About 40 University of Michigan students and Ann Arbor residents gathered at the Diag Wednesday afternoon for a rally kickstarting the Divest! Don’t Arrest People’s Referendum. The referendum is open to current students, faculty and staff on all U-M campuses. It comes in response to the University’s cancellation of two Central Student Government resolutions in the fall 2023 CSG elections and the arrest of more than 40 pro-Palestine student protesters. The rally was held by the Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, TAHRIR Coalition, Jewish Voice For Peace, and the Graduate Employees’ Organization.
The referendum would call on the University to divest from all companies from investing in Israeli companies, call on the Board of Regents to release records of all investments made every fiscal year and to request Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit to drop all charges against pro-Palestine student protestors. The University used parts of its endowment to invest in companies such as Cobham and Ultra Electronics which participated in manufacturing F-35 warplanes that were used in the bombardments of Gaza and Shield AI which produces self-piloting drones used by the Israeli Occupation Forces. Rackham student Ira Anwar said in a speech at the rally that the administration has consistently suppressed student calls for divestment.
“Not only have they told us divestment is impossible, they would rather unleash dozens of police officers on their own students and check us with felony charges rather than have a conversation about divesting from the genocide,” Anwar said.
Anwar said it is important that the University be held accountable for their investments.
“We are here today, just as Palestinians have been (in Palestine) every single day for the past 100 years resisting colonialism, just as you all have been here every day in the past few months despite the felony charges (against protesters),” Anwar said. “Despite whatever the fuck this University’s Regents, Santa Ono and Erik fucking Lundberg will have us believe, we know the Palestinian struggle is our struggle.”
Engineering junior Jenin Alameddin, SAFE political activism co-chair, said, though relatively new, the Divest! Don’t Arrest initiative has garnered widespread support on campus.
“The Divest! Don’t Arrest campaign launched only a month ago,” Alameddin said. “Since then, nearly 3,000 people have registered. Every day these numbers grow; there’s an awakening across our campus.”
The rally ended with the attendees chanting “Divest, don’t arrest” and clapping before attendees split into smaller groups to pass out flyers in University buildings including Mason Hall, the Ross School of Business and the Michigan Union.
Engineering junior Hera Akmal, who attended the rally, spoke to The Michigan Daily in an interview and discussed the importance of student voices being heard.
“I have been really passionate about divestment ever since I became a student here,” Akmal said. “I think that as students, we have a say in where our tuition money and where the endowment goes. I think if we find it to be morally contradictory with our own values, we have a right to voice that.”
LSA junior Alex Sepulveda, activism chair for Jewish Voice for Peace said in an interview to The Daily after the rally. Sepulveda said he believes the Jewish community on campus should support the divestment referendum.
“As a Jewish student, it is imperative that we mobilize as an anti-Zionist Jewish resistance to American imperialism because the American imperial agenda relies upon the weaponization and anti-simitism and commodification of the Jewish identity to … fortify and preserve the Israeli apartheid state,” Sepulveda said.
LSA sophomore Levi Pierpont, who attended the rally, said it is important to pay attention.
“We as the students of the University of Michigan get to make our voice heard,” Pierpont said. “(The University is) not just investing in Israeli genocide and Israeli apartheid; they’re also investing in defense mechanisms that the U.S. military uses. So war companies, companies that their whole thing is just creating things that kill people, and many of those people that are killed are completely innocent.”
Pierpont said they believe the Divest! Don’t Arrest campaign has served to increase student awareness of University investments and endowment.
“I am concerned about the (investments) in Israel. People just don’t know it, but The Divest! Don’t Arrest campaign first uncovered these facts about the endowment and realized how deeply invested (the University) was in all of the awful stuff going on in Israel,” Pierpont said. “They are also now giving us the opportunity to make our voice heard and say this isn’t right.”
When asked about the University’s investment and endowment policies, University spokesperson Kim Broekhuizen wrote in an email to The Daily the University’s financial decisions are apolitical.
“The University has had a policy in place for nearly 20 years that shields the University’s investment from political pressures,” Broekhuizen wrote. “Much of the money invested through the University’s endowment, for example, is donor funding given to provide long-term financial support for designated purposes.”
Regarding the student arrests, Broekhuizen wrote the University does not have any authority over the charges.
“It’s important to clarify that the University is not involved in the prosecution of individual students,” Broekhuizen wrote. “The prosecutor’s office has the ultimate authority to decide whether or not to charge individuals who have been arrested. We believe in due process and the rights of all individuals, including those who participate in protests.”
Daily News Editor and Staff Reporter Ji Hoon Choi and Edra Timmerman can be reached at jicho@umich.edu and edrakmt@umich.edu.