This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Three pro-Palestine protesters were arrested Wednesday night during their participation in a demonstration organized by the TAHRIR Coalition, a coalition of more than 90 pro-Palestine student organizations, against a speech from two former members of the Israel Defense Forces hosted by the University of Michigan’s chapter of Students Supporting Israel as a part of their “Triggered: Combat on College” event. The event was part of an ongoing tour organized by SSI, which began in spring 2025 and has hosted similar events at more than 20 college campuses so far.
About 150 activists gathered outside of Rackham Graduate School to protest the event. Activists opposed the presence of the Israeli soldiers as speakers due to the current Israeli military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 67,000 people and has been classified as a genocide by the United Nations.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA senior Fiona Dunlop, who participated in the protest, said the protesters chose to refer to the Israeli military as the IOF, or Israeli Occupation Forces, due to their actions in Palestine.
“A lot of people know them as the IDF, Israeli Defense Forces, but they’re not defense, they’re occupation,” Dunlop said. “They’re occupying Palestine — creating a genocide in Palestine. So that’s why we call them the IOF.”
Activists demonstrated outside the south entrance of Rackham for several hours, carrying pictures of starving Gaza residents on posters and printed paper, a banner that read “war criminals off campus” and other articles of protest.
While activists who gathered outside the south entrance were able to disperse without police intervention, a second smaller group — who continued to protest outside the north entrances where they believed the Israeli soldiers would leave the event — were met with a heavy response from the University of Michigan Police Department.
In an interview with The Daily, one activist, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, alleged that protesters faced incidents of police force at the scene. The activist will be referred to as John for the purposes of this article.
“As we were gathered there we were met with about a dozen police officers, and out of nowhere several police officers started grabbing unarmed, non-violent protesters,” John said. “Police officers started pushing them to the ground. Several officers threatened to use pepper spray, and there were many others that were almost arrested but managed to escape the police officers.”
John said the protesters had not engaged in any violent or illegal behaviors that would have justified the actions of the police.
“It was an incredibly violent situation that occurred really out of nowhere,” John said. “After the initial arrest even more police officers were dispatched for some reason, even though we were completely non-violent, and the police officers continued to threaten us.”
The Deputy Chief of Police, Melissa Overton, could not be reached for comment in time for publication.
Following the arrests behind Rackham, protesters gathered in front of the University’s Division of Public Safety and Security police station and chanted in hopes of obtaining more information on those arrested. In an interview with The Daily, Paul DeRidder, deputy chief at UMPD, said DPSS arrested three students, sending two to the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office and the other to another unspecified police agency. DeRidder said this decision was made as the protester allegedly had a previous felony charge.
“One is being transferred to another agency — we have a felony one,” DeRidder said. “The other two are going to the county jail for the night.”
DeRidder told protesters outside of the police station they must evacuate the premises, giving them a 10 minute warning and citing their activity as “disrupting the operations of the police department.” DeRidder told The Daily that reporters would also be arrested, in addition to those protesting in front of the police station.
Activists then drove to the Washtenaw County Jail to continue the demonstration with hopes to obtain more information about the status of those arrested. A small group of protesters remained at the police station after the order to disperse. Their status is currently unknown.
At the County Jail, John said he believed police officers had not provided protestors with sufficient information about the status of the arrested individuals.
“We still don’t fully understand the situation,” John said. “The cops have been incredibly vague, refusing to give us specific names and details about what time we can expect people to be released. You know, they really withheld a lot of the important information that we need to ensure that our friends and community members are safe.”
John said he felt there was a double standard in how the University and its associated security services treated pro-Palestine protesters and SSI.
“Student groups like SSI can invite IOF soldiers who have committed war crimes in a genocide against Palestinians without any sort of repercussions; meanwhile, campus community members and people of conscience in general are being arrested and brutalized by DPSS, by UMPD, for protesting a genocide,” John said. “It’s completely unfair, it’s completely unjust and it shows just the inhumanity of DPSS and the police forces locally.”
Daily Staff Reporter Glenn Hedin can be reached at heglenn@umich.edu. Daily News Editor Barrett Dolata can be reached at bdolata@umich.edu.
