Chicago became the largest city in the nation to demand a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas, thanks to a symbolic resolution approved by a divided City Council Wednesday at a raucous meeting that forced Mayor Brandon Johnson to cast the tie-breaking vote.
Johnson helped deliver the 24 to 23 vote by personally lobbying fence-sitting alderpersons on behalf of the resolution, breaking the tie after a 23 to 23 deadlock after asking two allies — Stephanie Coleman (16th) and Vice-Mayor Walter Burnett (27th) — to “take a walk” if they couldn’t vote in favor of the resolution.
Had Coleman and Burnett voted against the resolution, it might have failed. Burnett refused to comment, and Coleman could not be reached. Two other Johnson allies did not attend.
The meeting was so discordant, Johnson was also forced to clear the Council chambers, resulting in a delay of about an hour.
At first, Johnson had admonished the jeering crowd to “demonstrate some restraint.” If they didn’t, he warned, he’d clear the chambers as he was forced to do last fall, when a divided Council approved a resolution condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war.
“Take a deep breath, you all. Just relax for a second … I’ve asked you all to respect those who are speaking so that we can hear their full testimony. If you disagree, demonstrate some restraint … I hear things that I agree with and I hear things that I don’t agree with. All I’m asking you to do is just show some humanity,” Johnson said.
“I do not want to have to clear this chamber. If you want to participate in this democratic process, I would ask for you to allow those who are speaking to finish their presentation.”
The crowd ignored Johnson’s warning, shouting down Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th) when she rose to oppose a resolution she viewed as lopsided. Silverstein stopped, saying she would not be forced into shouting over the demonstrators.
Johnson urged her to continue.
But as Silverstein spoke about the Oct. 7 attack, a man in the audience yelled “Wadea was murdered because of your lies.” The man then left, to applause and high-fives.
He was referring to Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy who was stabbed to death in Plainfield a week after the Hamas attack, allegedly by the landlord of the home where he lived with his mom. Authorities said the landlord’s wife told them he regularly listened to conservative talk radio and became worried his tenants’ “Palestinian friends” would “come and harm” him before he allegedly murdered the boy.
As chants of “Cease-fire now!” continued, the mayor ordered a recess and asked the sergeant-at-arms to clear the chambers.
Protesters were moved to the hallway, then initially required to return to the lobby to be re-screened to enter the glass-shielded third-floor observation gallery.
In the lobby, the chants continued: “Silverstein you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.”
When the recess ended at about 12:45 p.m., Silverstein began her emotional address from the beginning so she could deliver it uninterrupted.
She argued the final version “is not a compromise,” doesn’t mention the “kidnapping, abuse, depravation and rape” Hamas committed during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, or demand “the unconditional release of all of the innocent hostages.”
“We all want peace in the Middle East. We all want an end to the bloodshed and an end to the war. But it is vital to understand what caused the conflict and we should pass a resolution that addresses the issue responsibly,” she said. “We should not pass a resolution unless it makes clear that Hamas cannot and should not attack again.”
At the end, she admonished Johnson for lobbying behind the scenes for what she called the “one-sided, lopsided resolution” and expressed her “disappointment and frustration” with how the administration handled the vote.
“I don’t understand why there was so much personal political capital put behind this when 28 alders asked for collaboration and there was absolutely no collaboration from the other side. We had and we continue to have opportunity to craft a resolution that could have gained unanimous support and, instead, we once again have a deeply divided Council,” Silverstein said.
Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st), co-sponsor of the resolution, had opened the debate before the recess, thanking lead sponsor Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd) for her “compassion, courage and consistent leadership.”
“We condemn the violence that happened on Oct. 7 against the Israeli people. Unspeakable, horrifying violence … Equally, I condemn the violence that has been visited on the people of Gaza. I deeply and truly cannot imagine it,” La Spata said.
“There is so much violence that has been visited and this cease-fire is the path out of that violence … Do I believe that the words that we speak today — how we vote today — influences directly international policy? I don’t ... But we vote with hope. We vote with solidarity. We vote to help people feel heard in a world of silence.”
