During Passover and NFL draft, Michigan protests were held on both sides of war in Gaza

With the national spotlight on Detroit as its hosted the NFL draft, several peaceful protests were held around the region during the Passover holiday last week in response to the Israel-Hamas war.

A pro-Israel rally was held Thursday in Farmington Hills and an anti-Israel rally took place the following day in Detroit, both organized by Jewish activists, albeit with differing views.

The number of university campuses setting up tent encampments continues to grow nationally, echoing an encampment first set up at Columbia University in New York City. Students at Michigan State University, the second largest university in the state, set up tents Thursday in support of Palestinians following an encampment set up Sunday on campus by students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the largest university in the state, calling for divestment from Israel.

The campus protests in Michigan last week were peaceful with no major incidents or arrests, said organizers and officials. In contrast, there have been clashes at university protest sites in other states such as Texas, Georgia and New York, according to news media reports.

In a statement Friday to the Free Press, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer condemned what she called "hateful rhetoric" in other states, but added that was not happening in Michigan. Some Jewish groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League, have accused the encampments of promoting antisemitism, and some Arab American groups have accused pro-Israel counterprotesters of promoting anti-Arab bigotry and Islamophobia. Michigan has the highest percentage of Arab Americans among all states and also a sizable Jewish community with roots stretching back to the 19th century.

“The hateful rhetoric we’ve seen on some college campuses across the country is unacceptable, especially when it becomes unsafe for students and faculty or targeted toward communities," Whitmer said. "This does not represent either the Jewish or Arab American communities here in Michigan. In our state, we see the humanity in each other. This is a really difficult situation, and I know many in the Arab American and Jewish communities in Michigan are experiencing an enormous amount of pain. That’s why we must work together and remain united toward peace.”

The leader of the Republicans in the state Senate, Michigan Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, issued statements earlier last week condemning the tent encampment in Ann Arbor as being hostile to Jewish people. On Thursday, he sent a letter to the president of the University of Michigan, Santa Ono, and its board of regents "urging them to take action to ensure the safety of Jewish students & faculty on campus. The calls for violence by radical demonstrators this past week has no place at an institution of higher learning."

More: University of Michigan students set up tent encampment, demand divestment from Israel

State Rep. Donnie Steele, R-Orion Township, echoed his views, saying that the University of Michigan should stop antisemitic harassment.

“All people, including Jewish students, deserve a safe place to receive an education and should not be subject to daily confrontations with people actively calling for the annihilation of Israel," Steele said.

On April 15, there were some tensions as Detroit police conducted what appeared to be one of the biggest crackdowns in metro Detroit on a pro-Palestinian protest in recent memory. Detroit police stopped a caravan of pro-Palestinian protesters who started in Dearborn and were driving toward the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit. Video footage shows a significant police presence stopping the vehicles in Detroit, questioning passengers, and making at least one arrest. Detroit police said in a statement they ticketed 38 people who took part in the caravan, impounded five cars and arrested four people.

"The vehicles disregarded several traffic control devices (signals), causing traffic obstructions and nearly causing accidents," police said in a statement to the Free Press.

On Thursday, a small group in the Jewish community waving American and Israeli flags held a pro-Israel rally on an overpass in Farmington Hills above on Interstate 696 highway calling upon Hamas to release hostages it kidnapped on Oct. 7, when it launched the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. More than 30,000 Palestinians have since been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.

Organizers of the Thursday protest said they held banners that read: "Free The Hostages Now" and "Let My People Go," a phrase tied to the Passover holiday themes of Jews escaping persecution.

"The intersection this week of Passover, the Jewish holiday of freedom, and the passage of 200 days of captivity for the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, motivated members of Detroit's Jewish community to demonstrate their deep concerns for the hostages' safety and lack of freedom," said Allan Gale, of West Bloomfield, a longtime Jewish advocate in metro Detroit who helped organize the rally. Some drivers honked their horns in support as they rallied above the highway, Gale said.

Gale's views are echoed by many in metro Detroit's Jewish community who are remembering the hostages during Passover.

More: Michigan Jews travel to Israel amid crisis to comfort, show support

The next day, Friday, a small group of Jewish protesters with the left-wing group Jewish Voices for Peace held a rally with a different message outside the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in Detroit. Organizers said they chanted against occupation and called upon U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, who has an office in the building, to oppose funding to Israel's military.

As with the pro-Israel rally in Farmington Hills, participants invoked the message of Passover, but had differing views, linking the ancient stories of the Jewish people seeking freedom to support for Palestinians. They held a Passover Seder, a religious observance, outside the federal building that included the breaking of matzoh — a thin cracker Jews eat during Passover to recall fleeing oppression — "as a symbolic action of breaking with systems of empire, domination, and oppression," said Amy Belfer, one of the demonstrators. The group, whose views on Israel are not generally supported by most of the synagogues in metro Detroit, started at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, marched to the federal building and later marched around parts of downtown Detroit, which was packed with visitors for NFL draft events. The demonstrators drew some interest from the public.

"Some watched, some cheered, some were curious, and one guy yelled at us from across the street," Belfer said.

Sen. Peters said in a statement Tuesday after the Senate passed a foreign aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan that read in part: "Israel is facing attacks from Iran and its proxies like Hamas and Hizballah who seek to destroy it."

The organizers of the tent encampment in Ann Arbor, the Tahrir Coalition, said Friday on X their camp continues to grow. The group did not return a message seeking comment. Muslims and Jews have held prayers at the encampment in Ann Arbor over the past week.

Displays of faith were also seen during the NFL draft events in Detroit as some religious groups preached on street corners in downtown Detroit near the entrances. A Dearborn mosque, the American Moslem Society, set up a table on Fort St. offering free copies of the Quran, Jehovah's Witnesses stood on some street corners offering a free Bible course, a Christian preacher debated with passersby, and Catholic evangelists prayed with some football fans.

There were two Islamic prayer places inside the NFL draft area, one on Woodward Ave. and another at Hart Plaza as part of the NFL's outreach to Arab American businesses. The NFL said this is the first time they had a prayer hall at a major tentpole event. The prayer space at Hart Plaza had pillows, drapes and a sign outside asking people to remove their shoes upon entering. Maps for the prayer halls featured the Islamic symbol of a crescent and star.

Morgan Rubin, a spokesperson with the NFL, said "the prayer halls are open to anyone seeking a quiet moment of prayer."

Free Press photographer Junfu Han and reporter Sarah Atwood of the Lansing State Journal contributed to this report.

Contact Niraj Warikoo: [email protected] or X @nwarikoo

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Protests in Michigan on Israel-Hamas war during Passover and NFL draft