A resolution submitted by East Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell pledging support for Israel will not be considered at Tuesday’s business meeting.
That’s because the proposed resolution was pulled after an agenda work session on Monday.
Birrell’s resolution referenced “brutally inhumane” attacks on Israeli citizens by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,000 civilians, and that states that “the Cobb County Board of Commissioners offers full and unwavering support of Israel’s self-defense and offer our condolences to those families that have lost loved ones in this horrific war.”
(You can read the resolution by clicking here).
But Chairwoman Lisa Cupid read an e-mail from a Cobb Muslim leader noting the fate of several thousand Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip who have been killed and injured in Israeli airstrikes in response, as well as a decades-long conflict with Israel, which was formed in 1948.
The Israeli government urged an estimated 2 million Gaza citizens to evacuate the northern part of the strip prior to its reprisals.
Amjad Taufique, the head of the West Cobb Islamic Center, said in an e-mail to Cupid that the county should consider a resolution acknowledging the “basic human rights and self-determination” of the Palestinian people.
Birrell said her resolution was specifically a response to Hamas, which she called a “terrorist organization.” But Commissioner Jerica Richardson of District 2 in East Cobb wanted a resolution to include more inclusive language reflecting other ethnicities and religions.
Chabad of Cobb, one of three East Cobb synagogues, held a special service two days after the Hamas attack.
Richardson noted a recent rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents in Cobb. After an anti-Semitic protest in front of Chabad in June, she was among the speakers at a special interfaith service at East Cobb United Methodist Church.
On Oct. 12, Cupid issued a standalone statement saying that “what is going on in Israel is utterly heinous”–in particular acts against children—and that “as a political leader, I would ask for the division overseas not to further entrench ours. Tragedy that brings us together as a county or country need not begin on our own soil.”
The resolution, which was to have been included on Tuesday’s consent agenda, is expected to be revised and brought back before the board.
The Cobb Muslim community also lashed out last week at the Cobb County School District for sending an alert message about an “international threat” from Hamas, saying the e-mail was needlessly fear-mongering. Some parents said they and their children were harassed and bullied as a result.
A parent told Cobb school board members on Thursday that the message reflects “the rampant ignorance prevalent with Americans equating Hamas with Muslims.”
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale denounced the mistreatment but defended sending the alert as a security measure.
Commissioners on Tuesday will hold their final public hearing on proposed code amendments as well as a proposal by Birrell to spend $1 million in discretionary capital contingency funding for the proposed Cobb Veterans Memorial.
Commissioners also will be asked to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the Cobb school district to complete a pedestrian bridge between the Walton High School campus and a new sports complex.
The commission meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), and the full agenda can be found by clicking here.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
Related:
- Cobb County Manager gets raise, contract extension
- New Cobb Elections director hired; will start in December
- Citizens skeptical of transit tax at East Cobb town hall
- Conservative group opposed to Cobb transit tax referendum
- Cobb commissioners approve funding to finish police Precinct 6
- Cobb tax commissioner sends out 2023 property tax bills
- Cobb commissioners adopt FY 2024 budget with no millage cut
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