Chicago City Wire

An anonymous group of city hall staffers penned an unsigned letter urging Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago City Council to call for a "ceasefire in Palestine; de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians; the restoration of water, fuel, electricity, and other basic services; and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to Gaza." This plea is presented in response to ongoing tensions within the Palestine region.

The letter penned in the name of at least 30 government staff members was posted on social media by a "Coalition of Progressive Staffers from the Mayor's Office & City Council". The group used the handle @312Staffers on X, formerly Twitter.

The letter specifically mentions Chicago's role as host of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, according to a copy obtained by Politico.

"We see the need for our elected leaders to call for a ceasefire as directly tied to showing that our city is united in support of human rights. If we are planning to spend public dollars to support the convention, we cannot invest in programs that do not support calls for peace," the group wrote.

Specifically, the letter asks the mayor and aldermen to support reviving and voting for a resolution supporting a ceasefire and U.S. humanitarian support for the Palestinian region proposed by Socialist alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez that has been sent to the City Council Rules committee, where resolutions are typically sent to languish without a vote.

"We implore our city leaders to call for President Biden and the DNC to demand an immediate ceasefire. The people of Chicago are on the right side of history in disavowing the United States’ complicity in Palestinian genocide and we hope our Mayor, our Council Members, our bosses and their coworkers can find time to hear them too and support the call for a ceasefire," the letter states. "The staffers who have signed onto this letter work hard every day to reconfigure our local government from perfunctorily holding up the status quo. We set about improving the lives of all Chicagoans and listen to each constituent equally, regardless of race, ethnicity, class, gender and/or faith. It is from this lens that we cannot remain silent as we hear a groundswell of Chicagoans who reject the notion that the United States must continue to use its geopolitical position to enable a genocide."

The anonymous letter from City Hall staffers mirrors a public call for a ceasefire in Palestine from federal employees who described themselves, according to NBC News as "a coalition of Biden-Harris Administration political appointees and civil servants positioned across domestic and foreign policy spheres working in federal agencies, departments, independent agencies, and the White House."