Crowds demanding the Covington Board of Commissioners pass a resolution supporting a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip filled the commission chambers on Tuesday, reaffirming statements made at the legislative meetings on Nov. 21 and Dec. 5.
“There is no symmetry or equivalence to what we’re seeing [in Gaza],” said Mohammad Ahmad, a Covington resident of Palestinian descent who first proposed the resolution in November. “This is a culmination of years of apartheid and occupation, leading up to a final solution towards the Palestinians.”
Ahmad explicitly rejected the idea that the resolution was pro-Hamas, the radical Islamist group that currently holds political control over the Gaza strip. Moreover, he affirmed that his proposal supports the release of all prisoners held by both sides. He also said that violence committed by the Israeli military affects not only Palestinian Muslims but also Christians indigenous to the area.
Municipal resolutions have little concrete power; they’re not binding pieces of legislation like a city ordinance or state law. But they can be a way for cities to demonstrate support for a particular policy at the federal and state level or make symbolic gestures toward a particular cause.
Ahmad spoke on his own in November and had a group of supporters accompanying him, carrying signs at the meeting on Dec. 5. Even more people came out in support of the resolution on Tuesday, and multiple Covington residents gave statements in favor of the measure.
Nikki Siababa, who grew up in San Francisco but currently resides in Latonia, started her statement by complimenting the city on its diversity efforts before asking the commissioners why they were hesitant to support a ceasefire resolution, given their past gestures.
She referenced statements from Mayor Joe Meyer indicating support for Ukraine in their war against Russia. She also addressed Commission Member Shannon Smith, who’s spoken in the past about the travails of her step mother’s family, who live in Kiev. Smith was among the first people in the city to raise a Ukrainian flag in Mainstrasse in March of last year.
“I have not seen any Palestinian flags raised on Mainstrasse,” Siaba went on to say. “I have not seen the city making any sort of statement to raise hope or any funding initiatives. So, what are y’all doing?”
Smith did not respond directly to Siababa’s comments during the meeting, but she did offer some comments to LINK nky afterward, saying she planned to speak with Ahmad and consulting the city’s human rights commission.
“I want to take the time to give this request,” Smith said. “The consideration it deserves.”
Other speakers expressed sentiments similar to Siababa’s.
Borden Gevin, who lives on Greenup Street, compared the actions of the Israeli military to expansionist incursion against indigenous North American peoples throughout the continent’s history. Then he said the people in the room would continue speaking out until the commission acted.
“We will continue to take up your time here every month until you hear the will of the people,” Gevin said. “We will vote you out if you can’t do what we ask.”
Unlike the previous legislative meeting, no one spoke out against the resolution, but one speaker did advise caution.
Former Covington Commissioner Steve Frank, who sat on the Board of Commissioners from 2011 to 2017 and who currently sits on the Covington Economic Development Authority, addressed the commission and discussed some of the resolutions the city passed when he was in office–as well as some they didn’t.
Frank said that resolutions passed over the years were always “germane to the actual life here in Covington,” and that the city typically shied away from weighing in on broader topics like immigration and climate change.
Frank didn’t state directly whether the city commission ought to support or oppose the resolution, but advised instead on careful deliberation.
“My recommendation… is don’t do anything that is going to turn the temperature up to the boiling point,” Frank concluded.
LINK nky asked Frank after the meeting to elaborate on his statements.
“There’s a wide variety of acceptable opinions, and if the city came officially down one side or another in that argument… then the other side’s going to be extremely put out,” Frank said. “It doesn’t do the city any good, and it’s certainly not going to change conditions on the ground.”
Most of the crowd did not stay past the meeting’s public comments section, but Ahmad did stay behind to continue discussions with at least one commissioner, Tim Downing, in private.
Read Ahmad’s first and second resolution proposals here.
The next meeting of the Covington City Board of Commissioners will take place on Jan. 2, 2024 at 6 p.m. at Covington City Hall on Pike Street.