A pair of Adopt-A-Road signs sharing support for Palestinians have been removed following concerns from Oakland County officials and community members.
On Sunday Morning, Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter called on the county road commission to review Adopt-A-Road signage near Temple Israel, a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township. In March, 41-year-old Ayman Ghazali of Dearborn Heights drove a Ford F-150 into the synagogue, in what the FBI said was an act of terrorism inspired by Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim political party and militant group based in Lebanon.
“The placement of a ‘Voices for Palestinians’ Adopt-A-Road placard in the heart of Oakland County’s Jewish community, near the site of a recent synagogue attack, is deeply troubling and understandably painful for many of our Jewish neighbors,” Coulter said in a statement. “At a time when members of the Jewish community are already experiencing heightened fear and concern, placing such a message in that location appears to disregard the impact it would have and risks being perceived as an act of provocation.”
Coulter urged the Road Commission for Oakland County to review the placement of the signs, consider the impact on the community and engage with affected residents to “help restore trust and demonstrate respect for our Jewish neighbors.”
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The Road Commission of Oakland County operates independently of Coulter’s office. Its Adopt-A-Road program asks volunteers to pick up litter along a stretch of roadway during two of three scheduled cleanup periods a year. In return, the commission places road signs at both ends of a designated section to recognize volunteer groups.
On Monday morning the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized Coulter’s request, saying he falsely linked the signs to violent extremism while noting that there are members of Michigan’s Jewish community who advocate for the rights of Palestinians.
“We call on the Road Commission to reject Oakland County Executive David Coulter’s biased attempt to silence voices in support of Palestinian humanity,” the group’s executive director, Dawud Walid, said in a statement. “Palestinians have been subjected to ethnic cleansing and genocide – with the complicity of our nation and the international community – because they have been dehumanized and denied their human rights for decades.”
Craig Bryson, senior communications manager for the road commission, told Michigan Advance on Monday that the signs were put up last week, with one sign at either end of the segment of Orchard Lake Road between Maple Road and Walnut Lake Road. Bryson said they were taken down Sunday morning “in the interest of safety.”
“The last thing in the world that we want is for people to either experience fear or anxiety or God forbid something worse because of a sign along the road,” Bryson said. “What we’re going to do now is review the situation. We have taken them down temporarily. We don’t know what the future of the signs will be until we have a chance to review it some more.”
Bryson said the road commission was not certain how long the review would take, noting that the commission’s board and its legal department would be playing an active role in the review.
Individuals or groups can apply to adopt a segment of road which has not already been adopted, Bryson said, noting that the person who adopted the segment at issue lived nearby, and applied to adopt the road last year, before the attack on the synagogue.
Since at least the 1980s, the road commission has allowed any organization willing to clean up a stretch of road to adopt a segment, Bryson said, later noting that it’s not uncommon for a city mayor, county commissioner or other politicians to adopt a road.
The road commission does review the names on the signs, Bryson said, noting that things like profanity or overt racism would not be allowed.
“To my knowledge, this type of issue has not come up before,” Bryson said.