Some town meetings in Massachusetts weigh in on Israel-Hamas war with articles supporting ceasefire

Wellfleet Town Meeting recently passed a resolution calling for a “lasting ceasefire.” The document will be delivered to federal legislators.

As towns across Massachusetts hold their town meetings, topics like budgets and zoning laws are sometimes being overshadowed by a complex, controversial international issue: the Israel-Hamas war.

Wellfleet Town Meeting passed an article calling for an end to the war and opposing the unconditional sale of U.S. weapons to Israel this week. Earlier this month, town meeting members in Arlington voted “no action” on a similar resolution.

Some proponents of the articles said making the voices of residents heard — even in a small setting — is important, while others warned against being divisive.

“It’s important that all communities, when given the opportunity, express themselves on matters of importance,” said Michael DeVasto, a Wellfleet resident and member of the Select Board.

Wellfleet the latest Massachusetts community to call for ceasefire

Wellfleet Town Meeting was May 20. DeVasto advocated for the resolution calling for a “lasting ceasefire” to pass but said his opinions do not represent those of the Select Board.

“The fact of the matter is that the war on Gaza is killing innocent civilians, families, and children,” DeVasto said in a statement to Boston.com. “Yes, Hamas attacked Israel in a horrific way and that cannot be minimized.

“However, according to UNICEF, over 13,000 children have been killed in the war on Gaza. These children are not Hamas, they are children. Every American that pays federal taxes is funding this, and in that respect we are all complicit in these deaths.”

Discussing a complicated international situation in a town as small as Wellfleet, which has a year-round population of about 3,500, may seem random or ineffective. But the authors of the resolution — six year-round residents who are part of Wellfleet for Palestine — said Wellfleet’s stance can have reverberating impacts.

“Any foreign war in which our country is involved has a local impact,” a FAQ about the resolution reads. “The ceasefire resolution declares that our town does not want to be complicit in the indiscriminate killing, destruction, and starvation in Gaza.”

The meeting included some tense confrontations about the resolution’s phrasing, especially language pertaining to hostages and “political prisoners.” One resident asked whether the article’s call for the release of all hostages would include the release of Hamas fighters being held by Israel.

One resident said the town meeting “is not the place for an international issue” and encouraged people to pursue advocacy in places where they may have a more direct impact.

But, another said the town of Wellfleet has a long history of weighing in on political and social matters. In the wake of post-9/11 measures like the Patriot Act, in 2003, Wellfleet voted on a resolution to “reaffirm its commitment to protect and preserve Constitutional and civil rights … which may be threatened by various acts and orders enacted at the Federal level.”

Arlington Town Meeting votes “no action” on ceasefire resolution

In Arlington, which has a population of about 46,000, Town Meeting voted 122 to 88 to take “no action” on an article calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages. It read in part that “taxes paid by Arlington residents are contributing to the ongoing violence and humanitarian suffering of Palestinian civilians.”

Sarah McKinnon, one of the authors of the resolution, anticipated concerns about whether the meeting was the appropriate place to vote on the issue when introducing the document.

“Where is that best and most appropriate place? If it doesn’t exist then perhaps we need to consider this moving forward, but for tonight’s town meeting, a body who consistently votes on aspirational resolutions and has for hundreds of years, is the best and most appropriate and only place we have left,” McKinnon said at the meeting.

Later on, resident Nora Mann, along with three others, introduced a motion to vote “no action” on the article, saying this would prioritize “the health of the town” by not alienating citizens.

“I stand here in support of a substitute motion of no action because I believe that being forced to take an up or down vote imposes a false binary and will exacerbate the existing pain and division in our town without having an appreciable effect on the lives of children and families in Israel and Palestine,” Mann said at the meeting.

Ceasefire resolutions taking the spotlight in towns, cities across Massachusetts

Earlier this month, the Boston City Council approved a resolution calling for a ceasefire resolutions, following city councils in places like Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, Amherst and Northampton that have done the same.

Brookline Town Meeting will weigh a ceasefire resolution on May 28. If passed, the article would declare that the town “mourns for the thousands of people killed” in the war and “opposes unconditional military aid to Israel.”

“The impact of one town passing a non-binding resolution is very minimal, but when hundreds across the Commonwealth or thousands across the nation do, it may impact the decisions of legislators on whether they vote to continue funding it,” DeVasto said. “In this respect, all politics are local.”