Metro Detroit rabbi arrested in Israel amid Gaza war protest

Israeli police arrested a Ferndale rabbi Friday near Gaza's northern border while she and other U.S. rabbis were protesting Israel's war with Hamas, protesters told The Detroit News.

Rabbi Alana Alpert of Congregation T’Chiyah, based in Oakland County, was among multiple peaceful protesters taken into custody, according to Rabbis For Ceasefire, a protest group of rabbis and rabbinical students across denominations.

Members organized with Israel-based peace activists to walk toward the border near the Erez crossing together, bearing white flags and bags of rice, said Rabbi Toba Spitzer of Massachusetts.

Protesters walked from 10 a.m. until noon, calling for a cease-fire, for Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and for Hamas to return Israeli hostages captured, she said.

The protest was a symbolic effort to fulfill Passover requirements to feed the hungry and strive for liberation in the spirit of the Jewish holiday celebrating Jewish freedom from slavery, said Spitzer, who briefly served at Alpert's congregation before becoming senior rabbi at Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in West Newton, Massachusetts.

"Our hearts have been aching since Oct. 7," she said. "This protest was a small sacrifice in the larger scheme of things."

More:This Passover, Michigan Jews link traditions to Israel, Gaza

Five American protesters, including Alpert, decided to risk arrest, sat down when Israeli police asked them to leave, and were ultimately arrested, she said. Spitzer added that she participated in the protest but was among several protesters who were not arrested.

Israeli police took the arrestees to two separate police stations after the incident, but have since released Alpert and all other protesters from the incident, Spitzer said.

Demonstrators sang and cheered as Alpert walked out of the Sderot police station, she said.

Alpert felt honored to lead the group in song towards the crossing, the rabbi said in a statement. Walking together, Alpert said the group chanted "Let all who are hungry come and eat," — words from the Haggadah, a text recited during the first two nights of Passover.

"I didn't come here to get arrested, I came here to stand with my Israeli colleagues who are feeling so isolated and desperate to stop this horrifying devastation," Alpert said. "When I was offered the opportunity, I had to say yes: this ritual and action was a powerful expression of the meaning of Passover."

The U.S. Department of State did not immediately respond to a request from The Detroit News to verify the arrest on Friday.

News of the incident came the same day Egypt sent a high-level delegation to Israel for talks seeking to push through a cease-fire agreement with Hamas and avert an Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, officials said.

More than half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have sought refuge in Rafah, which is on the border with Egypt. Egypt warned that a possible Israeli offensive focused on Rafah could have catastrophic consequences to regional stability.

The Israeli military has massed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in the area in what appears to be preparations for an invasion of the city.

The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israeli officials say the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

The war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, around two-thirds of them children and women. At least half a million people in Gaza are on the brink of famine, according to UN officials.

The situation sparked months of protests around the world, including in Michigan.

This week, students at colleges and universities across the country led demonstrations demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict.

Michigan State University students also launched an encampment on campus Thursday to pressure the university to divest from Israeli-related investments.

The Associated Press contributed.