Hastings Councillors Call For Gaza Ceasefire

Hastings Borough Council has joined calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

On Wednesday (July 16), Hastings councillors debated a motion tabled by Green Party councillor Yunis Smith, which called on the council to endorse “an immediate and permanent ceasefire to stop the catastrophic loss of life in Gaza and the West Bank, and the return of all hostages.”

The motion also called on the council to “recognise and support the existing friendship link between Hastings and Al-Mawasi”.

It said the council should support councillors in this aim by working with the Hastings Friends of Al-Mawasi — a group which aims to develop links between Hastings and the Palestinian town.

This work could include exchange trips and other forms of contact between organisations in Hastings and Al-Mawasi, the motion said.

Opening the debate, Cllr Smith said:

“This motion may seem small to some, but it carries weight.

"It calls for: a cessation of arms sales to Israel; an immediate release of hostages; and recognition of the powerful connection of friendship between Hastings and al-Mawasi.

“Despite devastation al-Mawasi endures. Battered yet broken, this narrow one-kilometre-wide, 14-kilometre-long coastal town was once a flourishing fishing and farming community, renowned for its sweet ground water, sandy dunes, rich biodiversity … and fertile fields, nicknamed the basket of food for Gaza. Olive groves, date farms and vegetable plots once thrived here in harmony with the sea.

“In December 2023, Israeli authorities designated al-Mawasi a safe zone, urging Palestinians to relocate there.

"The logic; Hamas was reportedly not present in the area. Yet this supposed sanctuary has been relentlessly bombed.”

He added:

“al-Mawasi, like Hastings, is defined not just by its land but by the resilience of its people.

"They survive, endure and beckon us to witness their struggle and their strength.

“Respected councillors I ask you to stand with our Palestinian and our Jewish residents and all those who oppose the horrors of genocide.”

The motion also called on the council to write to the prime minister and urge him to both “immediately cease all arms sales and military support to the State of Israel” and to “publicly back an urgent, UN-supported plan to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid and reconstruction assistance to Gaza”.

While passed on a majority vote, a large number of councillors expressed reservations about the motion.

It was ultimately agreed with 14 in votes in favour, three against and 11 abstentions.

Labour councillor Helen Kay was among those to raise concerns.

She said:

“The death and destruction in Gaza that we have seen since the beginning of the conflict following Hamas’s terror attack on the 7th October is unbearable.

“Civilians in Gaza now face new bombardment, new displacement and new suffering and the remaining hostages are at heightened risk from the war around them.

“This is a hugely sensitive and deeply complex issue.

"With its focus on issues of inter-generational, international politics this motion goes way beyond the remit of local councillors to serve our residents in such areas as improving housing, bin collections [and] fly tipping.”

She added:

“I am also deeply concerned that tabling this motion will only serve to create further tensions amongst the Hastings community and could potentially put our communities — and the Jewish community in particular — at risk of greater marginalisation.”

Cllr Kay went on to raise specific concerns about the motion’s calls on the council to support the friendship link between Hastings and al-Mawasi, arguing such work could pose significant reputational risks.

She said:

“We don’t believe there is any realistic mechanism by which Hastings Borough Council could carry out the appropriate due diligence on the ground in Gaza to guarantee that no funds, resources or communications are being misused.

“You may argue that we are playing with semantics and words; but words matter.

"You are asking us to agree to a motion, which may, however well-meaning and however much we may support the sentiments behind it, result in individual councillors and Hastings Borough Council inadvertently supporting a proscribed organisation.”

Similar concerns about this element of the motion were shared by councillors across most of the council’s political groups.

They included Conservative councillor Sorrell Marlow-Eastwood, who said:

“We all want an end to the disgusting atrocities that are going on.

"We want all hostages to be returned, dead or alive. We want suffering to stop, people to be fed and the sick to be treated.

“But there are ways of doing it and there are ways of supporting people who do. Unfortunately, I don’t know enough about al-Mawasi and the groups that are supporting it.

“I know that people here have very good intentions and I don’t put that down whatsoever, but we don’t know what’s happening once it is in Gaza, we don’t know who these people are who are distributing and helping.

“The thought that I could be putting the council’s reputation into disrepute by saying that we support a group, who could be supporting Hamas, is a situation I could never put this council into.”

Concerns were also raised by Green councillor Tony Collins, who had previously put forward similar motions proposing town twinning between Hastings and al-Mawasi.

These motions had been rule inadmissible, so had not been debated.

He said:

“Much since has changed; al-Mawasi is now a vast camp of displaced people.

"Israel has attacked it repeatedly and it has become a base from which Hamas launches rockets.

“Israel’s disproportionate actions in Gaza has killed thousands. Many believe that Israel’s agenda, especially on the part of the settler community, is to drive out the Palestinians entirely.

"Similarly, the declared objective of Hamas is to wipe out the Jewish people.”

He added:

“This is not truly about al-Mawasi, it is about taking a side. I am not convinced that we should. This is not a local issue. Our vote will be widely ignored.

“More profoundly, I cannot find it within myself to prefer one side rather than the other. I am aware this will disappoint many whose good opinion I value, but I shall abstain.”

These arguments saw some strident criticism from Cllr Smith, who said:

“It is great to see that so many people have said so many things about how you could support this, but it is confusing to say you won’t support it. You could support it and you do support it but you won’t support it.

“You will be judged. This is that moment in history where you will be held accountable for what you have done in this room.”

He added:

“Read the actual motion in front of you. If you say this motion supports Hamas, then you say I support Hamas.

"If you accuse me of being a terrorist supporter, then accuse me of being a terrorist supporter. Say it.”

A similar view was shared by Hastings Independent councillor Simon Willis, who had seconded the motion.

Cllr Willis began his speech by speaking about how his grandparents, aunts and then infant mother had fled to Australia in 1939 “having been tipped off the SS were coming for them at their comfortable home in Hamburg”.

He said other members of his family had died in Auschwitz and Theresienstadt.

He said:

“My beloved Oma and Opa and my mother Sabina tried to teach me the lessons they had learned about tyranny, about injustice and about inequality. About war.

“They made me learn to be very afraid of people who value one group above another and one group of people’s lives above that of another.

"And following directly from that they taught me to recognise genocide when I saw it and to value those people who stood against it regardless of personal consequence.”

Cllr Willis added:

“Those of our fellow citizens who in timidity, fear or anger conspire to the continuation of a genocide either through silence, indifference or legalistic quibbles, will be judged by history just as surely as the old men who are perpetrating this violence in Israel and bringing shame to their ancestors and danger to all Jewish people across the globe, including my beloved wife and children.”