Metro Arab, Muslim leaders call for aid to be delivered to Gaza
Author: Charles E. Ramirez | The Detroit News
A group of Metro Detroit Arab and Muslim leaders on Wednesday called on U.S. officials to act and ensure humanitarian aid is delivered to Gaza.
They voiced their demands during a news conference at the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn.
“Silence is no longer an option,” said Imad Hamad, executive director of the American Human Rights Council, following the event. “It’s no longer about politics. It’s about saving lives and avoiding more deaths.”
The group of leaders demands that elected local, state, and federal officials act immediately to get humanitarian aid delivered to the people of Gaza.
“We’re not asking them to stand against Israel,” Hamad said. “We’re asking them to simply be human, to act as human beings, not politicians, and help put an end to the starvation in Gaza.”
Their call for action comes about a day after the United Nations said more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly in the vicinity of aid sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor.
Last week, two Democratic Michigan congressional representatives said they question whether the White House and State Department are doing enough to prevent starvation and the loss of innocent lives amid escalating violence in Gaza.
It’s estimated that more than 59,000 people have been killed and 142,000 wounded in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and triggered the war with Israel.
The World Health Organization has said an Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid that began in May has caused dozens of children to die of malnutrition and put the entire 2.1 million population of Gaza at risk of prolonged food shortages.
Nidal Jboor, a doctor and founder of Doctors Against Genocide, was also at the news conference in Dearborn.
“As Americans, we’re obligated to stand against this kind of atrocity,” he said.
His organization is in constant contact with doctors and nurses in Gaza, and they say the last few months have been brutal.
“Doctors and nurses don’t even have food and water for themselves,” Jboor said. “They’re collapsing in the middle of treating patients.”
He said he wants President Donald Trump to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and put an end to the crisis.
“He has to do it now,” Jboor said. “He can do it with a phone call. Stop the starvation, and then (Israel and Hamas) can sit down, negotiate, and find a way to solve this conflict.”
Imam Steve Mustapha Elturk, president of the Islamic Organization of North America, was also at the news conference and issued a statement demanding action to get aid to the people of Gaza.
“What is happening in Gaza is not just a tragedy — it is a moral collapse of the global conscience,” he said. “As people of faith, we are commanded to stand with the oppressed, not just with our prayers but with our voices and our actions. Silence is complicity. We must demand an end to this suffering — now.”
