Demonstrators at an event held for International Quds Day shouted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in Dearborn, Michigan, this weekend.
International Quds Day is held to support Gaza and oppose Israel’s “occupation” of areas considered by the day’s demonstrators to be Palestinian territories. Dearborn, part of Michigan’s 12th Congressional District, is represented in Congress by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the only Palestinian American member of Congress and likely also the staunchest supporter of Gaza among both chambers.
“Imam Khomeini, who declared the International Al-Quds Day, this is why he would say to pour all of your chants and all of your shouts upon the head of America,” Tarek Bazzi, a local activist, said on Friday in a video shared by the Middle East Media Research Institute. The video appears to cut for a moment before chants of “Death to America” ring out in the background.
“It’s not Genocide Joe that has to go, it is the entire system that has to go,” Bazzi added, condemning the United States for its support of Israel during the Jewish state’s military campaign in Gaza. “So when these fools ask us if Israel has the right to exist, the chant ‘Death to Israel’ has become the most logical chant shouted across the world today.”
His words were followed by chants of “Death to Israel,” according to the video.
Dearborn has the largest Muslim population per capita in the U.S. It served as a home for the “uncommitted” vote protest against President Joe Biden in Michigan’s presidential primary, where more than 100,000 voters made that choice in opposition to the incumbent Democrat’s response to the war in Gaza. While Biden has met with Muslim and Arab American leaders and even waned in his support for Israel’s government, many of the leaders have remained unsatisfied.
Biden called on Israel to adopt an immediate ceasefire with Hamas just days before the six-month anniversary of Hamas’s brutal massacre of about 1,100 Israelis on Oct. 7. Biden has been criticized for his action and has faced the wrath of both Republicans wishing for him to be more resolute in his support for Israel and the far-left corner of his party, who wanted him to call for a ceasefire and stop sending weapons to Israel months ago.
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The Gaza Health Ministry, which is overseen by Hamas, has stated that more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s campaign since the Oct. 7 attack.
Biden won Michigan by roughly 150,000 votes in 2020, and the state is expected to play a pivotal role this November as well.
