MICHIGAN — Metro Detroit is a unique multicultural hub of Israelis and Palestinians, who have very differing attitudes on the war that Israel has officially declared on the Hamas. The Hamas are a paramilitary group that politically rules over the Gaza Strip. The U.S. and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization. On Saturday, the group attacked Israel by land, sea, and air, and hundreds of civilians were killed.
The fighting continues Monday and all the connections to the metro Detroit community make what’s going on overseas that much more tough to swallow for this area.
“The metro Detroit area is home not only to, of course, a very thriving Jewish American community, but also a Palestinian American community," Wayne State University Associate Professor of Teaching in Near Eastern Studies Saeed Khan said.
Khan is an expert on the long and complicated history of Israel and Palestine. He says tensions have been boiling for decades between the two territories and it's important to understand the historical context of war.
"Like many issues regarding the Middle East, history is really important in order to provide context. It's not necessarily a justification for what happens, but it provides us with a little bit more clarity as to what are the causes and then what eventually are the effects," he said.
Over the weekend Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, the largest of its kind in decades, killing hundreds of civilians on the Jewish holiday of Shabbat.
“There’s no playbook," the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit Steven Ingber said. "This is the worst day since the founding of the state of Israel.”
Ingber says he was actually in the area of the attacks in Israel two weeks ago and says it could have been anyone from any country that was killed Saturday. He feels lucky to be home and alive but is heartbroken for the people still stuck in the region.
“We’ve been working with our team there on the ground, family, friends, other Detroiters that are in Israel making sure that they are okay and have what they need at this time," he said.
However, the metro Detroit Palestinian community says this is the culmination of 75 years of human rights violations on Palestinians by the Israeli government. Decades of conflict have reached a breaking point.
"The loss of life, no matter whose life is always tragic," Palestinian activist Huwaida Arraf said. "But Palestinians have been driven to desperation by decades of oppression.”
Arraf is the co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led organization that focuses on human rights in Palestine. She has made multiple trips to the Middle East and says she has seen the violence firsthand.
“I was seeing massive abuses of human rights every day," she said. "Homes being demolished, people being arrested and then not charged, children being dragged from their homes in the middle of the night.”
Arraf's parents remain in Palestine and all she can do is help uplift the Palestinian community in metro Detroit while the war rages on and Israel retaliates from the Hamas attack.
"My heart aches every day for what’s happening over there," she said. “Palestinians have been warning about this, saying this is unlivable you can’t do this, Israel is violating international law, humanitarian law. Palestinians deserve freedom and equality."
The death toll on both sides continues to rise overseas, pulling on the heartstrings of metro Detroiters with direct connections to both territories.
“You want to talk about Israeli politics or Palestinian sovereignty? Absolutely, that’s a conversation. But what we saw over the weekend is simply not that. Nobody should be happy with what happened," Ingber adds.
