Content warning: mentions of violence
On Monday, Oct. 24, 1988, the front page of The Michigan Daily read: “Regents divest holdings.”
“At long last, the University of Michigan fully divests from corporations with business ties to South Africa.”
Six years after this monumental decision, Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress Party became the first leader of a post-apartheid South Africa. Mandela, a global symbol of peace and freedom, a civil rights champion and a hero in the face of an apartheid regime, remained on the U.S. terrorist watch list until 2008. Decades later, history absolved him. History absolved all those who stood with him and dared to take a stance against injustice. History absolved the brave University of Michigan students who stood in the face of a morally corrupt administration, relentlessly urging them to divest from apartheid. History absolved even the Regents who were eventually forced to take a stance on the side of humanity, fundamentally altering the way other institutions would be able to justify funding apartheid.
It has been 35 years since the University divested from apartheid, 29 years since South Africa was liberated and 26 years since the 1997 International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, when Mandela affirmed his support for the Palestinian struggle against apartheid:
“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
The South African liberation movement is inextricably linked with that of the Palestinians. The South African apartheid regime formally began in 1948, the same year that the Israeli state was established through the mass expulsion of Palestinians. It has been 75 years since these two liberation movements became one and the Western world reaffirmed its commitment to upholding settler colonialism across the globe.
In August of 1968, civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael spoke at the Organization of Arab Students convention in Ann Arbor. He said:
“There are two dreams I have in my life. My dreams are rooted in reality, not in imagery. I dream, number one, of having coffee with my wife in South Africa, and my second dream is, I dream of having mint tea in Palestine.”
The struggle of a people fighting for self-determination on their land has existed across continental borders since 1948, and the cries against apartheid have persisted at the University for nearly the same amount of time. The call for divestment in apartheid states did not begin or end on that Monday in October 1988. Last Wednesday, hundreds of University of U-M students, led by Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, staged a sit-in at the Alexander G. Ruthven Building, demanding that the University divest from Israel and cease aiding in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.
The sit-in was preempted by a campus-wide walkout that prompted students to gather at the Diag when the clock hit 1 p.m. At 1:15 p.m., hundreds of students were assembled to face the steps of Hatcher Graduate Library. Students huddled together under umbrellas, held their keffiyehs over their heads and stood strong in solidarity as the rain washed over a historic crowd. Members of SAFE, the Graduate Employees’ Organization and the Black Student Union gave speeches to the crowd. Speeches that highlighted the longevity and nuance of the Palestinian struggle, the diversity of the movement’s allyship and the urgent need for University President Santa Ono to address how his steadfast support for Israel is harming a large demographic of his students, staff and faculty. This includes, but is not limited to, Palestinian students who are being subjected to erasure, faculty and staff who are being defamed, Jewish students and faculty whose stance against Zionism is being ignored and Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian American, Oceanic, South Asian and Middle Eastern/North African students who lined up by the microphone to express solidarity with Palestine. In total, representatives of 25 organizations shared a statement at the walkout, clearly defining their support for Palestine and endorsing SAFE’s demands for divestment and for recognition of the Palestinian struggle from the University administration. These statements were not just coming from those directly affected by President Ono’s targeted, propaganda-filled statements. They were coming from hundreds of marginalized students who “know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
As speeches came to an end, chanters began guiding students away from the Diag, assembling behind a banner that read “UMICH FUNDS ISRAELI APARTHEID. DIVEST NOW!” Following SAFE and GEO leaders across North University Avenue, the crowd chanted in unison:
“Fund our education! Not the occupation!”
“1-2-3-4. All these funds are for war. 5-6-7-8. We will not participate.”
Like the generation of activists that achieved divestment from apartheid South Africa, this crowd of students would not tire until their demands were heard. Hundreds flooded into the Ruthven Building, as security guards and administration scrambled to react to the unprecedented crowd. Upstairs, students hung their banners to the railings and dropped them in unison. The banners displayed messages delineating the massacre occurring in Gaza and the urgency for the University to take a stance for humanity. As the first floor overflowed with students, hundreds began clapping and chanting:
“The people united will never be defeated.”
