In 1986 the City Council declared Urbana a Sanctuary City, joining hundreds of other cities in dissenting from US policy. News-Gazette clipping from the archives of Rev. Tom Royer
Letters to the editor, teach-ins, motions for divestment, campus protests, city resolutions . . . These expressions of citizen concern are not unique to the ongoing war on Gaza and are entirely appropriate to a democracy. Local communities have the right and responsibility to debate foreign policy at the local level, and these debates have played a significant role in changing public perception of and support for US policies abroad for decades.
Public Actions Prompt Public Debate
C-U has a long history of using public events to prompt public debate on issues. Anti–Vietnam War protests, Sanctuary declarations to protest US policies in Central America, and poster contests to raise awareness of nuclear proliferation are just a few of the previous campaigns designed to raise awareness and pressure elected representatives to address public concerns on foreign policies.
Since last fall local groups have pursued a similar variety of strategies to prompt public debate. In the immediate aftermath of October 7, local actors joined national efforts to put faces and names to the hostages kidnapped and held by Hamas by posting “Kidnapped” signs throughout the community. But as the casualties of the Israeli response in Gaza mounted, other groups sought to bring attention to the Palestinian victims as well. The Champaign-Urbana Jews for Ceasefire (CUJC) and the CU Muslim Action Committee (CUMAC) have been two of the most active groups working to raise awareness of the suffering in Gaza and bring attention to federal government and institutional support for the war in Gaza. Together the two groups have organized marches through C-U, teach-ins, and office visits with local representatives in order to keep the issue before the public.
The successful campaign to push the Urbana City Council to adopt an anti–Gaza War resolution has been one of the most high-profile initiatives pursued by these two groups. Ben Joselyn introduced a ceasefire resolution in January and was one of many who gathered more than 1200 signatures supporting the motion. Over several months city council members heard hours of testimony from the community detailing the ferocity of the war and community members’ opposition to the US financial and military aid that sustains it. A resolution urging the US to end funding for weapons used by Israel in the war passed unanimously in March, 2024.
In May the two groups continued their campaign by encouraging the Champaign City Council to devote a study session specifically to the examination of city investments in companies that enable or profit from the war. Chevron, Intel, Google, HP, and Motorola are familiar companies that also produce military and surveillance equipment for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Sana Saboowala of CUMAC and Al Kagan of UCJC brought the issue to the city’s attention, not expecting that local divestment would cripple companies or change national policies, but because it brings attention to the ways Americans are implicated in the war. On campus, Students for Justice in Palestine has called for similar transparency over UIUC investment in the state of Israel or companies implicated in the ongoing war. A June Daily Illini article sketched out university investments, including $20 million in companies accused of facilitating human rights abuses in Israel, and academic partnerships with institutions and corporations that contribute to the war or systematic human rights abuses by Israel against Palestinians.
Local divestment debates may have influenced a recent change in Illinois state investments. After the October 7 attacks State Treasurer Michael Frerichs announced the purchase of $30 million in Israeli bonds to support the country during the crisis (Illinois bonds invested in Israel total an estimated $100 million). Yet according to Saboowala, sometime between March and June, 2024 Illinois funds were removed from the Development Corporation of Israel, Caterpillar (maker of armored bulldozers used by the IDF), Amazon (provider of tech services to the Israeli government and IDF), and Apple (funder of the war via matching contributions to an IDF-supporting foundation).
Campus Protesters Reflect Widespread Concern with the War
The student rally at the Alma Mater and the encampment on the UIUC quad in late April and early May received extensive local, state, and national coverage. Unfortunately coverage often portrayed the participants as if they were antisemitic outliers from a national consensus on Israel, rather than representative of the wide variety of concerned community members. Protesters on the UIUC campus ascribed to a range of religious traditions and ethnic backgrounds, but were united in opposition to the suffering endured by Palestinian civilians. Despite visible evidence of Jewish student participation in the on-campus protests—Jewish student protesters even celebrated seder at the encampment while advocating for Palestinian lives—the protesters were accused of creating a hostile environment for Jewish students. Locally and nationally groups like UCJC and CUMAC have worked together for a ceasefire because it is the continued war, not the protests against it, that provokes both increased antisemitism and Islamophobia.
The candlelight vigil at the Alma Mater in November most poignantly illustrated the ways in which this war is not a distant topic for Washington alone to resolve. This is a tragedy felt deeply across the community, especially by the many individuals with family and friends in the war zone. The daily news of refugee relocations, bombardments of hospitals and schools, and the charade of US statements “urging restraint” and ceasefire while simultaneously quadrupling the amount of aid to Israel’s military, is wearing. This is a war carried on in all our names, with our tax and investment dollars, and it is entirely appropriate that citizens organize to educate the public on the US role in the ongoing conflict. Like it or not, we will be held accountable for the deaths in this war.
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