(FOX40.COM) — The office of Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced on Thursday afternoon that he will bring a resolution to the March 19 City Council meeting that calls for a ceasefire to the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The mayor’s office said that the resolution was created after discussions with Muslim and Jewish community leaders and that it is different from resolutions introduced in other local governments. The full resolution that Steinberg will present can be read here.
There has been constant fighting in the Gaza Strip since Hamas fighters stormed across the border into Israel on Oct. 7 and attacked multiple communities, leaving hundreds of people dead and taking many hostages. Some of the hostages were freed in a negotiated pause in the fighting last year.
In the months since, the Israeli military has conducted operations against Hamas, leading to the deaths of more than 30,000 people in Gaza and the brewing of a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Protests for and against military action have been organized across the world, including in Sacramento, and many local governments have approved resolutions that call for the fighting to end and mediation to begin, although these declarations at the municipal level are largely symbolic.
Steinberg’s office said that the resolution he will present will be different from others because it “recognizes both the importance of a safe and secure Israel and of an independent Palestinian state.”
The resolution also condemns Hamas’s actions on October 7, calls for the release of all hostages, the delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, and condemns the rise in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.
“The resolution contains language important to all sides,” reads part of a statement from Steinberg. “It also includes some provisions that each side would write differently if they wrote it themselves. That is the nature of principled compromise. We may not be able to create peace in the Middle East, but we can model what we want to see throughout the world here in our own city.”
According to the mayor’s office, the resolution has backing from leaders of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and members of the Jewish and inter-faith community in the capital city region.
Sergio Robles
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