There will be no formal stance on Israel and Palestine in Santa Ana’s legislative record.
A resolution calling for a ceasefire – submitted by City Councilmembers Johnathan Ryan Hernandez and Benjamin Vazquez – fell apart without enough support across the dais on Tuesday night.
The meeting’s proceedings came to a halt a handful of times as people yelled over each other.
It comes two months after Hamas launched an attack on Oct. 7 and killed over 1,000 Israelis and took hundreds hostage and then Israeli retaliatory airstrikes killed over 15,000 Palestinians and displaced 1.8 million people in Gaza.
With different council members introducing different resolutions, there wasn’t enough support to bring back one for a formal vote at a future meeting.
Councilmember Thai Viet Phan – often the deciding vote between an otherwise stalemated city council split between two factions – didn’t agree with the language of Hernandez’s and Vazquez’s statement.
Phan instead introduced a more neutral one that doesn’t call for a ‘ceasefire’ alongside Councilmember Jessie Lopez.
“We are not going to solve a war in the Middle East here in Santa Ana,” Phan said.
Phan said she would not support any resolution other than the one she and Lopez drafted, while Hernandez said he cannot support a resolution that didn’t call for a ceasefire. Mayor Valerie Amezcua was opposed to both resolutions. Council members Phil Bacerra and David Penaloza did not speak.
Resolution Fizzles Out
While happening thousands of miles away, the conflict is hitting close to home, with people on both sides in the audience storming out or shouting in disbelief at various points of the meeting.
The night veered into chaos when a flush of pro-Palestine speakers spoke over council members, asking “What about the dead kids” and chanting “Ceasefire now.”
It prompted Mayor Amezcua, who rejected both resolutions, to tell police officers inside the room to “clear them out.”
Once the discussion was over, some pro-Israel speakers remained in their chairs as police officers stood in front of the council dais, facing the audience, while pro-ceasefire chants from outside the chambers poured in.
A group of pro-Palestine audience members gathered at the overflow area outside the chambers, where chairs were put out to watch the meeting from the front entrance, while – inside the chambers – pro-Israel speakers said they didn’t feel safe and police offered to walk them out.
After the meeting, the chambers emptied out in different groups. Some groups had one police officer, others had two.
Some people being escorted by police linked their arms, which prompted more verbal spats with people they passed.
“I am proud to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” said Hernandez, who along with Vazquez had asked for a formal vote on their proposed resolution at a future meeting. “I also stand in solidarity with any group of people who are being subjected to violence, war, and genocide.”
Amezcua said she wouldn’t pick one side over the other and that it’s not in her jurisdiction.
“My job as the mayor is to make sure that we are fiscally sound as a city, we’re addressing city issues, we’re addressing our residents and our constituents. Again, as a policymaker, we have no control – none whatsoever – over international matters,” she said.
Should Santa Ana Officials Take A Stance?
Tuesday’s vote came amidst a swell of chatter and interest about when Santa Ana would weigh in.
For anyone questioning the relevance of the debate taking place in Santa Ana, activists on Tuesday night pointed to the statue outside the city’s public library memorializing Palestinian American activist Alex Odeh, who was killed in Santa Ana, 38 years ago, a victim of a domestic terrorist bombing.
“Santa Ana has not been a stranger to tragedy. We had a Santa Ana resident who was talked about here and his name was Alex Odeh,” Hernandez said, adding that his statue is a shining example of where the city stands.
“Alex was a peace activist who worked to promote civil liberties for Arab Americans in the United States, and for civil and human rights around the world.”
The case of Odeh’s killing is still unsolved.
The discussion also comes at a time when community leaders are reporting a spike of hate crimes locally against both Jewish and Arabs in OC since Oct. 7.
Lopez said everybody was hurting – in the Middle East and locally.
“The violence that we’re seeing happening against Jewish people, my Jewish friends, against Palestinian people, my Palestinian friends, against our Muslim community, our Muslim friends,” she said. “That’s completely unacceptable.”
Some elected leaders in town didn’t want the issue discussed at all, and at one point attempted to bar public comments about the issue in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s debate.
[Read: Santa Ana Council Members to Take A Stance on Israel and Palestine Tonight]
Before the start of Tuesday’s public comment portion, Councilmember Phil Bacerra said the dais’ resolution-backers were “playing model United Nations” and left the meeting before the actual discussion came up.
In many ways, Santa Ana sits at the heart of Orange County’s political scene – a microcosm for national issues like immigration, social welfare, homelessness, rent control and policing.
During public comments, some speakers compared the struggles of Santa Ana’s predominantly immigrant and working-class population with those of the Palestinians, who human rights groups describe as living under Israeli subjugation and in open-air prison conditions.
Others argued for Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas attacks like Oct. 7, and the chambers grew so loud and tense that Mayor Amezcua paused the meeting during public comments while audience members stood and chanted “Ceasefire Now.”
It prompted Councilmember David Penaloza to call for the removal of any audience disruptors, before stepping away from his seat for most of the actual discussion on the dais and refusing to make his own comments.
Councilmember Hernandez echoed calls for decorum and respect in the chambers, but said people should not be removed from the meeting.
Residents Sound off on Palestine & Israel in Santa Ana
About 140 people signed up to make their voices heard on the resolution and over 760 emails were sent in to the city to weigh in on the matter.
During Tuesday’s public comment, most people spoke in favor of the resolution and a permanent ceasefire – arguing it’s a local issue because of the billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars going to military aid to Israel that they say could be spent on local infrastructure and housing the homeless.
Some of them said Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians as well as committing Apartheid – pointing to reports by human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
“This absolutely affects us right here in Santa Ana. Immigrants and refugees are the heart of this city. Orange County is home to a large Palestinian Arab and Muslim community,” said Basha Jamil, a policy manager with the Council on American Islamic Relations.
“We must be doing everything that we can to end the bloodshed and that is nothing short of calling for a permanent ceasefire.”
Close to a dozen, including a couple of rabbis, spoke against the resolution – arguing that officials should focus on city business, that the statement is one-sided towards Palestine, does not condemn Hamas and that Israel has a right to defend itself.
“Foreign affairs is not within the jurisdiction of the municipality,” said resident Jeffrey Katz, who challenged the city council members who sponsored the resolution, arguing that they are not suited to be “the moral arbiters” of the city.
Brandon Pho is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at bpho@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @photherecord.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
•••
Can you support Voice of OC with a donation?
You obviously care about local news and value good journalism here in Orange County. With your support, we can bring you more stories like these.