AMHERST — Significant local and regional interest in an Amherst Town Council resolution advocating for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war is prompting the meeting to discuss, debate and possibly vote on the matter to be moved to the Amherst Regional Middle School auditorium next week.

Long the site of Amherst’s previous legislative body, representative Town Meeting, the auditorium will be the stage for the Town Council meeting Monday at 6:30 p.m. The rescheduled and relocated meeting came after this week’s session was postponed when more than 80 people indicated they intended to come to the Town Room at Town Hall, exceeding its capacity.

A public outdoor workshop on creating and displaying peace cranes in downtown Amherst and a family-friendly rally Monday evening were among the steps supporters of a cease-fire in Gaza have taken to press Amherst councilors to adopt the resolution calling for an end to the bloodshed and destruction and for hostages to be freed in the Israel-Hamas war there.

For the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts, though, the Amherst resolution, like ones being proposed or discussed in Northampton, Easthampton and Greenfield, fuel antisemitism and should be seen as working against the long-term well-being of Palestinians.

“This is a complex foreign policy issue outside of the purview of any local government outside of the State of Israel,” the Jewish Federation wrote in a statement last week. “Such resolutions have no real value and will not make any impact on the relevant parties. Convening foreign policy discussions on a local level only serves to promote antisemitism and other forms of racism and hatred, and broadens unnecessary division within our community.”

Those supporting the cease-fire resolution in Amherst, though, see it as a critical step.

“It is the responsibility and in the best interests of the town to ensure the safety of its marginalized communities,” Amherst resident Leyla Moushabeck, who describes herself as a Palestinian American, wrote in an opinion column.

“The council must pass this resolution to firmly and publicly reject the systematic dehumanization that has made over 13,000 children like mine an acceptable cost of war. Councilors must support this resolution because that is what Amherst claims to stand for, and because dehumanization is never contained.”

Amherst resident Jill Brevik, too, said a cease-fire is a local issue and that looking away is complicity in allowing atrocities to continue.

“Palestinian, Arab and Muslim families in Amherst have received threats and slurs screamed out of car windows, hate mail and property damage because their very identity is politicized,” Brevik said.

The resolution, sponsored by District 2 Councilor Pat DeAngelis and At Large Councilor Ellisha Walker and the Amherst4Ceasefire community group, states the Amherst Town Council calls for an “immediate and sustained cease-fire in Gaza, an end to the Israeli military siege of the Gaza Strip, the release of the hostages and detainees on both sides, removal of obstacles to urgently needed humanitarian aid entering Gaza, and an end to unconditional U.S. military aid to the Israeli government.”

Amid Amherst resident Ken Rosenthal recently submitted a competing resolution to the Town Council, with an accompanying letter contending that the current resolution is divisive. But his resolution is not sponsored by a councilor and it’s unclear how and whether it can be discussed.

Rosenthal’s resolution calls for an immediate and simultaneous cease-fire by the Israeli government and release of all hostages by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the delivery of medicine, food, and other necessary supplies to the residents of Gaza immediately upon the implementation of the cease-fire and release of all hostages, and the prompt and sincere participation of the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority, and the leadership of Hamas in peace negotiations led by the United States, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other nations.

Town Manager Paul Bockelman said the Town Council and Town Hall have received hundreds of emails about the resolution, some written as form letters organized by groups in favor of it, though in recent days there also have been a number of letters advocating against its passage.

Due to the time the issue is expected to take up, Bockelman said it’s likely that agenda items that can be postponed will be pushed back to the March 18 meeting, when there will be a public forum on Community Preservation Act spending.

People can also participate in the March 4 meeting via Zoom and telephone, and it will be broadcast on Amherst Media. A period of public comment will be held at the meeting, with comments limited to two minutes per person.

Last Friday afternoon, Amherst resident JuPong Lin, a public mobile art exhibits artist, began a three-day public demonstration in Amherst center of the Peace Bird Project, which she developed with artist friend Mona Shiber, and sought a way to bring it to the present moment.

“This felt like a really good way to make the cease-fire resolution and the campaign visible,” Lin said, as she showed passers-by the techniques to make the paper cranes and displayed strings of both small and large peace cranes on a coat rack. Many use paper with keffiyeh patterns, pre-1948 maps of Palestine and Jerusalem, and passages from the book of Genesis.

Lin, who recently participated in the 25-mile cease-fire walk from Northampton to Springfield, began commemorative folding cranes to mark the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. “I fold these hoping for peace,” Lin said.

The town’s Governance, Organization and Legislation Committee has voted that the resolution is “clear, consistent, and actionable.” But that committee doesn’t make advisories on the content of items being brought before the council.

Last Oct. 16, the Town Council gave unanimous support to a resolution condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the taking of nearly 1,200 lives.

The latest resolution references the Israeli government’s siege of Gaza having killed more than 24,000 Palestinians, forced more than 1.9 million residents of Gaza to leave their homes, and blocked humanitarian aid into Gaza, threatening more death from starvation.

Even though the resolution focuses on the humanitarian concerns in the Middle East, critics of the resolution have argued it places too much blame on Israel.

The Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts sees the resolution as problematic.

“While peace is undoubtedly a noble goal, a ceasefire at this juncture would only serve to prolong the suffering of Palestinians and perpetuate the cycle of violence,” its statement reads. The organization goes on to state that “a temporary or ‘long-lasting’ ceasefire will not solve the problem in Gaza. Well-intentioned calls for a humanitarian ceasefire come from a lack of understanding of Hamas and calling for a cease-fire now is accepting the continuation of Hamas’s terror regime, and a guaranteed repeat of the October 7th attack against Israel. A ceasefire is a death sentence for many more Israelis and Gazans because it would allow Hamas to strengthen its forces, recoup, and prolong this war as long as possible, increasing the Palestinian death toll.”

Owen Zaret, a spokesman for the Jewish Federation and an Easthampton city councilor, said there has been an explosion of both antisemitism and anti-Islamic viewpoints, and resolutions are not about bringing healing between Jewish and Muslim and Israeli and Arab. The federation’s stance is that all hostages need to be released, Hamas needs to be dismantled, and Gaza needs to have autonomy for its rebuilding.

“We’re asking city councils to step outside of their scope of functionality to make statements outside of their responsibility,” Zaret said of the resolutions. “This really practically has no effect on the ultimate outcome.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.