Free Palestine Denton members and supporters packed City Hall to demand that the Denton City Council consider a resolution supporting a ceasefire in Gaza during Tuesday night’s meeting.
Although the council isn’t allowed to vote on non-agenda items, a council member could request to put an item on the agenda.
Council members didn’t.
Free Palestine Denton and its supporters have vowed to keep returning to council meetings to speak during public comment until council members listen.
“I’m disgusted that I have to [stress that] 11,000 children have been murdered for you to seriously consider,” said Amira Rasoul, who organized a petition to garner public support for a ceasefire resolution in the Israel-Hamas war. “I’m disgusted that I have to frame it as a local issue for you to care. Your children will wonder why you stood by and did nothing for the people of Palestine.”
Greg Johnson, a former council member, also spoke during the public comment period, saying that whenever the Denton council has to deal with symbolic resolutions such as supporting a ceasefire, it costs taxpayers money and makes the city’s long development process even longer, which he said was giving Denton a bad reputation as well as turning away business opportunities.
Johnson also discussed Denton’s 2014 fracking ban, which caused the city to spend thousands in legal fees, and the current marijuana decriminalization ordinance that has the city in another lawsuit with the state that could cost thousands to fight.
“Your job when in those chairs is to conduct city business, which means to spend your time and taxpayers’ money on topics that are legislated at the city level,” Johnson said.
Council member Brian Beck told the Denton Record-Chronicle that the council is taking care of business and mentioned that the open mic portion of the meeting is a “standing agenda element where members of the community, like [Johnson] himself, are free to voice their preferences and concerns and speak to their representatives.”
Beck described how the public comment process works: Dialogue is limited to four minutes, with the number of speakers limited to seven.
“So, there is just a standing demonstration of democracy for 28 minutes, regardless of whether the topic is Palestine or parking,” Beck said. “Council didn’t weigh in on or debate any of that one way or the other.”
Deb Armintor from Decriminalize Denton told the council that she was there before them “as a Jew, a member for Jewish Voice for Peace, a former Denton City Council member and a proud ‘river to the sea’ person, as one of you have called us.”
Armintor wondered why some of her former colleagues claimed it wasn’t the City Council’s job to issue “symbolic resolutions telling the federal government what to do.”
“What has changed since I sat up there with you on this dais not long ago when four of us passed a symbolic Medicare for All resolution, expressing our belief on behalf of our constituents that the federal government should not deprive people of their right to have health and life?” Armintor asked. “What has changed since then?”
Rasoul had also mentioned it during her public comment when she addressed people who believe these issues fall outside of the council’s scope.
“I find that interesting and, as Deb mentioned, the council has a history of supporting federal initiatives such as the Medicare for All resolution,” Rasoul said.
Rasoul said that when the federal government uses taxpayers’ money to support Israel’s military and fund what she referred to as a genocide, it takes money away from federal grants that the city uses to help taxpayers.
“The amount contributed to local communities diminishes,” Rasoul said. “This is exactly why I refuse to accept that this is not a Denton issue. It absolutely negatively impacts every member of this community.”
Some of Free Palestine Denton members and their supporters were also upset that council member Paul Meltzer had referred to them as “the ‘river to the sea’ people” in a social media post on the Texas Democratic Jewish Caucus Facebook group.
“From the river to the sea” has been used as a rallying cry by pro-Palestinian activists as well as Hamas.
“I am not a ‘“from the river to the sea” person.’ It is dehumanizing. It’s condescending,” Malak Abu-esheh, who also spoke during public comment, said afterward, adding, “I'm a Palestinian and want to be known as a Palestinian.”
“We are exactly the same … race, color, it does not matter,” she said. “We are humans.”
In a statement Wednesday, Meltzer said the council is a platform for council members to take action on the matters that Denton voters have empowered them to address, such as affordable housing, a balanced approach to growth, sustainability, streets, economic development and effective and accountable public safety.
He said it’s also a public forum, built into the process.
“I have considered opinions about Hamas, about [Benjamin] Netanyahu, about Egypt, about the conduct of this war, about the humanitarian need, about our own government, and about what I feel the most stable ultimate outcome would look like,” Meltzer said. “I expressed none of this from the dais and don’t intend to.
“There was no council resolution about the invasion of Ukraine where over 350,000 Ukrainians have been killed to date, no resolution after the massacre of October 7 [in Israel], no resolution about any number of genuinely compelling matters of deep human concern. I minimize nothing,” he added. “The public has every right to come and speak to us about any topic, and I can think of none more pressing.”
Beck noted that the bulk of the council meeting’s time Tuesday night was devoted to a public hearing during which residents shared concern about development projects near the Sundown Ranch neighborhood — “exactly the types of topics Mr. Johnson was requesting we focus on,” he said.
“I don’t think [Johnson] was out of line cautioning the council to prioritize well, but all the functions of government have value, and it’s incumbent on us to give all of them the appropriate weight in our individual and collective judgments,” Beck said.