Osama Siblani, who has praised terrorists as ‘heroes’ and threatened to send Israeli Jews ‘back to Poland,’ accompanied Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer on an official state trip to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain
Shoppers, diners, and commuters in the Dearborn, Mich., area will now head to their favorite hot spot on a street named in honor of Osama Siblani, an Arab-American newspaper publisher who has advocated for Israel’s destruction, praised terror groups like Hamas, and claimed the American government is “bought by the Zionist lobby.”
The city of Dearborn on Monday honored the Lebanese-born Siblani, a prominent anti-Israel activist who founded the Arab American News outlet, with a plaque bearing his name at the intersection of Warren Avenue and Chase Road, a location home to Middle Eastern-style bakeries, a hookah lounge, and the Islamic Center of Detroit. Video from the ceremony posted on the city’s Instagram account shows Siblani and supporters unveiling an honorary street sign with his name emblazoned across.
Siblani’s radical track record in Dearborn—a heavily Muslim community known for being a hotbed of anti-Israel sentiment—includes numerous public appearances in which he praised Palestinian jihadi groups as “heroes,” lauded the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and threatened to send Israeli Jews “back to Poland.”
During a September 2024 rally in Dearborn, when Israel was locked in a fierce fight against Hezbollah terrorists on its northern border, Siblani told a crowd chanting “death to Israel” that the terror group will “take care of the job” by eradicating the Jewish state, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which monitors radical activity.
Siblani later told the crowd: “To [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, who wants to bring [evacuated Israeli civilians back] to the north: We are going to take you back to Poland.”
At a 2022 “Nakba Day rally” meant to honor the “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation, Siblani said the Dearborn Muslim community will “lift Palestinians all the way to victory” and encouraged his supporters to “fight.”
“We are the Arabs who are going to lift Palestinians all the way to victory, whether we are in Michigan and whether we are in Jenin,” he said in remarks captured by MEMRI. “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!'”
Sacha Roytman, CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, told the Washington Free Beacon that honoring someone like Siblani will only encourage extremism and support for terror.
“Wayne County’s naming of a street in honor of Osama Siblani is a disturbing move that only stokes the flames of hate,” Roytman said. “This is a man who has publicly advocated for Israelis to be targeted with ‘stones, guns, planes, drones, and rockets.’ Local leaders have a duty to promote the safety and welfare of all residents, yet by celebrating someone who incites violence, Wayne County has done the exact opposite. The growing normalization of such toxic rhetoric undermines the security of Jewish Americans, who are already facing unprecedented levels of antisemitic hostility.”
As the Free Beacon previously reported, Siblani’s history of supporting terrorism did not stop Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer (D.) from tapping him to accompany her on an official state trip to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Whitmer also attended Siblani’s 70th birthday party in January, photos MEMRI compiled show.
Whitmer and other prominent Michigan Democrats, MEMRI contended in its report, “continue to support and platform openly pro-jihad community figures for political gain, neglecting their duty to fight the state’s ongoing Islamist problem.”
Siblani drew scrutiny late last year after the Biden administration invited him to participate in a summit with Muslim leaders enraged by the former president’s support for Israel during its war against Hamas. National Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League quickly pushed back at the administration’s decision to include Siblani.
“We are deeply disturbed at the inclusion of Osama Siblani in a meeting with top Biden administration officials,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told Jewish Insider at the time. “Both Siblani and his newspaper, the Arab American News, have a long history of expressing sympathy, and occasionally outright support for the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas. Siblani is simply the wrong choice to serve as an interlocutor with the administration as they hear from the local Muslim community.”
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