By Ali Harb
This article was originally published by Truthout
Rep. Rashida Tlaib says Capture Systems has “no place in our state and should not be receiving a dime of public funds.”
Amid Israel’s offensive in south Lebanon, Nasser Beydoun — like many Arab Americans who hail from the area — would look at satellite images of his hometown of Bint Jbeil to see if his family house is still standing.
Israel has been wiping out entire towns on the Lebanese side of the border as part of a deliberate policy that human rights advocates say aims to make the region uninhabitable.
After a ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah was announced in April, an image came through showing the house was gone.
For Beydoun, a civil rights advocate in the Detroit area’s large Arab community, the loss was immense, but hope persists.
“It makes you very angry, but it also makes you very determined,” he said. “They can destroy a house. They can’t destroy the memories in the house. They can destroy a village, but we’re going to rebuild all that.”
Now, an Israeli military contractor will open a hub to produce military technology in the Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights, less than 30 miles away from where Beydoun lives. The firm, Capture Systems Ltd., is set to receive $1 million in backing from the state’s investment arm, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). The company, which will operate under a U.S.-based entity called Capture Group Inc., specializes in military surveillance and anti-drone technology.
“It just shows you that the state is out of touch with reality. The MEDC is out of touch with reality, and we need to hold them accountable,” Beydoun told Truthout.
Thousands of Michiganders, who have lost their homes or had their loved ones killed in south Lebanon, are contending with what they describe as a sense of betrayal by their own state officials. Members of the Arab community are expressing outrage at the policy.
Amer Zahr, a school board trustee in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, a city known as the “Capital of Arab America,” called the state’s decision a “slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands of Arab Americans in Michigan.”
“This Israeli company produces the exact kind of military … technology used to ethnically cleanse Palestinians in the West Bank and to undertake a genocide in Gaza,” Zahr told Truthout.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hailed the move in the Michigan Economic Development Corporation announcement, touting it as an achievement that shows that Michigan is “on the move and open for business.”
While Whitmer has promised that the project would create 125 “new good-paying jobs,” critics say the investment adds insult to the suffering of the governor’s constituents of Palestinian and Lebanese descent. “I’m sure most Michiganders would agree that legitimizing war crimes for potentially creating 125 jobs is a moral catastrophe,” Zahr told Truthout.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said Capture Group Inc. is “not welcome” in Michigan.
“Governor Whitmer’s administration is now in the weapons business. Michigan is awarding nearly $1 million to an Israeli weapons and drones company to start production in our state. This is an anti-war and anti-genocide state,” Tlaib told Truthout in an email.
Tlaib and Whitmer are both Democrats, but the congresswoman has not shied away from criticizing the governor, including over environmental policies and her pro-Israel positions.
“When small businesses, many of them Black- and women-owned, are struggling in our state, there never seems to be money for them, but Governor Whitmer has funding for bombs that kill children,” Tlaib added. “These weapons have been used to commit genocide and murder the family members and loved ones of so many of our neighbors. They have no place in our state and should not be receiving a dime of public funds.”
Leading rights groups and United Nations experts and investigators have accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza — a push to destroy the Palestinian people in whole or in part.
Beydoun also slammed Whitmer for celebrating the creation of 125 jobs to justify working with Israel’s military-industrial sector. “Really? 125 jobs to back a company that backs genocide and backs the Israeli military in a state where a lot of your constituents have suffered under Israel’s war,” Beydoun said.
Whitmer’s office, the MEDC, and Capture Systems did not respond to Truthout‘s request for comment by the time of publication.
Avi Braun, then-deputy CEO of Capture Systems, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2024 that the company saw the need to “enhance the capabilities of soldiers in the field” after the start of the war on Gaza.
Matt McCauley, senior vice president of regional development at the MEDC, said in a statement on September 2 that the partnership with Capture Systems is “testament to the strength of our state’s talent, innovation and manufacturing capabilities.”
The grant comes at a time when disagreements over Israel’s war on Palestinians are roiling politics in Michigan, dividing Democrats and alienating parts of the base after a bruising U.S. Senate primary that saw the issue take center stage.
Progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who has accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza, narrowly won the race last month, overcoming more than $30 million in campaign spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
El-Sayed is now facing former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers, who is allied with pro-Israel groups, in the general election.
Whitmer and other top Democrats in the state, including Attorney General Dana Nessel and retiring Sen. Gary Peters, had backed El-Sayed’s primary opponent Congresswoman Haley Stevens, a staunch supporter of Israel.
Nessel has also previously feuded with Tlaib, accusing the congresswoman of antisemitism due to Tlaib having criticized her over the decision to prosecute University of Michigan students who protested Israeli atrocities in Gaza last year.
Even before the war on Gaza, tensions were simmering among Democrats over U.S. support for Israel despite its abuses against Palestinians.
Whitmer faced criticism from the Arab community when she first ran for governor in 2018 for backing a state law that would impose penalties on businesses that boycott Israel over its abuses against Palestinians.
The governor visited Israel in 2019, months after the country banned Tlaib from reaching the occupied West Bank to visit her grandmother.
Suehaila Amen, a prominent activist in Michigan, called the grant to the Israeli military contractor “another betrayal” of the Arab community by its elected representatives.
She said Arab Americans will no longer tolerate being pushed aside by politicians in the state, underscoring that voters across Michigan are largely refusing to back pro-Israel candidates.
Whitmer is term-limited and not running for reelection.
Amen said the next state leaders must know that prosperity and investments should not come at the expense of a large part of the state’s population.
“There are families in our state who carry a tremendous amount of grief and pain, and they are now being asked to make way for an Israeli military company,” she told Truthout.
Beyond Michigan, some experts view Capture Systems’ move into the U.S. market as part of an Israeli strategy to intertwine the military industries of Israel and the U.S.
That push came to the forefront earlier this year during debates over a section in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would facilitate the integration of the U.S. and Israeli militaries.
The provision would require the defense secretary “to designate an executive agent responsible for synchronising cooperative efforts between the United States and Israel.”
Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at the human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), described Capture Group’s project in Michigan as an “integration action.”
“While Congress debates the integration provisions in this year’s NDAA and we fight them in Washington, integration is happening live in our backyard,” Jarrar told Truthout. “It is a strategy to preempt sanctions and preempt any cut in military aid. Once Israeli arms production is embedded in American towns and tied to American paychecks, holding Israel accountable becomes politically impossible.”
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