At an emotionally charged meeting on Nov. 25, the Somerville City Council resolved to act on a recently-passed ballot question that would require the city to boycott and divest from companies that “engage in business that sustains Israel’s apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine.”

The successful resolution requires the city council to work toward passing an ordinance “within a year … and in a manner that is practicable and legally feasible.”

The non-binding Palestinian Solidarity Ballot Question, known as Question 3, passed in the Nov. 4 election, 11,599 votes to 7,992 votes (59% to 41%). Promoted by the community group Somerville for Palestine, it asked Somerville’s government to consider selling all holdings in and canceling all contracts with companies like Hewlett Packard, which sells laptops to local schools and also computing services to the IDF; Caterpillar, which provides construction machinery locally and demolition equipment for use in the West Bank; and the arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, whose stock is in Somerville workers’ pension funds.

Sam Gechter, a member of the Jewish community group Shalom Somerville, spoke against the resolution at the meeting. When Question 3 was on the ballot, Gechter’s group, Somerville United Against Discrimination, a subcommittee of Shalom Somerville, ran an unsuccessful campaign to defeat it.

Gechter was disappointed but not surprised when the council passed the resolution, 9-2. “We know how to count votes,” he said. “We knew we were going to lose going in. But we still wanted to show up and have our side heard.”

Gechter maintained some city councilors passed the resolution because “they are sick of how much time this issue is taking away from other city business. We know from direct conversations that a lot of people are just like, ‘We’re going to vote yes. We’re going to send this to a committee. The committee is going to figure out that there’s no legal way for us to do this, and then this issue will end.’

“So it’s disappointing how few people stood against what to us is clearly like institutionalizing bias, but I understand at the same time that they just feel like this is going to happen one way or another.”

Outgoing City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr., who introduced the resolution, disagreed.

“I think there are many viable routes to actually implementing a policy that is in alignment with state law and local law and with some of Somerville’s best values, such as putting in place some kind of human rights screen,” Burnley said.

“On our investments moving forward,” he continued, “I think ultimately there will be a lot of discussion and deliberation about what we need to do to move in the spirit of the vote that was taken on Election Day.”

Councilor Kristen Strezo, in voting against the measure, called it “divisive” and said it “works against our collaboration as a community. … It focuses on a global quandary that has nothing to do with our Somerville [and] makes Jews feel more targeted and more unsafe.

“Targeting based on national origin is illegal,” Strezo said. “It’s discrimination, and so is antisemitism.”

Councilor Emily Hardt said she was too new to the council to understand the nuances of the resolution, and since she was not allowed to abstain, she also voted no.

Of the eight councilors (in addition to Burnley) supporting the measure, four spoke in favor of it at the meeting: Ben Ewen-Campen, Wilfred Mbah, Matthew McLaughlin and Naima Sait. The others voting yes comprised Jesse Clingan, Lance Davis, J.T. Scott and Jake Wilson.

In the recent election, Wilson won the mayoralty, defeating Burnley by about 2,100 votes, 55% to 45%. During the campaign, Wilson publicly opposed Question 3 while Burnley strongly supported it. Yet at the Nov. 25 meeting, Wilson supported the divestment resolution.

Wilson did not respond to multiple requests to be interviewed for this story.

While Burnley will not be a member of the city council in 2026, he said he introduced the resolution not out of haste but because he wanted to enact a mandate from city residents.

“I’m not going to be on the council next year, so I won’t be in the same position to craft the language myself,” he said. “I was just giving it a head start.”

He mentioned incoming City Councilors Ben Wheeler and Jonathan Link as supportive of Question 3 and being committed to “doing everything legally feasible to act on the will of the voters.”

While Question 3 and Burnley’s resolution specifically refer to boycotting and divesting from Israel, he hoped the Somerville ordinance would follow the approach taken in neighboring Medford. In August, the city council there passed an ordinance canceling all contracts with companies manufacturing weapons, producing fossil fuels or operating private prisons, as well as companies engaging in human rights violations.

The measure did not mention Israel or the Palestinian territories, nor did it apply to money invested in pension funds, which are regulated by state law.

Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-­Koehn vetoed the ordinance in October, noting legal and financial concerns.

Gechter said he wouldn’t be satisfied if Somerville passed a broader measure that is not specifically anti-Israel.

“I would still be against it, because I know what’s behind it,” he said. “Nobody got up in arms and decided that they were going to pass something like this because of any other conflict. That those kinds of conversations only happen about Israel show that there’s a double standard for Israel. If they want to make it about weapons and fossil fuels and conflicts or whatever, why have they not brought up those other things before?

“If something else comes through, and Somerville for Palestine is supporting it, we really know that for them, it’s all about Israel, and this is just a way of getting that through.”

For the vote on the resolution, about 150 vocal members of both Shalom Somerville and Somerville for Palestine packed the city council chamber. Dozens more partisans assembled outside, where there were reports of contentious exchanges between the two groups.

Several times, Council President Lance Davis threatened to clear the room if attendees weren’t quiet. “I know folks care about this issue,” he said, “but we’re trying to conduct a meeting here.” Θ

Contact reporter Brett M. Rhyne at brett@jewishjournal.org.

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