Mayor Justin Elicker’s State of the City address descended into chaos on Monday evening as protesters interrupted a speech touting New Haven’s growth to press the Board of Alders for a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
About 100 pro-Palestine activists filled the back of the Aldermanic Chambers to demonstrate frustration with the alders’ lack of legislative action on a proposed ceasefire resolution. The activists caused a 25-minute pause in the mayor’s speech, only allowing it to continue shortly after New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson warned that disruptors could face arrest.
The activists were affiliated with a variety of organizations and did not appear to have collectively coordinated the outburst of criticism or the ensuing chants. Their persistent disruptions prompted increasingly sharp responses from Board President Tyisha Walker-Myers.
“Let the mayor finish,” Walker-Myers yelled into her microphone from the dais. “We continue doing our business, and then I will be around at the end of the meeting to talk with anybody that would like to talk. That’s it.” A cacophony of shouts from protesters followed.
The result was a remarkable scene of bedlam in City Hall, where protesters enraged by the war in Gaza overtook a legally mandated update on local affairs — in the most intense clash yet between pro-Palestine activists and New Haven officials who have not embraced calls for a ceasefire.
Protesters assemble at City Hall
By 6:30 p.m., around 20 protesters wearing shirts saying “Jews Say Ceasefire Now” on the back and “Not in Our Name” on the front gathered at the entrance to the Aldermanic Chambers, where they sang slogans denouncing the Israeli military campaign.
Another group of protesters, wearing keffiyehs and holding signs, convened at the entrance to City Hall. The News identified some in the crowd as members of the Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America, several of whom participated in disrupting the Board of Alders meeting in January.
Since Hamas killed 1,200 people and took over 250 people as hostages during a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, Israel has retaliated with a full military invasion of Gaza, killing more than 27,000 people as of Feb. 1.
Pro-Palestine organizers submitted a ceasefire resolution to the Board of Alders on Nov. 28. The resolution calls for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages including Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel, the unrestricted entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza” and other demands.
In the past two months, a loosely defined coalition of pro-Palestine activists from Yale and New Haven organizations have worked to lobby alders with phone calls, templated emails and private meetings at City Hall. Alders have refrained from taking public stances on the resolution, deferring to Walker-Myers to set the legislative process in motion.
At the speech, the Aldermanic Chambers was unusually full, with around 100 protesters in the back. Walker-Myers had to ask protesters to make room for Elicker to enter. As the mayor walked to the podium, protesters sang chants like “Free Palestine” and “Let Gaza live” until Walker-Myers asked them to stop.
For the next 23 minutes, Elicker talked about housing, economic growth and other local issues in New Haven.
Just as the mayor was almost done speaking about an upcoming reconstruction of New Haven’s shoreline area, he was interrupted by a protester.
Elicker’s speech interrupted by protesters
“Mayor Elicker, you say you oppose violence, but can you oppose Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza? Can you support a ceasefire?” the protester yelled.
As Elicker tried to say that he was almost done with his speech and would be willing to talk after it, another protester shouted, “support a ceasefire,” and the room erupted into screaming “ceasefire now” and “shame.”
Each time the crowd died down, some individuals started loudly yelling slogans and information about the war until the crowd picked up the chanting again.
Board of Education student representative Harmony Solomon Cruz-Bustamante, a senior at Wilbur Cross High School who stood in the front line of protesters, asked the mayor how he would answer to Palestinian students in New Haven public schools.
Some seated attendees who had come to hear Elicker’s address turned to one another in astonishment. Claudine Chambers, a Democratic Town Committee co-chair from Ward 19, told the News that she thought the protesters were “very rude and out of order.”
“There’s just a point where you realize the polite manners and processes that people like Mayor Elicker and the alders — it’s just shameful,” Cruz-Bustamante said in an interview with the News after the meeting.
Walker-Myers repeatedly tried to calm protesters down, but she grew frustrated with the crowd as her words were barely heard in the room, despite her speaking into a microphone.
Eventually, she called for a break. Elicker left the podium to stand at the side of the chamber, and the alders filed out of the room.
Shortly after, most of the alders returned. After speaking with Walker-Myers, NHPD Police Chief Karl Jacobson gave three back-to-back warnings to the protesters, threatening to arrest those disrupting the meeting.
“You must allow us to resume the city business or you'll be asked to leave,” Jacobson said into a microphone. “If you want to stay and wait till after to speak to the alders you may do so, but we will clear out who is disrupting the city business.”
Most protesters left, but some activists, largely with Jewish Voices for Peace, remained in the chamber. They stayed quiet for the remainder of the meeting.
In an interview with the News, Jacobson said the police made no arrests. He said the dozen officers on duty during the meeting had succeeded in de-escalating the situation.
“That’s a victory to me,” Jacobson said. “I delayed, delayed, delayed making any response, because sometimes if you put the police into a situation at the wrong time, it makes it worse.”
Activists, officials speak following chaotic meeting
Upon adjourning the meeting, Walker-Myers and several alders remained in the chambers to speak with the protesters.
Herring and a couple of other protesters talked with Walker-Myers for half an hour. Ward 25 Alder Adam Marchand had a long conversation with five protesters and Ward 19 Alder Kimberly Edwards spoke with two Yale students.
Not all interactions were calm. Ward 26 Alder Amy Marx, who told the News she does not believe the ceasefire resolution belongs on the Board’s docket, argued intensely with an activist from her district who was calling for a ceasefire resolution.
In an impromptu press conference after the speech, Elicker said protesters had chosen an inappropriate moment to voice their anger.
“I’m not concerned about being cut off during a speech,” he told reporters gathered in his office. “I don’t think it was the most productive way to have a conversation, but I also can really understand people’s frustration.”
He said the proposed text oversimplifies a complex foreign policy issue over which the New Haven government exerts no direct control, reiterating his unwillingness to call for a ceasefire while expressing sadness about the war.
Elicker described the protests as a sign of energy in the city but cautioned that they did not represent all New Haveners’ views about the war.
“Part of what makes New Haven strong is having lively and passionate dialogue,” he said. “It wasn’t the right place tonight, but all that being said, the people were coming from a good place.”
Herring, the Jewish Voice for Peace activist, told the News that he had not been chanting with other protesters but only praying that “people can come together” amid anger and polarization.
Another Jewish Voice for Peace member, Megan Fountain, said, “120 days into a genocide, we’re called by our morals to act and to be here.” Israel disputes the claim of genocide.
Herring added that he hoped the conversations between alders and activists on Monday night had created relationships that would allow for more discussions about the resolution.
In an interview with the News, Walker-Myers reiterated her willingness to talk and move the resolution to the committee, where alders will hear formal public testimony and consider any amendments to the text, but said that she still could not provide a clear timeline. Elicker said that he expects she will do so.
The Board of Alders’ committees include the Legislation Committee, the City Services and Environmental Policy Committee and the Community Development Committee, among seven others.
Mia Cortés Castro contributed to the reporting of this article.
Contact Yurii Stasiuk at yurii.stasiuk@yale.edu, Ethan Wolin at ethan.wolin@yale.edu and Ariela Lopez at ariela.lopez@yale.edu.
Correction, Feb. 6: A previous version of this article misstated a student activist’s name. They are Harmony Solomon Cruz-Bustamante, not Dave.