US President Joe Biden has faced protest over his administration's approach to Israel as the regime continues with a deadly onslaught against Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Biden met with rage over his administration’s handling of the escalation of violence in the occupied territories during his trip Tuesday to Michigan, one of the battleground states that handed him the presidential election.
While the Democratic president was visiting a Ford Motor Co (F.N) facility in Dearborn to promote electric vehicles, over 1,000 people were holding a rally a few miles away from his event.
At the rally in Dearborn, the heart of the state's Arab-American community, demonstrators booed at mentions of the president's name.
“He should not be supporting them,” said Dawood Ali, 21. He voted for Biden, but said he regrets doing so.
Speakers at the event also shared similar sentiments, saying they felt courted, and then disrespected, by the president.
“We are a loving, welcoming people, but you are not welcome in Dearborn today,” Amer Zahr, president of the New Generation of Palestine group, said of Biden.
“We know that Biden is here in Dearborn at the Ford plant so we want him to hear our voices and hear that he needs to ceasefire, cut the funding that is happening right now,” said Zeyna Salloum, 37.
Salloum was holding a sign that read Biden is a war criminal. “He’s supporting the bombing of civilians with American money,” she added.
Others said they took part in the protest to bring awareness to Palestinian identity.
“I’m here to support a free Palestine with my kids to teach them how to participate and how they love their origin of country,” Ramiz Karwash, 41, said with his daughter sitting on his shoulders.
The blockaded Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank have been simmering with rage in the past weeks over the regime’s scheme to forcefully and illegally expel dozens of Palestinians from their homes in the volatile Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds as part of a long-running scheme to Judaize Palestinian lands.
Since last Monday, the Tel Aviv regime has been launching large-scale airstrikes across Gaza, razing homes and civilian infrastructure to the ground.
Gaza medical officials say 217 Palestinians have been killed, including 63 children, and more than 1,400 wounded since the Israeli assault began on May 10. Israeli authorities put the number of deaths in the occupied territories at 12.
Biden and some of his Democratic colleagues have insisted that Israel has the right to defend itself, even though an overwhelming evidence points to the regime’s disproportionate attacks on Palestine.
On Monday, the Biden administration even approved the potential sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to the Israeli regime, a move that is likely to further fan the flames of war in the Middle East region.