Could Ann Arbor voters pick a worse choice than Mozhgan Savabieasfahani for Ward 4?

Could Ann Arbor voters possibly pick a worse choice than Mozhgan Savabieasfahani for Ward 4?

If you lived in Ann Arbor, a leafy enclave in Michigan,  you might be concerned about the cost of housing, or the deteriorating infrastructure. You might want to elect representative to the City Council with a commitment to fix "the damn roads".

Or not.

Mozhgan Savabieasfahani is hoping what motivates Ward 4 voters is local involvement in an intractable foreign conflict thousands of miles away from Michigan.  She is running for Ann Arbor City Council on a "Divest from Israel platform"

Mozhgan Savabieasfahani , Candidate for Ann Arbor City Council

Savabieasfahani is no stranger to activist politics.  Her facebook page is full of the language of demonization and dehumanization as she urges her followers to boycott Israeli "butchers"

Most alarming, Mozhgan Savabieasfahani is part of a contingent that has been harassing members of a local synagogue every Shabbat, when they go to pray.  Much of the signage is unabashedly anti-Semitic.

Photo from the Ann Arbor News 

Photo from the Forward 

The harassment has been going on for years, but was given wider attention when the Lawfare Project filed a lawsuit against the City, and the  protesters. The plaintiffs are Beth Israel Congregation member Marvin Gerber and Ann Arbor resident Dr. Miriam Brysk, a Holocaust survivor.

Brooke Goldstein, Executive Director of The Lawfare Project described the situation:

"The City of Ann Arbor has completely abdicated its responsibility to protect the Jewish community from targeted, racist harassment at the hands of these protesters. There are few greater civil rights violations than impeding the free exercise of worship and assembly, and we are here to demand the city hold the protestors accountable under existing federal, state, and local laws."

Marc Susselman, co-counsel in the lawsuit, added:

"Not only are the protestors harassing innocent people on their way to synagogue, they are actually in violation of the city's ordinances. However, the city has long refused to place even modest restrictions on them. The City of Ann Arbor could have at the very least enforced its own city code to substantially limit the protests, but instead city leaders have done nothing and allowed the harassment to continue for over a decade and a half."

In spite of her history of activism, the Iranian born Savabieasfahani is reported to have registered to vote only recently, in October of 2019.

From the Jewish Journal:

The County chairwoman of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus Joan Lowenstein has stated “Mozhgan Savabieasfahani’s hate-filled candidacy for Ann Arbor City Council is an affront to the universal values so integral to this city, as one of Michigan’s great intellectual centers.”

For more information on the blatant antisemtism of  Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, see

Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, Candidate for Michigan City Council, Under Fire for Anti-Semitic Synagogue Protests

and 

Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, Candidate for Michigan City Council Under Fire

The election will be held August 4.

The rush to exploit the death of Ahmed Erakat

Ahmed Erakat,  distraught, filmed himself.  The 27 year old's rambling confessional denied he was a spy, and spoke of shaming his family. 

Later, a video camera captured the moment he swerved  his car to hit an Israeli border guard then attempted to dash from the vehicle.

From the police statement: “He waited for a good moment, turned from the center of the lane to get a better angle to hurt the officer and then accelerated, turning his car 90 degrees and lunged wildly at the troops”.

The border guards opened fire, and Erakat was killed.

It was no accident.  “He saw that I took a step, he looked me in the eye, turned the steering wheel and rammed into me, and I flew to the other side” of the road divider, Border Policewoman Shani Orr Hama Kadosh said.

Was the car ramming attack a deliberate attempt to restore honor to his family?

Car ramming attacks have been widely promoted and encouraged in the Palestinian media. The message is clear- use your car as a weapon.

A sampler:

March 2019: An IDF officer was seriously wounded and a border policeman was lightly wounded in a car ramming attack. 

July 2019 Hizma, just north of Jerusalem: Five IDF soldiers were injured in a ramming attack.

2017 4  people were killed and 11 injured when an Israeli Arab drove his truck into a group plowed into a group of soldiers leaving a bus in East Talpiot.

April 2017 Palestinian  rammed his car into a bus stop, killing Elchai Taharlev (20) injuring one other 

October 2014, a Palestinian rammed his car into a crowd of people waiting at the Ammunition Hill light rail station in Jerusalem. A three-month-old baby was killed along along with a 22-year-old Ecuadorian. Seven others were injured.

November 2014  A Hamas operative^[ deliberately drove a van at high speed into a crowd of people waiting at a light rail station in Jerusalem, then left his van, and attacked pedestrians with a crowbar.  Three people were killed, and thirteen were wounded.

November 2014 A  Palestinian terrorist attempted to run his vehicle into a crowd waiting at a bus stop,  got out and killed a young woman and wounding two others.

August 2014 Jerusalem tractor attack An Arab terrorist drove a tractor  onto a major street, killing one and  injuring seven others before ramming the tractor into a public bus, overturning the bus and and ramming it repeatedly. 

Others have suggested that Erakat's death might have been a "suicide by cop".

Noura Erakat eagerly attempted to exploit the event, calling Ahmed her "baby cousin".  A family member was quick to correct her,  accusing the Rutgers Professor of using "sensationalist words" to increase her "personal exposure"

The Museum of the Palestinian People also jumped on the bandwagon, and featured an illustration of the attempted murderer, because, well, Jew-hate is something to be exalted,  even at the Museum level. 

And  no, this isn't a museum in Ramallah.  This is one in Washington DC.

Eco-terrorism from Gaza

At least 11 arson fires have been started this week in southern Israel.  This craven eco-terrorism has destroyed crucial habitats and farmland, risked human and animal lives and squandered precious limited resources.  These fires were deliberately set by terrorists in Gaza, in an act of terrorist intimidation directed towards the civilians of southern Israel.

The eco-terrorist attacks have been widely encouraged by the Arab mass media, and through social media.

There have been no injuries reported within Israel but there has been appreciable damage to  both crops and wildlife. 

Eco-terrorism.  Does anyone really believe that the Palestinians are doing this because of their love for the land?