It doesn’t take long for politics to get purple outside of Pittsburgh city limits. While the boroughs across the river, including former steel town Etna, lean more liberal, the more rural areas, including nearby Shaler, tend to house more Republican voters. Like its neighbors Millvale and Sharpsburg, Etna is in the process of a glow-up. New residents, new gastronomy, and new ideas have invigorated the borough.
However, an April Gaza ceasefire resolution — and significant backlash to it from some borough residents, non-residents, and outside advocacy groups, compounded with attention from a national conservative media outlet — has revealed some finer fissures beneath the surface.
The borough council, which unanimously passed the April resolution, has since passed a further resolution limiting the scope of future bills beyond the borough’s purview. The council has also fallen behind on posting minutes from borough meetings, though Pittsburgh City Paper could not firmly establish why by presstime.
Multiple sources say the months of back-and-forth and unwanted attention has created lingering tension. In stark contrast to the community uniting against a resident flying a Nazi flag in 2022, Etna has found itself confounded by how to handle differing beliefs about the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip.
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Peaceful protests have taken place regularly in Greater Pittsburgh since the war in Gaza began following Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the seizing of more than 200 hostages. But the tone of demonstrations became more urgent through the spring, as CP has documented.
Etna resident Judith Koch says borough residents supporting a ceasefire in Gaza began discussing the issue shortly after Allegheny County failed to pass a ceasefire resolution in March. County Councilmembers including Bethany Hallam, with support from Jewish activists supporting a ceasefire, had put forward the resolution to send a message to the federal government. Koch and others were frustrated by the county’s “no” vote and decided to reapproach the issue locally.
Koch, who moved to the U.S. from Germany, says she feels bound by her heritage to speak up. “I am one generation removed from my people committing the Holocaust,” Koch told the borough council during a summer meeting. “It's a very difficult place to be when you're growing up.”
Nicole Semple, another resident who has been active in calling for a ceasefire, wrote council at the time, “You might not think that a resolution in a small borough like ours makes a difference, but we must play our part for the greater good.”
“There was a bit of a discussion about the impact of a resolution passed by Etna council would have (as in that Etna has no say in a matter of overseas conflict) and to make sure the Etna Jewish community will have a say,” Koch writes in an email, “but everyone agreed to have a draft ceasefire resolution ready for [the] next council meeting.”
In stark contrast to the Allegheny County resolution, the Etna ceasefire resolution passed council unanimously on Apr. 16 following emotional public comment from Koch and others, including two Jewish Etna residents. The resolution condemned Hamas and antisemitism while calling for federal action to support a ceasefire. Photos show residents, alongside Etna borough councilors Jessica Semler and Alice Gabriel, holding hand-painted watermelon signs (the watermelon has become a popular symbol of support for Palestinian freedom).
“Our ceasefire resolution exists because over two dozen of our neighbors emailed, wrote, and called us asking us to pass a local resolution,” Semler writes CP in a statement. Semler says the residents who spoke up have been some of the most involved in community projects including the garden, the Etna Community Organization (ECO), and the planned library. “Imagine if the billions of federal tax dollars we earmark for war each year went into our communities instead.”
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This hopeful unanimity ended when media involvement changed the dynamic of the discussions.
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, which attended the borough council meeting, depicted a “chaotic and confused conversation,” noting that borough council president Dave Becki had asked more than once if other council members wanted to table the resolution to give residents more time to consider the it. Following addition of language urging the safe return of the hostages Hamas took after Oct. 7, the resolution passed anyway.
Etna Mayor Robert Tuñón, the Jewish Chronicle notes, was the only person to speak up against the resolution, calling it “divisive.”
Tuñón nonetheless says he respects the borough’s final vote. “I am very proud of our community for its civic engagement, the ways that our residents and businesses take great interest in what happens in our community, and the ways that people stand up for what they believe in,” he tells CP via email. “This civic engagement is one of the reasons that Etna is such a resilient community.” Tuñón and his wife, Megan, who serves as a borough councilmember, have both also been extensively involved with ECO, the library, and other community projects.
Koch says she didn’t experience any pushback except Tuñón’s — this, however, changed with the publication of the Chronicle story.
“The small group of residents I organized with … agreed that we would not make any social media posts or discuss the resolution outside the community,” she writes. “When the Jewish Chronicle article was published, that is when council started getting a lot of emails, and I saw some social media discussion.”
Julie Paris, mid-Atlantic regional director of StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy organization, says the Chronicle article was how she learned of the resolution. Paris was one of the speakers on a controversial January fundraising call with failed U.S. Congressional candidate Bhavini Patel and has been extensively quoted in the Chronicle and other media for her recent activism.
“There has been intense pressure on many local governments to pass one-sided legislation regarding the Oct. 7 war between Hamas and Israel,” Paris tells CP via email. “In some cases, this means issuing symbolic condemnations of Israel or supporting a ‘ceasefire’ that would leave Hamas in control of Gaza and often ignores the hostages.”
Paris, like many in the Jewish community and beyond, says she’s concerned by the well-documented global rise in antisemitism. As of Aug. 30, she had continued to email borough personnel to deplore antisemitism and seek a retraction of the initial ceasefire resolution.
As a non-Etna resident, however, Paris could not speak during borough meetings (Paris tells CP that she is “a resident of the region”), but she served as a primary source in the media attention that followed the legislation.
