OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – The Road Commission for Oakland County says it will review how certain road signs are approved after backlash led to the removal of placards placed beneath Adopt-A-Road signs.
The placards, which read “Next Mile Voices for Palestinians,” were installed last week along Orchard Lake Road, just minutes from Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. The synagogue was the site of what the FBI has classified as a “Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism.”
The signs were taken down over the weekend.
“Initially, I was a little horrified,” said Melissa Brodsky. “ And then I was angry.” Brodsky grew up in the area and came back to visit family when she saw the signs. “To me and to many others in the Jewish community that I spoke with, it was meant to intimidate.”
The road commission said the applicant requested the placard in September 2025 and received approval in November. Installation was delayed because of a backlog, officials said.
The man who applied for the sign, who described Voices for Palestinians as a collective of Oakland County residents, said he did not know the signs had been removed until a few hours before speaking with Local 4.
He said he was surprised by the reaction, noting that he filed the application well before the Temple Israel attack.
He said his group sympathizes with the community following that incident and that the stretch of Orchard Lake Road is near his home. He said the sign was intended to commemorate those killed in Gaza following the October 7th attack.
“Because of genocide occurring in Gaza, we wanted to give the Palestinian people and children a voice while performing a civic duty,” the applicant said, which he wanted attributed to Voices of Palestinians.
He did not say whether he would seek to have the signs restored, but the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, has called for the decision to remove the placards to be reversed.
“We were concerned that certain groups are being treated as less than equal participants in Oakland County based on national origin or faith-based designation,” said Amy Doukoure, lead staff attorney for CAIR-Michigan.
In a Zoom interview, Road Commission for Oakland County Senior Communications Manager Craig Bryson said the agency is examining what happened.
“We’re going to review it from a legal perspective to see what is acceptable legally and from a community concern perspective,” Bryson said.
He said it is unclear how long the review will take. Bryson added that the group that sponsored the placards did clean up the adopted section of Orchard Lake Road in April.
It is important to note that David Coulter, the county executive. did ask to review the sign placement.