After more than six hours of public comment during Monday’s city council meeting, the business part of the meeting convened at 9 a.m. Tuesday. After an hour working through the city manager’s agenda and a handful of other policy orders, councillors finally were able to publicly comment on a pair of policy orders filed by Councillor Ayah Al-Zubi calling for the city to divest its financial positions with companies contracted by the Israeli military.
Discussion was brief. The measures, one to divest the city’s pension funds from a list of companies flagged by Palestine advocates and the other to cancel city contracts with companies on that same list, were introduced by Al-Zubi and co-sponsor Councillor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler. But they did not receive a vote because charter rights, the council’s method of delaying vote, were invoked by Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem and Councillor Patty Nolan.
Azeem justified his action because there were a number of agenda items to address and less than an hour before the chamber had to be cleared to prepare for an 11:30 a.m. Health and Environment Committee meeting.
“I thought that [more] discussion would be helpful since we were time limited,” Azeem said. He said he was supportive of “many proposed elements of the initial order,” although he has been wary of the council delving into matters of foreign policy, and doesn’t want to single out Israel.
What councillors said
Al-Zubi addressed criticism that the council shouldn’t involve itself in matters of foreign policy.
“Where our workers’ retirement money goes is our business, and where we invest our money … should speak to our residents’ values,” Al-Zubi said. She also pointed to other council initiatives like those aimed at greenhouse gas mitigation as another example of the city acting with a global mindset.
She also said the policy order named Israel because of the level of harm she said it was perpetuating, and because of its special relationship to the United States. “I’m not making [Israel] look bad. I’m speaking the truth,” she said. “The United States has put sanctions on countries like China, Syria, Iran, and Russia, but gives blank checks to Israel.”
Sobrinho-Wheeler likened the policy order to another order that was passed in 1980, calling for the city to divest from South African companies during apartheid.
Azeem disagreed that calling out Israel directly was necessary. He began his comments saying that he found yesterday’s public comment period, in which multiple Jewish people from the area expressed their increasing concern about celebrating their faith openly “deeply moving” and that it contained “very concrete examples of antisemitism in our city.” But he also noted the exceptional role Israel plays in U.S. foreign policy, quoting at length passages from an article written by Andrew Miller, who worked for President Joe Biden’s State Department on Israeli-Palestinian affairs.
But, Azeem countered, he didn’t think Israel’s unique role in U.S. foreign policy warranted a call-out in this particular policy order.
“I believe that Israelis should be able to live in peace. And Israelis will also be the first to say that they have a complicated neighborhood,” Azeem said. “I think the question I struggle with is that if it is so complicated, why should we be involved?”
In expressing his charter right, Azeem said he wanted to revisit the policy order in a special meeting when they had more time to work on the language.
Al-Zubi then proposed her second policy order related to government contracts, which would require language to be advanced to the ordinance committee. Nolan invoked her charter right, also citing concerns about singling out Israel. “I can support divestment. Not this language,” Nolan said.
Delaying the votes caused some consternation from a few dozen people in attendance, many of whom spoke in favor of the measures the previous night. One person yelled an expletive, another said “you are all complicit in genocide,” and as they left the building a number of them chanted “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”.
Palestine advocates: “We will be back”
People lingered in front of City Hall after the delays. Some members of Cambridge for Palestine, a group instrumental in getting the orders added to council’s agenda, said they were frustrated at the delay and the potential excising of language referencing Israel.
“We need to specifically name the harm that is being done, like we did with South Africa,” said Ellie Hood, a member of Cambridge for Palestine. “That is a line I am not willing to cross.”
Cambridge for Palestine member Luke Acton vowed to return to any additional meetings held on the matter. “We will be back, and we will be doing whatever we can … in the meantime, to get [these policy orders] passed,” he said.
An argument arose when a man who spoke against the divestment measures the previous night was confronted about taking pictures on Tuesday of pro-Palestine advocates. One of them began filming him. Cambridge police were nearby, but the heated exchange dissipated after a few minutes.
The man spoke briefly with Cambridge Day, but declined to identify himself. In addition to carrying a camera with a telephoto lens, he wore a body camera, which he said was for his protection. He said he took photos to create “objective documentation” of who attended meetings. He also said he posted photos of protesters “all over” the internet, though he insisted “The idea is not to intimidate anyone.”
Late policy order for new meeting
Before adjourning, Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui filed a late policy order to hold a special meeting to address the two divestment policy orders sometime during the week of Oct. 26. The meeting will not include a public comment period, citing the public’s “ample opportunity to comment on these matters on October 19, and still has the opportunity to submit written communication.”
The order was co-sponsored by Sobrinho-Wheeler and Councillor E. Denise Simmons. Al-Zubi was the lone vote against it.
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