National Jewish organizations called for the state of Michigan to be more clear about the nature of Zena Ozeir’s departure from the state government after JNS reported on Tuesday that she is no longer an assistant Michigan attorney general.
“No public office holder should be engaging in this kind of hateful and inciteful rhetoric,” Daniel Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS.
“There is an obligation on the part of the Michigan attorney general’s office to make clear precisely what prompted her departure from such an influential public position,” Mariaschin said.
After JNS reported that Ozeir still listed her job as current on LinkedIn, she changed her profile to state that she is an “assistant attorney general” but that her job in that capacity at the Michigan Department of Attorney General ended in January 2026.
The office of Dana Nessel, Michigan attorney general and a Democrat, told JNS on Tuesday that Ozeir does not currently hold that position. “Zena Ozeir is no longer employed by the Michigan Department of Attorney General,” Kimberly Bush, Nessel’s director of public information and education, told JNS.
JNS asked if Ozeir was let go, and if she was, if it was due to the state probe of social media posts, in which she appeared to direct expletives at America and Israel. Nessel’s office didn’t respond to those questions.
Ozeir was listed as a panelist at a Jan. 17 event calling for freeing the Holy Land Five, who were convicted of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas. Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids, which hosted the event, shared clips on social media of Ozeir speaking at the event.
“We have learned that the law is not meant to protect us,” Ozeir said in one clip. “This was something that’s been going on before Palestine was in the headlines all the time, and before 2023, and it’s a shame that it took a genocide for Palestine to become front and center.”
“The Holy Land Foundation case established that humanitarian aid providing public-support benefit to a group like Hamas constitutes terrorism support,” she added in a clip. “Wherever the wind blows, you could wake up one day, and Trump says, ‘Hey, I’m going to designate this a foreign terrorist organization, and then you are at risk of material support of terrorism.’”
Amy Sapeika, community director for American Jewish Committee Detroit, told JNS that “rhetoric that glorifies hatred, excuses terrorism and targets Jews contributes to a climate of intimidation and violence against Jewish communities.”
“Accountability matters, and consequences are essential when officials abuse their platforms to promote hate,” Sapeika said.
Mort Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS that “someone calling for freeing the Holy Land Five demonstrates a severe bias against Jews and Americans and in favor of terrorists and lack of respect for America’s laws.”
“Someone with these biases has no business working for a law enforcement body such as the attorney general’s office,” Klein said. “I favor transparency regarding her firing, particularly given the importance to have unbiased attorneys working in the attorney general’s office in this era of surging antisemitism.”
The State Bars of California and of Michigan list Ozeir as having an active legal license. Both list her address as the Michigan Office of the Attorney General. The State Bar of Michigan says on its site that it “has verified this lawyer’s status, however the photo and profile information have been provided directly by the lawyer.”
