Pro-Palestinian protesters briefly march along Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
About 150 protesters marched along Woodward in Midtown before being corralled off the route by police.
A clown in Detroit's Thanksgiving Day Parade passes by pro-Palestinian protesters.
Pro-Palestinian protesters briefly shut down the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit Thursday.
About 150 protesters marched along Woodward in Midtown before being corralled off the route by officers with the Detroit Police Department at Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.
Social justice advocate and protest leader, Lexis Zeidan, says Thanksgiving is the perfect day to protest.
“We’re essentially demanding justice and acknowledging that Thanksgiving is truly a day that has been publicized to cover up the genocide that our country has committed on indigenous Americans,” Zeidan said.
Zeidan argues the U.S. should not be funding Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
“No more U.S. aid to Israel. We hold our President (Biden) accountable. We hold (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu accountable for the war crimes they’re committing,” Zeidan said. “People won’t stop (protesting) until peace has prevailed.”
Israel’s bombardment inside Gaza started after the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel killed over 1,200 people.
Some scholars have claimed Israel’s attacks — which have killed over 14,000 civilians in Gaza — are war crimes tantamount to genocide, but the matter is hardly settled.
“People need to know that criticizing the government as Israel is not the Jewish people or their religion,” Zeidan said. “We believe that everybody deserves to live on that land and everybody has the right to self determination and to freedom.”
The Detroit Police Department allowed the protest to continue. There were no arrests.
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