ald. Jessie Fuentes, 26th, condemned Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, but echoed Johnson’s statement that the adding Palestinian death toll requires action.

“Standing for this resolution doesn’t make us antisemitic,” she said. “In fact, we are saying that we value life and the cease-fire is absolutely necessary in a moment in which we are watching too many innocent civilian lives be taken, more than half of them being Palestinian children.”

Ald. Samantha Nugent, 39th, shared a letter signed by 23 aldermen that argued countering U.S. policy “sends a dangerous precedent” and undermines President Joe Biden’s influence. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, who opposed the resolution, said the long-running debate it sparked had strained Council relationships, echoing concerns aldermen on both sides shared in the run up to the vote.

“I hope that we can get back to a day when we speak with respect to each other and not with the toxicity that has really gone too far in this body,” he said.

Speaking last before the tight vote, Rodriguez-Sanchez said she and La Spata tried to work with aldermen opposed to the resolution. As a progressive, Democratic city, Chicago should be on the forefront of calling for a cease-fire, she said.

“Why is it urgent that we passed this resolution? Over 26,000 Palestinians now have been killed. The majority of them are women and children. There are people that are still digging through the rubble, for their loved ones, for their babies. Weeks of digging through the rubble,” she said.

As aldermen voted, Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, Pat Dowell, Stephanie Coleman and Emma Mitts were not present. Spectators on the third floor erupted in cheers when Johnson cast the deciding vote.

____