On Tuesday, police broke up a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Michigan. This happened less than a week after protesters went to the home of a school official and placed fake body bags on her lawn.
Video footage shared by Detroit-area TV stations showed police clearing people from the camp on the Diag, a popular spot for protests on campus. The camp had been set up in late April, just before the end of the school year.
University President Santa Ono released a statement saying the camp had become a safety hazard. He mentioned issues like overloaded power sources and open flames. After a fire marshal’s inspection, organizers were asked to make changes but they refused, leading to the camp’s removal.
“The disregard for safety directives was only the latest in a series of troubling events,” Ono said.
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Protesters have been demanding that the university stop investing its endowment funds in companies linked to Israel. However, the university has stated that it has no direct investments in such companies and only about $15 million out of its entire endowment is in funds that might include companies in Israel. This amount is less than 0.1% of the total endowment.
“There’s nothing to talk about. That issue is settled,” said Sarah Hubbard, chair of the Board of Regents, last week.
Last week, a group of about 30 protesters showed up early in the morning at Sarah Hubbard’s house. They placed red-stained sheets on her lawn to look like body bags, banged a drum, and chanted through a bullhorn. Masked protesters also posted demands on the doors of other board members.
Mark Bernstein, a board member and Detroit-area lawyer, spoke about the incident at a board meeting last week. He expressed his concerns about rising antisemitism and the dangerous path such protests are taking.
“This conduct is where our failure to address antisemitism leads literally — literally — to the front door of my home,” Bernstein said. “Who’s next? When and where will this end? As a Jew, I know the answer to these questions because our experience is full of tragedies that we are at grave risk of repeating. Enough is enough.”
Students and activists have been setting up tent encampments at universities across the nation, pushing colleges to cut financial ties with Israel. Tensions on campuses have been high since the fall, but protests gained momentum after police shut down a similar encampment at Columbia University on April 18.
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