Resolution 251043

..Title Celebrating and honoring the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People this November 29, 2025. ..Body WHEREAS, The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People has been observed for more than four decades by the United Nations and by Palestinian communities around the world on the date of November 29th; and WHEREAS, The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is at once a cultural celebration, an act of visibility, and an occasion for reflection, education, and commitment to a just and peaceful future; and WHEREAS, The Palestinian people have faced threats of genocide and cultural erasure over the course of their history. The current conflict has claimed the lives of over sixty thousand people, including over twenty thousand children, and forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands more. An estimated 80% of all structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, devastating the people and institutions that sustain Palestinian culture; and WHEREAS, The United Nations first called for the observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in 1977. Over nearly 50 years, annual exhibits and celebrations have served to affirm the human rights of Palestinian people, support Palestinian communities in preserving their culture, and broaden the movement for a sustainable and peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict; and WHEREAS, Philadelphia is a City shaped by successive waves of immigrants, rooted in liberty and freedom, which understands that the pursuit of liberty is a universal human endeavor, and that its denial anywhere is a crack in the bell everywhere; and WHEREAS, Philadelphia has been home to a vibrant Palestinian American community for over a century, with the first Palestinian immigrants arriving in the early 1900s; and WHEREAS, Palestinians are an integral and woven-in part of Philadelphia, being teachers, coaches, entrepreneurs, first responders, doctors, engineers, professors and lawyers, serving on community advisory councils and parent-teacher associations; and WHEREAS, Philadelphia's Palestinian community enriches the City's tapestry, adding its music, its food, and its art to the City's cultural heartbeat, from the annual Philadelphia Palestinian Film Festival, to the aroma of fresh za'atar and bread from a bakery in West Philly, to community centers and coffee shops where the Arabic language blends with the distinctive Philly accent; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby celebrates and honors the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People this November 29, 2025. ..End