Opinion: One Year Later: Revisiting Amherst’s Resolution in Support of a Ceasefire in Gaza

On March 4, 2024, the Amherst Town Council passed a Resolution in Support of a Ceasefire in Gaza, co-sponsored by three councilors and more than 760 Amherst townspeople, as well as many local businesses and residents from neighboring towns. The meeting was a contentious one, but the sentiment of the many townspeople who offered public comment was overwhelmingly in favor of the resolution, and it passed by a vote of 9-3, with one abstention. Its legality was immediately challenged as a violation of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, but in a special meeting on March 13, the town’s law firm determined that it was not a violation and the council concurred, preserving their original vote. That was a year ago.

A year ago, the death toll in the Israeli assault on Gaza had risen to 30,000 people. A long, bloody year later, more than 48,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. As a “ceasefire” agreement (in fact, merely a temporary pause in the hostilities) began to be implemented, the Israeli military stepped up its attacks in the West Bank, where they have killed 887 people between October 2023 and February 21, 2025. Now Israel has blocked all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza and has cut off its remaining power supply (see also here and here).

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is stepping up its attacks on pro-Palestinian protests in the United States. On March 7th, it cut $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University, alleging that they had not done enough to curb antisemitism on campus, and sending a chilling message to colleges and universities across the country. On March 8th, ICE agents arrested a Palestinian man who had been active in the Columbia student protests in the Spring of 2024, declaring the revocation of his green card and threatening deportation. President Trump has promised that more arrests will soon follow.

In our consternation over the state of our own country, let us not forget its critical role in prosecuting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war. On March 1st, Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked emergency powers to rush $4 billion to Israel and proudly affirmed that, since taking office, the new administration had approved nearly $12 billion in Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Israel.

Last March, the many community co-sponsors of Amherst’s Resolution in Support of a Ceasefire in Gaza warned that the war risked destabilizing the entire region. Since then, we have witnessed Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, Iraq, and even Iran. Remember that Benjamin Netanyahu has been issued an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Let us not succumb to the current “America First” climate by forgetting our country’s continuing complicity in his genocidal war.

Here in Amherst and the Five-College Area, protests against U.S. support of the genocidal war on Gaza continue, but have been muted in the chaos that has unfolded since Donald Trump’s inauguration. We cannot forget the heavy-handed police role  (see also here) in the May 7, 2024 arrests of 134 students, faculty, and local residents on the UMass campus, in which the administration called in more than 200 Massacusetts state troopers and police officers from surrounding towns, including Amherst. In the months following the arrests, townspeople have repeatedly voiced their concerns about the use of Amherst police to silence the peaceful exercise of free speech but so far, to no avail. This is a serious matter, especially in the current climate where First Amendment rights are being repeatedly threatened. We must uphold the right to free speech on our college campuses and in our communities.

Josna Rege is a resident of Amherst.