Dearborn rally calls for end to Palestinian occupation as war rages

Dearborn — A sea of flags, checkered scarves and signs reading "We love Gaza" filled Dearborn's Ford Community & Performing Arts Center as more than 1,200 people gathered Tuesday night to rally for an end to the Palestinian occupation as the war unfolds in the Middle East.

"We are not here to celebrate anything," Mohammed Abdul Salam, who works with the Palestine Aid Society, told the crowd. "We mourn this destruction. 900 civilians, including 260 children and 230 women, along with 200,000 displaced living in United Nations Schools. The root cause of all wars and problems in Palestine is the occupation. Therefore, the only solution is to end the occupation."

The crowd responded chanting, "Free, free Palestine."

The Dearborn rally came after Hamas militants attacked Israel on Saturday, killing military and civilians and taking hostages back into Gaza. Israel declared war on Sunday and began air bombardments. The number of Americans killed reached 14; at least 1,900 lives have been lost on both sides, the Associated Press reported.

Speakers offered what they called a clear message: Supporting Palestinians should not be considered "extremists or antisemitism," but rather critics of foreign policy and the Zionist movement.

Salam recalled there have been five wars in Gaza since 2008, before Saturday's surprise, punishing attacks in Israel by Hamas. The Palestinian militia still exists because "they are a part of the Palestinian fabric because they won an election to lead," he said.

"People of Gaza are human beings, too, with dignity, and not as the Israel Prime Minister calls them, animals," Salam said. "We will hold the Biden administration accountable for the restriction of water, food and medical supplies to Gaza. We condemn death on both sides. We do not accept that Jewish lives are superior. For Mr. Biden, we will remember next November."

David Finkel, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace in Detroit, was at the event to show support.

"We stand with the Palestinian community in the struggle for justice," Finkel said.

Despite calls for peace, Javed Ali, associate professor of practice at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy, said a ceasefire doesn't appear to be in the context of a policy objective for the Biden administration.

“The cycle of violence has been going on since the the 90s between Hamas and Israel, but again, for Hamas to pull off something with this many people involved with this many different objectives of their attack with the horrific impact (to) Israeli civilians ... Hamas has in the past been more restrained, and why they chose not to be is something that their leadership only knows the answer to," said Ali, a former senior U.S. government counterterrorism official.

"There's a lot of different combinations of players who could try to step in, but at least right now, there doesn't seem to be that momentum for a ceasefire."

Palestinian Americans at the rally in Dearborn say their frustration has grown after not being able to contact family members, watching the war in the media and the international community ignoring their past and current cries for support.

"People are frustrated with the coverage and depiction of the media looking at the whole history of Palestine as if it just started on Saturday," said Amer Zahr, president of New Generation for Palestine who organized the rally. ... You cannot look at things in a vacuum in order to blame one side. Palestinians have a right to defend themselves from an occupation, and that's what led to this."

Zahr, a Palestinian American comedian and activist, has planned several similar rallies in recent years. In 2021, thousands of Arab Americans marched in Dearborn while President Biden visited Ford Motor Co., calling on his administration to intervene.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib publicly pressed Biden to do more to protect Palestinians amid continued bloodshed. On Tuesday, Biden condemned the attacks by Hamas as "sheer evil" and said the U.S.' resolve was clear: "The United States has Israel's back."

Zahr heard Biden's comments. "This is not complicated," he argued. "When Joe Biden says unwavering support for Israel, that gives Israel a green light to decimate Palestine. Biden has not urged restraint. They are not interested, it seems, in preventing the deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians.

"We’ve been dealing with this now for years, whenever we talk about this. When Jewish people are killed, it's because they're Jewish, but when Palestinians are killed, they’re killed because they’re terrorists."

Biden on Tuesday afternoon said his administration is advising Israel on hostage recovery efforts. Fourteen Americans have been killed in the conflict and Americans are among hostages held by Hamas.

"The United States has enhanced our military force posture in the region ... and we stand ready to move in additional assets as needed," Biden said while urging other countries not to engage in the war.

Local police, Biden said, have stepped up security around Jewish-affiliated buildings and organizations as a precaution for any domestic threat that may come after the attacks. Local clergy say they are on alert for suspicious activity.

Zahr rejected the notion that domestic incidents would occur.

"It's insulting that local Jewish organizations and synagogues are saying they're heightening their security because they think Muslim Americans could attack. There have been no threats or attacks on these groups in wake of this," Zahr said. "Do we tell people we're afraid of the Jewish people when there have been daily attacks on Palestinian people for decades? This is absolutely crazy, and a real stab at the Arab American community here in Detroit."

UM's Ali said no one can predict how long the war could last.

"Even if there was some kind of ceasefire or an intervention, what would it be? Would it be the UN? The Arab League doesn't really have a military force that they could deploy in the situation as sort of a buffer between both sides," Ali said.

"I don't think there's any appetite unilaterally for the United States to act as a peacekeeper, just because of the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan in the post-911 era and other national security priorities for the U.S. right now with Russia, Ukraine, and tensions with China and Taiwan. So I think there would be movement on the U.S. side for diplomacy, but I don't see a role for the U.S. military on the peacekeeping side."

srahal@detroitnews.com X: @SarahRahal_