DURHAM, N.C. – The Durham City Council passed a resolution to urge the Biden Administration to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and end U. S. military aid to Israel at their Feb. 19 meeting.
The resolution was introduced by recently appointed Council woman Chelsea Cook and passed in a vote of five to two.
“I hope that this act, with the act of what I hope all of you will continue to do, will move the needle just a bit because if we only save one life, we will have saved a whole world,” Council woman Cook said leading up to the vote.
The council reached the decision at around 1 a.m. after hours of testimony from community members.
Council woman DeDreana Freeman called for the term “genocide” to be incorporated into the language of the resolution following the vote.
“It is not worth sitting through this, not calling it out, not saying it, just based on the life I’ve had to live and so many of my ancestors,” said Freeman during the meeting. “And I know that there are consequences to the actions we take and there are consequences to the actions we don’t take.”
Leonardo Williams, mayor of Durham, said that no changes to the resolution would be made at the end of the meeting.
In the weeks, and even hours prior to the vote, ceasefire supporters hosted demonstrations outside Durham City Hall.
Other neighboring cities and towns, including Raleigh and Chapel Hill, have chosen not to pursue a ceasefire resolution.
Durham is now the second city in North Carolina to call for a ceasefire.