The billboard can be seen 8 Mile Road in the city, and was placed there by Deir Yassin Remembered, which is based in New York. Detroit has one of the largest Arab populations in the United States, however it also has a sizable number of Jewish inhabitants.
"The strategy behind this billboard's statement, 'America First, Not Israel', is to drive a wedge between those who feel American interests are not served by fighting wars for Israel, and the Israel-firsters in this country who manipulate our leaders into the false premise that Israel is the ally of the United States," Henry Herskovitz wrote on the organization's website.
New Billboard that reads America first over israel put up in Detroit
https://t.co/RoIh0FIMee pic.twitter.com/3wCHc833q0
โ Abbs Winston (@AbbsWinston) October 23, 2015
Herskovitz added that too often the Jewish Lobby within Congress was dictating US foreign policy.
However, not everyone is happy about the appearance of the billboard. The Anti-Defamation League's Heidi Budaj understood that the advertisement was trying to "drive a wedge between the American people and the State of Israel," a fact she was less than pleased about.
"This particular sign goes a step further and raises an old anti-Semitic canard of dual loyalty, implying that Jews are not loyal to the country in which they live," she said, speaking to Detroit's WXYZ radio. "Make no mistake that, while many of the Jewish people in the United States support the State of Israel as a Jewish state, we are loyal Americans."
The battle of Deir Yassin, a village near Jerusalem, took place in April 1948, a month before the Israel was declared an independent nation. Over 100 Arab civilians were killed during the battle.
"Deir Yassin Remembered was founded to educate the public about the 1948 massacre of more than 100 Palestinian civilians by Jewish terrorists at the village of Deir Yassin and to seek justice to the victims of the massacre. Our goal is to build a truth and reconciliation center at Deir Yassin," the organization added on its website.
In June, the controversial blogger and president of the anti-Islam American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), Pamela Geller, ran an advertising campaign in Washington, DC featuring the cartoon that won a Prophet Mohammed drawing contest in Texas in May.
Anti-Islam group wants to run cartoon ads of Mohammed in DC http://t.co/gw4UEIP2lr pic.twitter.com/TtvHiHX6J7
โ RT (@RT_com) May 28, 2015
Critics called the move a "provocation" as it is forbidden under Islam to show images of the Prophet. Two gunmen who were intent on causing a massacre at the Texas event targeted the event itself. Both the gunmen were shot dead by police.
Earlier this year, the AFDI won multiple federal court cases, under freedom of speech rights sanctioned by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, to force transportation authorities in Philadelphia and New York to run ads that claimed Islam promotes discrimination and the killing of Jews.
"If America surrenders on this point, freedom of speech is a relic of history, and if we give up on this, then they will have more demands: what we eat (pork), what we drink (alcohol). ...we cannot submit to the assassin's veto," Geller said. "Do people really think that this is where it ends? 'Just don't let the cartooning and we will be saved.' Are you kidding?" she added.
The Anti-Defamation League spoke to local news station WXYZ Channel 7 and totally misinterpreted what the sign was trying to say. She cried about anti-Semitism and how the sign pits the American people against American Jews. Which is to say they already see themselves as separate. What I interpreted is what this article said, which is that the Israel lobby, no matter what name they go by, whether AIPAC or J-Street, should have no say in the foreign policy of the US because they are not loyal to our interests. Neither are the politicians, like John McCain, who put the interests of Israel over the interests of his constituents. Which I totally agree with. She also tried to marginalize the massacre at Deir Yassin, which I found extremely offensive. Disgusted is the best word to describe my feelings of the ADL.