April 22, 2024
Contact: Tahrir Coalition, Tahrircoalition@gmail.com
ANN ARBOR— Today, the student body of Michigan has answered the call of the Palestinian people to put our demands into action and joined the Popular University for Gaza campaign organized by National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP). As of the morning of April 22, students of the TAHRIR Coalition have officially set up an encampment and occupied the Diag on the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus. The beating heart of our campus has been turned into a liberated zone of action in solidarity with Gaza. We have one message for the architects of genocide that “serve” as our administrators: your apathy towards justice will now be broadcast to the world. Gone are the days where the regents get to enjoy normal lives while they send dozens of police forces to brutalize and arrest students peacefully protesting. Gone are the days where life on this campus can go on uninterrupted as $6 billion of our endowment funds the extermination of the Palestinian people. Gone are the days where anyone in our community can turn a blind eye to Gaza and this university’s complicity. We, the University of Michigan student body firmly and proudly demand divestment now.
UMich commits over $6 billion to investment managers that have profited from investments in "israeli" companies and/or military contractors. The university has invested in, through fund managers in venture capital and private equity, drone manufacturers like Skydio, which has sent more than 100 drones to the Israeli military; military contractors like Cobham and Ultra Electronics, which participate in the construction of F-35 warplanes used to bombard Gazan civilians; Israeli spyware firms like Oosto, which produce facial recognition software to surveil Palestinians at checkpoints in the West Bank; and Israeli prison surveillance company Attenti, which also contracts with the Michigan Department of Corrections to create monitoring tools for those on parole.
Our struggle is not ours alone. Inspired by the 100+ students facing academic and carceral retaliation for protesting Columbia University's investment in genocide, we along with Students for Justice in Palestine chapters across the country have made the bold and unwavering decision to occupy our campuses until our demands are met in full. No compromise or unjust use of force levied against us will break our unwavering commitment to Palestinian liberation and just resistance. We are not leaving the Diag until we achieve full divestment.
Power to our freedom fighters, glory to our martyrs. All eyes on Gaza, the Thawabit is our compass.