Mayor Steinberg calls for community dialogue, will not agendize 'one-sided' ceasefire resolution

Sacramento (Jan. 26, 2024)

Dear colleagues and members of our community:

I am writing to inform you that I will not refer the Gaza ceasefire resolution proposed by Councilmembers Katie Valenzuela and Mai Vang for a hearing before the City Council or any of its committees.

Given the controversy and strong feelings about the issues, I want to take a moment to explain my motivations and why I am making this decision.

I oppose the current resolution because it is far too one-sided and will further inflame the already high tensions in our community.

My colleagues and I heard directly last Tuesday and over the last months about the terrible suffering of the people in Gaza.  I am deeply moved by what we have all seen and heard.  I decry the death and suffering of innocents in Gaza and the impact of this suffering on their family and friends living in our beloved city.  I want the war to end.  I fully support all humanitarian aid to the people suffering in Gaza. And I have not been afraid to publicly criticize the Israeli government for its settlement policies and other decisions over which I have disagreed.

But this resolution is unfair and divisive.  It does not begin to acknowledge the Hamas atrocity against the Jewish people on October 7th. While it mentions the hostages, it fails to address how a unilateral ceasefire would prevent Hamas from rearming and repeating its terror.   The resolution fails to look forward and promote a vision and the only hope for real peace, a safe and secure Jewish homeland and a free Palestinian state.

I strongly prefer not to have any formal resolution come before the City Council. In most cases, I do not believe our City Council should spend council time on foreign policy.

And yet, 80 people came to the City Council this past Tuesday evening from one perspective to express their deeply held point of view. That was and is their right. But the council cannot be the only place where dialogue and decision making happens – especially on issues over which we don’t have any authority.

To those who believe that defeating even a one-sided resolution will make the anger and division go away, that is wishful thinking.

I remain deeply concerned that our community’s long history of bridge building and strong interfaith relationships is at great risk.  The community’s trauma around October 7th and its aftermath is real and profound.

The current dialogue in our community, reflected in weekly protests, disrupted civic meetings, and broken friendships, is both disturbing and potentially dangerous.

Our interfaith communities are not talking to one another.  They are too angry, distrustful, and hurt to reach across the divide.

Even if the divide is understandable, we must at least try to talk and model the behavior we want to see elsewhere.  That has always been the Sacramento way.

A formal resolution is just one way to try and heal the breach. It is not the only way. 

Several months ago, anticipating the demand for a one-sided resolution and the expected response from both sides, I convened a small group of community leaders and drafted a fair resolution consistent with the principles I described above. Both the Jewish and Palestinian/Muslim community leadership flatly rejected the effort.

If leaders and community members from each community are unwilling to talk to one another, and the issues continue being brought to the City Council chambers in ways that dominate our time and attention, there may be no alternative than for my colleagues and me to bring forward a fair resolution ourselves that reflects the views of most of the people in our city. 

I hope instead that our communities reconnect, reengage, and rebuild those bonds of friendship that have always distinguished Sacramento as a courageous city. 

Mayor Darrell Steinberg