Content warning: this article contains mentions of violence
Hundreds of University of Michigan students and faculty took part in a national campus-wide walkout Wednesday to demand that the University fully divest from Israel and formally acknowledge its failure to condemn Israeli state-sanctioned violence against Palestinians in recent weeks. The crowd gathered in the Diag before marching toward the Alexander G. Ruthven Building — which houses the official offices of University President Santa Ono and other administrative leaders — where they demanded an audience with President Ono.
In the past two weeks, hundreds of colleges and universities across the country have organized protests and demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance movement and against Israel’s efforts to deny Palestinian human rights. At Harvard University, more than 1,000 students took part in a rally on their campus to condemn Harvard for complicity in the genocide, a week after Israel declared war on Hamas and launched a number of relentless offensives and airstrikes that have murdered more than 7,000 Palestinians, 40% of whom were children. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a blockade on Gaza, cutting off humanitarian aid and threatening 2.3 million Palestinians with no entry of food, water and fuel. Since Oct. 7, the “full siege” has flattened entire blocks of the city, leaving people trapped under the debris of mosques and schools, and leaving hospitals without surgical equipment, antibiotics or electricity to treat the innocent wounded civilians.
Organizers at the event gave speeches that listed their demands from President Ono and the U-M administration at large. LSA senior Salma Hamamy, co-president of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, emphasized the brutal nature of the violence against Gazans. In the past 75 years since the settlement of Jews that led to the expulsion of Palestinians in Mandate Palestine, generations of families have been subjected to Israel’s active actions to erase the Palestinian identity through massacre, forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing.
“Gaza City is becoming a morgue,” Hamamy said. “This is not a war; this is a massacre, and this is genocide.”
Wednesday’s walkout at the University of Michigan was organized by SAFE and a coalition of two dozen other student organizations, including the Graduate Employees’ Organization, the Black Student Union and the United Asian American Organizations. Wednesday’s protest has been part of a series of demonstrations, including a sit-in protest of more than 1,000 students that took place last Friday at Ono’s house, following his email titled “U-M Statement Regarding MidEast Violence.”
In this email, Ono failed to mention the Palestinian lives lost in recent Israeli attacks and dismissed the struggles of the Palestinian people who face apartheid and ethnic cleansing at the hands of Israel. Some students also believed the statement was Islamaphobic because of accusations of terrorism and antisemitism and failing to mention the word ‘Palestine’ or ‘Gaza,’ which caused entire student populations to feel unseen and otherized. The members and allies of SAFE stand with the liberation of Palestine and have faced racism, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian sentiment on campus, which Ono failed to respond to. The walk-out was prompted by the administrative statements that did not condemn the decades-long violence against millions of Palestinians, including the destruction of 530 Palestinian villages, — which murdered more than 15,000 people in the 1940s — forcible displacement, drastic movement restrictions under the apartheid and denial of citizenship to Palestinians.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Hamamy expressed gratitude for those who participated in the walk-out.
“I felt entirely overwhelmed with love, solidarity and support from the thousands that joined,” Hamamy said.“The power of a group dedicated to a just cause always gives me goosebumps, and I certainly had many goosebumps for the many hours we were protesting.”
Speakers at the walk out, including Hamamy, expressed dissatisfaction with the University’s silence towards Palestine and loud support of the Israeli government, especially as the institution claims to “remain committed to the values (cherished) at U-M: equity, inclusion, fair treatment for all and respect for differences.”
“It is time for the University to live up to their values of diversity, equity and inclusion, and recognize the ways that their seemingly progressive values are exclusionary towards Palestinians,” Hamamy said in her speech.
SAFE’s demands include divesting from companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Hewlett Packard, all of which are complicit in violations of Palestinian rights. Organizers at the event emphasized divestment is not impossible, highlighting past divestment efforts at the University. In 2017, the Central Student Government resolution AR7-109 was passed to investigate divestment from companies that violate Palestinian human rights, but the administration refused to create a committee, per the resolution. The University has divested resources from industries and other nations that have committed human rights violations: from apartheid South Africa in 1978, from the tobacco industry in 2000, from the fossil fuel industry in 2015 and from Russia in 2022.
