Tacoma’s Gaza resolution was weak. But there’s hope in the activism that spurred it | Opinion

As part of my upbringing in Reform Judaism, including attending a Jewish Day School, I was taught that Zionism was an inherent part of our tradition. Israel was itself represented as a homeland and a miracle for our people following the horrors of the Shoah.

But when I traveled there on birthright in 2017, what I witnessed was no homeland. What I saw instead, was a colonial occupation where I as a visiting American had more rights than the indigenous Palestinian people.

As a child I was regularly exposed to racist sentiments from the adults around me, such as that Islam was a tradition of terrorism and that we couldn’t give democracy to the Palestinians because they would “outbreed us,” and we would lose control. As a young person I struggled with what my Jewish identity meant to me, but as I’ve grown into adulthood and rediscovered a love of my Jewish tradition, I’ve been proud to practice Tikkun Olam (A Jewish value meaning ‘repairing of the world’) alongside many other voices for international human rights and a free Palestine in our community.

Following the Oct. 7 uprising and the Zionist regime’s campaign of collective punishment, consciousness around Palestinian liberation exploded across the US. Responding to this outcry against the genocide in Palestine, city governments across the nation quickly passed resolutions calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. In Western Washington, Seattle, Olympia and Bellingham had all passed ceasefire resolutions by early December, leaving Tacoma as one of the few major municipalities in the area to stay silent on the issue, with only District 3 representative Jamika Scott making public comment in support of a permanent ceasefire.

Only after months of mounting pressure from anti-genocide community members and activists did, in early March, the council announce their plan to pass off work on a ceasefire resolution to Tacoma’s Jewish and Muslim religious leaders. This move by the council was repeatedly called out at community forums for trying to obfuscate the council from political responsibility for the resolution, while also having the effect of playing into the propagandist lie that the ongoing genocide in Palestine, rooted in the 1948 Nakba, is a result of some intractable religious conflict rather than settler colonialism.

This process sharply departed from previous times that the council has weighed in on international issues.

When Russia unjustly invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the council took just one week to pass a resolution that clearly condemned the invasion. Passing this resolution offered a correct recognition that it is important for our elected representatives to express solidarity with affected members of our community, and doing so did not require them to sit on their hands for months, nor to pass off responsibility to Orthodox ministers.

For those who have criticized the current ceasefire resolution on the basis that the council should not weigh in on international issues, I’d question where were these voices following the passage of the 2022 resolution?

For myself and others who had spoken out for months in support of a ceasefire resolution, the final language felt deflating.

Following its passage, my friend Aysha, a Palestinian American schoolteacher who had regularly attended council meetings to support a resolution, referred to the language as “confusing” and “incredibly vague.” As Gaza continues to be the target of incredible violence, it is a good thing to call for a permanent ceasefire, but Aysha’s words cut to the heart of the issue. Whereas the council’s resolution offered mostly empty platitudes that say nothing of on-the-ground realities, the situation in Palestine is actually quite simple: Israel is occupying Palestinian land and ethnically cleansing its people using our tax dollars.

With over 35,000 Palestinians murdered in Gaza including over 15,000 children, it is a bare minimum to call this out honestly as a genocide and advocate for the divestment of our tax dollars supporting its continuation.

This is a bar our representatives have failed to meet, but in contrast, it has been a beautiful thing to witness the outpouring of solidarity with the Palestinian cause that has come from our community.

It is this energy that has made me ever more confident that we will see a free Palestine in our lifetimes.

Zev Cook is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and serves as both a co-chair of the Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America and as a member of Tacoma for All’s steering committee. She has worked to help win progressive campaigns in Tacoma.Iin 2023, this included serving as the campaign manager for city councilmember Jamika Scott and as a lead field organizer on Tacoma for All’s Tenant Bill of Rights campaign.