November 4, 2026
A box of Spanish-language flyers urging Providence voters to approve Question 7 is shown at an Election Night party for divestment campaign supporters at Salon on Eddy Street. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
Providence voters overwhelmingly approved a citizen-led proposal Tuesday night that aims to restrict municipal investments connected to severe human rights violations abroad.
Question 7 received over 76% support, or 20,925 votes overall, as of 8:53 p.m., with 76 of 82 precincts reporting.
“It’s an enormous demonstration of what we already knew going into the campaign, which is that the people are with Palestine,” said Zack Kligler, an organizer with Providence for Palestine, said during a watch party for the divestment question at Salon Tuesday night. “The people don’t want our city funds, our tax dollars, funding genocide and apartheid…The people showed out across the city.”
Question 7 was placed on the ballot through a citizen petition effort spearheaded by Providence for Palestine, a coalition of progressive organizations that collected more than 6,000 verified signatures after the City Council declined to enact the proposed ordinance.
Thousands of signatures put a question on Providence’s November ballot. One country is the target.
The proposal did not name Israel directly, but both opponents and proponents have identified the country’s military actions in Gaza as the impetus for the measure.
Mayor-elect David Morales supports the measure, while his Republican opponent in the general election, Dave Talan, opposed it.
Outgoing Mayor Brett Smiley’s administration has had concerns about the legality of the measure. WPRI reported on Oct. 29 that the city had commissioned retired federal judge William Smith to review the proposal. The retired judge concluded in an Oct. 23 memo that the ordinance was likely unenforceable and could lead to litigation over the city’s pension investments.
Supporters argue the measure was written to accommodate concerns about the city’s fiduciary obligations, including to its pensioners.
Rabbi Lex Rofeberg of Providence was confident the ordinance would take effect.
“This is binding,” Rofeberg told Rhode Island Current at Tuesday’s watch party. “This will be enforced, especially because we have a mayor who supports it and a city council full of people who support it.”
Kligler, meanwhile, called the current administration’s stated concerns as “legal and financial fear mongering.”
“The truth is that this ordinance was written with the guidance of legal and financial experts who have done this before in other cities to ensure that it is enforceable and also can be carried out in a step by step process that prioritizes the worst offenders,” Kligler said.
Rhode Island Current contacted the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island for a comment but did not immediately hear back Tuesday night.
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Courtesy of Rhode Island Current
