The City Council of Chicago, Illinois, the third-largest city in the United States, passed a resolution on January 31 calling for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Since the outbreak of the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, at least 48 cities in the United States have passed similar resolutions.
According to Reuters, the Chicago City Council voted 24-23 to pass the resolution, with Mayor Brandon Johnson casting a deadlock-breaking vote.
According to Reuters statistics, so far, at least 48 U.S. cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, and San Francisco have expressed their positions in the form of resolutions, calling on Israel to stop bombing the Gaza Strip. Six other municipalities adopted broadly worded resolutions advocating peace. However, at least 20 cities have adopted resolutions condemning the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) for its attack on Israel on 7 October last year.
Such resolutions in American cities are non-binding and will not have a direct effect on the Palestinian-Israeli situation, but they are a reflection of the partisan struggle in the United States, which will affect the first election in November in the United States to a certain extent. The United States, led by Joseph Biden, a Democrat, has previously refused to call for a ceasefire, citing the grounds that "an Israeli ceasefire would fuel Hamas's momentum."
Reuters reported that an analysis of the cities that passed resolutions calling for a ceasefire found that most of them are in "blue states" where Democratic supporters are dominant, 14 cities are in "swing states" where Democrats and Republicans are evenly matched, and nine cities are in Michigan, where Arab voters are concentrated.
Last November, Detroit City Councilmember Gabriella Santiago-Romero voted in favor of the city's resolution calling for a ceasefire. She said the results reflect the frustration of young people and people of color alike with Biden and other senior Democrats.
In the last election year of 2020, 59% of Arab Americans supported Biden. This figure fell to 35 percent before the outbreak of the new Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and to 17 percent after the outbreak of the conflict.
Reuters reported that Arab Americans are seen as the "key" group of voters in the "battlefield" states of this year's U.S. elections, and the poll results reflect this group's anger over the U.S.'s support for Israel's air strikes in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is going to be a big deal for voters," said Douglas Wilson, a Democratic strategist in North Carolina, a "swing state."
Hamas raided military and civilian targets in Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year, causing significant casualties** and detaining some 240 people. Israel then declared a state of war and launched a fierce retaliation, which has caused about 270,000 people died, more than 650,000 people were injured and more than 80 percent of the population was displaced.
Since the outbreak of the new round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the United States has sent additional military forces to the Middle East, actively provided military assistance to Israel, and also obstructed the adoption of relevant draft resolutions by the UN Security Council, which has aroused criticism and criticism.
*:Xinhua.