DETROIT (WWJ) - A Detroit Islamic leader says decades of oppression against Palestinians living in Gaza spurred days of violence that broke out over the weekend — and he claims only Israel has the power to end it.
"'With great power comes great responsibility,' as Spiderman once said, so because [Israel is in] power, take responsibility," Imam Imran Salha of the Islamic Center of Detroit told WWJ's Jon Hewett.
While condemning the loss of life across both sides, the Islamic leader said he was not surprised that ongoing tensions boiled over between the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and neighboring Israeli forces.
For any real attempt at peace, Salha called on Israel to come to the table and offer a "comprehensive solution that includes giving rights to Palestinians and treating them like the humans that they are."
The imam's comments come as the fighting between Israel and Hamas is intensifying after the militant group launched an unprecedented incursion into Israel on Saturday.
CBS News reports Israel has announced a complete siege of Gaza, meaning it will cut off food, water and electricity.
Officials say more than 1,500 people have been killed, including at least nine Americans.
"There is sadness all around, for any innocent human being to be killed or to be harmed unrightfully, this is unacceptable," Salha said, but blamed the newest outbreak of violence on 75 years of a strained and uneasy relationship between Israel and Gaza.
"Ever since 1948, 750,000 Palestinians were pushed out of their homes. They live less than 60 miles away from their original homes, unrightfully displaced, they still have the keys to their original homes," the imam explained.
Salha went on to say that Palestinians were then "stripped" of "their right to agency and self-determination and liberty and justice and basic human decency," with their power, water and electricity all controlled by Israel.
He claims the situation was a ticking timebomb, with Palestinians only able to live in such conditions for so long before snapping.
"Palestinians, by virtue of the circumstances that we all are aware of, are under repression and because they are under repression and under oppression and under transgression and they have been stripped of their right to self determination, the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Palestinians of Gaza will obviously have these outbursts and these unpredictable circumstances," Salha said.
"Standing up for one's rights isn't always pretty," he went on to say. "... If we want predictable responses, let us create humane circumstances that will bring about harmony, not create an open air prison that Jimmy Carter himself says is the greatest open air prison ever to exist."
Salha described Israel as a "$30 billion iron dome," compared to Palestinians in Gaza, who are fashioning weapons out of "whatever they can get their hands on."
"There's a power dynamic there and one is more powerful and one can set the tone and one can actually make changes on the ground to make sure that the human beings that are under their control are actually living in survivable circumstances so that they don't have to have these unpredictable outbursts," Salha claimed.
"If you think a random Palestinian wakes up one day and says, 'you know what, today after I have my chicken shwarma sandwich, I wanna go and ruin the lives of innocent civilians,' I'm sorry, that's just not the case."
Salha said he believed the same "tit-for-tat game" will only continue until Israel initiates a change.
"We will not reach a stalemate of peace until Israel takes accountability for what they did and takes charge in a way that they claim they want to take charge -- as the only democracy 'in the Middle East,'" Salha added.
Elsewhere in Metro Detroit, Palestinian supporters will be holding a "Free Palestine" protest and rally at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn beginning at 6 p.m.
A second rally is planned for Saturday, Oct. 14 at the Ford Woods Park also in Dearborn at 2 p.m.
