Politics
A proposal on Thursday’s City Council docket could make good on a nonbinding ballot question Somerville residents passed at the polls last November.
Demonstrators hold a Palestinian flag during a March protest at Powder House Park in Somerville, Mass., where hundreds gathered in response to the detention of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national and Tufts University graduate student. Erin Clark/The Boston Globe, file
Somerville officials will take up a proposed ordinance that could divest the city from companies that support Israel’s actions in Palestinian territories, potentially making good on a nonbinding question residents passed at the polls last November.
On the docket for Thursday’s City Council meeting is a proposal that would bar Somerville from procuring vendors or investing in companies that support or draw revenue from entities engaged in apartheid, genocide, unlawful military occupation, or conduct “recognized to constitute systematic violation of international humanitarian law.”
“Including,” the ordinance continues, “without limitation in Israel and Palestine.”
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‘This is just the beginning’: Nonbinding Israel divestment ballot question passes in Somerville
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With council vote, Somerville doubles down on effort to divest from Israel
The proposal would allow exceptions in cases where procurement is essential to the city’s operations, or where compliance would tank an open bidding process. Somerville would also be allowed to invest in otherwise-verboten companies if “essential to the sound financial operation of the city.”
The ordinance would further direct Somerville’s mayor to create, maintain, and apply an “Ethical Procurement and Investment Policy” to consider findings from international legal or human rights bodies such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The ICC previously issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as the chief of Hamas’s military wing.
Sponsored by councilors Ben Ewen-Campen and Ben Wheeler, the proposal comes after the City Council voted in late November to work toward fulfilling Ballot Question 3’s directive.
Prompted by Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, Question 3 asked whether the city should be made to cut business ties with companies that “engage in business that sustains Israel’s apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine.” The nonbinding question passed with 55.7% of the votes cast.
Officials in Northampton and Medford previously approved similar divestment legislation.
Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.
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