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Metro Detroiters of Many Faiths Have Gaza Turmoil on Their Minds
Arab and Jewish leaders across metro Detroit have watched apprehensively as the Israeli military has conducted air strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks into Southern Israel.
While Israel faced growing international pressure today to declare a 48-hour halt to its air campaign, about 1,000 people gathered in Dearborn to protest the Israeli attacks that have killed 374 Palestinians.
Also today, a handful of local religious leaders from several faiths began circulating drafts of a statement urging both sides to peacefully return to an understanding of their historic common roots.
“We urge the Children of Abraham to stop killing each other,” the statement reads in part.
Local Jewish leaders defended the air strikes as a justified response to months of rocket attacks and accused Hamas of a double war crime for placing rocket launchers in civilian neighborhoods where the airstrikes were aimed.
By this evening, the statement was zipping through cyberspace as the original signers began seeking at least 70 prominent signers in metro Detroit, said Victor Ghalib Begg, chair of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, based in Warren.
“This is not a political statement,” Begg said.
“This is a statement by faith leaders reflecting values from all our faiths, which call for peace, justice and neighborly love, so people can live together everywhere like we do here in the United States.
“In Detroit, where we have a large Jewish population and large Muslim population and of course a large Christian population, it makes even more sense for us to come out and speak” for peace, he said.
By the evening, the half-dozen original signers had approved the statement as the Rev. Daniel Appleyard said he was putting the finishing touches on the document in his computer in Dearborn, where he is rector of Christ Episcopal Church.
“We’re just beginning to distribute this,” he said, before clicking the send icon with his computer mouse and sharing the 550-word statement nationwide. He said he hoped other community and faith groups across North America see the statement and become inspired to recruit more signers or write their own.
“I think we’ll begin to see more and more of this over the next hours, literally, if not days,” Appleyard said.
Gail Katz, who heads or is on the board of several interfaith organizations in metro Detroit, said that although she is Jewish she can’t condone Israel’s latest attacks.
The attacks have been termed by Israel’s own Defense Minister Ehud Barak as “all-out war with Hamas” — the governing Palestinian group in Gaza that the United States considers a terrorist organization. Israel has said it had to take action against years of rocket attacks aimed by Hamas at its citizens, citing more than 60 rockets and mortar rounds on Christmas Eve alone.
“I feel for Israel,” Katz said. “I can’t stand it that they are getting shelled with rockets” fired from Gaza; “but people need to understand the other side’s story or this will never end. It will just go on and on and on,” said Katz, who lives in West Bloomfield.
“We’ve even seen this in metro Detroit. We’ve seen tensions between Arabs and Jews increase” during escalations of the Arab-Israeli conflicts, and “We saw tensions between Hindus and Muslims after the Mombai attacks,” she said.
Other original signers were Bob Brutell, professor of religious studies at the University of Detroit Mercy; Brenda Rosenberg of Reuniting the Children of Abraham in Birmingham; Sheri Schiff of the Birmingham-Bloomfield Race Relations and Diversity Task Force, and Roger Strelow with the Christian Science Church in Birmingham.
Yet at least one leader who was asked to sign the peace statement, Kari Alterman, director of the American Jewish Committee’s metro-Detroit chapter in Bloomfield Hills, declined.
“I actually read through this. I had this feeling — ‘I really wish I could do this.’ But it’s not recognizing the complexities and nuances of the situation. Hamas calls openly for Israel’s destruction in their charter,” Alterman said.
With others, there was no thought of compromise.
In downtown Dearborn, about 1,000 people gathered for a rally on Warren Avenue. Palestinian flags snapped in the wind beside signs that said “Free Gaza,” while the crowd chanted “Free, free Palestine!” and “Mr. Obama, yes we can!” in what was termed a human chain in an e-mail from Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News in Dearborn.
One protester was Rima Hassan, 27, a teacher from Dearborn Heights.
“It’s a fight for justice. Everyone has a right to live in a safe environment,” said Hassan, who like many in the crowd, was not Palestinian but still opposed Israel’s attacks on Gaza. The U.S. Census for 2000 counted fewer than 5,000 Michiganders who claim Palestinian ancestry. About 87,000 Jews live in Michigan, according to 2008 U.S. Statistical Abstract.
Hours earlier, the Bloomfield Hills-based Jewish Community Relations Council issued a statement saying, “We stand in solidarity with Israel” in its attacks on the Palestinians’ Hamas government in neighboring Gaza.
Jewish organizations had no public activities planned, said Robert Cohen, executive director of the Bloomfield Township-based Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
But the organization’s Web site echoed Cohen’s official statement, which called Hamas rocket fire “a double war crime” because it forces Israel to retaliate against Palestinian civilians who live near launch sites.
Bill Laitner
Detroit Free Press
Picture caption:
Protestors march in Dearborn against the Israel offensive in Gaza this afternoon.
William Archie/Detroit Free Press