Ann Arbor School Board OK’s a Resolution Supporting a Cease-Fire in Gaza

In the United States, some labor unions, city governments and town councils have weighed in on the Israel-Hamas war, issuing statements in support of a cease-fire — often over vociferous objections from some of their own members and constituents.

On Wednesday night, the school board in Ann Arbor, Mich., became one of the first public school districts in the country to vote in favor of such a statement.

Supporters of the resolution, including Palestinian American and Jewish board members, said that the statement was an urgent moral necessity amid a humanitarian crisis.

But the vote — 4 to 1, with two members abstaining — was divisive in Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan and sizable Arab and Jewish populations.

At a meeting punctuated by cheers and jeering, some parents said that they did not see any role for the local school board in the conflict, despite their own wishes for the hostilities in Israel and Gaza to end. And they worried that singling out Israel for condemnation, in a world filled with wars and suffering, could fuel antisemitism in the district.

One father said he planned to remove his children from the district’s schools.

And several parents asked the board to refocus on other matters, such as the district’s search for a new superintendent and academic recovery following the pandemic.