Hundreds of people gathered at Dearborn City Hall to demonstrate their outrage against the Israeli massacre of Palestinian solidarity activists in international waters. This demonstration was held on June 1, 2010.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e40xoSaJA_o
Posted: June 2, 2010
Israeli raid draws protests in Dearborn
Hundreds rally; Jewish leaders: Critics wrong
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Chanting "Free, Free Palestine," Arab Americans and their supporters gathered Tuesday on the steps of Dearborn City Hall in an angry demonstration against Israel's raid on a boat carrying aid to the Gaza Strip.
"It's not a Muslim issue, it's not an Arab issue, it's a human rights issue," said Ihsan Alkhatib, 41, a Palestinian American from Dearborn. "I'm here in solidarity."
The crowd was the most visible scene Tuesday of how many in metro Detroit's diverse communities are closely watching the aftermath of the incident involving a ship bound for Gaza that was part of a flotilla delivering aid. Hundreds attended the rally, including Arab Americans, as well as Turkish Americans, Muslims, and others who criticized Israel for the shooting deaths aboard the ship this week.
The crowd chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, the occupation has got to go," and "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
Israel supporters said the criticism was unfair.
"Efforts to label this a massacre are absurd and offensive, but typical of efforts to demonize Israel and the West," said Don Cohen, an activist from West Bloomfield.
Elif Cila, 22, of Auburn Hills was with a group of Turkish Americans at the rally who said they were upset that Israel killed Turkish activists. Israel and Turkey have had close military relations.
"I'm outraged," she said. "I've never been anti-Israeli ... but this is crossing the line."
Metro Detroit Jewish leaders disagreed, saying that blame for the deaths lies with extremists.
Israeli forces "were brutally attacked and forced to resort to lethal weaponry to defend their very lives and rescue their injured sailors," Richard Nodel, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit, said in a statement Tuesday. "The lives lost and injuries sustained yesterday are ultimately the responsibility of the ship's passengers."
Also on Tuesday, the husband of Roseville native Huwaida Arraf said she was released from an Israeli jail. Arraf, a Palestinian-American activist with the International Solidarity Movement, was on board one of the ships in the flotilla that was hoping to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza. She is married to Adam Shapiro, an activist with the Free Gaza Movement.
"She was released from the prison about 5-6 hours ago," Shapiro told the Free Press. "She was beaten up on the ship ...and again in the jail. She was punched at least once. And on the way out of prison, one officer elbowed her in the face."
Israeli officials said they could not confirm Arraf's story. Orli Gil, consul general of Israel to the Midwest, said that Arraf "was probably not beaten."
Speaking in general, they and metro Detroit Jewish leaders said Israelis were acting in self-defense.
Nodel said that video clearly shows that "Israeli seamen were ambushed yesterday while attempting to board."
Contact NIRAJ WARIKOO: 313-223-4792 or warikoo@freepress.com
June 2, 2010 http://detnews.com/article/20100602/METRO01/6020348
500 rally in Dearborn to protest Israel's deadly raid
Demonstrators angry over attack that left nine dead
ORALANDAR BRAND-WILLIAMS
The Detroit News
Dearborn -- The Israeli attack on a flotilla headed to the sealed-off Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid was loudly condemned during a demonstration Tuesday outside Dearborn City Hall.
About 500 protesters carried signs reading "Divest in Israel" and "Stop All U.S. Aid to Israel Now," joining a chorus of world criticism of Monday's late-night raid that left nine people dead and dozens injured.
Maha Mustafa of Dearborn waved a Palestinian flag as she protested the attack.
"This is part of Israeli atrocities that happen every day," said Mustafa.
She said she was outraged over the raid to halt medicine and other aid to Gazans.
"This is about humanity," said Mustafa, who came with her teenage daughter. "This doesn't have a religion."
George Khoury, a Huntington Woods resident and a Palestinian-American, carried a sign that read "Break the Siege, the Whole World is Watching."
Khoury said Israel is "committing one mistake after another." "(The ships) were in international waters and (Israeli soldiers) landed on their ship," said Khoury.
Momir Masralah did not carry a sign but was distressed about the attack on the flotilla.
"These boats did not break any laws. They were in international waters," said Masralah. "I would call it a terrorism attack."
The rally came amid a temporary easing by Israel and Egypt of the blockade following international condemnation, with Egypt saying it was opening its border with Gaza for the first time in more than a year to allow in humanitarian aid. Israel began the blockade of Gaza in 2007 after Hamas militants seized power from rival Fatah.
Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas, which has fired thousands of rockets into the Jewish state, from building up its arsenal.
Sponsored by the Congress of Arab American Organizations in Michigan, the Dearborn rally is the first of a handful of events this week in Metro Detroit condemning the raid. Student groups at local universities also plan a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. Thursday at Dearborn City Hall.
Imad Hamad, the regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the group plans a protest outside the Israeli Embassy when its national convention convenes in Washington, D.C., beginning Friday.
And on Tuesday, a Metro Detroit native arrested Monday during the raid was released, said her sister.
Huwaida Arraf, who grew up in Roseville and graduated from the University of Michigan, was aboard the Gaza-bound ship Challenger 1 when Israeli soldiers halted the flotilla, said Mariam Arraf.
Mariam Arraf of Clinton Township said her sister told her she was assaulted in an Israeli prison during the detention of activists.
"She told me that they would use a lot of physical force," said Mariam Arraf. "She told me they used Tasers on them and that she was elbowed in the jaw."
Israeli officials and local Jewish community say the Israeli commandos were under attack in the raid and had to defend themselves.
Richard Nodel, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit, said the Jewish community "continues its strong support of Israel's right to defend itself, including its blockade on Gaza, a terrorist-controlled enclave on its border."
"That blockade, in which Egypt participates, prevents more sophisticated arms from reaching the hands of the Hamas terrorists who continue to plan terror attacks and fire missiles at Israel," said Nodel, in a news statement Tuesday.
Although commandos planned to use only paintball guns if needed, they were brutally attacked and forced to resort to lethal weaponry to defend their very lives and rescue their injured sailors," added Nodel.
Detroit News wire services contributed.
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