The Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission unanimously voted against taking up a resolution calling for the federal government to end military aid to Israel on Aug. 14, MLive reports.
The commission’s vote came after City Attorney Stephen Postema told the commission that foreign policy matters do not fall under the purview of the commission, although the City Council could still vote on the topic.
Anti-Israel protesters proceeded to scream at commission members; one of them, identified as Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, shouted, “This is a commission of killers!” before being escorted out of the room.
At a July 1 Ann Arbor City Council meeting, Savabieasfahani told city council members, “If I cannot appeal to your sense of humanity, that it’s treacherous to live the life of a Palestinian in the West Bank and Gaza, I’m appealing to your sense of money. You’re paying for this slaughter.” Two members of the city council, Jeff Hayner and Ali Ramlawi, agreed with Savabieasfahani and the other anti-Israel protesters that the commission should look into presenting a resolution on the matter to the city council.
According to a petition against the resolution, the anti-Israel protesters at the July 1 meeting “spewed violently anti-Semitic language. One called Israel ‘a terrorist state funded fully by the United States of America, bombing its way wherever it pleases.’ Another accused the City Council of being an ‘accomplice to murder against the Palestinian people’ if they did not vote for the boycott.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor wrote in a Aug. 15 Facebook post, “Last night, the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission unanimously voted not to take up foreign civil/human rights issues, as it is not in their purview. Thank you to the members of our community that were involved as advisors, we are grateful for your participation.”
