Fargo City Commission Fails to Pass Ceasefire Resolution for Palestine

“Silence becomes cowardice…”

In a split vote of the Fargo (N.D.) City Commission yesterday, the ceasefire resolution for Palestine (which the Fargo Human Rights Commission passed unanimously) failed. Deputy Mayor and Commissioner Arlette Preston and Commissioner John Strand voted in favor of passage, Mayor Tim Mahoney and Commissioner Denise Kolpack voted against. Commissioner Dave Piepkorn was absent. Since there was no majority one way or the other, the resolution failed.

(The links above will take you to the comment submission page for each of the commissioners; please let them know how you feel about their votes.)

Fargo, N.D. Deputy Mayor & Commissioner Arlette Preston and Commissioner John Strand voted in favor of the ceasefire resolution.

The reaction from CodePink Fargo-Moorhead, which worked tirelessly to get the sister cities of Fargo and Moorhead, Minn. to pass ceasefire resolutions (the Moorhead City Council did so), is spot on:

“While we were hopeful that Fargo city commission members would do the right thing, we understand that some still may lack the political courage this moment demands.”

CodePink of Fargo-Moorhead

Full CodePink Statement on Fargo Ceasefire Resolution Vote

The “no” votes by Kolpack and Mahoney were, in my judgement, unconscionable at best, and their explanations (excuses) for their “no” votes simply do not hold water.

“It is beyond our scope to be weighing in on national and international policies,” Mahoney said. “As commissioners, we have the direct power to improve the human condition right here in Fargo, and we must use all our energy to do just that. Divisive resolutions will only pull us apart.”

First of all, calling this resolution “divisive” is disingenuous. Read it yourself.

“Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.”

Mahatma Gandhi

In this case, the statements from Mahoney and Kolpack are hypocritical, as well. If they’re worried about overstepping the commission’s bounds, then why did the mayor issue a ceasefire proclamation several weeks ago? And why did Kolpack support it? By any definition, that act was “…weighing in on national and international policies.”

And that’s minor compared to the fact that the commission has a history of passing resolutions on international issues, as it did in March 2022 with a resolution to “…dismantle contractual relationships (the city has with companies doing business) with Russia” due to its invasion of Ukraine.

If you’re going to say you can’t stick your nose in, then you can’t pick and choose.

Even so, Kolpack said, “From the beginning, I supported the mayoral proclamation, and I believe that proclamation was appropriate and balanced.”

However, by definition, genocide is never, ever “balanced.”

She continued:  “As an elected leader in a nonpartisan office, I took an oath to uphold the constitutions of North Dakota and the United States, as well as our home-rule charter. And I take that oath very seriously.”

All due respect to the commissioner, but with regard to the ceasefire resolution, that oath is completely and unequivocally irrelevant.

The proclamation was, in the opinion of IV Words, a politically cynical dodge to avoid voting on a formal ceasefire resolution, and Mahoney’s public comments and vote last night lend credence to that viewpoint.

Listen, instead, to Commissioner Strand, who spoke in the manner of someone who truly cares about humanity:

As the IV Words Blog has written previously, calling for a ceasefire to end Israeli hostilities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is a moral imperative. It doesn’t take a Nobel Peace Prize winner to understand it’s necessary to speak out against the slaughter of innocent and oppressed people, especially children. We need to be acting and reacting to Israel’s aggression as if the innocents being killed are our own mothers and fathers, daughters and sons.

Silence is complicity.

It really is that simple.