On April 21, the Milwaukee Common Council passed a resolution demanding the immediate release of Salah Sarsour from federal custody. The resolution notes that many Wisconsin attorneys, clergy and elected officials have argued that he was targeted by ICE for his advocacy for the Palestinian people. As a Jewish resident of Milwaukee, I know my safety depends on Sarsour’s return home to our city.
I have had the great honor of working closely with Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, for more than a decade. I know him as an extraordinary doer of mitzvahs, the Hebrew word for good deeds.
In our local community dedicated to solidarity with Palestinians, we think of Salah as the papa bear. He is the person with the biggest heart who everyone goes to in emergencies. From finding space to host a last-minute vigil to helping to fund a speaker (often a visiting rabbi), he has never let us down. Earlier this month, 12 federal agents took Sarsour into custody on politically motivated charges.
Sarsour is 32-year legal resident of the United States who has a spotless record. As a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted, his arrest came days after the shadowy Canary Mission website launched an attack on him. The Department of Homeland Security is falsely claiming that Sarsour failed to disclose a conviction from three decades ago that stems from his time as a teenager growing up in the occupied West Bank.
This is simply not true. Sarsour’s legal residency was granted after full vetting by the Clinton Administration. The real reason for his arrest is his principled advocacy for Palestine.
Sarsour supports vulnerable and marginalized people
During the horrors of Israel’s assault on Gaza, Sarsour’s warmth and constant welcome taught us a lot about Palestinian resistance and resilience. He is not only a strong voice for Palestine on the national level, he also supports all vulnerable and marginalized people.
In Milwaukee, he is well-known for meeting the needs of Afghan and Rohingya refugee communities, K-12 students, and the many community members who seek his counsel. I am the co-founder of Jewish Voice for Peace-Milwaukee. We are part of a grassroots, multiracial, intergenerational movement of American Jews in solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle. Jewish Voice for Peace is where I put Judaism into action as a commitment to everyone’s liberation, without exception.
Sarsour was arrested while we were observing Passover, one of the holiest times in the Jewish year where we mark the Israelites liberation from enslavement in mitzrayim, the narrow place. As we learned that our friend and community member had been kidnapped by ICE, this year’s retelling of the Exodus story did not feel abstract.
The Trump regime continues to use false allegations of antisemitism to further its authoritarian agenda. Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified his unconstitutional detention of Sarsour by calling him a threat to the U.S. foreign policy of combating antisemitism (just as he did with student activist Mahmoud Khalil.)
Using guise of fighting antisemitism to dismantle social justice groups
This is coming from a government that platforms Nazis, white supremacists and Christian nationalists and insurrectionists. It operates under the guise fighting antisemitism to dismantle our social justice movements, institutes of higher education and civil liberties. The Trump regime’s attack on Sarsour’s First Amendment rights and ICE terrorizing immigrant communities makes us all less free.
As Jews who know our history, we have seen this playbook before. Disappearing the most beloved members of our community to terrorize us and fragment us is familiar to us. It was the strategy used by the Gestapo in Nazi Germany and by the Russian Tzar in the Eastern European Pale of Settlement. No one should have to fear the knock on the door, the unconstitutional detention.
We know that Sarsour’s arrest is an attack on free speech, an attack on democracy, an attack on dissent and an attack on all of us. As Milwaukee Jews, we know true safety doesn’t come from illegal detainments and ripping up the constitution, but from the principled advocacy and devotion to community that Salah Sarsour beautifully represents.
We know that we are not safe in Milwaukee until all our neighbors are safe ― and Salah Sarsour is our beloved neighbor. We need everyone who cares about safety, justice, and freedom to join us in calling for Salah’s freedom.
We need our elected officials who have made statements in support of Sarsour ―Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Gov. Tony Evers, and Rep. Gwen Moore ― to continue to advocate for him, by going to the Clay County Detention Center (in Kentucky) and seeing him in person. Sarsour has spent a lifetime in Milwaukee being there for others. Now we all must show up for him. All our safety depends on it.
Jodi Melamed co-founded the Milwaukee Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace in 2014 and has been a member-leader of the organization since that time.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Speaking up for Palestinian rights shouldn’t get you arrested | Opinion
Reporting by Jodi Melamed, Special to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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