Massive Pro-Palestinian Rally in US Theater Erupts in Cheers When Speaker Defends Hamas
At a pro-Palestinian rally in Dearborn, Michigan, on Tuesday, an energized audience inside a large theater cheered Hamas.
“We are not going to be intimidated by, stay silent when they say Hamas is a terrorist organization. The fact, it is not a terrorist organization,” one speaker said to wild applause.
When the cheers subsided, the same speaker continued.
“And we have to say to them the terrorist is Benjamin Netanyahu and his government,” the speaker added.
More cheers ensued.
“And not only Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, but everyone that stands behind them and support him killing people in Palestine,” the speaker said, again to applause.
Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, independent journalist Brendan Gutenschwager posted a series of clips from inside the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn, Michigan.
“We are not going to be intimidated by, stay silent when they say Hamas is a terrorist organization. The fact, it is not a terrorist organization” Remarks at today’s pro-Palestine rally in Dearborn, with cheers from the crowd after a speaker stated “the terrorist is Benjamin… pic.twitter.com/Si0tyjsjQ3
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) October 11, 2023
Another clip from the theater balcony showed a panoramic view of hundreds of attendees waving Palestinian flags.
Again and again, they chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” along with “No justice, no peace!”
A second speaker then made reference to Hamas’ atrocities and what, in his view, provoked them.
“They said — the American government said — what happened last Saturday was unprovoked. We don’t want to be violent; we are not violent people. We are full of love,” he said.
“But when you have 75 years of ethnic cleansing, 56 years of occupation, 15 years of a blockade, that means nothing is unprovoked in Palestine.”
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” and “No justice, no peace!” chants at today’s pro-Palestine rally in Dearborn, Michigan pic.twitter.com/m9jhAHx1ol
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) October 11, 2023
Then, the same supposedly peace-loving speaker further revealed his true colors.
“When you go to a Black Lives Matter rally, you see Palestinian flags. When you go to a white supremacy rally, you see Israeli flags,” he said.
“When you go to a Black Lives Matter rally, you see Palestinian flags, when you go to a white supremacy rally, you see Israeli flags.” Speeches held at today’s pro-Palestine rally in Dearborn, Michigan pic.twitter.com/4GQk1h2RNq
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) October 11, 2023
Finally, the same speaker brought the rally to a rousing conclusion with more chants of “Free, free Palestine!”
Chants and waving of flags at the conclusion of the pro-Palestine rally at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn, Michigan pic.twitter.com/1QDG3AN24H
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) October 11, 2023
Today on X, liberal journalist Brian Krassenstein predictably lectured people on how they should react to the rally.
“Americans need to realize that those who aren’t celebrating the terror attacks on Israel, but are speaking out in support of the innocent Palestinian people and innocent Palestinian children, who are put in harms way because of Hamas, are not bad people,” Krassenstein wrote.
He then noted that not everyone in Palestine supports Hamas. Finally, he insisted that those who gathered in Dearborn intended only peace.
“If these people are celebrating the terrorist attacks on Israel, then that’s one thing. If they are showing support for the peaceful people only looking to live normal lives in Palestinian territory, then that’s another. Please understand a difference,” Krassenstein wrote.
Yes, last night there was a pro Palestinian rally in Dearborn, Michigan
Yes, there are many Anti-Islamic people on social media attacking everyone of these people who attended the rally.
Americans need to realize that those who aren’t celebrating the terror attacks on Israel,… pic.twitter.com/Oy17gtPF1I
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) October 11, 2023
Jack Posobiec, senior editor at Human Events, had a different take.
“Gonna have to rename Dearborn as Little Hamas,” Posobiec posted.
Gonna have to rename Dearborn as Little Hamas
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 11, 2023
Assessing these various comments requires us to remember that this past weekend Hamas terrorists carried out a Gestapo-like operation. They made no effort to conceal it. In fact, they slaughtered Jews and posted videos of it to social media.
Krassenstein insisted that the people who attended that Dearborn rally loved only peace and justice. On some level, no doubt many of them want those things.
The first speaker, however, denied that a Gestapo-like rampage even qualified Hamas as terrorists.
Then, the second speaker made vague references to preferring peace before rattling off a litany of historical grievances.
Finally, the second speaker acknowledged an ideological alliance with Black Lives Matter.
If Americans take nothing else from the speakers’ pro-Hamas comments, they should make careful note of the BLM connection.
To a decent human being, no amount of purported oppression justifies Gestapo-like atrocities. If a speaker cannot even acknowledge as much — if the speaker reverts to the sort of vague professions of peace in which Adolf Hitler always indulged right before he recited a list of German grievances and then invaded another country — then decent people must judge the speaker insincere in his professed love of peace and justice.
Oppression, where it exists, justifies resistance. It does not justify indiscriminate slaughter.
In the Marxist worldview, however, ends do justify means. The world divides, neatly and conveniently, into oppressors and oppressed.
BLM openly professes Marxism. It shares this view with Hamas and with everyone who regards Gestapo-like terror as excused, if not justified, by oppression.
The fact that this pro-Hamas rally occurred in Michigan only heightens our urgency.
Of course, it does not mean heightened fear or fear-mongering of any kind. Krassenstein was right about Palestinians who do not support Hamas. We must acknowledge them, pray for them and resist all efforts to rationalize or even perpetuate their suffering.
The urgency stems from BLM and Hamas supporters openly embracing Marxist excuses or justifications for violence against innocents. That ideological cancer has plagued the world for too long.
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