Spokane City Council approves compromise resolution on Israel-Palestine conflict

The Spokane City Council has now voiced its support for Palestinian civilians under siege in Gaza in addition to the Israeli victims of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, after a 5-1 vote by the local legislative body.

Council member Jonathan Bingle was the sole vote in opposition.

Monday’s action follows months of protest over an Oct. 9 resolution sponsored by Bingle that passed unanimously and condemned the terrorist attack days prior that killed an estimated 1,200 people in Israel. The resolution also affirmed the right of Israel to “exist and defend itself,” and expressed support for local residents of both Jewish and Palestinian heritage. Activists argued it was one-sided in support of Israel.

The Palestinian death toll from the Israeli military actions that followed in the months since has surpassed 25,000, the Gaza Health Ministry reported Sunday.

Monday’s resolution called for steps to be taken toward an “immediate and sustained peace in Israel and Palestine,” and called for a return of hostages and the safe return of those displaced or detained during the conflict.

Council member Zack Zappone and Council President Betsy Wilkerson, who sponsored Monday’s resolution, have been joined in recent months by Bingle to hold conversations with community organizations, including Muslims for Community Action and Support, Spokane Community Against Racism, the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane and others in order to draft the new compromise legislation.

Most who spoke to the resolution, many of whom have attended and frequently spoken at nearly every City Council meeting since Oct. 9, supported it and praised the collaborative work to draft the legislation.

Azalyn Croft, a Muslim woman who has repeatedly criticized the Oct. 9 resolution, said Monday she’s made lasting friendships with Jewish members of the community through the community conversations that led to Monday’s compromise language. Though she said there were parts of the resolution she didn’t agree with, she supported the outcome.

“I continue to pray for the Jewish hostages to be returned home safely to their families,” she said. “I pray for the safety and prosperity of every Jewish person in the world, just as I pray for Palestinians to live safely in their homes.”

Some were more pointed in their criticism.

Scott Ward, a high school social studies teacher who has frequently spoken against the Oct. 9 resolution, said the new language still incorrectly framed the international conflict.

“This document continues to frame the Palestinians as violent aggressors and the Israelis as simply responding to a violent attack,” Ward said, though he added he would support the resolution.

Some were disappointed by the lack of a clear call for a ceasefire.

Council member Paul Dillon was previously the only council person to call for an outright cease-fire, though council member Kitty Klitzke said she supported the same Monday night. In a Jan. 8 letter to U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Dillon urged them to support a cease-fire and a return of hostages in Israel and Palestine.

While Dillon said last week he was disappointed Monday’s resolution stops short of calling for a cease-fire and that the City Council as a whole hasn’t joined in his call for such an action, he said at the time he would still vote in support.

Several members of the public were outraged that any compromise occurred, however. A woman who only gave her name as Juliet who said she was the daughter of a Holocaust survivor believed the City Council had negotiated with “modern day Holocaust deniers” and claimed that pro-Palestinian activists were associated with neo-Nazis. Earlier in the evening the council voted to allow people to testify at council meetings anonymously, though the council last year stopped enforcing its rule requiring people to identify themselves before offering public testimony.

“Do you think that after months of disruption, harassment and bullying by these groups, that giving them part of what they want will make them go away so you can get back to city business?” she said.

Bingle said last week that he disagreed with some of the language, but thanked Zappone for his work to find a middle ground “where we’re not going to call Israel a racist, genocidal apartheid government.”

At the time, he said he was leaning to voting in favor of the resolution.

But Bingle said Monday that the evening’s testimony by activists had swayed him to vote against the resolution. In a testy exchange with some pro-Palestinian audience members, Bingle equated their testimony to calling for the expulsion of Jewish people from Israel.

“I’m so disappointed by the people who came to speak with us tonight because I think it undoes a lot of the work that was trying to be accomplished,” Bingle said. “I’m incredibly proud of the Oct. 7 resolution and stand by every word.”