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Locals protest outside Hastings Borough Council demanding it calls for an end to arms sales to Israel and calls for a ceasefire, July 16, 2025
HASTINGS Borough Council has passed a historic motion backing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to arms sales to Israel.
Councillors also agreed to support the town’s deep friendship links with the coastal community of Al Mawasi in Gaza at a full council meeting on Wednesday night.
The successful motion comes after three previous attempts over the past 21 months to bring a ceasefire motion were thwarted.
Hastings is only the 22nd council in the country to have debated a Gaza ceasefire motion.
Green councillor Yunis Smith, who proposed the motion, asked councillors to join him in opposing the “horrors of genocide.”
He said: “Be bold, be brave, stand with Palestine, stand for justice, stand on the right side of history. Free Palestine.”
A packed public gallery included members of Hastings Jews for Justice wearing T-shirts that read Not in Our Name, Hastings Friends of Al Mawasi and members of Hastings & District PSC.
The motion was carried by a majority of 14 Green and Hastings Independent Group MPs, with three voting against and 11 abstentions, mostly from the Labour Party.
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