Speakers call for cease-fire resolution during Fraser meeting

FRASER — During Fraser’s April 11 City Council meeting, residents recommended the city make a resolution for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Seven speakers made their case before the City Council. One speaker spoke in opposition to the cease-fire supporters. While passionate, the debate remained respectful.

Former Fraser resident Sherin Shkoukani shared her personal experience, growing up in a Palestinian-American home and having family members currently in the Gaza Strip.

“This is a reminder that there are many people in the city of Fraser directly impacted from this occupation,” Shkoukani said. “There’s no need to look at it from a religious or political or racist standpoint. It should be looked at from a human rights standpoint.”

Kai Taylorelms, a Troy resident, said what’s currently happening should not be classified as a war, but a genocide. Taylorelms outlined what he called the support of local governments for Israel and explained why a resolution from a city like Fraser matters.

“By passing a cease-fire resolution, this council would be standing for world peace, diversity and justice for those oppressed,” Taylorelms said. “A cease-fire resolution would send a message to Michigan’s leaders that people stand for these exact things: peace, diversity and liberation.”

One speaker pushed back, bringing up the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. She spoke to her background as a Lebanese American and said she stood for “America first.”

“If what happened on Oct. 7 happened in the U.S., we would be doing the same thing as Israel would be doing,” the Fraser resident, who would not confirm the spelling of her name, said. “To protect our people and protect our kids in this nation.”

Ahmad Shkoukani, a junior at Fraser High School, called for a cease-fire and empathized with the children killed in Palestine. He also pushed back on the previous speaker’s assertions when he got up to the microphone.

“This did not start on Oct.7, this started 75 years ago,” Shkoukani said.

While most speakers stuck to Palestine, resident Luxio Lyone Onyx tied Palestine to larger global issues. These ranged from economic to social issues.

“Palestine is severely interconnected with all of these struggles,” Onyx said. “We are just like them, wanting to be free from corporate greed, wanting to make our own choices with our bodies and wanting world peace and the dismantling of white supremacy.”

Some Michigan cities have made cease-fire resolutions, including Detroit, Dearborn, Ann Arbor and Lansing.

Following the meeting, Fraser Mayor Michael Lesich said he welcomed the speakers to give their views during public comment.

“People have a right to address their public body,” Lesich said in an interview following the meeting. “I thought they were all respectful and had their say.”

According to Lesich, there is no current plan to add a cease-fire resolution to the city’s next regularly scheduled meeting.

“I don’t really see that as a role for the city of Fraser,” he said.