A day after Chicago became the largest city in the country to demand a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas, Gov. J.B. Pritzker criticized the wording of the symbolic resolution — and argued it will have zero impact on U.S. policy.
Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday approved the resolution — and served as the tie-breaking vote as a divided City Council voted for passage of the measure that called for an immediate cease-fire and release of hostages by Hamas.
But Pritzker on Thursday said the resolution “doesn’t really send much of a message, in my opinion, to the White House.”
The governor, who is Jewish and founded the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, said he was also disappointed with the wording.
“I don’t think that that resolution will have any actual impact on foreign policy of the United States for the hostilities taking place in the Middle East,” Pritzker told reporters at an unrelated event at the South Shore Cultural Center.
“I was disappointed that no consideration was given to the women who were raped by Hamas fighters who crossed over into Israel to kidnap people. That the deaths that were caused by those terrorists were not acknowledged.”
Pritzker said the City Council should have made sure to “include all of the perspectives.”
“They did not do that,” the governor said.
Pritzker was also asked whether Democratic dissension about a cease-fire sends a bad message to the White House with the Democratic National Convention in Chicago just six months away.
“It’s a nonbinding resolution that passed just barely,” Pritzker said, adding preparations for the convention are going “very, very well” with substantial dollar figures being raised.
Speaking during a separate question-and-answer session with reporters, Johnson defended the resolution when asked whether the city was spending too much time on the war, and not enough on city violence.
“We can do both, we have done both. We have offered up our voices to this international crisis, and we continue to make sure the critical services that the people of Chicago deserve, that they still have those services,” Johnson said.
“We’re committed to our work to address the unhoused. Everybody’s still committed to our work of bringing shootings down. It’s being done, and bringing homicides down is being done.”
The governor’s criticism of a resolution approved by the mayor was a rare public disagreement between the two Democrats — although the Sun-Times has reported on behind-the-scenes tension between the two administrations over the handling of the migrant crisis.
Pritzker has repeatedly downplayed that tension publicly, saying again on Thursday that the two are collaborating well.
“I’m always willing to stand with the mayor, and he and I — as I’ve said to many of you all along here — we get along,” Pritzker said. “I know that everybody wants to amplify, you know, when there’s some disagreement, but our staffs work together every day, and so many things are happening because of that collaboration.”
Johnson, too, denied any strain in their relationship.
“We’re not separate. The state and the county and the city, we speak every single day,” Johnson said.
President Joe Biden continues to face pressure about his backing of Israel — and was met Thursday outside a campaign event in Warren, Michigan, by protesters who demanded he call for a cease-fire.
Thepresident on Thursday also authorized a first round of sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of violent attacks on Palestinians, a move viewed as a way to quell the anger of Arab American voters.
The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Since then, Israeli strikes have killed more than 26,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly 2 million others, according to The Associated Press.
