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On Oct. 8, 2024 — one year into history’s most documented genocide — a group of University of Michigan students in Central Student Government blocked a historic initiative that would have sent $440,000 to rebuild Gaza’s educational infrastructure.
Had the petition passed, the money would have gone to Birzeit University’s Rebuilding Hope campaign. Before the vote, a professor at Birzeit joined the meeting virtually from the West Bank to implore the Student Assembly to support the initiative, highlighting our moral responsibility in the face of genocide and American imperialism. More than 30 students outside of CSG also voiced their support, but CSG Assembly members readily ignored them. The vote ended with 22 members against and 16 in favor.
This vote warrants reflection.
A year into the genocide in Gaza, Israel has dropped more than 75,000 tons of explosives, destroying 150,000 homes, 114 hospitals and clinics, 123 schools and universities, 611 mosques and at least three churches. As of now, 1.9 million people are displaced, and more than 40,000 Palestinians have ascended to martyrdom. Our University funds this destruction, with its deep financial ties to the Israeli economy. More than $6 billion of the University’s endowment is tied to venture capital and private equity funds profiting from the Zionist occupation and genocide. The University’s investments support drone manufacturers like Skydio, military contractors like Cobham and Ultra Electronics, and spyware firms like Oosto, which surveil Palestinians at checkpoints.
For the past year, student activists have organized at every level — from classrooms to student government, through sit-ins, rallies, encampments, teach-ins, open mics and marches. Every means of protest has and will continue to be used to fight for divestment and, ultimately, a free Palestine.
LSA Student Government itself arose from student protests during the 1970s anti-war movement. In recent years, CSG has been co-opted as an extension of the University’s administration. Sponsored by the dean of students, CSG is contractually bound to uphold university “values” — pushing back, we ask, is genocide a University of Michigan value?
The SHUT IT DOWN Party was created as an act of protest to dismantle CSG’s bureaucratic charade. Our platform is simple: Shut down CSG until the University divests from companies complicit in Palestinian genocide.
The election results spoke for themselves: a historic turnout with several SID representatives winning by massive margins. Attempting to delegitimize the success of marginalized students of Color, those in opposition filed a frivolous lawsuit through the Central Student Judiciary. We persevered and prevailed.
After the swearing-in, CSG Assembly members in opposition to SID enforced a new attendance policy. AR 13-077, unknown to SID representatives, would result in multiple recalls for missed meetings, including those held on Eid despite requests to reschedule. When non-SID members faced recall, our hypocritical opposition voted to keep them, using every chance to strip us, and only us, of power.
Despite SID representatives discussing a compromise budget, many CSG members refused to engage and clung to the status quo through cooperation with the University’s administration. Eventually, some bypassed the Assembly altogether by working with the dean of students to fund organizations directly, breaking the rules when it served their own interests.
The hypocrisy is evident. The University readily intervened to protect the interests of student organizations aligned with university priorities, but when thousands of students demanded divestment from companies complicit in genocide, our calls were repeatedly dismissed. Meanwhile, SID executive members faced the dean’s microaggressive racism, consistently dehumanizing the CSG president. The dean persistently undermined our efforts, further silencing marginalized voices and reinforcing genocide apologia.
With the University “loaning” student organization funding and $60,000 of our budget reserved for initiatives supporting low-income students, we had $440,000 left to allocate. Zionists argued to repay the “loans” — hardly necessary, given that $440,000 is a drop in the bucket for a school with a $17.9 billion endowment. SHUT IT DOWN argued for a more meaningful use of the funds, as our chance to promote reparations.
We urged the Assembly to allocate funds to Birzeit University’s rebuilding efforts in Gaza, calling on them to recognize the irony of funding student organizations twice. The University had already funded student organizations and Airbus, freeing us from institutional constraints. Our proposal was a chance to provide reparations to Palestine, demonstrate that our activism extends beyond our immediate needs and contribute to a larger movement for justice.
None of it worked. In the end, as people burn alive in the besieged hospitals of Gaza, our peers refused to send aid to Gaza and labeled pro-Palestine activists as violent, echoing the same racist tropes the administration uses to justify police brutality on our campus. They watched fellow students mourn the loss of loved ones in Palestine and Lebanon, yet prioritized the facade of normalcy over urgent humanitarian needs. Their callous indifference perpetuates a culture of quiet obedience that has delivered a full year of genocidal impunity, revealing their obscene disconnect from reality. How can we engage in the business of education when lives are being lost and futures are shattered in real time?
We condemn the mischaracterization of our movement in the strongest terms. The student body demands divestment because we demand a free Palestine. CSG had the chance to do something radically courageous by sending funds to rebuild education in Gaza — to universities destroyed by bombs paid for by our taxes and the University’s investments.
Assembly members had the chance to align our university’s resources with the urgent need for education and hope in Gaza, counteracting the University’s role in catastrophic, deadly destruction. The opposition to our call to action marked more than a failure to pass a petition, but a grave missed opportunity to stand on the right side of history in solidarity with our peers in Gaza, advocating for education over destruction.
For more than a year, we have witnessed unspeakable violence against Palestinians. By choosing to deny these funds, these CSG assembly members are not only complicit but active partners in genocide, similar to the Israel Occupation Force soldiers who destroy aid trucks and Zionists who sit unaffected by the suffering they bring.
To those who seek to undermine our movement: We will not be intimidated. Our commitment to justice and liberation is resolute, and we refuse to be silenced or swayed by threats or mischaracterizations. We call on all who believe in justice to stand with us, to join us in this movement. The people of Palestine will be victorious, the students of Gaza will rebuild and the Zionist entity will crumble.
Glory to our martyrs and long live the resistance. In solidarity always, SHUT IT DOWN.
The SHUT IT DOWN party representatives at the University of Michigan can be reached at kkarmen@umich.edu.
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