The movement has received the support of dozens of government and local officials. They include Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American elected to the US Congress, who also called on people to actively vote against Biden in today's contest.
Rashida Tlaib, center, alongside fellow Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley.credit: AP
“We must make sure that our government is about us — about the people,” Tlaib said in a social media video after today’s “non-committal” vote.
“When 74 percent of Michigan Democrats support a ceasefire, and yet President Biden doesn't hear us, this is how we can use our democracy to say: Listen. Listen to Michigan.
On the other hand, the White House insists that it is doing everything in its power to press for a ceasefire. Biden said on Monday that he believed that an agreement to stop Israeli military operations in Gaza could be reached early next week, in exchange for the release of some of the more than 100 hostages held by Hamas.
In response to a journalist's question during his campaign stop in New York when he expected the ceasefire to begin, Biden replied: “I hope by the end of the weekend.” My national security advisor told me we were close. It was close. We're not done yet. “I hope we will reach a ceasefire by next Monday.”
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If an agreement is reached, it will be a defining moment in the conflict in the Middle East, with the death toll in Gaza expected to exceed 30,000 this week.
appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers On Monday night, the president also revealed that there was “an agreement among Israelis not to participate in any activities during Ramadan” — the Muslim holy month that begins in two weeks — “to give us time to get all the hostages out.” “.
However, Hamas later downplayed the significance of the agreement, with the group's representative in Lebanon, Ahmed Abdel Hadi, telling a local TV channel that the leaks amounted to “psychological warfare” aimed at pressuring the Hamas leadership to waive its terms for a ceasefire.
Among these conditions is a demand for an end to the fighting and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza – something that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously described as “fictitious.”
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