(Update, 1:30 p.m., Jan. 4): This story has been updated to include the views of President of the Al Huda Islamic Center Mahmud Burton.
TOMPKINS COUNTY, N.Y.—Dozens of people turned out Tuesday night to ask the Tompkins County Legislature to draft and adopt a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. As of Tuesday night, Gazan health officials report more than 22,000 people have died in the region since the conflict began on Oct. 7.
Community members called on legislators to adopt a resolution similar to one passed by a county-wide advisory group in December.
The Tompkins County Human Rights Commission’s (HRC) resolution calls for an “immediate and sustainable ceasefire, release of all hostages, unrestricted entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, the restoration of food, water, electricity, and medical supplies to Gaza; and the respect for international human rights law.”
Two dozen people weighed in on the HRC ceasefire resolution during the public comment period, with all but one in support. Roughly 50 members of the public were present in the audience, nearly all of whom appeared to be in support of a potential resolution.
Human Rights Commission chairwoman Peyi Soyinka-Airewele said she and other commissioners had been in discussion from nearly the start of the conflict on whether or not to weigh in on the matter — and if so, how.
“We’re not the federal Human Rights Commission. We’re not an international human rights commission. We’re Tompkins County,” Soyinka-Airewele said. “Our responsibilities only have to do with Tompkins County.”
Soyinka-Airewele said she and other commission members took note of the way that the war had begun to affect the human rights of Tompkins County residents — like with rising incidence of antisemitism and Islamophobia — and ultimately agreed it was important to act.
“Members of our community live in a globalized world, where their relatives, their businesses, their relationships are very much intertwined with the rest of the world, where their identities, religious and otherwise, are tied up with what’s happening [in Gaza],” Soyinka-Airewele said. “So these are the issues that affect our community, but also the rest of the world.”
Cornell professor Eric Cheyfitz said he felt it was important for even local legislative bodies to take a stand. Cheyfitz identified himself as Jewish and said his daughter and three grandchildren live in Israel and consider themselves anti-Zionist.
“I don’t understand who would not be for a ceasefire in the face of over 22,000 Palestinians — mostly non-combatants and over 7,000 children — dead,” Cheyfitz said. “And for what reason?”
A few other municipalities across the U.S. — like Long Beach, C.A. and Oakland, C.A. — have in recent weeks passed similar resolutions calling for a ceasefire.
Several legislators, including Travis Brooks, Veronica Pillar, Anne Koreman and Greg Mezey said they would work with the authors of the HRC resolution to draft a similar document ahead of the legislature’s next meeting.
Other legislators, like Mike Sigler, Rich John and Deborah Dawson also expressed uncertainty and concern about the implications of calling for a ceasefire.
Sigler, who launched a bid to represent the 52nd State Senate district as a Republican, said that he felt that the resolution as drafted by the Human Rights Commission was one-sided.
“Perhaps if there was more support for Israel immediately after October 7, it might not feel so one-sided,” Sigler said. “But the Human Rights Commission and other agencies … failed to show their support [for Israel]. And because of that lack of empathy, this resolution in my opinion has several fatal flaws.”
Among other things, Sigler took issue with the fact that the resolution does not call for “the removal of Hamas” and felt the HRC resolution did not offer strong enough condemnation of Hamas’ actions and did not reflect the views of his constituents.
“I’ve spoken with the Jewish community at Cornell. I spoke at a rally of theirs, and I celebrated Hanukkah at Cornell. I’ve met with the members of the Muslim community in Lansing, where we have the only mosque in Tompkins County, I’ve broken bread with them a number of times at that mosque,” Sigler said. “This is clearly not the response [they] are looking for.”
Mahmud Burton, president of Al Huda Islamic Center and mosque in Lansing, said he had spoken with Sigler during a county legislature meeting in October. Burton said there was “nothing in the conversation that we had, at that point in time, that would support [Sigler’s] feeling about the position of most Muslims.”
“There’s probably, I would say, very close to a unanimity about [a ceasefire in Gaza] in [Tompkins County’s Muslim] community,” Burton said. “I don’t think there’s any member of our community who would oppose the ceasefire and efforts to promote that.”
Sigler also questioned rhetoric from some public commenters, like one speaker who said she felt Hamas were more akin to freedom fighters than terrorists. Once Sigler concluded his remarks, a member of the public shouted “shame” at him.
In October, the legislature briefly considered a resolution to display the Israeli flag in the legislative chambers in condemnation of Hamas’ initial attack on Oct. 7. Legislator Greg Mezey, the primary author, chose to withdraw the resolution. Sigler, who contributed language to the document, tried unsuccessfully to add it back onto the agenda.
Dawson reiterated that she felt taking a stance on the matter was not the place of the Tompkins County Legislature and would have a minimal impact outside of Tompkins County.
“I guarantee Bibi Netanyahu is not going to listen to any of us. He doesn’t listen to his own government, he doesn’t listen to the U.N., he doesn’t listen to any mitigating factors the Biden administration has tried to express,” Dawson said. “He’s certainly not going to be swayed by the Tompkins County Legislature.”
Dawson also said she did not feel comfortable taking a moral stance on the war in the region, which she said she felt had been shaped by a long, complicated history.
“If [the U.S. stopped sending military aid to Israel], every Arab nation in the Middle East will annihilate Israel, where nine million people live,” Dawson said. “And isn’t that genocide too?”
Mezey acknowledged Dawson and others’ concerns, but said he felt that it was important to condemn the killing of innocent people in any historical context.
“[The war in Gaza] is a complex issue,” Mezey said. “But I don’t think what we’re being asked to do is all that complex.”
The full Tompkins County Legislature meets again next on Jan. 16, though it’s not yet clear if legislators will be able to draft or introduce a ceasefire resolution ahead of that meeting.