I just want to thank all of our community members who have come out to hold us accountable to our power. We have voices, and it’s incredibly important for us to stand up for what is right.”

Councilmember Jen Fox

As our elected representatives, you are our voice. We elected you to be our liaisons with those who represent us in Washington, D.C. In addition to passing tonight’s resolution, we ask that each of you use your connections and relationships with our federal officials to let them know the Hastings community wants the violence to stop.”

Tom Bullington, Hastings resident

The Hastings City Council at its meeting Tuesday, Jan. 16 unanimously passed a resolution urging President Joe Biden to “immediately call for and facilitate de-escalation and a ceasefire” in Gaza.
The resolution was sought by the Hastings Progressives group, and City Councilmember Angie Haus asked that it be included on the agenda.
Resident Tom Bullington spoke in favor of the city taking action on the resolution.
“As you know, on Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking over 200 hostages. Since that time, the government of Israel, with military funding from the United States, has responded by dropping 65,000 tons of bombs on Gaza, killing over 24,000 Palestinian civilians,” he said. “That’s the population of Hastings.”
The resolution also urged state and federal leaders to facilitate immediate humanitarian aid in Gaza.
“In addition to this death and destruction, there is very little water, food, medicine or electricity available to refugees. The United Nations and other humanitarian organizations have been severely restricted on how much aid they can distribute in Gaza. It is truly an unmitigated humanitarian crisis with no end in sight,” said Bullington.
He said the resolution “does not take sides in the conflict” and carried with it signatures of support from more than 40 Hastings residents.
“The resolution simply calls for the bombing to stop and for all parties involved to move forward in a constructive way to end the bloodshed and ensure those caught in the middle can drink clean water, have food and start the process of moving home to rebuild,” Bullington said.
He said the $3.8 billion the United States gives in aid to Israel “equates to Hastings taxpayers $321,081 to Israel alone in 2023.”
“As our elected representatives, you are our voice. We elected you to be our liaisons with those who represent us in Washington, D.C.,” said Bullington. “In addition to passing tonight’s resolution, we ask that each of you use your connections and relationships with our federal officials to let them know the Hastings community wants the violence to stop. We believe this will at least start a conversation at the local level and make it spread in cities across Minnesota and across the county.”
Hastings resident Braedyn Bosilovatz also addressed the council in support of the resolution.
“Choosing silence in a time of war is a privilege all of us are lucky to have simply because of where and when we were born,” she said. “Nothing is stopping Hastings from speaking up and being on the humanitarian side of history but ourselves.”
City Administrator Dan Wietecha said the ceasefire resolution is outside of things the city has strategized on in terms of lobbying elected officials.
“This absolutely is a policy matter, so this is councils to wrestle with. I would point out that it is outside of council’s recent discussions about how we handle legislative topics beyond the city. There are times that we lobby the state or federal officials for things that the council has a particular interest of impacting the city. This is outside that, but that doesn’t mean you’re limited in that fashion,” said Wietecha. “It’s up to council for how you want to work with the proposed ceasefire and humanitarian aid resolution.”
Councilmember Jen Fox made a motion to approve passage of the resolution, with Haus adding a second to the motion.
“I just want to thank all of our community members who have come out to hold us accountable to our power. We have voices, and it’s incredibly important for us to stand up for what is right,” Fox said.
“I agree,” said Councilmember Tina Folch. “I’m in support of this resolution, and it’s just horrifying when you look at the statistics about the number of people who are being killed in Gaza, not to mention the vast majority are children and women who are being killed and civilians.”
Said Haus, “I’d like to just express my gratefulness and thanks to all of our community members for coming out and speaking tonight and also sending email after email trying to get this passed. It really shows how much our community cares,” she said.