BANES Council backs calls for Gaza ceasefire
A motion calling for an end to the fighting passed unanimously
Last updated 23rd Jul 2024
Councillors in Bath have unanimously backed calls for a ceasefire in Gaza after months of protest in the city.
Bath and North East Somerset Council’s three Green councillors had been blocked from bringing a motion on the issue before a full council meeting in March as it was judged to be out of scope for the local authority.
However, after members of Bath’s Palestinian community addressed the full council meeting in May, describing receiving the “devastating news” of family members killed in Gaza, a reworded motion was permitted to come before the council’s latest full council meeting on Thursday July 18 — where it was passed unanimously.
The motion supports calls for a ceasefire and calls on the government to allow routes for safety for the most vulnerable in Gaza, and looks at how the council can better support local residents. It also asks the council leader to write to the government on behalf of the council to urge a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and “lasting peace” with a two-state solution.
Days after it passed, on Monday July 22, the city’s Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse signed an early day motion in the House of Commons also calling for an immediate bilateral ceasefire and a two state solution.
She said: “The devastation in Israel and Gaza over the last 9 months, with the terrible terrorist attacks on 7 October and the subsequent conflict in Gaza which has seen tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians killed, has been horrifying.
“We Liberal Democrats have been calling for an immediate bilateral ceasefire since November 2023. We are absolutely clear that this is the only way to end the killing, to restore the flow of desperately needed humanitarian aid, and to get the hostages back to their loved ones.”
Proposing the council motion at the July 18 meeting, Green group leader Joanna Wright (Lambridge, Green) said: “Over the last nine months, multiple protests have taken place in Bath and beyond, giving voice to those unable to defend themselves in this conflict.
"I want to thank all the dedicated speakers and activists here, nationally, and internationally for their continued efforts.
“The Greens have always supported peace and will always work with our community to promote international justice.”
Ms Wright added that an estimated 38,000 people in Gaza had been killed by the Israeli Defence Force, including over 13,800 children.
She said: “As councillors and officers we work to represent the voices in our community. This motion is necessary because we should strive to be more inclusive and supportive of those locally who are deeply affected by this conflict.
"The peace motion secures and pledges support that is practical and enduring.”
She added: “While it may not be the council’s job to solve international affairs, as elected representatives, we must use our political platform to highlight injustice and hold out political systems accountable.”
Mark Elliott (Lansdown, Liberal Democrat) said: “I think we all need to have the humility to acknowledge that as a relatively small UK local authority we have no influence on matters of international geopolitics.
"Our only possible impact is going to be limited to letting our local residents know we are listening to them and are in solidarity with them, and adding to the crescendo of voices across the world calling for peace.
“But I know I speak on behalf of the whole Lib Dem group when I say that we do want to express solidarity with local residents affected by the current conflict. The statements we have heard in this chamber at this and previous meetings, particularly from those with family in the area, have been very powerful and moving.”
At the previous full council meeting in May, four members of the city’s Palestinian community, spoke of the impact of the war on themselves and their families trapped in Gaza, urging the council to do what it could to help them get people evacuated to the UK.
Lara Amro, who was among the Palestinians who spoke at the meeting, wrote to the council to say the community felt “let down” and urged it to pass a motion for a ceasefire, in a letter signed by other members of Bath’s Palestinian community and their supporters.
She wrote: “This crisis is not distant; it reverberates through our community. Bath residents with ties to Gaza live in constant fear for their loved ones, facing severe mental health impacts as they struggle to cope with the daily news of destruction and loss.”
There have been regular protests and vigils in Bath, other areas of Somerset, and across the country in support of the Palestinian people since the conflict began.
Speaking at Thursday’s full council meeting, Leslie Mansell (Labour, Radstock) said the Labour group “applauds the rallies organised in Bath over the past 10 months to highlight the situation in Gaza” and urged councillors to support the motion.
The Green group first attempted to table a cross party motion calling for a ceasefire before the council in November, the month after the conflict began, but Ms Wright said only the Labour group had responded to her with an interest in supporting it. Without support from other groups, a cross-party motion could not be tabled.
Somerset Council passed a motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in December. North Somerset Council also passed a similar motion after Tom Leimdorfer, a former member of that council who survived the Holocaust as a child, urged it to send a message that “you stand with those who want the killing to stop and with those who want the hostages released.”