A heated and wide-ranging public comment period at the Arcata City Council meeting on Aug. 20 centered on a citizen-led proposal to establish a sister-city relationship with Gaza City and on calls for the city to take positions related to investments and humanitarian relief.

Multiple residents and callers urged the council to adopt Gaza City as a sister city to Arcata and to pursue actions such as divestment or a formal city letter. Sean (identified in public comment as a proponent of a Gaza sister-city), Cynthia Copeland, Akib, Jillian (a Cal Poly Humboldt student), and several callers said the action would show solidarity and could help channel humanitarian support. Cynthia Copeland told the council the people of Gaza were suffering “famine” and damage to water and sewage infrastructure; she said local organizing already had working contacts enabling water delivery.

Other speakers strongly opposed the sister-city proposal. Abraham (a Zoom caller) and Ella (a Zoom caller who said she is 92 years old) recounted historical attacks on Jewish communities and criticized protest tactics at earlier meetings; Jody and other callers said the previous meeting had featured uncivil and threatening behavior and argued those conditions made the proposal inappropriate.

In response to the public comments and the polarized public reaction, Council member Stacey Atkinson Salazar proposed a narrower, humanitarian-focused approach. She said she drafted a short resolution urging “immediate safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza and across Palestine” and asked the council to place that resolution on a future agenda so Arcata could use its relationships with state and federal representatives to press for direct humanitarian relief. Atkinson Salazar said she had discussed the idea with another council member and that member agreed to co-sponsor.

Council member Meredith (first name as used in the meeting) said she could not support forming a sister-city relationship with Gaza City while it is governed by Hamas, which she cited as a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Meredith said she could support humanitarian relief efforts and calm dialogue but not an official sister-city relationship or divestment that could affect the city’s fiscal responsibilities.

No formal council vote occurred on the sister-city proposal during the Aug. 20 meeting. Council members did not put a sister-city resolution on the agenda that night. The discussion closed with a proposal to draft and circulate a humanitarian-aid resolution for consideration at a future meeting; the motion to add that item to a future agenda had not yet been recorded as a formal action in the Aug. 20 transcript.

Speakers on both sides described strong feelings and urged the council to act. Mayor Alexandra Stillman and staff reminded speakers that, under the Brown Act, the council cannot take action on items not on the published agenda during the meeting but can place new items on a future agenda for formal consideration.