Detroit Police Chief Postpones Trip to Israel After Criticism
Controversial trip was condemned by pro-Palestinian activists
By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor
Pan-African News Wire
DETROIT, 27 April (PANW)--Newly-appointed police chief Jerry
Oliver has announced that he will postpone his trip to Israel
because of the current political violence that is going on
inside the occupied territories of Palestine.
Oliver and newly-elected Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick came under
crticism for the announced trip which was supposedly designed
to attend a seminar on fighting "terrorism."
"I'm disappointed that I'm not going because I think it was a
great opportunity to learn," Oliver told a Detroit Board of
Police Commissioners meeting on Thursday evening.
"I think it's the right call because clearly I don't want to
go into the middle of something that's not safe and they
can't guarantee our safety at this point," said the chief who
was previously employed in Richmond, Virginia.
Oliver had been slated to travel to Israel with 25 other law
enforcement officials from around the United States. The
trip, which was sponsored by the Police Executive Research
Forum in Washington, D.C., was slated for June.
The proposed trip drew harsh criticism from Arab-American
organizations and other anti-war groups. The International
Action Center in Detroit sent a letter to Mayor Kilpatrick on
March 29 expressing its displeasure with the scheduled trip.
According to the letter, which was signed by people such as
Hassan Newash of the American Council on Palestinian Affairs;
Tammy Watts of the Arab Center for Community Economic and
Social Services (ACCESS); David Sole, the president of UAW
Local 2334; Dr. Jerry G. Bails, Prof. Emeritus, WSU, among
others: "We were shocked and dismayed to hear press reports
that you are considering sending Detroit's Chief of Police,
Jerry Oliver, to Israel to study 'terrorism.' Exactly what
can he learn from the Israeli government, police or military
when Israel trained and armed the vicious former apartheid
government of South Africa in its brutal forty year
suppression of the African, Indian and mixed race peoples."
The letter sent to Mayor Kilpatrick also stated that: "Israel
has launched murderous, massive military attacks against
crowded refugee camps, killing indiscriminately and rounding
up hundreds upon hundreds of civilians, writing numbers, Nazi
style, on their forearms."
In addition to these facts about the current policies of the
Israeli government, the letter mentioned also that: "The
Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, was found guilty of
aiding and abetting the murder of thousands of Palestinian
civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon
in the 1980's."
Concluding the letter the activists contend that: "By sending
a representative of the City of Detroit to Israel, your
administration would be ignoring these massive human rights
violations. You would be giving comfort to Israel's brutal
and illegal occupation of Palestinian land. Are the lessons
of Israeli terrorism really what we want to bring back to
Detroit where our police force already has too many cases of
questionable police shootings, unexplained jail house deaths
and accusations of corruption?"
The previous plan to send Chief Oliver to Israel was a focal
point of discussion on a local Black Talk Radio show aired
several weeks ago in Detroit. Callers overwhelmingly spoke
against the Israeli trip.
At a town hall meeting on police/community relations held
last week, Oliver received questions on his proposed trip to
Israel during a brief visit to the gathering.
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