On Gaza, Minneapolis City Council out of its lane, meeting out of control

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The new Minneapolis City Council term is starting off on a terrible foot, and I am worried. I hoped that we could start off this term with a spirit of collaboration and a shared purpose of moving our city forward. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues including our newly elected council president and vice president seem to have different plans, as they have decided to bring forward a one-sided resolution regarding the war between Israel and Hamas as the very first order of council business.

There is so much wrong with this that it is hard to know where to start.

First, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is profoundly complicated. Many scholars study this full time. Many people before us have tried unsuccessfully to solve the issues. What makes my colleagues think they know the answers?

Second, what makes my colleagues think anyone in Israel or Gaza cares what they think? We were elected to do things like make sure the snow gets shoveled and find ways to improve our public safety system. We should stay in our lane, and this is not even close to our lane.

So many of my council colleagues seem blind to the violence happening right here in our own city. I wish they would get serious about addressing that instead of spending their time on revolutionary cosplay and performative stunts. If we don't work on saving our own city from violence, who will? That is our job. Foreign relations is the job of many others.

Further, this resolution is divisive. It is hurtful to our Jewish and Palestinian community alike. None of the major Jewish organizations were consulted in drafting the language of this resolution, which doesn't even acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization.

Finally, this resolution is dangerous. I've endured a lot of chaotic council meetings. But the Jan. 8 meeting was by far the worst yet.

Newly elected council President Elliott Payne let things get way out of hand. Supporters of Palestine packed the room, and they were out of control. They interrupted the meeting, threatened Jewish audience members, and yelled at council members.

President Payne did not stop it. Council Member Robin Wonsley made the situation worse with her comments, which seemed meant to incite violence. She clearly enjoyed the cheers she got, which only made her louder and more inflammatory.

This has got to stop. Someone is going to get hurt. I was worried about several of my invited guests, who are Jewish. They were hugely outnumbered and they were being openly threatened by members of a very angry crowd. I've had city staff reach out to me to say that they felt unsafe. This is absolutely not OK, and this behavior should not be tolerated by council leadership.

I hope this was a learning experience and not an indication of how this term will go. Council leadership is responsible for protecting the safety of our staff, the public and the council. They need to bring us together, not further divide us so that we can do the actual job we were elected to do.

Council President Payne needs to make this right. He should make a public apology for how he allowed our staff, residents and visitors to be treated. In particular, he should apologize to our Jewish community members who were present. They were threatened and bullied in a way that was disgraceful. This cannot happen again. Setting the tone for our meetings is the responsibility of the council president and we need him to step up.

LaTrisha Vetaw represents Ward 4 on the Minneapolis City Council.