WL City Council pressured to create ceasefire resolution

Monday night’s West Lafayette City Council meeting was far from routine.

Before the session began, the 120-person limit of the room was beyond capacity. Diverse concerned community members, some from Purdue, filled the room and stood along the back wall, many holding signs reading "West Lafayette for Ceasefire," "Free Palestine," and "Purdue Pete has Blood on his Hands.”

Addressing the crowd, council member Larry Leverenz read a statement on behalf of the mayor and city council.

“As a local governing body, we acknowledge the pain, anger, and fear that each of our citizens and visitors feel because of an armed conflict somewhere in the world,” Leverenz said. “The city of West Lafayette unequivocally condemns all anti-semitism, islamophobia, racism, and hatred.”

This statement was part of a response to a petition urging members of the council to pass a resolution demanding a ceasefire to the war in Gaza. The petition was written and collected by the Students for Justice in Palestine at Purdue, Jewish Voice for Peace-Indiana, Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter at Purdue, Younger Women’s Task Force, and Showing Up for Racial Justice Greater Lafayette.

As of Monday, the petition was signed by over 1,230 greater Lafayette members, with over 683 residents of West Lafayette, according to a press release from the five organizations.

As of Tuesday, over 100 cities across the United States have passed municipal resolutions calling for a ceasefire, notably Bloomington in Indiana, Dayton in Ohio, and Ann Arbor in Michigan.

Those in attendance had the opportunity to speak directly to the council, many of them conveying their messages emotionally.

“Several established community groups organizing meetings, protesting rallies, and networking events for many months,” said local resident Rachel Saheen. “Every time the council says this isn’t a local issue, you insult the people in this community that care so deeply about your district. A ceasefire commission is the bare minimum of what we can do as a message to the rest of the world.”

John Paul, a Purdue graduate who teaches middle school social studies, mentioned the importance of educating students on the history of Palestine.

“Do you want your children and our future generations to learn how their parents or grandparents were bystanders for a mass murder of children not much older than them,” he said.

Patrick Debonis, a Purdue graduate student, compared the council's previous support of the Paris Climate agreement in 2017 to their lack of support for the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

“Viewing genocide as not our city’s problem is ungrounded and dangerous denialism,” Debonis said.

Nathan Robinson, a Purdue student, called out businesses Caterpillar and Rolls Royce, who both operate facilities in the greater Lafayette area. Part of their business also resides in manufacturing war machines used by Israel Defense Forces, Robinson said.

“It is your duty to know what these companies are doing and how their work perpetuates violence here in the community and across the world,” Robinson said.

Local resident Steven David urged the city council to do something for the four Purdue students who are facing disciplinary action from the OSRR.

“The city council was established to fully grasp an important responsibility with the understanding that every member has a fundamental role in safeguarding our rights," David said. "We need direct communication with University administration, asserting that our city doesn’t correlate the regressions of freedoms, propagation of substitution, and/or actions of silencing students."

After an hour and a half of community speakers addressing the council, council member David Sanders, who was criticized several times from those in attendance for not paying attention, began to attempt to give the audience a statement on historical clarifications of the region. However, he was cut off when he received a mix of verbal insults from a large majority of the group as some began walking out of the meeting.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there has been no response from any of the city council members over Monday night's events.

“I would love to hear what the entire city council thinks about everyone’s statements, and I hope they have further discussion," said Terra Guarisco, one of the organizers of the petition. "We want them to make a decision and take actual concrete action over it."

Organizers said that pending a decision from West Lafayette City Council, protesters would continue to show up to council meetings.