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Michigan Mayor Says Resident ‘Not Welcome’ in City After Objecting to Street Sign Named After Terrorist Supporter

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud speaks at a press conference in Dearborn, Michigan. Photo: Screenshot
A City Council meeting in Dearborn, Michigan erupted into controversy last week after Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, a Democrat, told a local resident he was “not welcome” when the man objected to renaming a street sign after an Arab-American journalist who has praised internationally designated terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
The honorary sign in question recognizes Osama Siblani, founder of The Arab American News, a bilingual weekly that has served Dearborn’s Arab-American community for more than four decades. Supporters praise Siblani for amplifying Arab and Muslim voices in US media. However, critics argue that his past remarks regarding terrorist groups make the recognition inappropriate.
At last week’s meeting, Edward “Ted” Barham, a Christian resident of Dearborn — a heavily Muslim city known for being a hub of anti-Israel sentiment — objected to the sign and accused Siblani of backing Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which are designated as terrorist organizations by the US government.
“I feel like having that sign up there is almost like naming a street Hezbollah Street or Hamas Street,” Barham said.
“Hezbollah bombed the embassy in Beirut, including many Americans. I just feel it’s quite inappropriate,” Barham continued, likely referring to Hezbollah’s 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks at the Beirut International Airport, killing 241 American service members and dozens of French soldiers.
“He talks about how the blood of the martyrs irrigates the land of Palestine,” Barham added.
The resident explained that, as a Christian, he wanted to encourage peace and closed by quoting Jesus: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
Hammoud intervened during Barham’s remarks, accusing him of spreading bigotry against Muslims in past online videos.
“Although you live here, I want you to know that as mayor, you are not welcome here,” Hammoud said. “The day you move out of this city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out.”
The mayor called Barham “a bigot, and you are racist, and you’re an Islamophobe,” before telling his constituent to figure out how to live with the sign.
“The best suggestion I have for you is to not drive on Warren Avenue or to close your eyes while you’re doing it. His name is up there, and I spoke at a ceremony celebrating it because he’s done a lot for this community,” Hammoud said.
Hammoud has established himself as an especially outspoken critic of Israel who has repeatedly condemned Israel’s military operations against Hamas, accusing the Jewish state of committing a “genocide” in Gaza and an “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank. Following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, a brutal onslaught that started the current Gaza war, Hammoud condemned the Jewish state as a “racist apartheid system that criminalizes Palestinian existence.”
The mayor’s comments, captured on video, have since sparked debate. Critics say they reflect intolerance toward dissenting views, while supporters argue Hammoud was standing up against anti-Muslim rhetoric.
The street sign in question, located on Warren Avenue, was approved earlier this month by the Wayne County Commission, not the Dearborn City Council. County officials, including Council President Michael Sareini, attended an unveiling ceremony where Hammoud praised Siblani as a voice of the Arab-American community for more than 40 years.
During a 2022 “Nakba Day” rally, Silbani urged Muslim Americans to continue to “fight” for the Palestinian cause, encouraging some to even take up arms against Israel. “Nakba” is the Arabic term for “catastrophe” used by Palestinians and anti-Israel activists to refer to the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948.
“Believe me, everyone should fight within his means. They will fight with stones, others will fight with guns, others will fight with planes, drones, and rockets, others will fight with their voices, and others will fight with their hands and say, ‘Free, free Palestine!’” Siblani said in 2022.
Siblani has defended his comments, telling the Daily Mail that his words were a call for justice, not violence. “‘People have the right to fight occupation and oppression by all necessary means and it is justified and accepted under international law. I said here in America we fight with our words of support for free Palestine,” he said, adding that thousands of residents have praised the street sign as recognition of his decades of community work.
“I stand firm on my opinion of people’s right to fight oppression and occupation by all means as they seek their freedom and sovereignty including the Palestinian people,” Silbani continued.
Siblani has also defended Hamas, the terrorist group which slaughtered roughly 1,200 people and abducted 251 hostages from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as “freedom fighters.”
At a Ford Community and Performing Arts Center rally in 2023, Siblani defended Hamas as “not a terrorist organization.”
“The terrorist is Benjamin Netanyahu and his government,” he said during the rally, referring to Israel’s prime minister.
According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Siblani also told a crowd chanting “death to Israel” at a September 2024 rally in Dearborn that Hezbollah will “take care of the job” by destroying the Jewish state. He later threatened to send Israeli Jews “back to Poland.”
Dearborn, home to one of the largest Muslim and Arab American populations in the US, has long been a focal point for debates over identity, politics, and Middle East issues. In the two years following the Hamas-led massacres in Israel, Dearborn has transformed into a tinderbox of protests and demonstrations signaling opposition to the Jewish state.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.