The Hamtramck, Michigan City Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday (May29) to support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement in solidarity with Palestine.
Hamtramck is an enclave of Detroit that is notable both as the most densely populated municipality in Michigan and the only Muslim-majority city in the United States.
As the resolution itself states, the BDS "movement is a nonviolent Palestinian-led movement" that is "anchored in principles and advocacy of Palestinians' elemental entitlement for freedom, justice, and equality, guaranteed for the rest of humanity". The "movement calls upon international civil society organizations, governments, and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against apartheid Israel, similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era."
The resolution is being passed in response to "the Israeli campaign of genocide and starvation, plus the mass erasure of all means of human survival in Gaza". It also means that the "City of Hamtramck joins the unprecedented movement, especially university students, standing against genocide and calling for BDS, while supported by people from all walks of life standing against Israeli genocide".
The council further "urges its residents to support BDS by boycotting products from companies that support the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian land and defend students on college campuses who have the right to ask for divestment."
