Hamden Town Council hears four hours of testimony on ceasefire resolution Residents in support of the resolution urged the council to stand up for global human rights, while opponents condemned the “divisive” resolution’s invocation of the Holocaust. No vote was held on the resolution. Words by Ariela Lopez and Yurii Stasiuk. Photos by Yurii Stasiuk.
HAMDEN – Hundreds gathered at the Hamden Town Hall on Tuesday evening for a four-hour public hearing on a proposed Gaza ceasefire resolution.
The resolution, drafted by councilmember and Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America member Abdul Osmanu, calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, affirms the town’s commitment to combating anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia and asks for the town to make sure that its investments and bonds do not support war, directly or indirectly.
At the meeting, nearly 100 residents of Hamden and surrounding towns testified to support or oppose the resolution in person and on the council’s Zoom broadcast. At 12:21 a.m. on Wednesday, Council President Dominique Baez ’12 called for a recess, and the Council left without voting.
“Have no clue when the vote will happen but there will in all likelihood be some sort of conversation, maybe within the purview of council or outside of it before the vote and I’m hoping for that to be as public and transparent as possible,” Osmanu wrote to the News after the hearing.
Pro-Palestine activists across the U.S. have moved to pressure local governments to call for a ceasefire in Gaza following Israel’s military retaliation to Hamas’s surprise attack on Oct. 7. Already, around 70 cities have passed similar resolutions. In November, a similar resolution was introduced to New Haven’s Board of Alders but has not yet been moved to committee.
On Tuesday, hundreds filled all the seats on the ground level and half of the seats on the balcony of the chamber to join a public hearing on the resolution. Many wore keffiyehs or kippahs and held up Palestinian and Israeli flags. Signs supporting or opposing the resolution flanked the room’s walls, chairs and balcony.
Pro-resolution supporters were led by Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America — or CT DSA — and Jewish Voices for Peace, both of which were involved in organizing a protest before the meeting and called on residents to testify. Throughout most of the meeting, two CT DSA members stood behind Osmanu with the organization’s flag. Many attendees wore shirts saying “Jews for ceasefire.”
The supporters emphasized the war’s casualties — Israel has killed over 29,000 people in Gaza so far — with several showing pictures to the Council or sharing their own families’ stories. They encouraged the councilmembers to send a message to federal and state officials by passing a resolution in support of saving lives.
“I urge you to do the right thing,” Tom Fortuna, who testified in support of the resolution, said. “Half of you can vote for it because you believe in it, and half of you can vote for it because you don't think it's going to do anything anyway.”
Organizations including the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven and Yale Forum for Jewish Faculty and Friends called those who opposed the resolution to testify and shared an online petition against it, which has been signed by more than 800 people as of Wednesday evening. Many opponents of the resolution wore blue ribbons on Tuesday, and carried signs saying “Nothing about us without us” and “Don’t divide Hamden.”
Anti-resolution activists called out the fact that the resolution does not once mention Hamas. Several also took issue with the resolution’s invocation of the memory of the Holocaust.
The resolution asks that the town “takes seriously the entreaty of ‘Never Again,’ and that the historical memory of the Holocaust means fighting ethnic cleansing and apartheid everywhere.”
Many of the speakers opposing the resolution mentioned their personal generational ties to the Holocaust. Endre Sarkany, a New Haven resident who survived the Holocaust, testified early in the meeting.
“This is totally misrepresenting what the Holocaust was all about,” Sarkany said. “Never again just happened again,” he said, referring to the Oct. 7 attacks, in which Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel and took around 250 people as hostages.
Many who spoke in opposition to the resolution also said that foreign policy issues are not the jurisdiction of local councils, whose members were elected not to be voices in international affairs but to “govern Hamden,” as one member of the public said.
Not all who testified in the chamber were Hamden residents. Some said they worked in Hamden or had lived there in the past, and others came from New Haven and other neighboring cities for the hearing.
A roughly equal number of people spoke for and against the proposed resolution. After most testimonies, some in the crowd loudly cheered and clapped. Occasionally, both pro- and anti-resolution groups booed the opposing side.
The meeting’s public input section closed at 12:22 a.m. By that time, most members of the public had left the chamber.
After Baez called a recess, Osmanu addressed the room to clarify “misconceptions” about his process of drafting the resolution. He said that constituents had called him for months about the issue and that he had listened to them and workshopped the resolution with several “folks from the community.”
Osmanu wrote to the News that he hopes Tuesday’s hearings will further meaningful dialogue between members of the community.
The meeting was held at 2372 Whitney Ave.
Contact Ariela Lopez at ariela.lopez@yale.edu and Yurii Stasiuk at yurii.stasiuk@yale.edu.