Olympia City Council passes ceasefire resolution despite criticism it doesn’t go far enough

The Olympia City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine, but the action was met by more than a dozen people criticizing the lack of language condemning Israel’s actions.

Before the vote at Tuesday night’s meeting, Mayor Cheryl Selby said the council recognized that many people wouldn’t hear their words and requests in the resolution.

“Simply put, we move this forward knowing that not everyone will be satisfied with this, with the words in this resolution,” Selby said. “But the resolution will help us focus our energies where we can have true influence here at the local level.”

The city’s resolution says Palestinian and Israeli people have a shared future that is inseparable, and the city affirms the right for both Palestine and Israel to exist. It says the targeting of civilians, no matter their faith or ethnicity, is a violation of international humanitarian law.

The resolution calls for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Israel and Occupied Palestine, for humanitarian aid to be given to those in Gaza, and for the release of all unlawfully detained civilians.”

It also says the City of Olympia is committed to the safe and humane treatment of all of its residents as Middle East tensions spill into the U.S. That includes a commitment to partner with local community, faith, educational and cultural leaders to begin developing actions to reduce hate in Olympia.

The resolution is intended to add support for the congressional ceasefire resolutions, HR 786 and HR 3103, which call for the promotion and protection of the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.

Selby said that while the council found shared shock and outrage at what’s happening in Israel and Palestine, they also found that the community leaders they spoke with, and each council member, had differing perspectives.

“But we’re united in our anger and sorrow at the loss of life and injuries and the trauma associated with both,” Selby said. “We accept that some in the community will think this resolution does not go far enough. And then others will think it goes too far.”

Olympia resident Cora Barker said upon reading the resolution, she was disappointed but not surprised to see the council didn’t directly condemn the violent occupation of Palestine by Israel, an occupation that, she said, has lasted 75 years with the blessing and financial backing of the U.S.

“I urge you to re-examine this resolution, I urge you to explicitly condemn the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people,” she said. “And I urge you to call this what it is, a genocide.”

Eva Leach said Olympia community members wrote a resolution that called for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel and an end to the military occupation of Palestine, as well as a permanent ceasefire and many other things. She said many of the topics residents hoped to see addressed weren’t, or they were watered down.

“Your resolution doesn’t mention apartheid, or the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people,” she said. “Your resolution doesn’t mention anything prior to October 7, erasing Palestinian history of 75 years of struggle against the settler colonial project of Zionism.”

She said the city’s resolution didn’t mention the current forced displacement of 90% of Gaza, nor the racial segregation and violence against Palestinians.

“Your resolution implies that Palestinian prisoners are criminals when most of them are minors and incarcerated for bogus charges, or held without trial, while also implying that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is innocent, all the while massacring tens of thousands of Palestinians,” Leach said.

She said people will continue to show up at council meetings to call for an end to the occupation and other actions.

Cindy Corrie, the mother of Rachel Corrie, an Olympia woman who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer 20 years ago in Gaza, started the Rachel Corrie Foundation with her husband after their loss. The foundation supports grassroots efforts in pursuit of human rights and social, economic and environmental justice, something their daughter took on before she died. Her focus was on Israel and Palestine, and so is the foundation’s.

Corrie said during her travels since 2003, she’s come to find out Olympia is known around the world for its attention to the issues in Palestine. She said she hopes the resolution the city passed will be the beginning and not the final step the city takes on the matter.

Corrie said the resolution that was passed fails to reflect the lack of symmetry in the conflict. She said there’s no balance in this situation, and there’s no symmetry between the occupied and the occupier.

“Palestinians have lived for 75 years in an ongoing Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic), under 57 years of occupation,” she said.

Council member Dani Madrone said she thinks there’s legitimate criticism of the resolution the council passed, particularly around Corrie’s comments on the lack of symmetry in the war. She pointed out that the U.S. was the sole vote to veto a resolution from the United Nations calling for a humanitarian ceasefire.

After a number of council members said they were happy with the resolution and that it showed a commitment to real action, the meeting was disrupted by people in the audience. The council took a brief recess before continuing in private chambers for the rest of the meeting.