For many community members, Tuesday night means Champaign City Council (CCC) night. The council chambers are the spot to be! Dozens of diverse community members show up to ask our elected officials to endorse a resolution that includes 1) a call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the occupied Palestinian territories, and Lebanon, and 2) a socially responsible investment policy where the city’s money is not invested in countries accused of genocide by the International Court of Justice and entities that profit off of them. Put simply, we are asking to end the city’s complicity in the ongoing US-backed Israeli genocide and any future genocides. We are asking the councilmembers to recognize us, and to invest in us and our community. We want to live in a city that takes a firmly anti-genocide stance.
We have been spending evenings at CCC for over half a year without any formal recognition of our demands. We have spent dozens of hours in audience participation educating the council (and the public) while pleading our case with CCC. We come in, we attend the meeting, we listen, we learn, we share our comments, and we leave. Week after week.
One night, sometime over the summer, community members showed up to find multiple police officers present, and they have been there every Tuesday since. No explanation from the council or the officers, just a constant presence during our Tuesday night gatherings. Tuesday nights at CCC started feeling unwelcoming, and although we joke about our Tuesday night hangouts, we’re not there to blow off steam.
We believe in our asks, we believe in our city, we believe in our community. We believe so deeply in this fight for justice, in the importance of doing our part to end US complicity in the ongoing Israeli genocide. We show up, Tuesday after Tuesday, because we believe our elected officials will represent us.
In early November, CCC introduced a new bill (Council Bill No. 2024-180). The bill calls for updating the chambers including a remodeling of the lobby and entryway to include metal detectors, bulletproof glass, and a buzzer system to enter the building. We did ask the council to justify these measures, but they did not address it during their permitted council comment time. As far as we can tell, these renovations are not rooted in an increased need based on current crime nor on an evidence-based approach to the efficacy of these installations, and therefore are a troubling use of city resources.
Even though metal detectors have become ubiquitous displays of security throughout our schools and public buildings, they do not necessarily make these institutions safer. Although there are not many studies on metal detectors in public buildings, evidence from schools shows that “metal detectors increased students’ fear at school and had few other effects on other outcomes such as crime.” Metal detectors make people feel uncomfortable and they don’t reduce violence.
Speaking at Champaign City Council is already intimidating. The councilmembers’ seats are quite high, there are many staff present, and police are constantly on site. If our city wants to encourage civic engagement, making it more difficult to get into an already intimidating room is not the way forward. We don’t need to make it harder to interact with our city council.
By the same token we ask how can city money not be city business and, how can the concerns of 2,000 Champaign-Urbana residents and 40+ organizations who have publically supported the proposed ceasefire resolution not be city business, we also ask when CCC says safety and safer: safer for who?
You can find the Champaign Ceasefire Resolution here, and a list of supporting organizations here.
Dua Aldasouqi is a member of the Palestinian diaspora and CU Muslim Action Committee. She is dedicated to advocating for Palestinian rights and self-determination. She is a registered dietitian by profession and enjoys writing and performing poetry.
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