Gabrielle Lord, Contributing Photographer

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal traveled to Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks, as New Haven leaders took a subtler approach to commemorating the start of a war that has spurred grief, protests and tensions in the Elm City.

At City Hall on Monday evening, the anniversary went unmentioned until the final minutes of the regular Board of Alders meeting. Ward 14 Alder Sarah Miller, who represents part of Fair Haven, used the forum to make a personal remark about the Middle East war, following a colleague who promoted an upcoming party.

“On a more somber note,” Miller said, “I’d like to ask for a moment of silence in recognition of the horrific and heartbreaking loss of innocent life in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon since this date last year, as well as the deep and ongoing impact of the conflict on residents of our city, state, country and world.”

The alders in attendance stood silently, most looking downwards, for 10 seconds.

Mayoral spokesperson Lenny Speiller told the News that Mayor Justin Elicker did not participate in any commemoration of the Oct. 7 anniversary. The mayor released a statement on Oct. 12 last year, condemning “the horrific and barbaric terrorist attacks that have been perpetrated by Hamas in Israel” and expressing solidarity with the local Jewish community.

Hamas militants who invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages, about 100 of whom remain in Gaza, either living or dead. Israel’s ensuing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed over 41,500 Palestinians in total to date, almost immediately sparked pro-Palestine protests in New Haven that have continued intermittently for the past year.

Beginning last November, a coalition of groups spanning Yale students and local activists advocated for months — in public and behind the scenes — for the Board of Alders to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war. In February, activists filled the Aldermanic Chambers and disrupted Elicker’s State of the City address.

Five months after activists originally submitted it to the board, the alders held a special virtual hearing in May to hear testimony about the resolution. The resolution’s proponents invoked a moral duty to speak out against the U.S.-aided assault on Gaza, as other progressive American cities had done, while its opponents called the proposed text one-sided and said the board should not take stances on foreign policy.

Five days later, the alders voted nearly unanimously to set aside the resolution without adopting or formally rejecting it. The move drew criticism from pro-Palestinian activists and praise from Gayle Slossberg, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, which had urged alders not to pass the resolution.

“We made the right call with the resolution, and I think it’s also important that we acknowledge everything that we’ve been through in the past year,” Miller told the News on Monday, explaining her decision to draw attention to the one-year-old war in the Middle East. “There’s been deep impact on our community.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, whose district centers on New Haven, released a statement on Monday that recognized the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack while reaffirming her support for Israel’s “right to defend itself from threats” and for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy — who, like DeLauro, is running for reelection in next month’s elections — published his own statement expressing similar sentiments. 

In Jerusalem on Monday as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation, Blumenthal met with Netanyahu, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

“We appreciate your giving us this opportunity to speak with you on this really agonizingly difficult day for your country and the people of Israel and all of us in the United States who feel so deeply that it was an absolutely abhorrent inhumane attack on the Jewish people,” Blumenthal told Netanyahu, according to a press release by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “We’re here to say we have Israel’s back and Israel has the right to defend itself.”

The Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem is approximately 5,627 miles, as the crow flies, from New Haven’s City Hall.