BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Baltimore mayoral candidate and former mayor Sheila Dixon is speaking out against the failed Baltimore City Council resolutions condemning Hamas in the Israel attack. A Baltimore rabbi also weighed in Friday on the controversial votes this week.
A divided city council on the issue met Monday and Thursday this week over what some members considered a simple, straightforward resolution, which called for members to condemn the October Hamas attack on Israel and anti-Semitism.
But instead of that simple vote, discord erupted in the chamber Thursday among council members at odds over the issue.
“We will not be silent. There have been many people, there have been many people in the city of Baltimore that have experienced hate, Jewish and also Islamic,” said Councilwoman Phylicia Porter, who represents District 10. Porter, along with Councilwoman Odette Ramos, of District 14 and Councilmen Kristerfer Burnett, District 8, and Ryan Dorsey, District 3, are the four council members who abstained from voting on the initial resolution Monday, which resulted in the lack of votes needed for the measure to pass.
Dixon spoke out on the C4 and Bryan Nehman radio show Friday. She contemplated the council’s lack of movement on the issue and considered the point behind the protest.
“I was really dismayed, I couldn’t believe it,” said Dixon. “I wasn’t clear about, like, ok, here’s a resolution dealing with the senseless violence of Hamas, you know. Pass the resolution, show our support, and let’s move on to the other issues that are affecting us,” she added.
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The issue at city hall is resonating with residents, like Rabbi Rachel Sabath at the Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation on Parke Heights Avenue.
“We here in Baltimore ought to be able to support each other and defend each other,” said Sabath.
The rabbi has family members, including her 87-year-old mother-in-law in Israel amid the violence. Sabath is searching now trying to find understanding behind the city council’s failed resolutions.
“I would hope that our city council would be able to come together and condemn violence against any minority. So, the failure to do that, I think is very dangerous,” said Sabath.
“I just really wasn’t clear about what was going on and what the motive was behind it,” said Dixon.
The four council members who did not vote on the initial resolution and who failed to get support for their revised resolution, say they didn’t support the measure initially because it did not condemn all forms of hate.