The people united will never be defeated. Time and time again, we have seen this to be true. Be it the anti-apartheid activists of the 20th century or the GEO, who stood in the face of administration last year and came out victorious. The people united will never be defeated. Circling around the crowd were warm smiles and expressions of utter shock and amazement. Students were looking around at each other, witnessing the power of solidarity and realizing that they were now the ones standing up against the administration, in hopes of one day coming out victorious. After weeks of defeat and despair, helplessly watching Israel massacre Gaza in the dark as the world remained silent, students experienced a moment of pride and accomplishment, knowing that the people united will never be defeated.
As time passed, students began sitting down, conversing with the people around them, sending emails to administration urging them to support Palestine, some even taking out their laptops to get work done. The students meant to hold the space until their demands were met. Because the people in Gaza are fighting against time, divestment cannot wait. Action must be taken immediately, and students were ready to make that clear.
The crowd began moving toward the stairs, up to the third floor, where the offices of President Ono and other administrators are. Voices echoed through the high ceilings of the Alexander G. Ruthven Building, carrying up to a floor that hadn’t yet seen the multitude of students who were demanding divestment.
“Ono, Ono, you can’t hide. You are funding genocide.”
Students were met with double doors that were being guarded by several officers, who showed no sympathy to the protestors. They aggressively pulled at the doors, pushing students away and trying to lock them out — a forceful attempt to silence the cries of the student body, and a failed one at that. Students chanted relentlessly, finally prying the doors back open.
“From Ann Arbor to Palestine. Police violence is a crime.”
After tireless chanting and knocking on doors, with tears falling down the faces of protestors, the administration agreed to address the student body. Feeling accomplished, protestors gathered back to the first and second floors of the Ruthven Building, eagerly waiting for administration members to join them. This moment felt monumental. It came after several protests, emails, handwritten letters and even an effort to knock on the front door of President Ono’s house. Unfortunately, this excitement was fleeting. Martino Harmon, the University’s vice president for student life, and Laura Blake Jones, the University’s dean of students, came downstairs to face the students. They stood side by side across from SAFE President Salma Hamamy, who informed them of the situation in Gaza.
“Children are dying in hospitals that are not equipped to treat them. Loved ones are lost under the debris of fallen buildings.” Hamamy said. “Families are starving. Entire bloodlines are being wiped out. Cemeteries have reached full capacity. Gaza City is becoming a morgue. This is not a war. This is a massacre. It is a humanitarian catastrophe led by the Israeli government and its armed forces, aided by funding from the U.S. government and no acknowledgment or response from our own University President, Santa Ono.”
Hamamy proceeded to recite SAFE’s demands for the University, focusing mainly on divestment from companies that are directly aiding in the genocide of Palestinians, while also calling upon the University to conduct a formal inquiry into the rise of anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic biases on campus; ensure the safety of staff and faculty who have expressed support for Palestine; and release a statement explicitly addressing the genocide in Gaza.
The response from the administrators was disappointing. They emphasized that they hear and feel the voices and the pain of the students without actually validating the Palestinian cause or the urgency of SAFE’s demands. One administrator went as far as offering a personal condemnation of genocide rendered worthless by the later refusal to condemn the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.
Students were frustrated with the cowardice of U-M’s administration. It should have been President Ono and the Board of Regents who stood in front of the crowd and listened to the students’ demands. Their first mistake was sending other administrators to take the blame for their actions as they cowered down in the face of accountability. Their second mistake was shutting the door in the face of their student body, on a crowd of several marginalized communities on this campus who are unified in their opposition to the genocide in Gaza.
“Gaza, Gaza, you will rise. Palestine will never die.”
Solidarity is a verb, understood by hundreds of marginalized people on this campus and across the world. This student body will not tire. This allyship will never fall apart. These unprecedented crowds will gather again. The students will continue to write, speak, protest and call for divestment, echoing the cries of the activists that came before them. Calling for divestment, the denormalization of apartheid and an end to the global war machine that has enabled genocide from the land we walk upon all the way to the land where Gazans are being massacred. History will absolve these students. And if President Ono and the Board of Regents take a stand with justice, history will absolve them — like it did those who came before them.
The dream of drinking mint tea in a free Palestine will become a reality. The students will continue to gather, hand in hand, until their freedom becomes complete through the freedom of Palestinians.
Welcome to a liberated Ruthven.
Michigan in Color columnist Maryam Shafie can be reached at michiganincolor@umich.edu.