In a May 28 story from the national conservative outlet the Washington Examiner, right-leaning journalist Salena Zito warns readers that a “Far-left, pro-Palestinian movement is coming to a small town near you.” Zito’s article , which quotes Paris and tracks the development of the ceasefire resolution, uses an Instagram photo of councilmember Semler and county councilperson Hallam without permission, Semler says.
The second entry came from Chronicle reporter David Rullo, again with substantial commentary from Paris. The paper’s May 29 article reported that “more than 40 people wrote letters to Etna council members expressing their frustration with the vote,” though Rullo did not note if these were from within the borough. During the May 21 borough meeting, “approximately six people spoke against the resolution and another four or five spoke in favor of the call for a cease-fire [sic],” per the Chronicle. The article also states that Paris “coordinated the pro-Israel community’s response to the initial vote.”
The deluge of letters (all of which were read aloud), negative media attention, and public dissent from others including Ketchup City Creative owner Nanci Goldberg (who initially responded to CP’s request for comment but did not answer further questions), caused the borough council to press pause on sending their resolution to the federal government.
Sources tell CP that anonymous people opposed to the resolution called the employers of at least two of the resolution’s supporters in a bid to get them fired. Meanwhile, several sources for this story also tell CP the back-and-forth around the resolution began to create rifts among neighbors. One source says the tension made them feel uncomfortable participating in community initiatives such as the Garden of Etna.
Borough council president Dave Becki denies the disagreement has impacted these projects in a material way. “The garden and the future library are testaments to the hard work and dedication of the Borough and residents who collaborate daily to enhance the quality of life in our community,” Becki tells CP via email.
By late summer, even some of the borough councilmembers who initially supported the ceasefire resolution — including Becki, who voted for it, and Gabriel, who co-wrote it with Semler — essentially said they had overstepped. Others, including Semler, held the increasingly lonely line as community members, including Koch, continued to speak out.
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The Aug. 20 borough meeting found Etna residents on both sides of the issue at something of a crossroads.
On the agenda were the typical matters of local government. Should the borough increase crossing-guard pay? How would Etna pay for the renovation of a historic building? What would be the best way to make traffic safer while adding parking? The meeting, held before a full house at a dais adorned with Etna’s seal, which depicts an exploding volcano, featured only one official item related to the ceasefire initiative: a resolution on resolutions.
“The Council finds a need to establish a formal policy to restrict its own deliberations on matters that are outside of its local policy-making responsibility,” the brief new resolution reads in part.
“This resolution was developed in response to some of your requests, some of your concerns,” Becki told those assembled, so that “in the future, we all follow the same game plan when it comes to resolutions.”
Megan Tuñón motioned to adopt the resolution. With it seconded, the motion passed on a 5-3 vote, with Semler and councilmembers Bradley Iannuzzi and Danielle Rothmeyer-McElhaney dissenting, the latter seemingly because of the resolution’s lack of specifics.
During public comment, Koch and other ceasefire supporters spoke again. “No one is giving me talking points on this,” Koch told council while draped in a rainbow keffiyeh. “I've been an activist since I was a teenager, and I guess that was news for some people.” She says a re-exploration of her family in Germany’s resistance to the Nazis and a strong drive to avoid repeats of history prompted her to continue speaking.
“I just don't want money going to bombs that rip children into pieces,” she said.
Jesse Dubin, an Etna resident who holds a Jewish identity, questioned how council would enforce such a resolution. “Do we have a process now in place for determining if something is within the council's purview or jurisdiction?” they wondered. “If it ain't broke, should we be spending time fixing it?” Others chimed in to wonder the same.
Becki seemed unclear on an actual procedure for following the new guidelines. “We will discuss that among ourselves, maybe one on one, one on two,” he told Dubin. “We're trying to lay some guidelines to prevent too many conversations on issues we have no control over.”
The meeting adjourned with some frustrated and others seemingly relieved. Attendees shared a few grumblings and uneasy jokes. While there was a clear aesthetic divide among the largely masked, colorfully dressed pro-ceasefire camp and older Etna residents in T-shirts and jeans, the full house seemed united in feeling the borough’s best days were ahead of it, if not in the specifics.
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Koch says she’s been “disappointed” by how things have played out. She worries people “just want to move on” and not address the fractures beneath Etna’s surface. “I personally think that it would be healing to have a fair local discussion about this that is led by someone professional,” she says.
“The beauty of our form of local government is that council meetings serve as public forums for our discussions and deliberations, allowing the public to listen, participate, and engage with topics that impact their everyday lives,” council president Becki says.
Mayor Tuñón likewise sees more cause for hope than concern: “The Garden of Etna and the future Etna Center for Community represent our collective will to make the world a better place — and I give credit to those involved as they have demonstrated their willingness to prioritize our shared interests over any individual issue.”
“I am grateful to live in an inclusive community where we care about all members of our neighborhood and beyond,” councilmember Semler writes CP. She says Etna’s community spirit has been at the heart of local discussions around global issues such as the violence in Gaza.
“Speak with any of these active residents, and you'll understand quickly that they're not naïve. They understood the Etna Council's letter to our federal representatives calling for a ceasefire would not wave a magic wand,” she says. “But that's not the point. Local elected officials’ power is limited to their municipality, but we have a platform, and our voices reach beyond the borders of Etna.”