ST. LOUIS, Missouri — The Kennedy Hearing Room at City Hall routinely hosts mundane discussions about speed bumps, zoning, or housing. But on Friday, one of the world's most protracted conflicts boiled over into a shouting match inside the second-floor committee room.
When Palestinian Americans living in St. Louis heard city leaders were preparing to send a message to Congress or the President about the war raging in their home country, they showed up in droves to make their voices heard.
"Free, free Palestine," dozens of demonstrators chanted as police ushered them out of the chambers and into the halls.
The outburst began in response to a resolution filed by Alderman Tom Oldenburg, which he asked the clerk to read into the record.
Audible groans of dismay echoed across the room as the clerk read his resolution aloud.
Protesters expressed pain, anguish, and outrage at Oldenburg's resolution, which they felt ignored the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians killed in airstrikes or bombings.
"You didn't mention one Palestinian kid killed by the Israelis. Not one," Yousef Shalabi shouted at Oldenburg.
After wiping away tears outside the chambers, Shalabi, whose family lived in Jerusalem, took specific exception to the absence of sympathy for civilians killed by Israeli military airstrikes or explosives in Oldenburg's resolution.
"It's hard not to when you see your own people being killed every day," he said. "You see the children -- and that's mostly what the population of Gaza is. It's more than 50% children and they're dying and nobody's speaking about them."
"He mentioned the barbarism and the heinous crimes and the terrorist Hamas," Shalabi said. "But he didn't once mention the Palestinians killed by the Israelis. He even went as far to mention the Palestinians killed by Hamas, but he didn't mention Palestinians killed by Israeli military."
Two rival resolutions, one filed by Alderman Shane Cohn and Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, each called for varying degrees of de-escalation in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
While Oldenburg's draft said he "mourns the tragic loss of life and civilian casualties in Israel and Gaza," it included no direct calls for peace or de-escalation.
"I apologize that introducing Resolution #136 caused so much pain at the Board of Aldermen today," Oldenburg wrote in a statement afterward. "This Resolution was drafted three days after the October 7th attack and mirrors a draft Resolution from the U.S. House of Representatives which has over 380 supporters. Resolution #136 does NOT celebrate the innocent loss of life. Everyone condemns the human suffering of civilians. I regret the tension this caused."
Others of his colleagues noted that he made no attempt to revise or update his language in the days that followed, even after churches and hospitals were detonated in Gaza and the death toll claimed hundreds of civilian lives.
Some of the demonstrators leveled heated charges at Oldenburg, calling him a "terrorist."
In his response, Oldenburg suggested the Board of Aldermen President should take steps to secure the chambers.
“The eruption at the board today raises safety concerns for members of the Board of Aldermen," Oldenburg wrote. "Safety responsibilities are in the control of President Green.”
Green did not address the demonstrators or the outbursts directly, but her chief of staff sent a written statement to 5 On Your Side after the disruption waylaid the afternoon's proceedings.
“During today’s board meeting, Alderman Oldenburg introduced an inflammatory resolution that fails to recognize the complexity of the situation in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank," Green's aide Jay Nelson said. "Words, when spoken by an elected official in particular, have an impact on the public and it is regrettable that the Alderman did not consider how his decisions may affect others."
After tensions cooled, half of the members of the Board of Aldermen stayed behind to hear the group out.
"There's been a lot of tragedy in our community," Omar Badran told them. "I know one person here in St. Louis who lost 14 members of his family in Gaza."
"We want you to speak," Alderwoman Daniela Velazquez told them, urging them to come back and testify at committee hearings later on.
"We don't really have what you think, the power to do this," Alderwoman Sharon Tyus told them.
"This is the first aldermen meeting I've ever been to in my life," Badran said.
He urged city officials to call on Congress and President Biden to support a ceasefire.
"If you don't have the moral conviction and courage to stand up in a situation like this, then I don't think you even really deserve a position in elected office," he said.
All three resolutions were advanced to the Legislation Committee for future consideration. If sponsors of the measures call them for a vote, members of the public could come and testify about the language in them at a later date before the committee advances them to a vote on the chamber floor.