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Residents urge Arcata council to establish sister city with Gaza, call for CalPERS divestment
Summary
Multiple speakers during public comment urged the Arcata City Council to approve a sister-city relationship with Gaza City and to ask CalPERS to divest from companies they say are linked to human-rights abuses; council took no formal action on those requests at the meeting.
Several residents used public comment time at the April 16 Arcata City Council meeting to press the council to pursue two related actions: establish a sister-city relationship with Gaza City and send a letter urging CalPERS to divest from companies the speakers said are profiting from violence in Gaza.
One speaker said the Gaza municipality had expressed strong interest in a sister-city relationship and proposed a fundraising campaign to support water distribution in Gaza; the speaker urged the council to consider the request and mentioned an April 24 fundraising variety show. “They identified this as an urgent priority with the water situation there, and there's over, that would serve over 185,000 people, they estimate,” the speaker said in presenting the idea.
Several other speakers endorsed the proposal and called on the council to act. Dan Shaheen (on Zoom) urged the council to “put politics aside” and express moral support for civilians in Gaza; Tricia Murphy said volunteers at a local Palestinian “talking corner” had gathered more than 1,000 signatures in support of a sister-city request and urged council members to reconsider earlier reluctance.
Multiple callers and commenters also asked the council to send a divestment letter to CalPERS. Alice (no last name provided), identified in the meeting as a public commenter, argued CalPERS was invested in firms she said supply equipment used in hostilities and urged the council to demand divestment. Ellen and other callers reiterated that request and said it was consistent with the city’s own investment policy and a ceasefire resolution the council passed previously. One caller cited international opinions and urged the city to follow the “world court ruling” and to support Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) measures; another referenced Nelson Mandela while urging Arcata to act.
Rebecca Smith, managing attorney at Legal Services of Northern California, spoke about a separate agenda item (an inclusionary zoning ordinance on the consent calendar) and asked the council to reconsider exemptions that she said would make the ordinance ineffective for producing affordable mixed-income housing.
Council members accepted the public comments but did not take any formal action on the sister-city or CalPERS-divestment requests during the meeting. Staff and council members noted the council’s authority is limited in some matters (for example, CalPERS is a statewide pension fund), and no motion was introduced on either the sister-city proposal or divestment letters at this meeting.
