Anti-Israel rhetoric escalates in critical battlefield city: ‘absolutely frightening’

A crowd of protesters in Dearborn, Michigan, waved flags in support of Lebanon and chanted “Death to Israel” at an event attended by Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, while at another rally, the participants chanted a common threat against the Jews.

Numerous events in Dearborn, a suburb west of Detroit, in recent weeks have highlighted growing resentment toward Israel in the city as Vice President Kamala Harris attempts to shore up support of a fragile coalition in the swing state of Michigan.

Hammoud, the city’s mayor, spoke at a September 25 rally in support of Lebanon and murdered Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, where chants of “Death to Israel” and demands that Jews be sent back “to Poland”.

“The reality is that they want us to divide,” Hammoud said at the rally, video of which was reported by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “But my message is very clear. We understand that we want the values ​​we stand for here in Dearborn not only for the people of the city of Dearborn, but for people around the world.”

Harris unveils new agenda as she courts black voters

Community leader Osama Siblani helped lead the event, MEMRI reported, introducing Hammoud as “the greatest mayor in the United States of America,” and later congratulated Nasrallah, the former Hezbollah secretary general who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month.

Read on the Fox News app

“Our martyrs are heroes, our leaders are great,” Siblani said, according to a translation of the video by MEMRI. “And first among them, their leader, the great Sayyed, Hassan Nasrallah.”

The rally was one of several in Dearborn in recent weeks that featured similar rhetoric, highlighting a problem for Harris as she seeks to keep together the voters who helped put President Biden over the top in Michigan barely four years ago.

Residents of the city have become increasingly unhappy with the Biden administration’s handling of the Gaza conflict, going so far as to launch multiple movements aimed at preventing him from securing the Democratic nomination earlier this year. Movement leaders expressed willingness to support Harris after Biden withdrew, although this potential enthusiasm waned as Harris continued to attempt to walk a fine line between support for Israel and sympathy for it. fate of the inhabitants of Gaza.

While Harris initially attempted to bridge the gap between her campaign and Dearborn voters, who voted 74% for Biden in 2020, more recent trips to the state have focused on building support among voters of the working class of Flint and Detroit.

What are the latest polls from Fox News during the 2024 election broadcast

But it remains to be seen whether that will be enough in Michigan, where recent polls are leaning in former President Trump’s direction. According to Real Clear Politics’ Tuesday average, Trump holds a razor-thin lead of just 0.9 points. However, the narrow lead represents a gap of about three points from late August, when Harris had a 2.2-point lead, according to the Real Clear Politics average.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Meanwhile, Dearborn has seen continued anti-Israel events in recent weeks. At a vigil for Nasrallah in late September, MEMRI reported that protesters were filmed chanting “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews,” a common historical threat against the Jewish people.

Check out the latest Fox News Power Rankings in the 2024 elections

“Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return” is a battle cry repeated by Muslims throughout history and which poses a specific death threat to Jews. It refers to the attack on the Jewish community of the Bani Qurayza tribe of the Arabian Peninsula, in the Khaybar oasis, when the army of the Prophet Mohammed massacred 100 Jews who refused to convert to Islam. The rest surrendered and agreed to pay a poll tax,” Steven Stalinsky, executive director of MEMRI, told Fox News Digital. “This explicit call for the murder of Jews in the heart of Dearborn, captured on video, is completely frightening and disturbing fact. This is an undeniably violent anti-Semitic chant that constitutes incitement to genocide.”

At another rally at the center of a MEMRI report this weekend, people in the crowd were seen holding a sign depicting Nasrallah making a hand gesture with the phrase “you will be returned horizontally,” winking eye at the time when the former leader of Hezbollah threatened “American soldiers and officers” in the Middle East to return home “in a horizontal position”, or “in coffins”.

“Under normal circumstances, local authorities would be called upon to investigate and act upon such incidents,” Stalinsky said. “But given that these rallies took place with the participation of the mayor as well as local police officers, judges and other city officials, it will take a state-level investigation to adequately examine these incidents – all of which should be denounced by municipal and local authorities, starting with the town hall.”

Hammoud’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Get the latest 2024 election campaign updates, exclusive interviews and more on our Fox News Digital election hub.

Original article source: Anti-Israel rhetoric escalates in critical battlefield city: ‘absolutely frightening’