On April 28, 2025 the Berkeley City Council finally took up the issue of Israel’s war in Gaza. After a seven-hour meeting, they voted not to call for either a ceasefire, or an end to the U.S. supply of arms for Israel’s war.
April 2025 marked a year and a half in which Israel, with the support of U.S. administrations from both major parties, has waged one of history’s heaviest bombing campaigns. Gaza is a small, densely packed territory with no escape and has had virtually no relief supplies from outside.
For those same 18 months, a parallel campaign in Berkeley shadowed the drama of violence in Gaza: a community demand for the elected council to go on record for peace. For this entire period, beginning in October 2023, community members filled city council chambers pleading for the city to live up to its anti-war legacy.. At the April 28, 2025 council meeting, which was required because of a Peace and Justice Commission referral to the council, the pent-up community demand for peace ended not with a bang but a whimper.
What’s the issue?
Israel’s attack on Gaza began after October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militant groups raided communities in Israel, killing 1,195 people and taking 215 hostages, demanding release of Palestinian prisoners. The disproportionate Israeli response followed, in which the Israelis, armed by the U.S. government, have destroyed 90% of the homes in Gaza. Their soldiers have directly killed some 50,000 Palestinians of a total population of 2.1 million, and probably over 150,000 more through famine and disease caused by the war.
The Biden administration took no effective action to stop the carnage. Trump for his part has proposed the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza by one means or another. Deportation, or forced removal of a population, is defined as a crime against humanity.
How has Berkeley responded?
Berkeley has a long history of taking a moral stand on all matters of peace and social justice, notably opposing the Vietnam War, Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many more. In fact, in 1971 the city council gave refuge to sailors on the USS Coral Sea who refused orders to return to fight in Vietnam, giving birth to the Sanctuary City status for the City, and a model for the entire country.
However, the former mayor and city council in 2023 and throughout 2024 refused to even discuss such action against the devastation of Gaza. Groups such as the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) put tremendous pressure on city leaders not to allow the issue of a ceasefire to come before the city council. All this while surrounding cities including Richmond, Oakland, San Francisco, Albany, Alameda, and Berkeley’s own Rent Stabilization Board have gone on record calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, along with over a hundred more across the state and the country.
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Under Berkeley city law, there is a way to get a resolution onto the city council’s agenda even if the council does not want to discuss it. This is the main real power that advisory city commissions have.
So, the Peace and Justice Commission, which is mandated to advise the council and the school board on all matters of peace and social justice, worked for months to propose a resolution, which it approved on September 30. See the Berkeley Speaks article in our October 2024 issue, “Israel’s Assault on Gaza and the Search for Peace.” You can read the resolution here.
Earlier proposals for resolutions were mainly confined to calling for a ceasefire. In September, the commission decided that was no longer enough.
Israeli leaders and their supporters in the U.S. state that a prerequisite for an end to their reign of destruction is that they first destroy their enemy, whatever the cost in civilian Palestinian lives. In the Biblical phrase, one could say, “They cry peace, peace, but there is no peace.”
The commission specified that the ceasefire must be immediate, it must be permanent, and it must result in self-determination for Palestinians.
The commission also decided it was time to insist on a ban on U.S. arms for Israel. Even without U.S. soldiers in the fight, the massive transfer of armaments makes our country a full partner in this war. The assault on Gaza could not continue without military, financial, and moral support from our government.
Why is this an issue for Berkeley?
Although a ceasefire was negotiated and began on January 19 of this year, Israel was emboldened by Trump’s inauguration to start up the military attacks again and to renew its blockade of crucial aid. The UN Secretary General stated April 8 that the blockade has “opened the floodgates of horror,” that “more than an entire month has passed without a drop of aid into Gaza. No food. No fuel. No medicine.” The UN also said that in just the first week after Israel broke the ceasefire, “more than a thousand children were reported killed or injured in Gaza.”
Opponents of the ceasefire resolution claim that Berkeley has no business “getting involved with foreign policy.” The Peace and Justice Commission included in its resolution a full explanation of why, in fact, the city council must speak out against the U.S. fueling this war against the people of Gaza. To summarize, the resolution stated:
* Berkeley has a unique history as a Peace City and a Human Rights City.
* Trump is using economic, diplomatic, and military means to enforce his vision of the U.S. empire. The threat to the survival of Palestine risks regional or even global war.
* Our moral fiber demands that, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “In a situation of injustice and oppression, there can be no neutrality.”
* U.S. military conflict abroad “wounds cities such as ours, both morally and financially.” As Dr. King said long ago, “The bombs we drop in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.”
The outcome, and the road beyond
While a commission can place a resolution on the city council’s agenda, it cannot compel the council to discuss its version. So, on April 28, council never did consider the Peace and Justice version. Instead, Mayor Ishii proposed an alternate version calling for an “immediate, sustained and mutual end to the war between Israel and Hamas,” and for the U.S. government to ensure that American support for Israel complies with international humanitarian law. This motion failed, getting four votes out of nine–one short of a majority.
The council then passed a much weaker resolution offered by Council Member Taplin, which takes no position on war and peace, the ongoing destruction in Gaza, or the critical role the U.S. pays in arming and funding the Israeli assault. Its focus is grieving and empathizing for the loss of life, valuing all of its community members, and condemning hate locally and nationally. Cecilia Lunappara voted no; her dissenting statement can be read here. Council Member Ben Bartlett abstained
This is where it stands. A majority of the council refuses to call for an end to the war, because “international issues are not in our purview.” Human rights advocates are beginning to consider what other course they can pursue to demonstrate how Berkeley upholds its historic commitment to peace with justice.