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), with a keffiyeh around his neck, also spoke in favor, calling the resolution “not controversial.”
“We all want peace, but how can we want peace and be against a cease-fire? ... I’m really proud of this administration for having a democratic dialogue, which it’s going to take to address historic conflicts that did not start on Oct. 7th. To get to that, we need a cease-fire. We need diplomacy, and we need a government that works for us and not for other interests.”
Rodriguez Sanchez, Human Relations committee chair, closed the debate by saying “sorry to the people who feel like they were not heard or didn’t agree with the process.” She said she and La Spata did their best “to make sure that people knew where the process was at, what was in the resolution and ask for feedback repeatedly.”
“I have learned a lot in this process, and I am very committed to doing better,” she said.
Rodriguez Sanchez noted the Chicago area has the biggest population of Palestinians in the U.S., and that Chicago has the fifth-largest Jewish population in the world.
“As the minutes pass, more and more people are being killed and displaced. We, as elected officials, have the power to save lives by uplifting a demand that is now shared by many and to be on the right side of history,” she said.
A letter from the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and a walkout by Chicago Public School students demanding a cease-fire intensified the political pressure on Council members, many of whom receive “thousands” of emails on the subject. Some alderpersons, including the Northwest Side’s Samantha Nugent (39th), had shouting pro-Palestinian protesters show up in force at their ward offices.
Jackson, retired founder of Operation PUSH, attended Wednesday’s meeting and entered to a standing ovation.
The resolution approved Wednesday declares, in part: “We, the Chicago City Council, do hereby call for a permanent ceasefire to end the ongoing violence in Gaza; call for humanitarian assistance including medicine food and water to be sent into the impacted region and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
It further calls for “creation of plans to protect civilian populations in the region in particular to support the needs of women, children persons with disabilities and the elderly” and demands that “suitable copies of this resolution be sent to President Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris and the Illinois Congressional delegation.”
References to UN Resolution 377 were stricken from the final version. Under that resolution, adopted in 1950, the UN General Assembly voted for a cease-fire in Gaza in December after the United States had blocked a similar measure in the Security Council.
Despite that deletion, the resolution remained wholly unacceptable to Jewish leaders and Silverstein, the City Council’s lone Jewish member.
Wednesday’s drama marks the second time in eight months Johnson has been forced to cast the tie-breaking vote in a deadlocked City Council. The first time, it was to save his now-former floor leader and deposed Zoning Chair Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) from censure for bullying and intimidating his fellow alderpersons.
How they voted:
Yes: Joining co-sponsors Rodriguez Sanchez and La Spata were Lamont Robinson (4th); Desmon Yance (5th); William Hall (6th); Nicole Lee (11th); Julia Ramirez (12th); Jeylu Gutierrez (14th); David Moore (17th); Jeanette Taylor (20th); Ronnie Mosley (21st); Mike Rodriguez (22nd); Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th); Jesse Fuentes (26th); Chris Taliaferro (29th); Ruth Cruz (30th); Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th); Andre Vasquez (40th); Jim Gardiner (45th); Angela Clay (46th): Matt Martin (47th); Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th); and Maria Hadden (49th).
No: Besides Silverstein, voting against the resolution were Brian Hopkins (2nd); Greg Mitchell (7th); Michelle Harris (8th); Anthony Beale (9th); Peter Chico (10th); Marty Quinn (13th); Ray Lopez (15th); Derrick Curtis (18th); Matt O’Shea (19th); Silvana Tabares (23rd); Monique Scott (24th); Jason Ervin (28th); Felix Cardona Jr. (31st); Scott Waguespack (32nd); Bill Conway (34th); Gilbert Villegas (36th); Nick Sposato (38th); Samantha Nugent (39th); Anthony Napolitano (41st); Brendan Reilly (42nd); Timmy Knudsen (43rd); and Bennett Lawson (44th).
Not voting: Burnett, Coleman, Pat Dowell (3rd) and Emma Mitts (37th).
