Jewish Telegraphic Agency
BY ANDREW LAPIN SEPTEMBER 5, 2024 

Mark Dion, mayor of Portland, Maine, votes in support of a city council resolution to divest from
companies doing business with Israel, Sept. 4, 2024. The resolution passed unanimously over the
objections of the local Jewish federation.
The city council of Portland, Maine voted unanimously Wednesday evening to divest from companies
that do business with Israel, becoming the fourth U.S. city to pass such a measure since the outbreak of
the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.
The resolution, passed after a raucous public comment session in which supporters outnumbered
opponents, calls to “divest the City of Portland from all entities complicit in the current and ongoing
humanitarian crisis in Gaza and occupation of Palestine.” The Portland legislation included a list of
dozens of companies from which the city will divest after the law is enacted. Mayor Mark Dion indicated
that he will sign it. 
“I try to align what I believe and try to figure out what is right and just. And I’m going to vote to support
this,” Dion, a former sheriff who is also a voting member of the council, said following public comment.
He added that while he understood Israel’s “desire for retribution,” he believes that “our role collectively
is to grab their shoulder and say, ‘It’s enough. It’s simply enough.’ And pull them away. And that’s
sometimes the greatest act of friendship you can do for someone you hold dear, as I hold my friends in the
Jewish community.” Dion’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, the local Jewish federation, said it was “outraged,
and unbelievably disappointed” at the resolution’s passage. 
“At this time, we are focused on concrete ways to ensure the Jewish community who lives in and around
Portland, Maine feels supported and safe,” chief development officer Ashley Inbar told the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency. “We are investigating every possible avenue in front of us to make those goals
manifest.”
The passage of the resolution marks an escalation of how local governments are addressing the war in
Gaza. In the months following Oct. 7, a range of cities passed symbolic resolutions calling for a ceasefire
in the war. Now, the Portland measure and others like it are seeking to materially penalize Israel for its
military campaign by depriving it of economic investment.
The vote also signals that divestment campaigns, once largely the province of university student
governments, are gaining traction on the municipal stage, as well. 

The Jewish federation, which recently announced the hire of its first-ever CEO, had encouraged members
to show up to the meeting to oppose the resolution. In a statement prior to the vote, the federation argued
it was a “performative gesture” that promotes a “one-sided blame for the conflict.” 
“We want peace and an end to the war, but demanding that Israel capitulate to Hamas, allowing it to
rebuild its terrorist infrastructure, is not pro-peace,” Inbar said during the meeting. She added that the city
council “is a municipal body with no standing in matters of international law or foreign policy” and said
that “divestment could have significant economic complications for Portland.”
The measure was backed by the Maine chapter of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace and by
the Maine Coalition for Palestine.
“We are outraged and grief-stricken by the continued atrocities perpetrated by Israel and fully support our
city heeding the call to divest,” the state’s JVP chapter said in a statement on Instagram. 
The resolution mentions the death toll of Palestinians killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, as well as the number of
Palestinians wounded and at risk of famine. It does not mention Hamas, the Israelis killed on Oct. 7 or the
Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.
“We acknowledge that members of our community are directly impacted by the ongoing violence that’s
happening, and we have a duty to voice our concerns and take steps that we can control on the local
level,” April Fournier, the councilmember who sponsored the resolution, said during Wednesday’s
council discussion on the measure.
Portland is not the biggest city by population to endorse such a resolution. The California cities of
Richmond and Hayward, which passed similar resolutions earlier this year, are larger. But Portland, the
first East Coast city to approve an Israel divestment measure, also marks the first time the largest city in a
state — and the center of the state’s Jewish community — has done so. 
Portland’s council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire earlier this year. Many municipalities have
debated and passed ceasefire resolutions in the months since Oct. 7, but municipal resolutions specifically
calling for Israel divestment remain relatively rare. 
The text of the Portland resolution includes a “Divestment List” of dozens of companies, ranging from
well-known businesses including General Electric, Intel, Boeing, Caterpillar and Volvo to Israel-based
organizations such as Israel Bonds and the Bank of Jerusalem. It also includes weapons manufacturers
such as Northrop Grumman. The local federation claimed that at least 7,000 Portland residents were
employed by the listed companies.
Local Jews showed up to both support and oppose the resolution during the evening’s public comment
session, where supporters of the resolution outnumbered opponents and which the mayor interrupted
several times to warn spectators against clapping and whistling. The raucous scene was typical of public
meetings nationwide at which Israel-related measures are on the table.
The first person who rose to public comment was a Jewish Portlander who voiced support for it, called
Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide” and said there should not be a Jewish state. Another Jewish speaker,
who opposed the resolution, focused his remarks on countering the genocide allegations against Israel; a
third, who runs a local venture capital firm that invests in Israel, argued it was a bad business move. Other
speakers said they had relatives who had been killed by Israeli settlers.

Among the Jewish opponents of the bill was Rabbi Levi Wilansky, who works at the Portland-based
Chabad Lubavitch of Maine. Wilansky argued that the resolution was “antisemitic,” saying it suggested
that Israel should abandon the hostages held by Hamas. 
But the mayor was undeterred by the Jewish opposition. 
“I don’t harbor any fantasy that we’re changing the economic playing field for those who invest in
providing arms and supplies to the effort in Gaza,” he said. “I’m voting yes because I think it’s important
that we say ‘it’s enough’ and to send a signal, and the conversation will begin.”