The Santa Ana City Council is set to consider an emergency ordinance at its Tuesday, March 19, meeting that would add distance requirements for people protesting at private residences.

An increasing number of picketers in Santa Ana and surrounding areas are targeting specific residences, city staffers said in a report to the council, “expressing their views at the targeted residence and captive audience therein.”

“Targeted picketing not only harasses and intimidates occupants of a targeted home (and other homes in close proximity to the targeted residence), but is intrusive upon those individuals’ right to privacy in their home,” the staff report recommending the new rules says. “This ordinance establishes a clear and precise buffer zone between picketers and a targeted residence so as to preserve Santa Ana residents’ right to privacy and prevent siege upon target residents while providing a space for picketing.”

The ordinance would prohibit targeted picketing within 300 feet of the property line of a residence. If adopted, the urgency ordinance will take effect right away on March 19.

An urgency ordinance can be passed immediately at a council meeting if “made for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety,” according to the staff report. It requires two-thirds approval from the City Council.

For months, community members have been calling on local leaders to take stands in the Israel-Hamas war. Earlier this month a divided Santa Ana City Council became the first city in Orange County to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, as well as for the release of Israeli hostages, and saying the city recognizes a free Palestinian state and Israel’s right to exist.

Omar Z., a Palestinian activist who asked his last name not be used for the privacy of his family, said it would be “hypocritical” of the council if it approved the distance requirement for protestors.  He said he couldn’t believe the proposed ordinance when he saw it on Tuesday’s meeting agenda.

“We spent so much time at the City Council trying to get them to just to see these people as human beings,” he said. “Calling for the ceasefire was something that should have happened months ago. And the second we get that – and they want to say that it’s a win for us – literally the next week they bring this on the agenda.”

He said he has been part of a group of pro-Palestinian activists going to U.S. Rep. Lou Correa’s home in Santa Ana asking that he call for a permanent ceasefire in the ongoing conflict.

The city’s urgency ordinance references protesting that has targeted Correa’s home.

Omar Z. said the group has always been, and will remain, peaceful.

“We have some people who have lost family members and they’re passionate, but the group is peaceful,” Omar Z. said. “We’re asking for a ceasefire, for the children to stop getting killed. And Lou Correa does not want to meet with us. We went to his office a million times and it wasn’t happening. Lou Correa called for a ceasefire when it came to Ukraine. He stood up for Ukrainians. So, why is he not doing the same thing for Gaza?”

Correa’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Some neighbors have shared support for the demonstrators, Omar Z. said, but some have antagonized protestors.

“One lady told me, ‘Your son is so handsome, you should take him to Gaza,’” he said. “We’ve experienced a lot of pain. And we don’t wish that on anyone’s kids or anyone’s family.”

In a letter to the City Council asking for the ordinance to be adopted, one resident of the neighborhood called the visits to the home “a series of disruptive and distressing protests.”

“These demonstrations, characterized by blaring sirens, raucous bullhorns, and incessant drumming, have not only violated the peace and quietude of our streets but have directly targeted a singular neighbor to the detriment of all nearby residents,” Jeffrey Katz said.

The City Council’s meeting Tuesday begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at 22 Civic Center Plaza. The meeting can also be streamed live at the city’s YouTube channel.

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