Tucson city council backs off resolution vote on Israel-Hamas war

After months of pressure, the Tucson City Council on Tuesday appeared briefly to be ready to consider a resolution backing the call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Tuesday’s discussion was first requested by council member Lane Santa Cruz, who represents Tucson’s west side, who said in her March 19 memo said she took notice of recent meetings featuring more-and-more residents calling for a ‘ceasefire resolution.’

The effort did not last long. A motion to not schedule the item for a vote passed 5-to-1 Tuesday afternoon. That knocked it off the agenda for a vote at an upcoming-council meeting later this month.

The city of South Tucson passed its resolution in March, the only municipality in the state to do so.

Santa Cruz was not the first Tucson official to speak on the matter, however. During the Dec. 12 council meeting, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero encouraged community members to go to their state representatives to “ask for a humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of hostages, and the ensuring of access to humanitarian aid in Gaza,” she said. “And tell them that your mayor supports you.”

State Rep. Alma Hernandez called on fellow members of Tucson’s Jewish community to join her in protest at Tuesday’s meeting, in two posts to her X account on Monday.

“I urge the Jewish community, Rabbis, holocaust survivors, and pro-Israel advocates to join me. We can’t continue to allow the blatant antisemitism to be spewed at these meetings and not show that we are strong & united as a community,” Hernandez said in a post Monday.

Hernandez called Tucson police in December after she was targeted by pro-Palestine activists who shared her home address in fliers that were circulated throughout her neighborhood.

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In March, Hernandez was escorted out of the Fox Theatre by Tucson police after Arizona List’s 20th annual celebration event, “due to the Pro-Palestinian groups explicitly targeting me,” she said in a post to X. That same month, the state lawmaker led a group of her colleagues on a trip to Israel, which gained criticism from some as it was not seen as a ‘top priority.’

“I, like many other Jews in my city, feel unsafe & unsettled with everything that is happening. Not only have I been subjected to threats and doxxing by the same groups who show up every week to spew more hate, but my sense of security at home has been broken since Oct 7th,” Hernandez said in a post. “For too long, people have remained silent, but we cannot continue to go along to get along.”

The Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas-led terrorists launched a land, sea and air assault on Israel from the Gaza strip. The attack killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and injured over 6,000, while over 200 civilians were taken hostage.

On Oct. 8, Israel declared itself in a state of war for the first time in 50 years. Over 100 hostages held in the Gaza Strip have been released since, the Washington Post reports.

Founded in 1987 as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas is “an Islamist political and social movement originating in Egypt,” according to NBC News.

Hamas is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States Department of State. The United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada have followed suit, among other countries.

“Shortly after Hamas won elections in the Gaza Strip in 2006, a power struggle ensued between Fatah and Hamas, which resulted in Hamas fighters’ ousting all Fatah politicians from the Gaza by force,” NBC reported. “Since then, no elections have been held, and Hamas maintains political control of the area.”

Since October, “The Palestinian death toll from the war has passed 33,200, with nearly 76,000 wounded, Gaza’s Health Ministry said,” the Associated Press reported on Monday. The AP says that the ministry “doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.”