Analysis: Detained Sarsour Bridged Milwaukee’s Palestinian and Jewish Communities

The first thing many Milwaukee community members think of regarding the Islamic Society of Milwaukee President Salah Sarsour is not politics.

They mention his warmth.

At the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, Sarsour greeted guests at the entrance before community events. During pro-Palestinian protests, he checked in on organizers and helped coordinate the events. During funerals, people saw him comforting families.

“He’s kind of the person who has the warmest smile in any room,” said Jewish Voice for Peace Milwaukee co-founder Jodi Melamed.

It has been over a month since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained Sarsour and moved him into an ICE detention facility in Brazil, Indiana. Many people who worked with him say Milwaukee feels strange without him.

Supporters within both the Muslim and Palestinian communities describe feelings of anger, grief and overall fear. But among Jewish Milwaukee professors and activists, Sarsour’s case sparked more conversations around solidarity, pro-Palestine politics and anti-semitism, and concern about political repression.

Since Sarsour has been detained, Federal officials said this case’s main evidence comes from decades-old allegations connected to Sarsour’s documentation history and during his youth in the West Bank. Sarsour was also accused of terrorist-related allegations

Sarsour’s attorneys reject the allegations, pointing out that the government has known about his history since he legally immigrated to the United States. They also argue that the detention is related to his pro-Palestinian activism.

The case quickly became one of the biggest politically charged stories from Milwaukee. Multiple rallies have taken place nationally. Multiple petitions have been posted. And community groups are working together at the national level to free Sarsour.

For many Jewish activists, this has been about more than fighting ICE.

Sarsour Connected Communities

For many years, Melamed points out that Sarsour had a unique role in Milwaukee’s community. He connected communities that were often polarized.

 “I really know Salah Sarsour as somebody who does that, who provides glue through care across bridging communities, ” Melamed said. So Muslim communities, Christian communities, Jewish communities, secular communities, socialist communities, all of that.”

Multiple Jewish and Palestinian organizers throughout the city point out the same idea. Sarsour was forming a long-term bridge.

When Melamed attended events at the Islamic Society of Milwaukee Mosque, he made her feel welcome.

“He always comes and greets me with a really big smile and a hand on his heart and lots of warmth,” she said.

Melamed remembers seeing Sarsour playing with children during highly tense times.

What happens to the bridge when its glue is gone?

“George Howard,” a member of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, asked that his real name not be used because he does not want to attract the attention of federal authorities. He said Sarsour’s detention has left a noticeable emotional disconnect within Milwaukee’s Muslim community.

“You can tell when you interact with some other community leaders that are part of the ISM, you can tell that they’ve got something mentally occupying them,” Howard said. “It’s personal for many people.”

Howard said the detention is sparking fear.

“Many people in the Palestinian community are afraid to say anything critical about Israel or even Trump,” Howard said. “They know what happens when you speak up against an authoritarian regime.”

Howard pointed out how he has seen more Hispanic activists because of their fight against ICE, joining the Free Salah Sarsour case. He said we are seeing Zionists who advocate for the current state of Israel join together with Muslims for the cause.

“When you have the Jewish caucus of the Democratic Party also issuing a statement saying that Salah Sarsour should be released, that’s when you know that this is a truly unjust action,” Howard said.

An Anti-Zionist Response

Since October 2023, the conversation around Palestine in Jewish American communities has been strongly polarized.

Organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace that advocate for a free Palestine have sometimes faced exclusion in the community by the Zionist Jewish population. Multiple members said it is common to be excluded by fellow Jewish people.

Dr. Rachel Ida Buff, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee history professor and a founding member of Jewish Voice For Peace Milwaukee, said she has seen how more Jewish Americans feel uncomfortable when there are wrongful accusations of antisemitism by politicians.

“As a Jewish American, I am horrified and insulted that the Trump Administration is weaponizing a fake idea of antisemitism to justify political persecution,” Buff said.

Buff has studied the history of immigration and political repression, and connected Sarsour’s detention to other periods in American history when the government targeted organizers with accusations dealing with association or ideology.

Buff points out the Red Scare, McCarthyism, and post-9/11 rhetoric about Muslims as she argues that Sarsour’s case is the result of political repression.

“So one strand of this comes out of so-called counterterrorism,” Buff said. “The antecedent strand that makes that possible is the McCarthyist Red Scare and anti-communism.”

For Buff, there are too many similarities to ignore.

“Ripping up the Constitution and knocking at the door and taking away the people we rely on is an old tactic,” Buff said.

Meanwhile, she also believes the Jewish public response has shown there is a change in perspective to some extent, happening inside some Jewish communities. Buff has faced backlash as an anti-Zionist Jew. She described conversations she’s had with Jewish people who once avoided criticizing Israel, but are now expressing discomfort in how the Palestinian community is being treated.

“So we’re at a really interesting moment,” Buff said.

Buff said a rabbi who fired her from Sunday school because she spoke for Palestine has now signed a letter for the cause.

Melamed said a lot of Jewish organizers do not separate Sarsour’s detention from their own concerns around freedom for Jewish People.

“I know that my freedom, as a longtime Jewish resident of Milwaukee, depends on Salah’s freedom,” said Melamed.

Fear of Speaking Out

Many Palestinian supporters have remained cautious about what they say online or in person. The concern did not start with Sarsour, but from similar cases like Mahmoud Khalil and other cases regarding pro-Palestine activists.

“I think we should be scared,” Buff said. “But I don’t think we should stop.”

Howard said concerns felt more immediate once Sarsour got detained.

“To see it in front of you is different than just having it as a passive thought,” Howard said.

The Community Returns the Favor

At the mosque, the emotional impact of Sarsour’s absence is not avoidable.

“There’s just so much grief,” Buff said.

Buff raised concerns around the condition of the detention center for Sarsour. It is not known if Sarsour is getting his medicine or not. The center has been described as very cold.

The bridge that Sarsour built led to the conversations in Jewish as well as Palestinian spaces. The Jewish and Muslim Caucuses of the Wisconsin Democratic Party came together in a joint statement explaining that despite their disagreements on multiple issues, they agree the detaining is an attack on free speech.

“You have always been the person for the community, and now the community is going to be there for you,” Melamed said as a message to Sarsour.