Muslims Mark Al-Quds Day in Support of Palestinians

DEARBORN — Dozens of Arab Americans across southeast Michigan converged on Dearborn Friday to mark National Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, condemning Israel's continued occupation of Palestinian lands.

The protest was held at Dearborn City Hall, the designated "free speech zone" in the city.

Participants chanted slogans, read poems and carried banners in the rally, underscoring the return of dislocated Palestinians to their homeland and holding of democratic referendum as the way to solve the Palestinian issue.

"We are just trying to create awareness as to what's going on. There's no information about the human rights violations going on in Palestine conveyed by the mainstream media," event organizer Mohamed Cherri said. "We're not trying to create rifts or create problems. We're trying to awaken people and show them what's going on."

Rallies in support of Al-Quds Day have been held locally and throughout the Middle East on the last Friday of Ramadan since 1979.

"Just like Hitler killed millions of Jews during World War II, the country of Israel is doing that to Palestinians, whether it's on the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank,   where they have illegal settlements that are internationally recognized as illegal," Cherri said.

Abir Safa of Dearborn read a poem during the rally, and said that the event serves as a wake up call for all Muslims to take a stand against global Zionism and global hegemony and aggression regardless of race, religion or creed.

"As a Muslim, it is our duty to be a voice for the oppressed," Safa said. "Why would I sit at home when I could be fighting for my brothers and sisters."

Safa said more than 6,000 Palestinians are killed annually, yet many people in western nations do not know or take the time to understand the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I feel the lack of information is as much (Muslims') fault as it is the American media's fault," she said. "We don't go out as often as we should to spread awareness. Al-Quds Day is once a year."

The protest comes on the heels of the next Israeli-Palestinian peace talks session expected to take place in Israel during the second week of August.

According to Reuters, the United States wants to broker an agreement on a two-state solution, in which Israel would exist peacefully alongside a new Palestinian state created in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, lands occupied by the Israelis since a 1967 war.

The last peace talks collapsed in 2010 over Israel's building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.