The Somerville City Council is expected to take up the question of whether to support companies that do business with Israel on Tuesday, following the approval of a nonbinding ballot question this month.
In the Nov. 4 municipal election, 55% of voters cast a ballot in favor of calling on the city government to stop doing business with any companies with ties to Israel over the country’s occupation of Palestine. Though the ballot measure, known as Question 3, was nonbinding, City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr. has since filed a resolution to officially enact it, which is expected to be put to a vote at the council’s Tuesday night meeting.
Leila Skinner, an organizer with the group Somerville for Palestine, which petitioned to put the question on the ballot, said the resolution was a logical next step after the city was one of the first in the state to call for a ceasefire in Gaza in early 2024.
“From that day ... our Palestinian leaders and the leaders of Somerville for Palestine have been committed for our city to take tangible action so that our tax dollars are not funding Israel’s violence against Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank,” Skinner said.
“Now, months later, tens of thousands of conversations about Palestine with our neighbors in Somerville later, and then 11,489 votes later, it’s clear that the people of Somerville do not support funding Israel’s apartheid and want our tax dollars instead invested in ethical companies that, again, uphold our values.”
Resolution would stop city funds from engaging in business that sustains Israel
Burnley’s resolution would instruct the council to draft and pass an ordinance within a year that would stop city funds from being invested in or going to contracts with companies that “engage in business that sustains Israel’s apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine,” according to the language of the ballot question.
Burnley originally filed the resolution ahead of the City Council’s Nov. 13 meeting, but it was tabled until the following meeting due to a technicality of the Open Meeting Law.
The council did, however, issue a citation honoring Somerville for Palestine for its efforts during the Nov. 13 meeting, with organizer Mia Haddad speaking to councilors about the impacts of the war in Gaza on her family and friends.
“Their steadfastness is a testament to our true Somerville values of caring deeply for others,” she said of her fellow advocates. “The people of Somerville for Palestine understand that the struggle for Palestinian liberation is an interconnected struggle that reverbs across all oppressed communities.”
Not all residents have been in favor of the measure. In October, the group Somerville United Against Discrimination submitted a legal objection to the ballot measure, claiming that it was illegal and discriminatory, and campaigned against passing it.
After the Nov. 4 election, the group released a statement saying the support the ballot question received — almost 11,500 votes, compared to a total population of over 82,000 — was not representative of the entire community.
“That is clearly not the mandate supporters of Question 3 have claimed, and proves that most Somerville residents do not want to demonize Israel, hurt their neighbors, and divide our community,” they wrote, adding that the Jewish community in Somerville has seen increased antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7, 202,3, Hamas attacks in Israel.
“Ballot questions such as this contribute to this climate by normalizing harmful rhetoric and hate; they do a disservice to justice,” they said.
Skinner and fellow Somerville for Palestine organizer Neda Mustafa said Tuesday’s City Council vote would be a test of how councilors respond to their constituents’ values. Skinner pointed out that the city previously passed an ordinance in 2020 banning any city funds going toward goods or services that make use of prison labor, setting a precedent for the new resolution.
“They should all be voting yes, because what this resolution is really asking is if you will listen to the votes of your constituents and what they want done with our taxpaying dollars,” Mustafa said. “We, of course, have the experience of being disappointed by our counselors in the past, so we’re hoping that they will rise up to the occasion of democratic values.”
The Somerville City Council meets at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Somerville for Palestine has planned a 5 p.m. rally outside of City Hall preceding the meeting.
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