In his speech at the walk out, GEO President Jared Eno put the violence in perspective for workers in the University and across the nation.
“Graduate workers — like so many workers across the world — stand against genocide, against apartheid and against state violence,” Eno said. “Standing with Palestinians is not just morally right, but necessary for working-class power. To stand against racism is to categorically oppose both antisemitism and Zionism.”
Attendees of the walk out were faced by counterprotesters: a group of students waving the Israeli flag who verbally harassed and filmed demonstrators. The aggression faced by attendees on Wednesday is consistent with past incidents of harassment historically faced by Palestinian activists and students on campus. In a 2021 op-ed to U-M administration, SAFE detailed a long list of discrimination faced by students on campus, including “incidents of students being emailed propaganda from listservs they did not subscribe to,” defacing of Palestinian symbols, doxxing, blackmailing, abusive emails, racist remarks and threats of violence. SAFE believes the harassment is meant to intimate communities that support Palestine, often labeled as “terroristic, antisemitic organizations.”
Following the speeches on the Diag, the walk out moved to the streets. Hundreds of students lined the roads toward the Ruthven Building. Protesters then entered the building, chanting “Fund our education, not the occupation.”
Once inside, the coalition of student activists and supporters flooded the first two floors of the building for a three-hour sit-in to pressure Ono to hear their demands and enter a conversation. Even though the protest took place during Ono’s office hours, when he was expected to meet with students, the U-M president was unwilling to talk with any SAFE members and protestors. During this time, attendees chanted as they waved signs and Palestinian flags, beating on drums, “The people united will never be defeated.”
“President Ono and the board of regents have an unfortunate history and reputation for ignoring the demands of their students collectively,” Hamamy said to the crowd. “There have been countless attempts and efforts, not just from students, but from over a thousand faculty and staff to meet with President Ono and the Board of Regents, and they have ignored us. Since the board of regents and Ono refuse to meet with us, we will be standing here and occupying the building until they come down and meet with us.”
Around 4 p.m., two administrative officers, Martino Harmon, the University’s vice president for student life, and Laura Blake Jones, the University’s dean of students, came out to listen and speak in front of the protestors.
“It is really important to me and important to us that we hear you and that we feel you,” said Harmon. “I think it’s going to be important moving forward that we have a group of representatives that can meet with a group of administrators so we can go through and have a more detailed discussion about all your demands.”
Harmon was cut off by an attendee.
“We don’t want feelings,” they said. “We want action. We want Ono.”
In response, Harmon said he doesn’t control the president’s schedule, but said he would share the student’s desires with Ono. Demonstrators emphasized that they wanted immediate action, not sympathy.
“Every second you wait, more children die,” one protester shouted from the second floor.
The sit-in ended at 5 p.m., as Ono seemingly left the building without speaking to students, but SAFE’s work was not over.
“I understood that President Ono strategically sent down administrators that did not have much power compared to himself so that they could deflect our primary concerns,” said Hamamy. “We will continue to fight our demands until the University complies because we will not be complicit in genocide.”
Last week, 1,232 members of the U-M community signed a petition titled “University Accountability in the Face of Genocide” in which they demanded acknowledgment of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the role of settler colonialism in more than 75 years of Palestinian genocide and to correct U-M’s alienation of Palestinian students on campus, among other clauses. The resolution was barred from being voted on by CSG, due to certain clauses of the petition being outside the CSG’s enumerated powers, as they “directed the University to take certain actions.” The coalition is now working on remaking a new petition and appealing the old petition.
Students interested in supporting the cause can sign the updated petition here. Spokespersons for SAFE reminded students to attend rallies and show support for events on campus.
At the end of the event, Hamamy once again called for hope and action.
“Together, we will collectively win,” Hamamy said, “and it will be within our lifetime.”
This contributor has asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons.