CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County council members introduced a resolution that urges the county’s investment advisory committee to immediately cease additional investments in Israel Bonds or other foreign securities.

What You Need To Know

  • Cuyahoga County council members introduced a resolution that urges the county’s investment advisory committee to immediately cease additional investments in Israel Bonds or other foreign securities

  • Tuesday night’s public comment section lasted about three hours as pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian residents spoke before council about the resolution

  • The resolution must next go through committee for discussion and be read before council in two more meetings before it can be voted on

Tuesday night’s public comment section lasted about three hours as pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian residents spoke before council about the resolution.

Cuyahoga County currently holds $16 million in Israel Bonds.

Council member Patrick Kelly and Vice President Cheryl Stephens sponsored the resolution introduced Tuesday night.

“This opened up our dialogue,” Stephens said. “We had young voters here, future voters, tell us they wanted us to pause and consider. As an elected official, I want to listen to a range of people in our community and as council vice president, that means I serve across the community. As I said earlier, because I am concerned about the economics of any financing tool that we use, both Councilman Kelly and I thought we should look more at the investment.”

The wording of the resolution, which doesn’t ban investments in Israel Bonds, but urges the county’s investment advisory committee responsible for making those decisions not to invest further.

For five consecutive council meetings, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have packed council chambers with three demands — including the end of investment of public funds into Israel Bonds.

Many of them returned to public comment again this week in support of the resolution.

“As a Jew and a Rabbi, I grieve the Israelis killed on Oct. 7th. I also grieve the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza since then,” Rabbi Miriam Geronimus, who commented in support of the resolution, said. “So many of them women and children. It pains me deeply that so many Palestinians have been killed supposedly to make me safer. This slaughter doesn’t make anyone safer.”

Meanwhile, several pro-Israel residents voiced their opposition to the resolution.

“This also demonizes Israel. It makes Israel feel that it is unable do anything in its area that is not considered brutal or murderous or genocidal,” Rabbi Rosette Haim said in a comment against the resolution. “When in fact, Israel stands against those kind of issues and is indeed one of the few countries in the region that upholds human rights.”

The resolution, R2024-0208, reads as follows: “A Resolution urging the Cuyahoga County Executive and the County Treasurer to immediately cease any additional County investment in bonds and other sovereign debt issued by the Nation of Israel; and urging the Investment Advisory Committee to amend the County’s Investment Policy to prohibit future investments in any foreign securities; and declaring the necessity that this Resolution become immediately effective.”

The resolution must next go through committee for discussion and be read before council in two more meetings before it can be voted on.