ANN ARBOR — Michigan Radio decided not to air a sponsor’s message wishing Israel a happy birthday on the Zionist state’s independence day.

For a donation of at least $365, listeners can broadcast a message six times on the public radio station based at the University of Michigan. However, the pro-Israeli message of Lisa Lis, an Oakland County resident, was rejected.

Lis, a self-proclaimed progressive, is married to an Israeli citizen and her husband serves in the Israeli army, Deadline Detroit reported.

Michigan Radio said the message would compromise its “commitment to impartiality” and imply advocacy.

Lis told Deadline Detroit she is still requesting that her message be aired, adding that her family is contemplating stopping the donations to the public radio station.The story sparked passionate responses on both sides. One reader went as far as accusing Michigan Radio of appeasing anti-Semitism.

“That is no different than saying that to respect the anti-Semites we won’t mention Jews because their existence is ‘controversial’ and we don’t want to offend any anti-Semites,” Robert F. wrote on Deadline Detroit’s website. “Except that anti-Semitism is illegal; it violates the civil rights act of 1964, among other laws, and using the public airways to disseminate hate speech is also illegal.”

But to Palestinian activists, the day commemorating the establishment of the State of Israel is a painful occasion and it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism.

In the months leading to the 1948 war, 700,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes to neighboring countries. In places like Lebanon and Syria, those refugees and their descendants still live in impoverished camps; many of them held on to the deeds to lands and houses they left in what is today Israel. Activists say Israel’s independence is a reminder of the Palestinian exodus, which Arabs call Nekba (the disaster).

Veteran Palestinian advocate Hassan Nawash had to flee his home in west Jerusalem after Zionist militias killed more than 100 Palestinians in the nearby town of Deir Yassin. He moved with his parents to Jordan when he was 6. Then he returned to live with his brother in east Jerusalem.

Living without his mother and father, he felt like an orphan, he said.

Nawash added that wishing Israel a happy independence day is a harmful message that amounts to advocating for “cultural genocide” against Palestinians.

“When I celebrate the birth of Israel, I am celebrating wiping the identity of the history and culture of Palestinians,” he said.

He said Israel destroyed the fabric of Palestinian society, both in Israel and the Palestinian territories, because of splintering caused by Nekba.

Nawash said Israel refuses to draw its borders and continues to encroach on its Arab neighbors, while enforcing an apartheid system in the West Bank, where Jewish settlers are given special access to roads, schools and public transport.

“They are establishing settlements on stolen Palestinian land with deeds, let alone compensating refugees for their losses,” he said.

Nawash said Palestinians everywhere are suffering because of Israel — refugees in the diaspora, West Bank Palestinians under occupation, Gaza residents under the blockade, even Palestinian citizens of Israel who face discrimination.

The activist was pleased with Michigan Radio’s decision not to air the message.

“I want to salute Michigan Radio in being responsible and having great discretion to turn down that message,” Nawash said. “That shows courage and a principled stand that they’re not fearful of losing sponsors.”