Orland Park passes revised Gaza Ceasefire resolution

By Ray Hanania

After 20 months since former Mayor Keith Pekau rejected a Gaza Ceasefire resolution and told the Arab American sponsors that if they didn’t like it, they could “Go to another country,” his successor, Mayor Jim Dodge, pushed through a resolution that was approved by the Orland Park village board.

Some members of the Arab American community in Orland Park tried to push through a resolution without organizing communitywide support, but the resolution was revised by Dodge before it was presented for a vote.

For the most part, all of the trustees expressed support for the Arab American community and only one of the three trustees who opposed in when it was firsat presented on Feb. 5, 2024, voted for it with the majority

One trustee allied with Pekau voted against it and a third Pekau trustee, Cindy Katsenes, was conspicuously absent from the vote.

You can read my full story on the Village Board’s vote and watch the video of the Trustees as they voted by CLICKING THIS LINK.

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Ray Hanania

Syndicated columnist, radio host, writer at Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.  

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

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