DEARBORN: Two elected American officials on Saturday criticized political silence in the US regarding Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza despite growing public anger.<\/p>\n
California Congressman Ro Khanna and Garlin Gilchrist II, Michigan\u2019s lieutenant governor, addressed the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee convention in Dearborn, which was attended by Arab News.<\/p>\n
Khanna said more and more of his fellow Democrats, and even Republicans, have broken with their traditional party stance of supporting Israel.<\/p>\n
He asked: \u201cHow can you be a Democrat in Congress and not believe that it\u2019s time for the US to recognize Palestinian aspirations\u201d when Israel\u2019s government is \u201cerasing Palestinian identity\u201d and considering annexing the West Bank?<\/p>\n
Khanna criticized Republicans and Democrats for turning a blind eye in exchange for millions in pro-Israel campaign donations.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have four out of the five permanent (UN) Security Council members, over a 150 countries calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state, and somehow the US isn\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they\u2019re saying I don\u2019t have moral clarity. They\u2019re blind. They\u2019re making us on the side of the pariah in world opinion,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Gilchrist said he is not afraid to call Israel\u2019s brutality in Gaza what it is. \u201cThe Netanyahu government is committing a genocide. This isn\u2019t a matter of opinion. It\u2019s a matter of fact. This has been established by the global leaders who study genocide,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t something we should support. American taxpayer dollars shouldn\u2019t fund \u2026 weapons of war while children are starving,\u201d Gilchrist said to a standing ovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur medical resources are being blocked to civilians while many innocent families are being oppressed \u2026 Candidates shouldn\u2019t accept money from those who support the genocide. That\u2019s why, as a candidate for governor of Michigan, I won\u2019t accept money from AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee).<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect all people, their human dignity, everyone\u2019s God-given right to be safe, the right to a future not cut short by violence, hunger or war, the right to a roof over your head, clothes on your back and food in your belly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see a future where these rights are protected and guaranteed in Michigan and around the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acknowledging that many relatives of victims in Gaza live in the Greater Detroit region, he noted: \u201cYou see, in Michigan, too many people are hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilchrist \u2014 who has served as the state\u2019s 64th lieutenant governor since 2019, and is among three candidates in the August 2026 Democratic primary election contest \u2014 received a lengthy standing ovation when he declared: \u201cIt\u2019s wrong \u2026 to vilify Arabs and Muslims. \u2026 As governor, I won\u2019t stand for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a banquet celebrating ADC\u2019s 45th anniversary, awards were presented to several activists and speakers for their courage in defending Arab rights.<\/p>\n
Among them were two doctors, Mohammed Mustafa and Mohammed Tahir, who worked to save hundreds of lives in Gaza. <\/p>\n
They spoke about the horrors of the injuries they witnessed to the elderly, to women, and to children as young as infants.<\/p>\n
Panels included discussions on the impact of social media on swinging US public opinion away from Israel, and how platform owners are trying to censor posts to protect Israel by using computer algorithms and keywords. <\/p>\n
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, former director for the Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services for Wayne County, discussed his candidacy for Michigan\u2019s US Senate race in next year\u2019s Democratic primary contest.<\/p>\n
There were also discussions about student protests and campaigns to reverse laws adopted by 36 US states against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DEARBORN: Two elected American officials on Saturday criticized political silence in the US regarding Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza despite growing public anger. California Congressman Ro Khanna and Garlin Gilchrist II, Michigan\u2019s lieutenant governor, addressed the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee convention in Dearborn, which was attended by Arab News. Khanna said more and more of his fellow …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":87462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87464,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87455\/revisions\/87464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}