“The Dayton City Commission has long opposed all forms of hate, including both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, and affirms its support for the Israeli and Palestinian people, and all people around the world, to live in peace and security,” the document reads.
Leadership of several other American cities, including Akron, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, and others, have passed similar resolutions.
Several people spoke in favor of the resolution at the City Commission meeting Wednesday.
Stanley Hirtle of Dayton noted that the violence in the Middle East has seeped into the American psyche, with “anxiety, anger, apocalyptic thinking, and willingness to use violence on our neighbors on the rise here.”
“A violent war makes things worse for everyone, and the war in Gaza has made things here worse,” Hirtle said. “Jewish and Muslim students at colleges and universities as well as elsewhere in America are feeling this, political leaders here are using the situation to their advantage, and they are not the political leaders who will make things better for Americans.”
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel that resulted in 1,200 Israeli deaths, an estimated 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting during Israel’s counterattack, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, though the Israeli government has publicly disputed those numbers.
“The world was slow in responding to the genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia, Armenia, Nazi Germany, and among native Americans. The world was slow in responding to apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow. We can not repeat those mistakes,” Commissioner Shenise Turner-Sloss wrote on Twitter earlier this week.
“As a person, as a pastor, as a Christian, violence anywhere breaks my heart,” said Commissioner Darryl Fairchild. “I think it’s important we take a step to speak our desires for peace, knowing that it is going to be insufficient, that unfortunately we don’t have that power to bring that peace, but hopefully our light will be added with others.”
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