On April 22, students set up an encampment at the University of Michigan to demand the university’s complete and total divestment from genocidal Israel. They thus joined dozens of other universities across the United States in standing up in solidarity with the Palestinian people who are facing genocide at the hands of the Israeli army. Israeli forces have killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, including 14,500 children, in Gaza and nearly 490, including 124 children, in the occupied West Bank.
What I have seen at Michigan as a member of the encampment is inspiring.
The protest has been joined by students of various ethnic and religious backgrounds, including Palestinians and Jews, people of Arab and South Asian descent and others. Many community members are spending time in and around the camp: to protect it, distribute food, and learn.
The encampment has become a site of mutual aid and support, discussion, and political education. Students are learning to organise together, setting up rotating schedules of patrol, medical and food services.
Over the last week, students have held teach-ins on topics ranging from problematic university investments to environmental colonialism, solidarity with other Indigenous groups like the Armenians, and poetry readings by Palestinians. Films, such as Israelism and The Present, are screened to bring awareness to current political schemes and realities of oppression. Like in other universities, we also set up a Palestine library where anyone can borrow books on Palestinian history or political thought and learn more about the liberation movement.
Thus far, the only disturbances by pro-Israel students have been sparse, their counterprotests garnering three to 10 attendees. They hold their Israeli flags proudly in the face of pickets that show the faces of killed Palestinians.
The encampment organisers have established........