Update 1/31: On Jan. 31 Chicago City Council passed the #CeasfireNOW in Gaza Resolution making Chicago the largest city in the U.S. to do so.

One week after Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago called for a ceasefire in Gaza, the City Council will vote on a resolution supporting his statements. 

“The killing has to stop,” Johnson said. “So yes, we need a ceasefire.” 

The resolution vote comes after weeks of protests and outreach by pro-Palestinian groups in Chicago. They have been trying to raise awareness of the devastating violence Israel has unleashed against civilians in Gaza following the Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7. Chicago is now the first major city whose mayor has called for a ceasefire. Pro-Palestinian groups and activists say they hope Johnson’s stance will help sway the City Council vote and that both can encourage Democratic politicians to put more pressure on Israel to halt its military campaign. 

Most Democratic politicians, including President Joe Biden, have refused to demand that Israel cease its bombings in Gaza, despite the fact that those attacks have killed more than 26,000 people, including almost 10,000 children. Biden has used emergency authority to go around Congress and authorize sales to Israel of almost  $150 million in weapons materials.

Activists have been working to change Democratic positions since the war on Gaza began, according to Nick Sous, a Palestinian American and a Chicago chapter of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) member since 2014. USPCN advocates for Palestinian rights, including the right to return of Palestinian refugees. But over the last months, they have been focused on obtaining a ceasefire. 

“We have held a protest every weekend with the Coalition for Justice in Palestine,” Sous told Prism.

Sous added that activists have been trying to put pressure on Democratic representatives and politicians. 

“We’ve been going to congresspeople’s offices and demanding that they put pressure on the Biden administration to call for an end to what is happening,” he said. 

In October, USPCN staged a peaceful sit-in at the office of Skokie, Illinois, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, demanding she sign Rep. Cori Bush’s ceasefire resolution in the House of Representatives. Seven protesters were arrested. 

USPCN has also protested at the office of Rep. Sean Casten in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Casten’s district has one of the highest concentrations of Arab and Muslim voters in the country, but he has not called for a ceasefire and “has been ignoring Palestinians and ducking and dodging just like any terrible congressperson would be doing, unfortunately,” Sous said. 

In January, protesters shut down DuSable Lake Shore Drive near the home of Sen. Dick Durbin. Durbin called for a ceasefire in early November, but his stance has vacillated. For example, he voted against investigating Israel’s human rights abuses as a first step to restricting military aid.

Protesters for Palestinian rights have been criticized for blocking traffic and engaging in other disruptive tactics. Sous said, though, that at USPCN “we haven’t targeted somebody who we did not already have a conversation with.” It’s only after USPCN has failed to move politicians through dialogue that they have moved to protest. “We’re beyond the point of speaking,” Sous said. “We’re going to be making them feel uncomfortable as they continue to back genocides.”

Johnson’s support for the ceasefire resolution indicates that USPCN’s tactics have been at least somewhat successful. A key factor, Sous said, has been the organization’s alliance with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), which focuses on police accountability. CAARPR has been strongly supportive of a ceasefire in Palestine. The unity of Black and brown organizations on the issue has helped lobby Chicago City Council and local officials like Johnson.

The outcome of that resolution is still uncertain. It was authored by Alderpersons Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez and Daniel La Spata and advanced by the City Council’s Health Committee. The vote was supposed to be held last week but was delayed by a request from Alderperson Debra Silverstein, the only Jewish member of the City Council. She argued that it would be inappropriate to hold a vote on the resolution on the same day she planned to introduce a resolution to recognize International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

As advocates, historians, and scholars have long argued, pro-Israel lobbyists and Zionists in the U.S. have weaponized Jewish history and Jewish trauma to delegitimize the recognition of Palestinian rights and suffering, conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and manufacture consent for the genocide and ongoing occupation of Palestine. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which political groups have cited as a perpetrator of coordinated attacks on Muslims, Arabs, immigrants, and communities of color, shifted its criteria this month to officially label anti-Zionist protests and events as antisemitic. That move led many of its own staffers to condemn the organization.

Sous said that framing all anti-Zionist protest as antisemitic is “a method to criminalize the movement of Palestinian liberation.” He also pointed out that Holocaust remembrance and solidarity with Gaza “are not necessarily conflicting issues.” The International Court of Justice issued a ruling on Jan. 26 saying there is a “real and imminent risk” of genocide in Gaza. It would make sense for the City Council to take a stand against all human rights abuses on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. 

Whatever the City Council decides this week, the campaign for Palestinian rights and for a ceasefire will continue. Sous noted that the Democratic National Convention is slated to take place in Chicago in August. USPCN has already started to coordinate with groups advocating for police accountability and reproductive rights to make plans for protests and demonstrations. 

“The more cities that call for an end to the bombardment of Gaza and to the genocide happening, the more that pressure is going to be felt,” Sous said. 

Johnson’s endorsement of the resolution is a small step, but the hope is that it will build momentum for further action on the local and national levels to end the current assault and create a path forward in which Palestinian rights and humanity can finally be recognized.