The city council of Burlington, Vt., rejected a resolution on Monday that would have put a nonbinding advisory question on the March ballot asking voters whether the mayor and city council should declare Burlington an “apartheid-free community.”
The question would have also asked voters to urge the city to “join others in working to end all support to Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism and military occupation.”
The vote failed 5‑7, marking the third consecutive year the council has blocked the measure.
Opponents of the resolution, which included several council members, argued that the question would do little to address the long‑standing conflict in the Middle East and could deepen divisions within the community, according to the local CBS News affiliate.
Earlier in the meeting, the council approved a separate resolution to promote dialogue on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The resolution authorizes up to $2,000 for screenings of the 2024 award-winning documentary “The Other,” which explores the complex relationship between Israelis and Palestinians, and up to $10,000 for “restorative community dialogue sessions” with trained facilitators. That measure passed 7‑5.
