Palestinians Supported in West Bloomfield

posted on: Jan 4, 2009

Palestinian flags waved at a rally at the corner of Orchard Lake and Maple roads in West Bloomfield today as a crowd of more than 200 gathered to protest the Israeli military strikes in Gaza.

West Bloomfield Police Sgt. Tom Ellis said there were no incidents during the nearly two-hour event. He estimated the crowd at 250 but Osama Siblani, spokesman for the Congress of Arab American Organizations of Michigan, said thousands of people attended the rally.

“The images that we see on television are really making us sick to our stomachs,” Siblani said. “This is horrible.”

Traffic came to a crawl on Orchard Lake Road during the rally which ran from 3:30 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. Occasionally, there were verbal exchanges between A handful of pro-Israeli supporters held a counter-protest across Orchard Lake Road.

The pro-Palestinian rally was part of a series being held across metro Detroit. The next rally is scheduled for 4:30 p.m Thursday at the federal building in Detroit, Siblani said.

Cecil Angel
Detroit Free Press