Israel, Hamas War Creates Tension in America's Largest Muslim City

Arab Americans represent of the majority of the population of Dearborn, Michigan, and they have remained resolute in criticizing Israel and American politicians as combat escalates in the Middle East.

On October 7, Hamas led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza. As of Friday, more than 1,300 people had been killed in Israel, the Associated Press reported. At least 1,799 people had been killed in Gaza, according to authorities there, the AP reported, citing the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country is "at war" and has cut off supplies of food, fuel, electricity and medicine into Gaza. Israel has called up 360,000 army reservists as it prepares for a likely ground offensive into the territory, which has an estimated population of around 2.3 million.

Approximately 54.5 percent of the nearly 110,000 residents of Dearborn, Michigan's seventh-largest city, are of Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) ancestry and mostly Arab, according to the 2020 census—up 7 percentage points compared to 2019 data. That represents the highest Muslim demographic across the nation.

The city drew national attention in 2022 when its residents elected Abdullah Hammoud as Dearborn's first Muslim and Arab American mayor.

On the same day that Hamas attacked Israel, Hammoud condemned the violence and killing of innocent citizens on social media but defended Palestinians based on how U.S. politicians from both parties have engaged in "hypocrisy" regarding decades-long tensions in Gaza.

"Israel's decades of illegal military occupation and imprisonment of Gaza make peace impossible and tragic violence inevitable," Hammoud wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "Israel has trapped millions of Palestinians in Gaza in what is recognized by the international community as the world's largest open-air prison. Failure to recognize this context is the inability to comprehend what is unfolding overseas."

He claimed that U.S. officials don't actually want peace but "a return to the status quo of daily violence and humiliation against Palestinians, which many in the U.S. accept as normal."

"True peace requires justice," he added. "It requires the end of a racist apartheid system that criminalizes Palestinian existence.

"If our elected officials were truly interested in peace, we would hear their voices condemning the bulldozing of Palestinian homes, the torching of olive trees, the theft of water, the vandalism of mosques and churches, the violent theft of land, the illegal detention of Palestinian children, and the calls from Israeli leaders to 'erase' Palestinians entirely."

Hammoud's office declined to comment further to Newsweek.

'We are not going to forget'

America's largest Muslim city made additional headlines earlier this week, as hundreds gathered in the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center to denounce Israeli force and support the Palestinian cause.

Event speakers critiqued Israeli foreign policy and Zionism while saying that their support for Palestine has been unjustly defined as antisemitism.

Osama Siblani was one of the pro-Palestinian speakers.

Not a Palestinian himself, Siblani has been the publisher of the local Arab American News since 1984—labeled the largest and most widely circulated Arab American publication in the United States.

"I'm shocked beyond description for the way Palestinians have been described, and the dynamics of all this media and elected officials in the Western hemisphere—how they are really looking at the conflict and spinning it into a place which I do not think is in the best interest of Israel or the region," Siblani told Newsweek via phone on Friday.

"Absolutely, positively I am sure that it will damage the credibility of those making all the allegations."

He recalled sitting directly behind former U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz at the White House in September 1993, as former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush and then-Secretary of State James Baker advocated for the Oslo Accords—aimed to be a watershed moment for peace between Israelis and Palestinians while providing the latter self-rule throughout the West Bank.

Over 30 years later, Siblani said the talks taking place at the highest levels of government not only didn't come to fruition but defied "logic, history and international laws." He said the U.S. foreign policy blunder was magnified when Americans invaded Iraq a decade later.

He equated it to two friends sitting inside a bar and the more intoxicated individual being bought another drink and then being given the keys.

"That [1993 meeting] was supposed to be a road map to resolve the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis on the basis of a two-state solution while the Palestinians recognized the state of Israel—and the Israelis would work with Palestinians to establish a state of independence.

"The U.S. did not keep its promises and exercise the leadership in order to see this not happen again. And that is the result we are seeing today."

At the rally that included Siblani and hundreds of others, the lack of an appearance by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow—all Democrats—was apparent.

Siblani said that their no-show, combined with their pro-Israel comments and attendance at pro-Israel demonstrations in other metro Detroit cities like Southfield and Royal Oak, will have political repercussions.

"These people were in our homes and in our halls, and they took our money and spit on us. That's how we feel," Siblani said. "We will wait and remember come November where we cast our vote and to whom."

He said that Dearborn Arabs have voted with Democrats some 72 percent of the time, making reelection possible for Stabenow and Peters—as well as helping President Joe Biden win the swing state in 2020.

"We made it possible for Gary Peters, who was dancing on our death and destruction, to go back to the Senate with our 150,000 votes," he said. "We made it possible for Biden to win Michigan. And now we are being spit on because we are standing with the Palestinians.

"So, we are not going to forget."

Newsweek reached out to the offices of Whitmer, Stabenow and Peters via email for comment.

Threats and maintaining normalcy

There are about 20,000 students in Dearborn Public Schools and approximately 70 percent of them are of Middle Eastern ethnicity or decent, according to the district's communications director, David Mustonen.

Mustonen told Newsweek the estimate is based on students who arrived this year and have been Dearborn residents, part of families who have been locals for five and six generations in some instances.

He said that since Hamas' attacks on October 7, no credible threats had been reported or required investigation but the district understands the situation is constantly evolving.

"As much as we can, it is important for us to maintain a business-as-usual (methodology)— focus on the academics, focus on the classroom instruction," he said. "Our students need that consistency as far as their mental health and social-emotional state. You want them to have a consistent environment and a place that is free from some of those kinds of concerns that are out there."

He added: "Of course, we don't live in a vacuum and we understand there is within the entire community a heightened awareness. We have folks that are brand new to our country and many of them may have come from Palestine in recent years, so there's a direct connection with family and friends who are from that area."

On Thursday, the Dearborn Police Department arrested a Farmington Hills, Michigan, resident for alleged threats toward Palestinians living in Dearborn.

The Dearborn Police in response said it had "increased our police presence at all places of worship and schools in Dearborn earlier this week," according to reports. No other credible threats had been reported.

Newsweek reached out to the Dearborn Police Department via phone for comment.

Newsweek also reached out to other Dearborn-based locations including the Islamic Center of America and the Arab American Museum for comment. Both declined to comment.