Fundraiser for Gaza at Bloomfield Unity Center

By Adil James, MMNS

Bloomfield–January 25–This past Sunday a fundraiser garnered $75,000 for relief of victims of the Israeli incursion into Gaza.

The event was very well-attended, with about 500 people paying approximately $12 per person just to attend, and with a spirited fundraiser by Dr. Ramzi Mohammad garnering many more thousands of dollars of support.

There were presentations by University of Michigan student Bana Sakr, Dr. Maher Kafri, Mr. Dawud Walid of CAIR Michigan, and Dr. Ramzi Mohammad. 

Bana Sakr is organizing an “Ann Arbor Palestinian Film Festival” to build knowledge of the Palestinian and Arab peoples among Americans.  The film festival will be performed in mainstream movie theaters in Ann Arbor and will feature Arab films.

Dr. Maher Kafri just returned from Gaza, where he risked his life to help people–mainly he helped people with medical rather than wound care, he explained.  He felt that he could not stay here anymore, under the barrage of news especially of children dying, and went directly to the airport with no notice, flew to Egypt, then waited all day at the Rafah crossing and finally was able to cross into Gaza, where he offered medical services to the people.

He said of the Palestinian people, “They are very good Muslims there.  Everybody prays, from the age of 13 up.  They are really good Muslims–they deserve evey penny we give to them,” he said.  He spoke of very difficult circumstances that he passed to go to Gaza, saying “That’s all it takes–determination and belief.”
There was also a few minutes from a movie, Occupation 101, detailing the apartheid-like conditions and deprivation that Gaza’s people suffer.

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