At an emotionally charged city council meeting on June 11, Jewish community members vociferously opposed a measure that would require Somerville to boycott and divest from many companies doing business in Israel.
If enacted as written, the proposed Ethical Procurement and Investment ordinance would prohibit Somerville from contracting with corporations that do business with countries that engage in “apartheid, genocide or unlawful military occupation,” or engage in conduct that violates international humanitarian law, “including without limitation in Israel and Palestine.”
It would also prohibit Somerville from investing in corporations that do business with such countries, “so long as alternatives with equivalent or better financial prospects are available.”
Four of Somerville’s 11 city councilors co-sponsored the ordinance: Ben Ewen-Campen and Ben Wheeler, who co-wrote it, and Jon Link and Wilfred Mbah. In introducing the measure, Ewen-Campen, who is Jewish, said the council is mandated to act by the passage of the Palestinian Solidarity Ballot Question (Question 3) in the November 2025 election.
“The ordinance that is before us tonight is our attempt to do what is being asked of us, and to do so in a way that is legal and practicable,” Ewen-Campen said. “It says that where Somerville has financial discretion, let us protect our own reputation by ensuring that we are not supporting companies that profit from violations of international law or from violations of international humanitarian law.”
Somerville residents passed the non-binding Question 3 11,599 to 7,992 on Nov. 4, 2025. It called for the city to consider selling all holdings in and canceling all contracts with companies such as 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.
On Nov. 25, 2025, the council resolved to work toward passing an ordinance based on Question 3 “within a year.”
Kristen Strezo, who is Jewish, was the lone councilor to voice opposition to the proposed ordinance.
“Here is the hard truth: This ordinance as drafted is discriminatory and will be challenged in court. The question is not whether a lawsuit comes – it is how much it will cost us and what we will have to give up to pay for it,” she said.
Strezo was referencing a lawsuit filed against the neighboring City of Medford, which passed a divestment ordinance in November 2025. The Massachusetts-based Gevura Fund was one of three groups that sued to stop the enactment of the ordinance.
Gevura Fund President Tina Snider remained hopeful that legal action against Somerville would not become necessary.
“I still believe in the value of conversation, education and diplomacy,” she noted in an email. “When you are dealing with others who no longer share those values and put their communities – communities who can’t balance a budget or pick up the trash or fund local programs – at risk; the strategy must change. Nothing is off the table … let’s see how the city responds to diplomacy.”
Strezo offered a litany of arguments against the measure, including how it might draw resources away from exigencies such as schools, infrastructure and the hiring of municipal employees. She contrasted the council’s focus on events halfway around the world with the needs of its constituents at home experiencing food insecurity, threats to their reproductive rights, and menacing by immigration agents.
During public comment, Israeli American Leiran Biton, a Somerville School Committee member, decried the human cost of Somerville’s public discussion of a divestment measure.
“Members of my family have confided in me that they feel angry, scared, and afraid. Your actions are contributing to a Somerville where Jews feel increasingly unsafe – and also where Palestinians are increasingly unsafe,” he testified.
“This law singles out the only Jewish country in the world in a way that is illegal, unjust, and unethical,” Biton continued. “I will continue to fight – whether this moves to committee or not – with every fiber of my being, to uphold the Somerville I was promised: A place that is safe and welcoming and ensures belonging to all the people who reside here, not just those who look or pray or act in a certain way.”
Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston (JCRC), criticized the councilors for acting on the 60% majority vote on Question 3. “In a pluralistic democracy,” he said, “we cannot simply bend to the will of the majority – that is tyranny.”
He echoed Biton’s belief that “the campaign around ballot Question 3 has made members of Somerville’s Jewish community feel unsafe and unwelcome,” and suggested public debate has led to “a climate of intimidation” that included antisemitic rhetoric and “a broader demonization of well-meaning Jewish residents of this city.”
In his testimony, Burton associated himself with Shalom Somerville, one of two community groups that had waged a high profile contest around the ballot referendum in November.
Somerville for Palestine initiated Question 3 and canvassed heavily for it, while Somerville United Against Discrimination (a subcommittee of Shalom Somerville) ran a campaign of phoning and texting residents, mailing flyers, posting online digital ads and videos, and filing a lawsuit against it. Somerville United Against Discrimination also received an undisclosed amount of money from Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), a primary financial benefactor of the JCRC, to conduct professional polling prior to the vote.
Both Strezo and Burton argued against the proposed ordinance by stressing how divisive the discussion of divestment from Israel has been to the Somerville community.
Two councilors disagreed: Ewen-Campen insisted U.S. support for Israel’s actions in Gaza is the cause of the divisiveness, and Link said, “The divide is not the question we’re debating here. The division is the attack on human rights – and it is not what we do here.”
Two members of Somerville for Palestine, Amina Awad (a Palestinian) and Aaron Axelman (a Jew), testified that the proposed ordinance does not go far enough and advocated for closing several “loopholes.”
One would allow Somerville to contract with otherwise prohibited corporations for goods or services that are essential to the city’s operation or would avoid the city incurring a significant financial burden. Another would allow Somerville to invest in otherwise prohibited corporations if it determines the purchase is essential to the city’s sound financial operation. A third is the previously mentioned exclusion for investing in otherwise prohibited corporations when there are no equivalent or better financial opportunities.
The proposed ordinance would also require the mayor to maintain a written policy that describes how the city ensures compliance. The winner of November’s mayoral election, former City Councilor Jake Wilson, initially opposed Question 3 but supported the Nov. 25 resolution to move it forward.
Mayor Wilson declined to say whether he would sign the divestment ordinance if it is passed by the City Council. “The Council has proposed an ethical procurement ordinance,” he noted in an email. “My administration is honoring our previous commitment to make staff available for their deliberations on what is legal and practicable.”
After 45 minutes of discussion occasionally interrupted by outcries from the gallery, the councilors agreed by voice vote to send the proposed ordinance to the Legislative Matters Committee for further review. The committee comprises declared supporters Ewen-Campen and Mbah; declared opponent Strezo; and Councilors Lance Davis and J.T. Scott, both of whom supported the Nov. 25 resolution moving Question 3 forward.
Looking ahead, Councilors Jesse Clingan, Matthew McLaughlin and Naima Sait all supported the Nov. 25 resolution; with the addition of co-author Wheeler, the ordinance would appear to already have nine supporters on the 11 member Council. Council newcomer Emily Hardt did not respond to interview requests.
Somerville’s activity around divestment from Israel has also drawn the attention of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which, in a joint statement issued a week after the meeting, urged city officials to reject the proposed ordinance.
The Legislative Matters Committee is slated to take up the proposed ordinance when it next meets on June 30. Θ
Contact reporter Brett M. Rhyne at brett@jewishjournal.org.
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