FARMINGTON HILLS (WWJ) -- Protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza created a scene along Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills on Friday — including two people who lay down in a busy intersection.
The demonstration involved around 40 members of the Jewish Voice for Peace, among others who gathered outside of the Zekelman Holocaust Memorial Center. They chanted "Never again, for anyone!" while marching down Orchard Lake to the 12 Mile Rd. intersection.
That's where WWJ Newsradio 950's Jon Hewett reports two of the protesters were lying in the roadway blocking traffic for roughly 10 to 15 minutes, in an effort to bring attention to the cause.
Hewett spoke with the 86-year-old Holocaust survivor, Renee Lichtman, who said the people of Palestine who are being killed following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel are innocent victims.
"They are prisoners that are trying to escape in the same way that the Warsaw ghetto prisoners were trying to escape," Lichtman said, calling for an end to the violence.
"The real terrorists are the Israeli military, the Israeli politicians with the help of the Biden administration. They've said publicly, military people in Israel have said publicly, that they could not do any of the things that they've done without the military aid of the United States. It's that clear."
Lichtman believe there is indeed hope for peace for future generations of Palestinians and Israelis in the Middle East.
"You have to put this event that Hamas did in the context, in the larger context of this hatred between the two people," he told Hewett. "And the way to get rid of that eventually is for those generations to die out slowly, so that the people can start getting to know each other. And a good example of that is our relationship with Germany today."
Farmington Hills police had the scene cleared within minutes of their arrival.
No arrests were made.
This comes as the Israel Hamas war has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza on Friday, while Israel expanded its offensive and ordered tens of thousands more people to leave their homes. The Associated Press reports the deaths amount to nearly 1% of the territory’s prewar population — the latest indication of the 11-week-old conflict's "staggering human toll."
Israel declared war in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 massive attack, in which militants from Gaza stormed into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages.
MORE: Gaza death toll exceeds 20,000 as Israel expands ground war against Hamas