The City of Santa Monica became the latest major entity in the Los Angeles area to call for a ceasefire in the current war between Israel and Hamas after the city council passed a resolution at a meeting on Tuesday.

Public reception to the resolution was passionate and people’s terms were absolute — just as most discourse around the topic has been. A total of 133 speakers gave public comments on the topic late into Tuesday night, many of whom supported the ceasefire and a similar amount denouncing it.

Language in the resolution acknowledges both the horrors of the attack by Hamas on October 7, where 240 Israeli citizens were taken hostage, and since then tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed during the conflict. It calls for a ceasefire only under the condition that the 132 remaining Israeli hostages be released and the control Hamas has over the Palestinian state be relinquished. 

Councilmembers Jessie Zwick, Caroline Torosis, and Gleam Davis made a joint request to adopt a resolution declaring a ceasefire, joining other Southern California cities like Pasadena, Long Beach, and Santa Ana in officially renouncing the bloodshed in Gaza.

Zwick said that the motion was drafted with recommendations from local experts in the fields of Holocaust remembrance and genocide studies and that it was not meant to be a means to minimize the horror of the October 7 attack that sparked the most recent stretch of violence.

“[They] were an attempt to craft a series of statements so obvious in their factual basis and universal in their values that they might bridge a terrible divide in our community,” Zwick said of the statements in the resolution.

“Obviously, that hasn’t quite succeeded.”

He acknowledged that bridging such a divide may be impossible in such a deeply rooted conflict and that the voice of one California city was not going to make a tangible difference in the war. 

Yet Zwick felt it was necessary to acknowledge.

“At the end of the day,” Zwick said, “I am just a father who doesn’t want any more kids to die in this conflict.”

Davis also emphasized that the resolution was not an attempt to take a side. She said she understood that there were people who spoke in public comment more knowledgeable about the region and the Jewish fight for its sovereign state. Still, she believed this resolution was more about humanity than any one conflict.

“I hope that people can see through the emotions and understand that our goal as a community and our goal as human beings is peace,” Davis said. “Calling for peace is not only our duty, it’s our obligation.”

Torosis said that she received correspondence for months from residents to take some sort of action while many other city leaders — including the City of Los Angeles — remained and continue to remain silent on the issue. She denounced the rise in both Anti-Semitic and Anti-Arab sentiments in the community but emphasized the resolution conditions for the end of the conflict of the hostages.

“We deeply mourn both the Israeli and Palestinian lives lost from this conflict,” Torosis said, “And we do hope for a safe return of all the hostages.” 

After councilmembers made their thoughts on the resolution heard, Mayor Phil Brock proposed a second resolution be added to the motion that covered many of the points that both public commenters and councilmembers spoke of as important throughout the meeting. The second resolution — which was accepted by the three councilmembers who initially proposed the ceasefire resolution — does the following:

• Acknowledges that emotions on the conflict are stirring Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Santa Monica.
• Emphasizes that tolerance of all faiths and beliefs is integral to life within Santa Monica and that all faiths and beliefs are welcome without prejudgment or fear of physical or verbal abuse.
• States that the safety and security of Santa Monica is the responsibility of the city council and that tolerance is a necessary aspect in promoting them.
• Urges Santa Monica residents to treat each other respectfully and not judge others based on external factors.

Brock said that this motion came from his desire to stamp out the divisiveness he sees brewing in Santa Monica, which was sparked even further by some of the comments made in the council chambers that night.

“By no means do I want to cause more dissension in this community,” Brock said, “But what I heard tonight sometimes was, unfortunately, intolerance.”

The motion to pass both resolutions passed with one no vote from councilmember Christine Parra, who said that she was concerned with the division that the discussion itself brought to Santa Monica.

“We’ve had just as many emails in opposition as we had in support,” Parra said. “I am trying to be sensitive to what our community members’ concerns were.”

Photo by Yuliia Bukovska on iStockphoto.com