On Oct. 17, 2024, just days after the first anniversary of the escalation of conflict in Gaza, the Northampton City Council passed a resolution calling for a U.S. arms embargo on Israel. This resolution urges Massachusetts Senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Jim McGovern to support Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ Joint Resolutions of Disapproval. It also introduces legislation to impose an “immediate embargo on unrestricted sales and shipment of U.S. weapons to Israel.”
The Sophian spoke with Rachel Maiore, a member of the Northampton City Council, to get her opinion on the passage of this resolution and get a glimpse into the Council’s inner workings. “[The resolution] is part of a strategy to […] make a statement” Maiore said.
The resolution was proposed by a group of organized community members that approached Ward 4 City Councilor Jeremy Dubs, who introduced it to the City Council. A resolution typically takes two meetings to undergo review, where it is voted on by the council members and will pass if it receives a majority of votes.
“There’s a debate when these things come up that it’s not our job on city council to make kind of declarations like this,” Maiore said. “I beg to differ.”
Maiore believes feedback that the council receives from the community — organized groups proposing resolutions, community members weighing in publicly at council meetings and emails and phone calls to the council’s office — is essential for effective grassroots efforts. Through these efforts, small municipalities like Northampton can communicate the desires of their constituents to state representatives and protest against their policy on the House and Senate floors.
“It does send a message to our state senators and state reps,” Maiore said. “The ground up approach is useful because it snowballs; if one community does it, other municipalities might do so too.”
By passing this resolution, Northampton sets a precedent for other local governments to follow in its path and puts pressure on Massachusetts representatives to support Sanders’ Joint Resolutions of Disapproval.
“We’re not getting the leadership on this issue on the national level […] to me, that’s more of an argument to do anything we can at the municipal level,” Maiore said.
This resolution nearly failed, only passing by one vote after the word “unrestricted” was added following much deliberation — the clause becoming “a total and immediate embargo on unrestricted sales and shipment of U.S. weapons to Israel.” Maiore believes the resolution would not have been passed if the council had not included that word.
When The Sophian reached out to Smith’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for comment on this resolution, they criticized the council for including this word. They “acknowledge that the resolution doesn’t go far enough, as it still allows for the sale and shipment of “restricted” weapons, saying this distinction is “arbitrary and meaningless to the thousands of Palestinian people who were murdered or injured with these weapons.”
According to the BBC, many of the weapons that Israel has been using to carry out these attacks were manufactured in the U.S., with 65% of their weapons supplied by the United States since 2013.
Less than a mile away from Smith’s campus sits the manufacturing facility and corporate headquarters of L3Harris, a weapons manufacturer whose products are used in many Israeli weapons systems. According to The American Friends Service Committee, L3Harris supplies component parts for Israeli F35 warplanes, manufactures surveillance equipment that Israel uses at military checkpoints, produces components for JDAM-guided bombs (or “smart bombs”) and manufactures the management systems for Sa’ar 5 and Sa’ar 6 warships that Israel uses to enforce a naval blockade on the Gaza strip.
L3Harris, like other U.S. weapons manufacturers, dervies a profit from selling weapons to the US Department of Defense (DoD); since 2008, L3Harris has received 70.5 billion dollars from the DoD. The DoD provides Israel with these weapons systems as part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), a U.S. agreement to annually give $3.8 billion dollars to Israel in military aid through 2028.
When The Sophian asked Maiore if L3Harris’ presence in Northampton influenced feedback the council heard from the community, she said they did not, speculating that perhaps L3Harris employees “want to keep a low profile” in the community.
This resolution will not affect the function of the weapons manufacturer, but Maiore mentioned a community group she is working with interested in municipal divestment from L3Harris.
“They are looking locally to say things like, do we want to have L3Harris here? Do we know what we are investing in?” Maiore said.
Members of SJP asked similar questions of Smiths’ investments, initiating the occupation of College Hall during spring of 2024 — a protest against Smith College’s investment portfolio that, among other things, includes bundles of investment profiles that have percentage stakes in weapons manufacturers.
“Weapons in the hands of the Israeli government are tools of mass destruction and genocide,” SJP said in their statement on Dec. 10, 2024. “We urge community members, Smith students, staff, and faculty to recognize their positionalities and proximity to the U.S. military industrial complex.”
The administration has not divested from these portfolios, asserting to the student body that any investments in potential contributors to the conflict were “negligible and extremely indirect.” SJP continues their work on campus to advocate for Smith’s divestment and Palestinian liberation as the Israel-Palestine conflict progresses.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was announced recently on Jan. 15, brokered by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt and allowing for the return of hostages and for humanitarian aid to be sent into Gaza. If it continues according to plan, this ceasefire will eventually become permanent and Israeli forces will leave Gaza, but remain on its border.
The continual supply of weapons from U.S. manufactures like L3Harris to Israel has troubling implications, even amid a ceasefire. Decades before Oct. 7, 2024, Israel used these weapons in Palestine in the hands of Israeli soldiers in their communities and at military checkpoints, and will likely continue to do so if the ceasefire becomes permanent.
“We encourage Smith to stand with the City of Northampton,” SJP told The Sophian. “ [Smith] must recognize its own complicity in this genocide, and take concrete action towards examining the role it plays in funneling weapons to oppressive regimes.”
When The Sophian reached out to Smith for a comment on the resolution, they maintained: “As a private institution, Smith doesn’t take a position on city business that is unrelated to the college.”
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