More than one hundred protesters demanding Cleveland City Council pass a resolution supporting a cease-fire in Gaza were removed by police from Cleveland City Hall on Monday.
Unlike in previous months, during which protesters have showed up to city council meetings in droves to flood public comment period and sometimes disrupt meetings with chanting and shouting, most activists did not gather in chambers, but rather in City Hall's first-floor atrium.
The purpose, organizers said, is to do what city council has refused to do and pass their own resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas War to support the more than 30,000 Palestinians who have been killed in Israel's air and ground strikes in Gaza since a Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 Israelis, as reported by the Associated Press.
Several minutes into Monday's city council meeting, Council President Blaine Griffin instructed security to close the doors to council as echoes of chants downstairs flooded into chambers. Roughly half an hour later, Cleveland police began asking protesters in the atrium to leave the premises.
Members of the public who were attending the meeting in council chambers were not asked to leave.
“I don’t understand,” said Chance Zurub of the Palestine Youth Movement, one of the protest's leaders, to Cleveland police officers. "We’re not bothering anyone here."
It is unclear who gave the directive to remove protesters. A spokesperson for city council told Ideastream it was not council.
The protesters, who ultimately followed police instructions and left peacefully, moved outside to continue what they called a "mock meeting" to pass the resolution.
"Now it's time to move on to BDS [boycott, divestment, sanctions]," said Cleveland resident and Palestinian Shereen Naser. "I mean, over 30,000 Palestinians are dead, 15,000 are children, what's a ceasefire going to do now? Gaza is decimated."
Prior to Monday night's meeting, at least one person had been removed from chambers by Cleveland police for shouting and starting chants charging Mayor Justin Bibb with "genocide" for comments he made on social media after the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. Shouting and disruption have persisted since, once forcing an early adjournment after legislation had been passed.
In response, Cleveland City Council imposed a new six-step protocol intended to deal with meeting disruptions that would ultimately allow city council to recess, clear the meeting and not permit the public — with the exception of news media — to return to chambers for the remainder of the meeting.
Those members of the public who remained in chambers Monday continued to criticize council members during the public comment period: one of whom called Griffin a "petty tyrant." Another told members that "we cannot move onto local issues... until we agree that genocide is wrong."
Griffin asks some city staff not attend meeting. Vows to beef up security
During a meeting of council committee chairs on Monday afternoon, Griffin said that he intends to ramp up police presence and response after a recent meeting ended with what he called "borderline of a criminal act."
He and other city staff say protesters blocked both exits at the end of the meeting on Feb. 26, forcing members of council and the Bibb administration to take a back exit out of City Hall.
Griffin called that "unacceptable" and directed some of council's staff to stay home Monday night.
"I'm always on the side of protecting the staff because they're here to work with us," Griffin said. "And then, always the body first. And then, let me be honest, the protesters as well, I'm concerned about their safety as well."
Other members lauded Griffin's response. Ward 3 representative Kerry McCormack said he fully backs residents' right to speech and protest, but said it's hindering other members of the public's ability to attend council meetings.
"We have got to draw the line between speak your mind, you can say whatever you want, it's a public meeting, every and anybody can come to it, but our residents could not get out of [the] meeting," McCormack said. "We had residents that couldn't leave the building. That is not acceptable.... Their city government, their public building, their people's house were prohibited from exiting the building after that meeting, and we're stuck there."
Majority Whip and Ward 14 representative Jasmin Santana urged council to consider the protesters' side.
"They're also desperate," she said. "I mean, like look at what's going on. So to a certain extent, I think they just want to feel included and... we're sympathetic to that."
McCormack agreed, saying the situation in Gaza was horrific and called Israel President Benjamin Netanyahu a "war criminal." That statement was one of the strongest public condemnations of the Israeli leader by a council member after Rebecca Maurer addressed and apologized to protestersin a January meeting.
Ward 16's Brian Kazy suggested moving public comment to the end of council meetings to ensure they can "get the work done." At Monday night's meeting, public comment was, in fact, moved until after legislation had been read.
Kazy also asked if the city's charter requires that meetings be televised, to which Griffin answered no.
Ward 13 representative Kris Harsh suggested not televising public comment, saying protesters are "trying to get media attention."
Griffin said he would not punish the rest of the public, as many residents tune in online if they cannot attend meetings in person.
The next Cleveland City Council meeting will take place March 18.
Ygal Kaufman contributed to this report.
