After a decisive win at the polls earlier this month, backers of a nonbinding Somerville ballot question calling for divestment from Israel plan to rally at Somerville City Hall Thursday evening to push the City Council to adopt a resolution in line with their demands.
Question 3 on Somerville’s ballot this fall asked the following question: “Shall the Mayor of Somerville and all Somerville elected leaders be instructed to end all current city business and prohibit future city investments and contracts with companies as long as such companies engage in business that sustains Israel’s apartheid, genocide and illegal occupation of Palestine?”
In March, the members of the city council voted 9-2 to file the proposed ballot initiative, effectively forcing supporters to gather signatures to place it on the ballot rather than putting it directly on the ballot themselves.
According to unofficial results posted to the city’s website, 56% of Somerville voters said “Yes” and 38% said “No” to the question last week, with 6% leaving it blank.
In the mayoral race, Mayor-elect Jake Wilson received 54% of the vote compared to Willie Burnley Jr’s 44%, with 2% of ballots blanked.
Supporters of Question 3 are touting it as the first time residents of a U.S. city have backed a ballot question calling for severing ties with companies doing business with Israel. Even though the question was nonbinding, they now want the city council to pass a resolution giving Question 3 the force of law.
They cite Hewlett-Packard as an example of a company Somerville should cut ties with, arguing that HP works with the Israeli military and has received $1.7 million in contracts for services provided to Somerville’s public schools over the past decade. Hewlett-Packard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Our city councilors were elected to protect and follow the will of their Somerville constituents,” said Leila Skinner, an organizer with Somerville for Palestine. “And that means … if over 11,485 people vote to end our funding of Israel’s genocide, then it’s up to our elected officials to make that happen.”
“The people of Somerville are using every tool at our disposal to end our funding of this genocide, just like we divested from South African apartheid in 1988, just like we ended city contracts with businesses that use prison labor,” she added. “We’ve done it before and we can do it again.”
But Mayor-elect Wilson, who is currently an at-large city councilor, said prior to the election that he would vote “No” on Ballot Question 3, which he suggested would be legally unenforceable, though he also described the situation in Gaza as “an atrocity.”
Asked whether Wilson might seek additional legal guidance on the measure’s viability given the election results, a Wilson spokesperson did not directly answer, saying instead: “Mayor-elect Wilson is immersed in the transition work to ensure the new administration is ready to hit the ground running on January 2.”
State Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven — who represents Somerville and supports the work of Somerville for Palestine — says she thinks the city council should act on the will of the voters, despite potential legal complications involving a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated Massachusetts’ boycott of businesses doing business in Burma.
“We have a moral responsibility to act on this issue that’s at hand, now especially that the voters in Somerville have voted on the issue,” Uyterhoeven said. “To me, it’s very clear that even though our government plays such a big role in what’s unfolding in Palestine and Israel, we know for a fact now that in Somerville a significant percentage of our constituents don’t support it. And so I think it’s really incumbent on us as elected officials to stand up and do what we can.”
The group Somerville United Against Discrimination, which opposed Ballot Question 3 and waged a legal fight to prevent it from reaching the ballot, did not immediately return a request for comment. But in a statement posted on its website, it cast the Nov. 4 vote in favor of the measure as a de facto defeat for supporters like Skinner and Uyterhoeven.
“In a city with 82,000 residents that values inclusion, Question 3 passed with only 11,500 votes, just 55% of those who cast a ballot,” the statement said. “That is clearly not the mandate supporters of Question 3 have claimed, and proves that most Somerville residents do not want to demonize Israel, hurt their neighbors and divide our community.”
Amina Awad, another organizer with Somerville for Palestine, says that Mayor-elect Wilson has listened attentively to the group’s concerns in the past and that she hopes he changes his mind.
“We’ve had many conversations with him as a councilor,” Awad said. “I personally went to his house and met with him with a collection of other Palestinian Somerville residents. ... At that time, he really met us with empathy, and I’m hoping to see that shine through.”
