ANN ARBOR, MI – More than 1,000 protesters were in downtown Ann Arbor Saturday afternoon to rally and march in solidarity and support for the people of Palestine.
Protesters gathered outside Larcom City Hall, 301 E. Huron St., for the rally, where the group chanted, “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” before listening to several speakers. The group then marched through downtown Ann Arbor before returning to City Hall.
“I’m here to stand up for a humanitarian cause,” said Abdullah Al-Mahmudi, Imam at the Muslim Community Center of Ann Arbor. “It’s not just a religious cause, it’s not my faith that inspires me and commands me to stand up for injustice but rather the humanity that I have in me, that each one of us should have in us, that forces me to not stand still, not sit down and stand up for the oppressed.”
Violence erupted recently between the Israelis and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. While the conflict goes back several decades, the latest violence, by most accounts, was exacerbated by an ongoing attempt to evict seven Palestinian families from an East Jerusalem neighborhood.
Israelis and Hamas, the leadership in Gaza, reached a ceasefire agreement on Friday, May 21, and both sides claimed victory, according to reports. Israel unleashed hundreds of airstrikes against militant targets in Gaza, while Hamas and other militants fired more than 4,000 rockets toward Israel, according to the Associated Press. More than 250 people were killed, the vast majority of them Palestinians, AP reports.
Protests and rallies have popped up in recent days across Michigan, including in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Dearborn, when President Joe Biden toured Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center.
RELATED: Protesters call on Biden to ‘defund Israel’ during Dearborn Ford plant visit
Having received nearly $150 billion in economic and military aid since 1947, Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid since World War II, according to Congressional Research Service, which provides nonpartisan analysis to members of Congress.
Many speakers talked about the government and the funding that has gone to Israel in recent years. Among them was Ahmad Hasan, a fourth-year medical student at Wayne State University. While in Detroit, Biden called Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, a fighter, and Hasan responded to that comment.
“We are proud of Rashida’s fighting spirit, and I will assure you that every last one of us is a fighter – a fighter for freedom, a fighter for justice,” Hasan said. “My only hope is that you can find the humanity to see us as such.”
At a recent Ann Arbor City Council meeting, council voted 10-1 to table a resolution for a proposal to hold a forum on Palestinian human rights. The only one opposed was Jeff Hayner, D-1st Ward, who has previously expressed interest in taking up the issue. Hayner was at the protest Saturday, marching with the group to support those in attendance and stand up for human rights.
An alternative to the community forum is to bring a resolution to ask the federal government to look into the situation, end military aid to Israel and increase humanitarian aid to Palestine, Hayner said.
“People have said, ‘What does city council have to do with it?’ and, you know, when one city council does it and another does it, a few more do it, all of a sudden you realize that there is widespread support to end human rights abuses, and it has to start somewhere,” Hayner said. “… I think we owe it to the people in the community to have that conversation.”
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