Yesterday’s meeting of the Arcata City Council was placid. It was unaffected by tumultuous protests like the last two, and the council managed to work their way through a normal-sized agenda. 

It would have been a short, unremarkable meeting, except for one proposal by councilmember Stacy Atkins-Salazar at the end of the meeting during the council reports section: that they adopt a resolution “urging safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza and across Palestine,” and a statement from councilmember Meredith Matthews that she did not support divestment from CalPERS, nor does she support forming a sister city relationship with Gaza City.

Atkins-Salazar said she’d recently been at a meeting of the Elected Officials to Protect America in Washington D.C., and had been talking with politicians from all over the country whose cities had also been embroiled in Palestine-related protests. Scared of winding up on either side of an extreme, many of them didn’t know how to address the issue, but Atkins-Salazar said she thinks the best way to go about it is simply by addressing the “humanitarian atrocity” angle. Most of the people she’s talked to, she says, agrees that the widespread starvation and mass killings of Palestinian civilians isn’t OK, though opinions diverge sharply when entertaining solutions. 

“Why don’t we just keep it simple?” Atkins-Salazar asked. “…We’ve had people from very different points of view, and most of them have said there is a humanitarian crisis. No matter what side, that keeps being acknowledged, and then it goes into different directions. So if I’m hearing that from people in public comment, in the community, and if people are coming to us with ideas — really behind that for a lot of folks is to help the people that are starving and that need aid, if that is where we can all find common ground — which I don’t know why we couldn’t on that.”

Atkins-Salazar would like to see a little comity in a community that is often split by the issue, and hopes the proposal diffuses some tension. If it does, she said she’d inform other governments who have been having the same problems. 

She said her proposal was short and “powerfully-written,” and that Matthews supported the idea after she broached the plan with her.

Matthews, teary-eyed and effusive, said she’d been harassed by some community members because of her Jewish identity and her presumed pro-Israel politics.

“I want to be clear,” she said. “While I’m Jewish, my identity does not mean I support every action of the Israeli government. I truly believe in human rights for all. I oppose the targeting of civilians. That being said, my role here is to support the interests that best serve the interests of Arcata.”

Matthews said that she did not support yanking Arcata’s CalPERS contributions, because of the fiscal harm it might cause the city and the employees whose retirement packages are bound to it. Same with the frequently-proposed sister city arrangement with Gaza City; that was a no-go because of Hamas’ designation by the U.S. as a terrorist group.

“But we can, and we should, like Stacy said, stand in solidarity with victims of war and supporting humanitarian relief and for fostering calm dialogue,” Matthews said. “But our official city actions have to stay focused on our core responsibilities to Arcata.”

The resolution has yet to make its way to an agenda; three out of five councilmembers must agree to adding something. 

Response from local pro-Palestine groups has, so far, been lukewarm.

“Let us be clear — it’s not a ‘war,’ it’s a genocide,” reads an Instagram post from DivestHumboldt. “Meredith Matthews using the word ‘war’ tonight and shifting blame to Hamas is deplorable and factually incorrect. Meredith Matthews is a Holocaust denier…Stacy Atkins-Salazar’s attempt to sidestep divestment is not a win.”

Besides that, the council approved the bicycle skills park, updated some language in the dog laws to reflect the passage of the ADA, and allowed a planned subdevelopment of eight lots to ignore affordable housing requirements.