The Jersey City Council meeting saw more public speakers demand they approved a resolution urging Congress to call for a ceasefire at last night’s meeting.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
During public comment, Edward Perkins was one of several who criticized them for not endorsing an unconditional ceasefire in the war.
“This body under the leadership of President [Joyce] Watterman hasn’t been able to do that. It’s more than a shame. There’s responsibility left here for this body too, irregardless of our mayor’s ethnicity. Irregardless,” Perkins declared.
“You are underserving of widespread support if you cannot take this time to lead.”
While some neighboring municipalities in North Hudson such as Union City (who was first), North Bergen, and Weehawken have approve ceasefire resolutions, the Jersey City Council withdrew a resolution in November before it subsequently failed in December.
Their counterparts in Hoboken have also vowed not to vote on such a piece of legislation.
Meera Jaffrey, of the group Ceasefire JC, said more than 1,000 people signed a ceasefire letter asking for humanitarian aid and a hostage exchange, exclaiming that the current situation in Gaza is a genocide and even Gov. Phil Murphy has asked for a ceasefire.
“Children are being starved to death. There is no middle ground. You have allowed Zionist rhetoric to shame you,” Imran Akhardov declared.
“Every day we don’t pass a ceasefire resolution we lose. It is a city issue. It is a humanitarian issue,” added Maryam Sayed.
Additionally, Donna Ristorucci said that while it is indeed an international issue, it is also a local issue since federal tax dollars have been spent on supporting Israel.
“Some of those billions of dollars could be spent at home,” Ristorucci noted.
“It gives time for peace. The people in Palestine and Israel who want peace need our support. You need to add your voice,” Andrew Velwest said.
North Jersey Democratic Socialists of America leader Isaac Jimenez was for a ceasefire, too.
“It’s been a long road for a lot of people in this room … We want to divest from this apartheid. We’re met with crickets.”
“Resistance is justified. Free Palestine until the day I die,” Morgan Fields stated.
Jim Legge insisted that campaign donations were unjustly coloring this conversation.
“The magic words are money, money, money. A good number of you … took campaign contributions from Mayor Fulop. We see it as a bribe. The elephant in the room, of course, is AIPAC (American Israeli Public Action Committee),” he asserted.
“They have got $100 million to bribe American politicians. They’ve been failing. This is not the United States of Israel. Most Americans want a ceasefire.”
“There are only 15 million Jews in the world. That is less than in 1939 before the Holocaust. Israel is the size of New Jersey. It’s population is about 33 times less than the United States. On October 7th, it started with a massacre of the Jewish people. But Israel is accused of disproportionate military response,” Maria Blum began.
“Imagine one you wake up and hear that more than 100,000 rockets were fired at your country. More than 35,000 Americans were killed in one day. This is what happened in Israel in proportionate,” she added. “You hear a lot of misinformation here. The hostages are still there. There are 135 people. What would you do if 3,000 Americans were in tunnels, including babies?”
Once public comment concluded, the council took no formal action since a ceasefire resolution was not on the agenda.
