Hamtramck to rename portion of Holbrook Avenue as 'Palestine Avenue'
Much of a main Hamtramck thoroughfare will be renamed "Palestine Avenue" in the majority-Muslim’s enclave’s latest show of support for war-torn Gaza.
A resolution to rename one mile of Holbrook Street as “a symbolic gesture” of “remembrance” and “solidarity” narrowly passed the Hamtramck City Council on Dec. 12. It follows the council's early November passage of a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas had, as of Sunday, killed more than 19,000 people, according to the Gazan health ministry.
Bill Meyer, of the diversity-based organization One Hamtramck, called the street-renaming proposal “a courageous and creative action … showing deep respect to the people who’ve suffered injustice for decades and now face genocide and extinction from their own land.”
He urged would-be critics not to “fall for” efforts to equate opposition to Israel’s response with antisemitism, saying “Zionism is a political ideology – many Jews are not Zionists.”
Local Jewish leaders blasted the street renaming when informed of it by a Free Press reporter.
Carolyn Normandin, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League Michigan, called supporting one side of the conflict divisive, adding that Israel is fighting to fend off future attacks like the Oct. 7 one by Hamas militants. Some 1,200 Israelis were killed in that attack and more than 240 others were kidnapped. More than half of the hostages still remain in captivity, according to USA Today.
"You can support self-determination for Palestinians and self-determination for Jewish people -- those two terms are not mutually exclusive," Normandin said, adding that she supports a two-state solution in the region.
Rabbi Simcha Tolwin of Jewish Learning Center Aish Detroit meanwhile said the council "is festering a movement that ... in fact is just a call for the genocide of the Jews.
"Naming a street Palestine Ave. shows that Hamtramck supports terrorism, and gives the terrorists the support they need to keep at their goals of genocide through rape, murder and kidnapping of civilians," he said in an email, referencing the Hamas attack.
The 4-3 vote to rename the stretch from St. Aubin Street to Buffalo Street almost didn’t occur. Initially removed from the evening’s agenda by a vote of four council members, the resolution was brought back following complaints from several members of the public and at the urging of Mayor Amer Ghalib, who said he feared disappointing residents.
“It’s going to be a really negative impact for the community as it seems,” Ghalib said. “I don’t want to see on the news that Hamtramck did not approve … it will look like we don’t support Palestine.
“The other side – you’re not going to get their support no matter what you do,” he told the councilmembers.
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Council members who spoke in opposition to the resolution echoed their arguments for banning LGBTQ and other flags from public property last summer, saying naming a street for only one region in conflict would be unfair.
“I’m not against Palestine – Palestine is in my heart,” said councilmember Abu Musa. But he noted there have also been crises in Bangladesh, Kosovo, and Kashmir, in India, saying “all of those people come here and ask us to put a (street) name for their community, what are you going to do?”
But Ghalib said the war in Gaza rises to a different level.
“It’s the only country that’s left in the world under occupation and the whole world is on one side and the Palestinian people are alone on the other side, which is very unfair and very unjust.”
A timeline for the name change has not yet been set, Hamtramck's city manager told the Free Press Sunday. A ceremony is expected.
Read the resolution
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Hamtramck street to be renamed 'Palestine Avenue' in support of Gaza
