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The TAHRIR Coalition, a group of more than 90 pro-Palestine organizations, hosted a press conference Friday evening in front of the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office, calling for the charges against 11 individuals connected to the Gaza solidarity encampment to be dropped. While holding banners and Palestinian flags, speakers also advocated for the University to divest from companies profiting off the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
The office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) brought forth the charges after reviewing evidence from body cameras and reports from the University of Michigan Division of Public Safety and Security, University communications related to fire safety concerns and social media posts, among other evidence cited in the press release.
Two protesters were charged for trespassing because they did not leave the encampment after DPSS submitted a dispersal order. Additionally, seven protesters were charged with resisting and obstructing a police officer.
Two protesters, one U-M alum and another person without any affiliation to the University, were both charged with Disturbing the Peace and Ethnic Intimidation for each of their involvement in a counterprotest on April 25.
One individual was charged after kicking Israeli flags, and his reason for doing so aligned with the charge of Ethnic Intimidation, according to an investigative officer. The second individual took flags from protesters, broke two and then put the flags in the trash can. In addition to the two charges, the protesters were additionally charged with two counts of Malicious Destruction of Personal Property.
U-M alum Salma Hamamy, former president of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, stood in front of the crowd with a microphone. She was charged for trespassing on the Diag after the Gaza solidarity encampment was removed on May 21. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Hamamy said she laughed when she first saw the trespassing charge.
“I initially laughed when I actually saw the charge because I understood this was a very bogus attempt to try to suppress the Palestinian student movement, especially coming from the state attorney general,” Hamamy said.
Hamamy said these charges infuriated the community.
“The community was outraged,” Hamamy said. “The media was picking it up, discussing how this is an unprecedented tactic like never before against student movement protesters. The fact that (Nessel) overtook the local prosecutor and, instead, the Regents advocated for the state attorney general to implement these charges was something that infuriated so many people.”
U-M alum Josiah Walker was arrested at the “die-in” demonstration on the Diag during Festifall. Like Hamamy, Walker was also charged with one count of trespassing. In an interview with The Daily, Walker recounted the moment he saw the press release. Walker said, while he was shocked at first, he believes the charges were politically motivated.
“After I spent a while sifting through the document, I realized that if anything, the charges that we’re facing are more so politically motivated than being motivated by interest in justice, and I say that because the timing of the charges were announced, and then also, the nature of the charges,” Walker said. “It’s really odd to me that a state attorney general would lean over backwards to pursue petty misdemeanor charges.”
Walker said a high pressure election season creates an environment in which Democratic candidates are prioritizing appealing to a larger voter base.
“There’s an election season coming up, so elected officials have to prove things to their base,” Walker said. “Politically speaking, the Democratic Party hasn’t been great about Palestine, and I think, nationally, we’ve seen an appeal to more conservative voters in order to try to help the fact that some of our voters won’t be a voter for the Democratic Party to the same stuff like they have before.”
In addition to addressing the charges, speakers discussed the University’s decision not to divest from companies profiting off the Israeli military campaign in Gaza. The University’s Board of Regents also recently announced preparation for a formal Regents’ Bylaw to ensure the board stays neutral on political or social issues that do not relate to the University’s internal functioning. Samantha Lewis, an Ann Arbor community member, said at the press conference she felt the bylaw was removing responsibility from the University to address divestment.
“They have shown us so much steadfastness in their resistance to a genocide that didn’t start on Oct. 7, but even before 1948 so we owe them divestment when our schools in our country are deliberately responsible and complicit,” Lewis said. “Just yesterday, Regent Hubbard tweeted about wanting to pass a regent bylaw that makes the University commit to institutional neutrality, and if she is committed to that, the school has no business funding apartheid, though choosing neutrality is also choosing the side of the oppressor.”
Lewis, like Hamamy and Walker, was charged with one count of trespassing. She was additionally charged with one count of resisting and obstructing a police officer. Lewis told The Daily she felt attacked by the charges, but remained confident that the coalition would continue the fight for Palestine.
“I think that is Islamophobic, and it is something that is an attack on protesters, specifically, in a way that is violating our first investment rights,” Lewis said. “We are here because we believe in Palestine, because we care about life, and we will fight for divestment.”
Huwaida Arraf recently ran for a nomination from the Democratic Party for a seat on the U-M Board of Regents. Despite winning the popular vote, Arraf lost the race due to the weighted vote system. In response, Arraf filed a lawsuit against the Michigan Democratic Party. While Arraf noted this incident was not connected to the charges, she said both the lawsuit and the charges are reminiscent of the same problem.
“I do think it’s the same problem that we’re having,” Arraf said. “It’s the same problem that we’re fighting. So the students, and our presence here today in protesting these charges, are fighting against this kind of institutional repression and fighting against, again, institutions that are supposed to protect and uplift and support them, and with my lawsuit, fighting against an organization, an institution that claims to represent us and claims to to be a protector of our democracy and in its actions, is doing just the opposite.”
Hamamy said the coalition would continue to fight for Palestinian liberation and the University administration’s divestment.
“It’s not only a tactic to suppress us, but distract us from our primary goal of calling for divestment, but we understand in the history of repression tactics that it only breeds more resistance and more determination, and it was actually wonderful to see the charges come out because so many people quickly mobilized and came to our support and wanted to use this as a way to catalyze the movement,” Hamamy said.
Daily News Editor Sneha Dhandapani can be reached at sdhanda@umich.edu.
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