News AnaIysis: Is This the End of Peace and Justice in Berkeley?
Half a year has passed since the Berkeley City Council passed a toothless statement of grief at the loss of life, but no call for an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza. (See https://berkeleyspeaks.org/end-of-the-road-for-berkeleys-peace-in-gaza-resolution/ in Berkeley Speaks’ Spring 2025 edition).
A lot has happened in Palestine and in the global debate about this war since then. But, since we are a social justice paper about Berkeley, we will focus this article on the impact of the struggle for Gaza on our city, and then come back to the international context.
Berkeley walked a challenging road for a year and a half from October 7, 2023. Peace advocates pressured the council relentlessly to denounce the war and demand an end to U.S. arms flowing to Israel. Israel supporters countered that Berkeley should stay out of international issues, condemning even a call for a ceasefire. In the end, in April 2025, the latter “no comment” position persuaded the council.
In the process, the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission came under attack from the council that created it and appoints most of its members. Between September 2024 and January 2025, two commissioners were removed and replaced with pro-Israel appointees.
“No More Action on National Issues”
In 2025, the new, more conservative commission majority pulled back from controversial issues. Some members argued that the City of Berkeley should refrain from commenting, not only on international issues, but even on national issues, under the theory that the City lacks jurisdiction to affect such issues.
In June the commission considered advising the city council to oppose the Trump administration’s use of the 1798 Enemy Aliens Act to deport hundreds of immigrants to prison in El Salvador. But the commission voted against the resolution, citing the concern about involving the council in national issues, and the risk of angering the national administration.
Longtime supporters of the Peace and Justice Commission expressed dismay at what they considered abandonment of the commission’s core purpose, to “advise the city council and the school board on all matters of peace and social justice.” The commission was created in 1986 as a moral voice against South African apartheid, U.S. wars in Central America, and nuclear weapons.
Some outside of Berkeley have ridiculed the city for “having its own foreign policy.” But for forty years city leaders have taken the commission’s advice on issues such as opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ending the U.S embargo of Cuba, even for the impeachment of George W. Bush.
Yet for many years the commission has been confronted with a “Palestine Exception.” It is effectively barred from taking action to address that one contentious issue. On three or four occasions in the last 20 years, whenever there is an indication that Peace and Justice may criticize Israeli treatment of Palestinians, city council members step in and appoint enough commissioners to block even the most benign of actions on the topic. Once again, seemingly to punish the commission for its ceasefire resolution, Council members have removed the commission’s longest-serving members.
With the Israel-Gaza war, the tension is heightened. Polls show the opinions of the U.S. public shifting to consider Israel’s actions against Palestinians excessive, by margin of 60%. For the first time, a majority nationally support some type of military sanctions on Israel, or putting conditions on aid to ensure it not be used against Palestinians. Political leaders including some members of Congress and state Democratic conventions have called for a suspension of military aid and U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state. Even among Jews in the U.S., 60% believe Israel has committed war crimes against Palestinians and 40% believe it is guilty of committing genocide, as concluded by a UN Commission of Inquiry.
This is a critical hour for our country. Trump’s authoritarian regime denies the concepts of human rights, separation of powers, international cooperation, due process, and common human decency. Just at this moment, and only in order to protect the Israeli military assault from criticism, Berkeley has paralyzed its moral voice. The powerful founding statement of the Peace and Justice Commission, “It is the responsibility of one and all to labor hard for peace and justice within forums of appropriate scale,” is being discarded.
Members of the commission, its supporters in the community, and its two appointing bodies will need to find ways to pursue that honorable labor.
A Rumor of Peace
This fall has brought a new stage in the desperate struggle for Gaza. The ceasefire, though shaky, has allowed Palestinians some relief and the ability to dream of a return to normal life. But this step is far from achieving what Peace and Justice called for in September 2024:
- Immediate and Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza
- End to U.S. Military Aid to Israel
- Support for Palestinian Self-Determination
Here is a summary of the challenges facing the “Gaza Peace Plan.”
1. Return of hostages and prisoners: All living hostages held in Gaza were quickly released, along with all but four deceased hostages, as of November 10.
2. As of October 29, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and 200 bodies. According to PBS, “Many of the dead show what Palestinian officials and relatives say are signs of torture and abuse.” Estimates from human rights organizations are that some 9,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli custody, including more than 3,500 in administrative detention without charge or trial. Arrests and killings (at least 240) of Palestinians continue under the ceasefire.
3. Israel has been very slow to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The agreement required entry of 600 trucks per day, yet they have only allowed a daily average of 145. As of November 4, only two border crossings are open for aid, neither of them in the north. The director of the World Health Organization said on October 23 that “The hunger crisis in Gaza remains “catastrophic,” and that “there is no dent in hunger because there is not enough food.”
4. Under the “peace plan,” Gaza will continue under foreign occupation, including the Israel military. It is expected to have little say over redevelopment, and Palestine as a whole has no guarantee of self-determination or statehood. Trump himself plans to be the leader of Gaza’s interim governing body, the “Board of Peace.”
Berkeley Speaks leaves the reader with two concluding thoughts.
- It is now undeniable that at any time since October 2023, the U.S. president could have ended Israel’s assault on Gaza. As the saying goes, “who pays the piper calls the tune,” or as Trump put it, “I will decide what happens” with respect to Israel and Palestine. All either president had to do was make clear to the Israeli government that they would lose U.S. support if they did not follow his directions.
This shows that the movement was right to push for the City to press for an arms embargo on Israel. If Biden or Trump had done so, at any point since 2023, it could have quickly ended the war, saving tens or hundreds of thousands of lives.
- Far too often, a campaign for peace and justice will score a partial victory. The campaigners will celebrate and move on. A good example of this came with the end of the military draft in 1971. For many young people, what impelled them to fight against the Vietnam War was the danger of being drafted to fight. When President Johnson “Vietnamized” the war, he did not end it; hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese died after the end of the draft, with much less resistance from this country.
The lesson here to the peace with justice movement is, do not lose focus on Palestine. Of the three goals from the Peace and Justice Commission resolution, only a fragile ceasefire has been accomplished. The killing, and the deaths from famine, disease, destruction of the medical system, and lack of housing continues. This movement has achieved momentum that long felt out of reach. Let’s maintain this solidarity
On Ethical Investing
The struggle continues. The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) voted unanimously on September 17, 2025 to urge CalSTRS (California State Teachers’ Retirement System) to update its investment polices to exclude companies involved with “severe human rights violations, violations of international law, such as slavery and prison labor, war crimes including genocide and ethnic cleansing, illegal military occupation, racial segregation, or apartheid.”
But in a long-awaited decision, on October 6 the Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a similar investing policy written by County Treasurer Hank Levy, but to immediately suspend it for further consideration. Sort of saying yes but meaning no.
Read an account of this decision in the San Francisco Standard, “Alameda County boldly votes to take a moral stance sometime in the future.” Berkeley’s (District 5) representative on the Board, Nikki Fortunato-Bas, voted against this motion.
