Tell New Orleans City Council to Pass a Ceasefire Resolution NOW!

At the beginning of this year, as Israel continued escalating its genocide against that Palestinians of Gaza and settler and military violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the US Campaign for Palestinians Rights (USPCR) and the National Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign called for local city councils to pass a ceasefire resolution. In mid-February, local New Orleans community members and organizers wrote a Ceasefire Resolution and began informing the community of this effort, collecting signatures in support of resolution, and contacting New Orleans City Councilmembers.

Now, more than 120 cities in the U.S. have already passed a Ceasefire Resolution at the City Council level, but our council members continue to drag their feet because they think Palestine is not a local issue. In doing so, they ignore the thousands of New Orleanians who have been calling for a permanent ceasefire in support of Palestinians abroad as well as Palestinian community members here in New Orleans. And our numbers are only growing! The New Orleans City Council needs to know just how many of their constituents support Palestine and a permanent ceasefire. We must demand that they represent the views of the New Orleans community and pass a resolution that firmly declares that New Orleans supports Palestine and calls for a permanent ceasefire.

It is incomprehensible that the New Orleans City Council fails to see the connection between Palestine and New Orleans, especially in the wake of the killing of Tawfic Abdeljabbar and the kidnapping of Samaher Esmail. Tawfic Abdeljabbar, a 17-year-old U.S. citizen born and raised for 16 years in Gretna, LA, was  killed by Israeli gunfire in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank on January 19, 2024. Tawfic and his family had returned to the occupied Palestinian West Bank for his last year of high school to spend his last year before college with family in Palestine, in their homeland. He was killed by Israeli gunfire while driving. Not even a month later, Samaher Esmail -- also a U.S. citizen and Gretna, LA resident -- was kidnapped and detained by the Israeli Defense Forces in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank from February 5, 2024, to February 29, 2024. She was held without access to her medication despite her history of illness. Now, she has been charged with "incitement" for social media posts and awaits trial in Israeli military court, which is a legal system for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank separate from the civilian courts set up for Israelis. This military court has a staggering 95% conviction rate.

The most recent repercussion of New Orleans City Council's failure to recognize that Palestine is a local issue occured around 3:10am on Wednesday, May 1, 2024 when Tulane University Police, New Orleans Police Department, and Louisiana State Police violently disbanded the Gaza solidarity student encampment established by the Tulane and Loyola University chapters of the Students for a Democratic Society. It is the silence of so many powerful people and institutions, especially the New Orleans City Council, that created the environment for 14 students and community members to be attacked and arrested by armored-vehicle-driving, riot-gear-wearing, sniper-wielding paramilitary forces. It is the silence of cities and institutions across this country that has created a society in which universities are so quick to summon paramilitary troops to enact violence against their students and community members, and dare to justify this tactic as a way of ensuring community and student “safety”. By refusing to pass a Ceasefire Resolution, New Orleans City council continues to embolden powerful institutions like Tulane and Loyola to meet peaceful protests with violence.

This form will send an email directly to your councilmember to let them know that you and so many of their other New Orleanians demand that Samaher Esmail's safety and freedom be ensured by the U.S. government, that they express their deepest condolences for Tawfic Abdeljabbar, that they publicly support peaceful student protests, that they condemn Tulane and Loyola administrations for punishing students and attacking them with state police, and that they support Palestine and an immediate and permanent Ceasefire in Gaza.

Tell New Orleans City Council that they cannot wait out the clock on the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza as we watch Israel continue to commit massacre upon massacre and starve Gazans with impunity. Tell New Orleans City Council to pass a Ceasefire Resolution NOW.