Cities across the United States have increasingly been speaking up on matters that have long been relegated to diplomatic spheres, even working with local elected leaders abroad on what has been coined city-to-city diplomacy to tackle everything from housing refugees and asylum seekers to dealing with the climate crisis, TRT World reports.

Now, city councils are just the latest arena where intense debates over Israel’s brutal attacks on Palestinians and the United States’ support for Israel are playing out.

Oakland has considered a resolution to call for a ceasefire in Israel’s aggression on Gaza, potentially joining nearly a dozen other US cities from Michigan to Georgia that have supported the same.

Read the full report here.