EMERGENCY ALERT!
Israeli troops have invaded Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, destroying medical equipment and initiating the deaths of hundreds inside and outside the hospital. See: https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/15/middleeast/shifa-hospital-gaza-idf-intl/index.html. Ongoing balanced coverage of events at https://aljazeera.com.
Rally is endorsed by MIMuslim Coalition, JVP DETROIT, Michigan Task Force For Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine, APIA Vote-MI, WWN, CAIR Michigan, Detroit Will Breathe, Women in Black, Detroit Kids matter, Students for Justice in Palestine, Flint Rising. U-Detroit Mercy SP, NNAAC (ACCESS), Democratic Socialists of America, and others
Premature infants forced out of incubators in Al Shifa hospital.
Follow-up at Hart Plaza, Thurs. Nov. 16, 6PM
Muslim Leaders in Michigan, and many other swing states, pledge to “Abandon Biden” in 2024 election for greenlighting, funding Gaza genocide
At least 11,078 Palestinians, including 4,500 children have been slaughtered, 1.5 million displaced, large part of Gaza’s infrastructure destroyed.
“We will not support those who support genocide!”
Poll: Only 5 percent of Muslims now would vote for Biden, down from 80 percent in 2020
Massive marches, blockades, sit-ins, and more globally are challenging U.S.-Israel hegemony in the world
“Genocide Joe” revives U.S. movement to end two-party duopoly; 300,000+ turned out for March on Washington Nov. 4. Cease Fire! Free Palestine! Palestine is Freeing Us
“From the River to the Sea!” Chant spreads globally; counters Likud Party’s “Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Michigan), the only Palestinian-American in Congress, stands up to censure for her stance, including River to Sea slogan
By Diane Bukowski, Editor
November 11, 2023
Note: VOD’s editorial comments in this story do not necessarily reflect the views of every Muslim leader who participated in this press conference Nov. 9.
DETROIT — As Israel’s harrowing genocide of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Lebanon continues, surpassing a total of 11,000 civilian deaths in Gaza alone, 4,500 of them children, Michigan’s Muslim leaders called on their constituencies and others to #AbandonBiden in the 2024 elections for endorsing Israel’s war against Palestine.
Imam Dawud Walid of Mi-CAIR spoke during 2015 rally for justice for Terrance Kellom, 19, and others killed by Detroit police and I.C.E. (VOD photo)
“Along with leaders in Minnesota, California, Wisconsin, Arizona, and other states, we are calling on the Muslim and Arab communities not to vote for Mr. Biden in the 2024 election,” Imam Dawud Walid announced Nov. 9, at a press conference held in front of the McNamara Federal Building in downtown Detroit.
(The first video above expands Imam Walid’s remarks.)
The Greater Detroit area is home to one of the largest, oldest and most diverse Arab American communities in the western hemisphere.
Imam Walid is the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) and member of the Imams Council of Michigan. For decades, he has also worked with communities of Blacks and others in metro Detroit, including the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality.
Mona Mawari at community meeting
“Today we stand united in our demand for an unconditional and immediate ceasefire,” Mona Mawari, a Dearborn pharmacist and community activist whose family emigrated from Yemen, said. (See second video above.)
“This is not a political stance. It’s a moral one. The Koran teaches us that saving one innocent life is akin to saving all of humanity. Pres. Biden has left us with no choice but to withdraw our support. We echo the sentiments of our community. Let this be a clear message to Pres. Biden and any future politician: ‘We will not support anyone who supports genocide.’”
Mawari said she campaigned among Muslims and Arab-Americans to bring out the vote for Biden in 2020. But she noted, a recent poll estimates that only five percent of that demographic now plan to support him in 2024, after 80 percent voted for him in 2020.
“Mr. President we will rally every voter in our community, our friends and allies to make sure you don’t win Michigan in 2024,” she said.
“This is a genocide, this is ethnic cleansing, and the blood is on Biden’s hands,” Imam Imran Salha of the Islamic Center of Detroit said, noting that Biden is bankrolling the slaughter. The Biden administration has asked for $14 billion in military aid to Israel, on top of its 1o-year $38 billion commitment, or $3.8 billion per year, beginning in 2015. See: Israel’s War in Gaza, Subsidized by the USA | The Nation
U.S. Pres. Joe Biden met with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel as it slaughtered 4500 Palestinian children.
“The illegal Zionist regime, that is a non-state, has murdered one of my relatives in Ramallah. She was 37 years old with eight children,” Imam Salha said.
“[Biden] is a blood-thirsty murderer, who will be in the trash-can of history for killing innocent civilians. His only response is to say, ‘Don’t believe the statistics from the Palestinians.'”
Hundreds of thousands of protesters across the globe have taken up the chant, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free.” Many supporters of the Zionist “state” of Israel claim this slogan challenges Israel’s right to exist and is anti-Semitic, confusing anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
But does Israel have a Right to Exist?
These critics ignore the history of the Zionist movement led since the beginning of the last century by Britain, France, the United States and other western imperialist powers greedy for control of the vast oil resources in the Middle East. Taking advantage of the suffering of European Jews and others during Hitler’s Holocaust, these countries funded the Zionist movement, which replicates the historical takeovers of indigenous peoples’ lands in the U.S. and around the world.
History shows that the majority of Jews who fled Europe during the Holocaust, who were not farmers, wanted to come to the United States, not Israel.
Palestine encompassed this land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea before Zionist occupation.
Netanyahu’s Likud Party says in its founding charter, “Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.” It adds, “A plan which relinquishes parts of western Eretz Israel, undermines our right to the country, unavoidably leads to the establishment of a ‘Palestinian State,’ jeopardizes the security of the population, endangers the existence of the State of Israel, and frustrates any prospect of peace.” See http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Original-Party-Platform-of-the-Likud-Party-of-lsrael.pdf
Netanyahu, on behalf of the “State” of Israel, founded on the indigenous land of Palestine, thus makes it clear that his ultimate intent is to wipe Palestine and its people from the face of the earth. Numerous sources say Israel actually funded Hamas to interfere with the “Two-State Solution” which the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Yasser Arafat advocated in an attempt to protect their people from the bloodthirsty imperialists.
Some reporters at the Nov. 9 press conference challenged the Muslim leaders’ stance to
abandon Biden, asking what other plans the leaders have instead of letting Donald Trump and the Republicans win. The mainstream media appears to believe that the only possibilities for the people of the U.S. lie with a two-party system. It regularly publishes polls only of self-identified Democrats and Republicans, which purport to reflect the entirety of public opinion.
The historic turn-out of 300,000 people for the March on Washington Nov. 4 to support a cease-fire, the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and freedom for Palestine, however, shows that a seismic change is taking place in the U.S. See ‘Palestine is Freeing Us’: 300,000 People March in Largest Pro-Palestine Protest in Washington, DC | Institute for Palestine Studies (palestine-studies.org)
Above: U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib, backed by supporters behind her, condemned the U.S. Congress’ attempt to silence her, the only Palestinian-American in Congress.
Related:
Local Muslim leaders vow to campaign against Biden unless he calls for cease-fire (startribune.com)
#AbandonBiden, #CeaseFireNow, #FreePalestine, #FromtheRivertotheSea
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