City of York Council calls for Gaza ceasefire

03/10/2024

Nouse explores the details of the motion, student reactions and how to combat misinformation

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Image by Palestine News Agency

By Tom Layton

This short report was first published as a lead story for our Nouseletter.

On Thursday 19 September, the City of York council officially called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Labour councillors (who control the council), and Liberal Democrat councillors (the majority opposition), backed the motion, which called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, allowing aid into Gaza and the release of all hostages and detainees.

The process involved communication between the leaders of York’s Muslim and Jewish communities, and Councillors justified delays to the proceedings. The wording of the motion passed last week was agreed upon by both.

The Conservative group of councillors abstained on the motion. Tory councillor Chris Steward stated they were doing so because of concerns that calls to release detainees were too broad. He queried the definition, arguing that under international law: “a detainee could mean a whole host of people who have been sentenced and imprisoned.”

The motion will likely result in very little tangible change in York, and is largely a symbolic victory. For example, the wording of the motion declared that it was passed in line with York’s status as the UK’s first Human Rights City.

York declared itself the UK’s first human rights city in 2017 when the Lord Mayor of York committed to adopting “a human rights approach” to governance. This involved the creation of the York Human Rights City Network (YHRC), a civil society partnership hosted by the University of York’s Centre for Applied Human Rights, and the York Centre for Voluntary Service.

YHRC publishes annual reports on York’s progress as a human rights city regarding social care, housing, education, equality and non-discrimination, and living standards.

UOY Palsoc stated on their Instagram in a joint statement that “The council is almost a year late but their statement is welcome nevertheless.” They also urged the council to go further and “divest from companies that benefit a state committing some of the worst crimes against humanity.”

Their statement attributed the successful passing of the motion to “months of hard work and lobbying efforts” from the York Palestine Assembly, North Yorkshire Health Workers for Palestine, and Palsoc.

The motion has been criticised by many commentators as latent - former and current York Central MP Rachael Maskall called for a ceasefire back in February. Prime Minister Keir Starmer first called for a ceasefire in February, and since then many ceasefire calls have shifted focus towards Israel's Northern Border as Israeli forces ready for a probable ground invasion of Lebanon and conduct air strikes across the wider Middle East, including in Yemen.

Veils of disinformation and misinformation surround the conflict on all sides of the political spectrum. Separate reports have simultaneously found UK media too sympathetic and too harsh on Israel, settler violence means the line between the Israeli people and state is consistently blurred, and student protest groups have shared infographics which brush over the ultra-conservative human rights abuses of Hamas’ leadership.

So, our news team have come up with a short list of some reliable, data-driven sources for information on the conflict:

  • Airwars - interactive, live maps and in-depth reports on civilian harm from airstrikes in the Middle East
  • Action on Armed Violence - British charity dedicated to the study of explosive harm against civilians
  • ACLED - The ACLED (Armed Conflict & Event Data) database collects and publishes information on large geopolitical/global military events
  • B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.
    • B’Tselem is an NGO that documents human rights abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. They maintain the legitimacy of both a Jewish and Israeli state in the Middle East, whilst firmly opposing “the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime”.
  • Live Universal Awareness Map - A live map documenting, locating and verifying news and events in conflicts around the world.

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