Three San Antonio City Council members have filed a joint memo that requests a special meeting on Jan. 11 to discuss and vote on a resolution “calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and return of all hostages immediately” in Gaza and Israel.
A provision in San Antonio’s City Charter allows for special meetings to be called by no fewer than three members of the city council.
The memo, signed by District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo, and District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez, follows two and a half months of protest from community members in the streets of downtown San Antonio, at city council public comment sessions, at the entrance to Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s gated community, and at Port San Antonio.
Castillo, who announced the memo and special session on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, said the resolution was necessary.
“We’ve seen far too many civilians lose their lives and we’re seeing reports from the U.N. that more than 570,000 people in Gaza are now starving due to the actions that are occurring, we’re hearing from physicians that they’re now having to perform procedures without anesthetics, and hospitals are being bombed,” she said. “And it’s overdue that as a body we say that enough is enough.”
Today we filed a memo calling for a special meeting to discuss and take action on a resolution “calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and return of all hostages immediately.” This discussion is long overdue as we have witnessed months of devastation… 🧵 pic.twitter.com/SBJaSJ9qKY
— Councilwoman Teri Castillo (@TeriCastilloD5) December 20, 2023
The ceasefire resolution would be one of the first passed by a major U.S. city since the war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,100 people. Since then, the Israeli military operation in Gaza has killed more than 20,000 people.
Castillo said the credit for the resolution coming to the floor of city council belongs with protestors in San Antonio.
“It’s been a coalition of individuals who have taken to the streets from the San Antonio PSL, the San Antonio DSA, folks not associated with any organization, just families coming out and joining the action,” she said. “Unions such as the San Antonio Alliance and the San Antonio AFL-CIO.”
Castillo’s statement on X said San Antonio for Justice in Palestine, which has had a leading role in organizing protests in San Antonio, was one of the organizations that was “instrumental in crafting resolution language.”
SAJP’s founder Moureen Kaki said she and members of her organization were relieved the resolution was finally coming forward after two and a half months of war that has devastated Palestinian civilians.
“I feel good about it,” Kaki said. “I feel proud to be part of a city and a movement that has brought this to the table, I’m just now kind of nervous about the vote and really hoping that it pushes through.”
She said she and others personally met with Pelaez last week to earn his support for the joint memo and resolution. Castillo and McKee-Rodriguez have long been supporters.
“[Pelaez] is the representative of the highest concentration of Muslims and Arabs in the city, and I think he had realized that and realized the importance of that in terms of representing that,” Kaki said.
Pelaez said he had joined the memo setting the special meeting because the issues in Israel and Palestine affect his district, which he said has a very high proportion of Jews and Muslims compared to other San Antonio city council districts.
“In District 8, it’s a very real local issue with very concrete local consequences,” Pelaez said. “And so I am the representative of a government who has proclaimed that we are a government of compassion and equity, and I think that it is compassionate and equitable for us to speak the truth about how this is impacting people locally.”
Pelaez also said he believed the simple language of the resolution would be able to get people on board.
“You know, no parent should bury their children. And no hostages should spend a single day more in captivity,” he said. “And I don’t think you need to be Jewish or Muslim to agree with that, I think you just need to be a human being.”
Kaki said she’s dedicated to a pressure campaign to build support for the resolution among other members of the city council. She added that a ceasefire was the starting point of a conversation about the future of Israel and the Palestinian territories, not the final goal.
“SAJP is completely aware of the fact that this is an ethnic cleansing in Gaza, this is a form of genocide, and a ceasefire — no matter how late it is — a ceasefire resolution is important as the beginning of a conversation around a just Palestine for all people from the river to the sea,” she said.
It was unclear how the seven other members of the San Antonio City Council and Nirenberg will vote on the upcoming resolution. Passage will require a simple majority — six out of the ten council members and Nirenberg.
