Anti-Israel rhetoric intensifies in critical battleground city: 'Utterly chilling'

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

Multiple events in Dearborn, a suburb west of Detroit, over the last few weeks have highlighted the growing resentment for Israel in the city as Vice President Kamala Harris attempts to shore up support among a fragile coalition in the vital swing state of Michigan.

Hammoud, the city’s mayor, spoke at a Sept. 25 rally in support of Lebanon and slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, which featured chants of "Death to Israel" and demands for Jews to be returned "back to Poland."

"The reality is, they wish for us to divide ourselves," Hammoud said at the rally, video of which was reported on by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). "But my message is very clear. The values which we advocate for here in Dearborn, we understand, we not only want for the people within the city of Dearborn, but for the people across this globe."

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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest outside the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, on Aug. 11, 2024. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

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

"Our martyrs are heroes, our leaders are great," Siblani said, according to a MEMRI translation of the video. "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 an issue for Harris as she seeks to keep together the voters that helped put President Biden over the top in Michigan just four years ago.

Residents of the town have become increasingly dissatisfied with the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza, going so far as to launch multiple movements aimed at preventing him from securing the Democratic nomination earlier this year. Leaders of the movements expressed an openness to throwing their support behind Harris after Biden dropped out, though that potential enthusiasm waned as Harris continued to attempt to toe a fine line between support for Israel and sympathy to the plight of Gazans.

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

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the media before boarding Air Force Two after assessing the Hurricane Helene recovery response on Oct. 5, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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But it remains to be seen whether that will be enough in Michigan, where recent polling has trended in former President Trump’s direction. According to the Real Clear Politics average on Tuesday, Trump holds a razor-thin lead of just 0.9 points. However, the narrow lead represents a roughly three-point swing from the end of 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 Fox News Digital request for comment.

Meanwhile, Dearborn has seen continued anti-Israel events in recent weeks. At a vigil for Nasrallah at the end of September, MEMRI reported that demonstrators were caught on video chanting "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews," a common historical threat to Jewish people.

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"’Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return’ is a battle cry repeated by Muslims throughout history that is a specific death threat to Jews. It refers to the attack on the Jewish community of the Bani Qurayza tribe of the Arabian Peninsula, at the Khaybar oasis, when Islam’s Prophet Mohmmad's army slaughtered 100 Jews who refused to convert to Islam. The others surrendered and agreed to pay a poll tax," Steven Stalinsky, the executive director of MEMRI, told Fox News Digital. "This explicit call for killing Jews from the heart of Dearborn caught on video is utterly chilling and disturbing. It is an undeniably violent antisemitic chant constituting incitement to genocide."

At another rally at the center of a MEMRI report over the weekend, people in the crowd were seen holding a sign that depicted Nasrallah making a hand gesture along with the phrase "you will be returned horizontally," a nod to when the former Hezbollah leader threatened "American soldiers and officers" in the Middle East that they would return home "in a horizontal position," or "coffins."

Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud in his office in Dearborn, Michigan, on June 18, 2024. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

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"Under normal circumstances, local authorities would be called on to investigate and act on such incidents," Stalinsky said. "But considering that these rallies have taken place with the participation of the mayor. as well as of local police officers, judges and other city officials, it will take an investigation on the state level to adequately review these incidents – all of which should be denounced by municipal and local authorities, beginning with the mayor's office."

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

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