Portsmouth, Durham councils weigh Israel-Hamas cease-fire resolutions urged by residents

PORTSMOUTH — Leaders in Portsmouth and Durham are expected to consider separate but similar resolutions calling for a cease-fire in the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Portsmouth City Councilors Josh Denton and Kate Cook say they are bringing their resolution to the council on Monday after hearing from a group of residents urging them to support their push for a cease-fire.

Many of the Portsmouth residents who spoke at a recent meeting are originally from the Middle East, they told city councilors.

In Durham, Town Administrator Todd Selig drafted a resolution for the Town Council to consider this Monday night. Councilors asked him to do so after they too heard from area residents in support of a cease-fire.

Hamas terrorists attacked Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, according to an Associated Press report. Many were sexually assaulted and about 250 people were taken hostage with 130 remaining captive and about 25 percent of them believed to be dead, according to the AP report.

Israel's attacks in Gaza have killed more than 29,000 Palestinians since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, the AP has reported citing numbers reported by the region's Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures.

Denton says the resolution he and Cook drafted “takes a very balanced approach” to a complex issue.

End to fighting, return of aid urged in resolutions

“The crux of it is calling on the president and congressional delegation to demand an immediate cease-fire, the release of all the hostages, and the resumption of meaningful humanitarian aid in Gaza,” Denton said.

During the City Council’s last meeting, several speakers criticized the actions of Israel, including one resident who said Israel “has been waging a sadistic genocide against the Palestinian people for the explicitly stated purpose of ethnically cleansing the land.”

Denton, who is Jewish and a veteran of the U.S. Army who served in Iraq, said he “can’t speak to whether Israel has committed genocide.”

“Their response has been disproportional. On more than one occasion they have dropped 2,000-pound bunker busters on refugee camps,” Denton said this week. “Tensions have been high in the region for decades.”

In terms of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, Denton said “the people in Israel, they had severe trauma done to them on Oct. 7.”

“It was an atrocity,” he added.

“Since the founding of modern-day Israel, there’s been lots of strong feelings and lots of unfortunately warfare in the region,” Denton said. “I took a strong interest in it, ever since the Iraq War.”

Portsmouth mayor reserves judgment, asks why Hamas was not criticized by residents who spoke

Reached earlier this week, Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern said he had not seen the resolution proposed by Denton and Cook.

“I’ll reserve judgment until I do, but a resolution would have to be something the council is unified about and unifying,” he said. “That’s a pretty high bar.”

He called the ongoing situation in Gaza “horrific” and added, “I don’t know if we are going to be the ones figuring it out.”

He called the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 “pretty dramatic and brazen.”

“What I didn’t hear were any calls against Hamas,” he said about the comments made by people calling for a cease-fire. “It’s difficult to listen to public comment and not have them decried once.”

The conflict’s profound impact

This coming Monday, like in Portsmouth, the Durham Town Council is expected to consider a cease-fire resolution.

It reads in part “as principles in line with our community's values, the Town of Durham asks the President of the United States and members of the United States Congress to immediately pursue the safe release of all hostages, the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, and a durable bilateral ceasefire among the parties to the Israel-Gaza Conflict.”

The proposed resolution states the town “acknowledges the profound impact of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict on not only our Palestinian American and Israeli American residents but also on our Muslim, Jewish, and other community members who feel a connection to the region.”

During an interview this week, Selig acknowledged that “the council and the town doesn’t typically weigh in on international and national issues.”

“In many respects, it’s beyond what we can impact,” Selig added.

But in response to public comment at a recent Town Council meeting that sought their support of a cease-fire resolution, the council indicated “they wanted to provide a statement,” he said.

Selig drafted the proposed resolution at the council’s direction with the knowledge that “the conflict in Gaza and Israel may be affecting residents of Durham.”

“There may be people in Durham who have family and friends there and others who simply have acquaintances there,” Selig said. “As a community in Durham, we are continually working to be a welcoming community.”

Selig calls for working together

Selig, who is Jewish and visited Israel in December 2019, acknowledged the conflict between Israel and Hamas is a “very challenging situation.”

“The situation in Israel and Gaza is very complicated and it dates back decades,” Selig said. “The council’s focus is on a cease-fire and humanitarian aid.”

Back in January 2020, Selig in an interview stated that Hamas was “building tunnels underneath the wall” that separates Palestine-controlled Gaza from Israel.

The tunnels, he said at the time, “are large enough to drive trucks through to run terror raids into Israel.”

Hamas used tunnels to access Israel during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

Asked if he considers himself a supporter of Israel, Selig replied, “I consider myself to be an American. I observe what’s going on there as a concerned American."

He described the people who spoke to the Town Council recently as “thoughtful, articulate and very passionate about the need for a cease-fire.

“I am Jewish … but what I took away from their comments is it’s incredibly complicated,” Selig said. “I don’t know what the answer is, I wish I did. People are dying, people feel imperiled on both sides."

When drafting the cease-fire resolution, Selig was “attempting to approach it from a very neutral and impartial point of view.”

He stressed that it’s important for people in the United States “to be thoughtful and empathetic toward one another.”

“Individuals have strong feelings on both sides. We need to be able to work together, to talk things out.”

A safe space in Portsmouth is front of mind

Portsmouth City Councilor Kate Cook said she doesn’t “feel like we’re really getting involved in the merits of foreign policy” when asked about the cease-fire resolution. The goal really is to think about our residents and community here in Portsmouth."

The council is providing a “safe space in Portsmouth so they can feel like they can heal from the trauma,” Cook said about residents on both sides who are concerned with the fighting in the Middle East. “I feel like that is the role of the City Council.”

The Portsmouth resolution states in part that the city "encourages open and respectful dialogue within our community, promoting an atmosphere of peace, empathy, and mutual respect, while recognizing the varied and deeply personal connections many residents have to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and Israel."

Cook worked as a U.S. diplomat for the United Nations from 2002 to 2005.

“I know how delicate this issue is, I know how delicate these matters are,” Cook said.

She acknowledged “how little we know about what’s actually going on” from the outside looking in. “I know that people in our community have family members that are directly impacted, and we really need to be mindful of that."

Asked if the city has a responsibility to support Israel, Cook said, “I don’t think that’s the City Council’s role to venture into foreign policy. It’s our role to support our community members. We are not going to create (Middle East) peace through a resolution in Portsmouth.”

She hopes people on both sides of the issue will be able to “listen to each other and have these very difficult discussions about what’s going on in the world, without prejudging our local neighbors.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth, Durham councils weigh Israel-Hamas cease-fire resolutions