Smile, Habibi, You’re On Israeli Camera 🎥🇱🇧✡️

Dearborn, we need to have a serious family meeting. The kind where your uncle slaps the table, your aunt storms out, and somebody’s rosary beads get weaponized. Because in the middle of war, rubble, and funerals in South Lebanon… your very Lebanese mayor decided to spend $720,000 of your tax dollars on cameras connected to a company with Israeli ties.

Yes, really.

The Contract Nobody Read (But Everybody Paid For)

In April 2025, Dearborn City Council approved a five-year deal with Axon’s Fūsus program—a slick “real-time crime center” that lets Dearborn police tap into cameras from businesses and residents who opt in.

Translation: it’s like Ring doorbells, except now the city gets a backstage pass to your wedding livestream, your cousin’s illegal fireworks stash, and your dad’s nightly ritual of yelling at FOX 2 News.

Axon—the taser people—swallowed up Fūsus in 2024. Sounds harmless enough, until you remember Axon is financially tied to Cellebrite, an Israeli digital forensics firm that specializes in cracking phones, extracting evidence, and—oh yeah—helping Israeli forces do the kind of surveillance Palestinians (and now South Lebanon) know all too well.

So while your teta is dodging bombs in Tyre, Dearborn just signed a deal with a company cozying up to the same state dropping those bombs.

But hey, at least the cameras will keep track of who double-parks outside Byblos Banquet.

Lebanese Mayor, Israeli Receipts

Here’s where it gets deliciously tragicomic. Abdullah Hammoud—the golden boy of Dearborn, the mayor who flexes his Lebanese identity harder than shawarma grease stains—just got caught in the ultimate identity hypocrisy:

• Wave the cedar flag at rallies.

• Quote Mahmoud Darwish on Instagram.

• Then quietly greenlight a contract with a company tied to Israel.

If Dearborn politics is a soap opera, this is the plot twist nobody saw coming. Imagine Bay Ridge Arabs React but filmed in HD on Axon’s dime.

Dearborn Logic™ in Action

Let’s be honest: this is the most Dearborn thing ever.

• We boycott Sabra hummus at Meijer.

• We scream “Free Palestine” in Warren Avenue protests.

• But when it comes to city contracts? Ya Allah, suddenly we’re okay signing checks that flow into Israeli-linked tech.

This isn’t “resistance.” This is “resistance with a financing plan.”

And don’t let the “it was council-approved, not secret” defense fool you. Dearborners don’t read council agendas. Half of you don’t even know what precinct you vote in. The mayor could announce he’s replacing City Hall with a hookah lounge and someone would still say, “Wallah bro that’s good for the economy.”

Why This Matters (Hint: Lebanon)

Let’s connect the dots:

• Israel bombs South Lebanon.

• Lebanese-Americans in Dearborn hold marches, fundraisers, candlelight vigils.

• Meanwhile, their Lebanese mayor signs a deal funneling money into a company with Israeli ties.

That’s not just bad optics. That’s a kaf. That’s the kind of contradiction that makes your ancestors roll over in their mass graves.

If this were any other community, it would be a scandal. But in Dearborn, it’s just another episode of Mofawar City: “Season 8, Episode 3 — Cameras, Knafeh, and Colonization.”

Before You Vote…

So here’s your quick reminder before you step into the ballot box:

If you want a mayor who talks like a resistance fighter but shops like a startup investor, then Abdullah is your guy. If you’d prefer not to have Israeli-linked tech tracking you while you eat your free Hussayn food, maybe think twice.

Because every time you smile at a wedding camera, remember: someone in Tel Aviv just might be watching too.

Closing line:

Dearborn, you can’t chant “From the river to the sea” while your tax dollars go straight into the sea of Israeli venture capital. Pick a side—preferably before the cameras zoom in.

Shamefully,

Habib