Updated at 9:51 p.m.
At least five Vermont towns have passed non-binding resolutions supporting a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Although the measures are advisory and force no formal action, they are meant to signal support for the Palestinian cause, according to a memo from the Vermont Peace/Antiwar Coalition, an activist group that waged a grassroots campaign in favor of the resolutions.
“This is a chance for Palestinian justice issues to be heard,” Thetford resident Duncan Nichols, a leader in the coalition, wrote to supporters last month. “We feel it is important to bring it to the public in this way.”
The coalition urged Vermont voters to make such resolutions during the “other business” portions of their communities’ Town Meeting Day floor meetings.
In Thetford on Saturday, Nichols made the motion calling for a cease-fire and an end to U.S. arms sales to Israel, according to the Valley News. It passed overwhelmingly following debate about whether the international issue was appropriate for the local forum.
Voters in Richmond, Marshfield and Newfane approved similar measures, according to Vermont Public and the Brattleboro Reformer, as did voters in Dummerston, according to Town Clerk Laurie Frechette.
In Newfane, where the measure made it on to the warning, voters added language urging “both sides in the conflict to acknowledge the pain and trauma they have inflicted on the other,” according to the Reformer.
Following passionate debate in December, the Burlington City Council rejected a cease-fire resolution in a 6-6 vote.
Political pressure for a cease-fire has mounted as nearly five months have passed since Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel prompted the latter to invade Gaza. Some 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage in the attack on Oct. 7. More than 30,000 Gazans have been killed in Israel’s ground invasion, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and the majority of Gazan residents have been displaced.
