The Metro: From Detroit to Gaza, calls rise for bold new strategies for Palestinian freedom
With tens of thousands dead in Gaza and famine taking hold, Detroit’s Huwaida Arraf argues that the movement for Palestinian rights must transcend borders.
Aboard the Handala, activists including Palestinian-American human rights lawyer Huwaida Arraf, sailed from Gallipoli, Italy, in July 2025 carrying food, medicine and baby formula to Gaza. Before reaching Palestinian waters, the unarmed vessel was forcibly intercepted, boarded, and detained by Israeli forces in international waters, in what human rights groups condemned as a violation of international law.
It has been almost two years since Hamas attacked Israeli civilians on October 7. Since then, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israeli forces have destroyed schools, hospitals, mosques, and entire neighborhoods, turning daily life into rubble.
The United Nations warns that nearly 640,000 people are now facing famine.
In the West Bank, armed Israeli settlers have stepped up violent attacks against Palestinians, while the Israeli government has carried out demolitions at some of the fastest rates in decades. At the same time, about 48 Israeli hostages remain trapped inside Gaza.
Israel’s leaders have approved a plan to seize Gaza City, and a leaked U.S.-linked proposal imagines putting Gaza under American trusteeship and paying Palestinians to leave — an idea many experts call forced transfer.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to supply Israel with weapons, as pro-Palestinian students face expulsions and immigrants are detained here at home.
The crisis is drawing global attention. On Sept. 9, organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian mission that includes Greta Thunberg, said one of their boats in Tunisia was damaged by a drone strike. All crew members survived, but Tunisian officials deny a strike occurred, blaming a fire on life jackets.
As flotilla missions face fire abroad, longtime organizers like Huwaida Arraf are pressing for a bold global strategy.
Earlier this month, Arraf spoke at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit, where she called to “globalize the intifada” as a worldwide movement for justice. The Arabic word intifada literally means “shaking off.” In Palestinian history, it refers to popular uprisings against Israeli occupation.
Arraf, a Detroit-born civil rights attorney and Palestinian-American activist, co-founded the International Solidarity Movement and has helped lead several of the Gaza Freedom Flotillas — boats attempting to sail toward Gaza, break Israel’s naval blockade, and deliver humanitarian aid.
Arraf spoke with Robyn Vincent about why she has dedicated her life to nonviolent resistance.
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