In Tense Meeting, Darien Declines Gaza Resolution

DARIEN, IL – In a raucous meeting, the Darien City Council on Monday declined to adopt a resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire.

"I know there's disappointment in the audience, but we heard you. My heart goes out to you," Mayor Joseph Marchese said.

He said nobody wanted to see the death and destruction in Gaza.

"But this ceasefire resolution will do absolutely nothing to change that. Nothing," the mayor said. "If we felt it would, we would have enacted it a long time ago."

When the mayor asked for a motion for the resolution, Alderman Tom Belczak offered one. But no one seconded it, so the issue moved no further.

Two weeks ago, 16 speakers during the council's public comment period spoke for a ceasefire resolution, which Burr Ridge recently adopted.

Burr Ridge resident Nizam Khatib, who is leading the effort, said the resolution is for humanitarian, not political, purposes. He and others said Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This week, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for crimes against humanity.

The resolution calls for an "immediate and sustained" ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The resolution condemns the massacre of innocent Israeli and U.S. citizens and others massacred during Hamas' terrorist attack on Oct. 7.

It also denounces the killing and injuring of thousands of innocent Palestinians in Gaza caused by Israel's retaliation against Hamas.

Monday's meeting got tense at times.

When Enida Abdeen took the podium, she said she was told earlier by someone in the audience that she was not welcome.

"Who said that?" Darien resident Kelly Glisan asked.

"I believe it was you," she replied.

When Glisan and others protested, the mayor asked the audience to allow Abdeen to speak.

Abdeen said she was most likely told she was not welcome because she was wearing a kufiya, a garment with Arabic origins. She said she was a European white, but she said was speaking as a survivor of genocide in Bosnia.

"Whether I'm Muslim or not, just the fact that I have this kufiya on, I was made to feel not welcome in Darien. Is this the message we want to send to our kids?" Abdeen said.

Glisan had spoken earlier in the meeting.

He later told the council that Abdeen came in late and took what he was saying out of context. During the earlier comments, he said people outside Darien were coming in to push issues. He called them "interlopers."

"This body is capable of making their own decisions creating policy without what, in my opinion, is the unwelcome interjection of people who do not reside in this community," he said.

Glisan asked the council to consider only permitting residents to speak during public comments. (The state Open Meetings Act allows no such distinction.)

Responding to the woman in his later comments, Glisan said, "To be clear, my comments were not directed at any single individual. I don't think we need paid activists and residents from other areas coming into Darien to tell us how to run our city."

Some in the audience objected.

One man yelled, "Nobody paid us to come here!"

A woman asked whether others in the crowd heard Glisan's comment about being unwelcome. Some said they did.

Glisan said it was widely documented that Hamas gang-rapes teen girls, cuts off their breasts and shoots them in the head. (He later provided this link from NBC News to Patch.)

Others heckled him. (Khatib said in a text message to Patch the next day that Glisan's allegations have not been verified.)

Marchese warned the audience against further outbursts or he would allow Glisan to finish and then dismiss the room.

Darien resident Hassan Aly, imam of the Mecca Center in Willowbrook, said he walked into the council room with pride in living in Darien.

"I'm walking out with fear because I never expected we have among our neighbors this tone of racism and hate ... and telling us we're not welcome here," Aly said.

At the same time, Aly said he was willing to talk about the issues with others over a cup of coffee or lunch.

"We are neighbors. We live here in this place, and we shouldn't really have this tone of hate and racism. We can talk about politics. We can disagree about politics," Aly said.

After the motion for the resolution died for a lack of a second, the council decided to ask city staff to draft a policy for resolutions. The idea is to keep the council out of national and international political matters.

The council voted unanimously for such a concept. Aldermen Ralph Stompanato and Eric Gustafson were absent.

Khatib, the leader of the resolution effort, spoke to the council afterward, saying he found the outcome "very disappointing."

But he said he was glad the council "invited us to your home," which he said is a credit to the city.

Khatib said the resolution's backers could "tame" down the document.

"I really hope you can reconsider your decision," he said.