At a special meeting this Wednesday, the Portland City Council will consider adopting a resolution to divest the city from entities “complicit in the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”

A description of the resolution, which is sponsored by City Councilor At-Large April Fournier, reads: “The City of Portland recognizes the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and seeks to avoid economically supporting this crisis through the City’s financial investment.”

No specific entities in which the city is currently invested are named in the resolution.

The resolution comes nearly a year after the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 1,000 people and taking about 250 hostages, including American citizens.

In response to the Oct. 7 attack, Israel launched a large-scale bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip with the goal of eliminating Hamas and returning all of the hostages taken during the Palestinian terrorist group’s attack.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claims that more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began, and that over 85 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip has been displaced as a result of Israel’s campaign. However, the Gaza Health Ministry’s claims are broadly viewed with skepticism and have often been founded to be severely inflated.

Over the course of the Israel-Hamas war, Pro-Palestine activists have held protests at college campuses across the U.S., including at Columbia University and Brown University, demanding that the universities divest from Israel and companies tied to Israel.

Calls for divestment are tied to the broader pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls upon banks, local councils, universities and pension funds to withdraw investments from the State of Israel and to boycott companies the movement believes are “complicit” with the actions of the Israeli government and military.

Councilor Fournier did not respond to a request for comment on her proposed divestment resolution.

A similar divestment resolution was recently considered by the Providence, R.I. City Council, which sought to prevent the city from investing its assets into Israeli bonds.

In January, the Portland City Council voted unanimously in support of a resolution sponsored by Councilor At-Large Pious Ali calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

The resolution called for President Joe Biden and Maine’s congressional delegation “to demand an immediate ceasefire to urgently end the violence in Gaza and Israel,” and to “take immediate action and use their position and influence to end violence.”