A Boston city councilor plans to ask her colleagues to declare support for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas War in a measure edited to tone down incendiary language that stated Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The resolution filed Monday by Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson comes amid ongoing pro-Palestinian student protests at Greater Boston colleges, and follows criticism she and several other councilors directed at a mayoral-approved police response that broke up an Emerson College encampment and led to more than 100 arrests last week.
It represents the Boston City Council’s third attempt, and the second by Fernandes Anderson — a Muslim who supports the Palestinian movement — to declare local support for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas War, which both sides are negotiating.
“All life is precious,” Fernandes Anderson states in the resolution. “Now, therefore be it that the City of Boston calls for immediate and permanent cease-fire in Israel and Palestine, an end to the bombing of Gaza, the freeing of all hostages from Hamas and the freeing of all administrative detainees held by Israel.”
The resolution is Fernandes Anderson’s second attempt at asking her colleagues to declare support for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas War, the first of which was criticized for referring to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel — which sparked war in the region — as a “massive military operation.”
While the final version is relatively neutral, an earlier draft of the latest resolution put forward by Fernandes Anderson, obtained by the Herald, features similar language to the measure she proposed last October, in terms of describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as “apartheid” and “genocide” against the Palestinian people.
“The ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip comes in the context of the 75-year displacement of Palestinians,” the initial resolution stated.
It emphasized the more than 34,000 deaths of Palestinian people due to the “indiscriminate bombing” of Israel, without mentioning the more than 1,400 Israelis killed by Hamas when the Oct. 7 “attack” that sparked the war was referenced.
She also criticized the Boston Police response against student protestors at local college campuses in an earlier draft, saying it “may have civil rights implications for residents of Boston.”
The earlier resolution further referenced BPD participation, “for many years since 2003,” in law enforcement exchange programs with the Israeli military and Israeli police, while calling for the city to “carefully investigate and fully clarify all of its ties to organizations and entities complicit in the Israeli assault on Gaza.”
The Boston and Israeli police military training appears to have stopped in 2019 or 2020, a BPD spokesperson said.
While it’s unclear whether councilors will support the final version of the resolution filed for a possible vote at Wednesday’s meeting, a City Hall source said, “The original resolution clearly contained an antisemitic message.”
“The tone and language were inaccurate, outrageous and divisive,” the source said.
Fernandes Anderson did not respond to a request for comment.
The source directed the Herald to three councilors, Liz Breadon, Julia Mejia and Benjamin Weber, who may have helped Fernandes Anderson make edits to tone down the initial language, but all three said that they were not involved with editing and for the most part, hadn’t reviewed what was filed to take a stance.
Mejia, who co-sponsored Fernandes Anderson’s first resolution in October, said she was not involved in the drafting of this week’s measure, “nor have I had a chance to review the version recently filed.”
Weber, the lone Jewish voice on the Council, sought input from Fernandes Anderson and City Councilor Ed Flynn, who support Palestine and Israel respectively, when drafting a cease-fire resolution he withdrew in February based on feedback that it may cause more “divisions.”
“I did not work with the sponsor on a revised draft, but I think the final version goes a long way toward promoting healing and acknowledging the pain Palestinian and Jewish Bostonians are feeling,” Weber said.
Flynn said the Council should instead focus its attention on issues that directly impact the city.
“We need to focus our efforts on the city budget, supporting businesses, addressing public safety and improving the quality of life for the people of Boston,” Flynn said.
