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STUDENTS ALLIED FOR FREEDOM AND EQUALITY PRESENTS: PALESTINE AWARENESS MONTH
Throughout the past month, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) has put on various teach-ins, collaborative events, culture nights and more as a part of our Palestine Awareness Month. We started off our month with the mock apartheid wall to bring attention to the current condition of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and the difficulty of doing every day tasks. The day after, SAFE hosted a Palestine 101 Teach-In for students to come together and discuss not only the mock apartheid wall, but the larger context in which that wall exists for Palestinians. SAFE continued the month with a Palestinian Culture Night, a Settler Colonialism Teach-In, and a joint teach-in with the Black Student Union about structural violence in both the black and Palestinian communities. We launched a new event this year, Storytelling Night: Stories of Struggle, which allowed for Palestinian students as well as other students of color, to share their stories and experiences both on campus and elsewhere. We transformed the Rackham Amphitheater into a space of sharing, safety, and community as marginalized students were able to share their experiences and be unapologetically emotional. Finally, on Thursday, November 10th, SAFE will be hosting a BDS Symposium to discuss the BDS movement and divestment in particular. There will be informational booths where students can learn about the different circumstances Palestinians live under and why divestment is a tangible strategy for ending the Israeli occupation. Come join us and follow us on Facebook for information about events in Palestine as well as information on upcoming events.
Throughout the past month, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) has put on various teach-ins, collaborative events, culture nights and more as a part of our Palestine Awareness Month. We started off our month with the mock apartheid wall to bring attention to the current condition of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and the difficulty of doing every day tasks. The day after, SAFE hosted a Palestine 101 Teach-In for students to come together and discuss not only the mock apartheid wall, but the larger context in which that wall exists for Palestinians. SAFE continued the month with a Palestinian Culture Night, a Settler Colonialism Teach-In, and a joint teach-in with the Black Student Union about structural violence in both the black and Palestinian communities. We launched a new event this year, Storytelling Night: Stories of Struggle, which allowed for Palestinian students as well as other students of color, to share their stories and experiences both on campus and elsewhere. We transformed the Rackham Amphitheater into a space of sharing, safety, and community as marginalized students were able to share their experiences and be unapologetically emotional. Finally, on Thursday, November 10th, SAFE will be hosting a BDS Symposium to discuss the BDS movement and divestment in particular. There will be informational booths where students can learn about the different circumstances Palestinians live under and why divestment is a tangible strategy for ending the Israeli occupation. Come join us and follow us on Facebook for information about events in Palestine as well as information on upcoming events.
Mock Apartheid Walls at the University of Michigan Diag
Students dancing the traditional dabke at Palestinian Culture Night lead by members of Michigan's Arabesque Dance Troupe
UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT RESPONDS TO MONTH OF VARIOUS DIVERSITY, INCLUSION ISSUES ON CAMPUS: OCTOBER 11TH, 2016
University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel sat down Tuesday with The Michigan Daily to respond to a series of incidents around campus climate that have occurred this month, stressing the importance of listening to student voices.
Over the past few weeks, a wide range of incidents have sparked discussions about climate — including anti-Black, anti-Muslim and anti LGBTQ fliers discovered on campus, outcry over a pro-Palestinian demonstration on the Diag during a Jewish holiday and controversy over a new preferred pronoun option for students on Wolverine Access. Multiple protests in response have also occurred, with students consistently calling on the administration, and Schlissel specifically, to respond to each incident.
These incidents have also happened amid the lead up to the release of the University’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion plan, launched Thursday, which aims to create an inclusive and equitable campus climate, develop a diverse community, and support inclusive scholarship and teaching. The plan, crafted over a year of town halls, feedback forums and other community planning efforts, comprises 49 unit-specific initiatives developed by colleges and administrative, athletic or other departments within the University. It is intended to unfold over the next five years.
In the interview, Schlissel told The Michigan Daily that overall, he plans to respond to student activism directed at him as he deems necessary. He said he hopes to build a more “enveloping” campus community.
“As much as I’d like to be omnipresent, there’s only one of me,” he said. “I do feel an obligation when major things happen on campus to be present as a leader to speak for our values.”
Fliers and criticism over DEI plan
On Sept. 26, multiple anti-Black fliers were discovered across campus, prompting large student protests. A planned debate over the merits of the Black Lives Matter movement later that week also sparked outcry. More fliers — which were anti-Black, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ — were found last Monday. Protests over the incidents drew over 600, a notably larger number than individuals who attended University-sponsored events earlier in the month around campus climate. The University released a statement condemning the first set of fliers early on the same day they were discovered, Schlissel also hosted a speakout for students a week later to discuss the incidents.
During the protests, many students highlighted issues with the DEI plan, charging that it was too focused on the future, and called for administrators to be more responsive to student concerns. Activists called for action from Schlissel both at protests and on social media using the hashtag #schlisselwya, or, “Schlissel, where you at?” noting that the president was not present at early protests or University events.
In response to the criticism about the plan, Schlissel noted Tuesday that nearly 1,000 campus community members attended portions of last week’s rollout. He said administrators will attempt to reach more subsets of students and faculty.
“A couple of hundred people showed up at the community meeting, but we’ve got 43,000 students on campus,” Schlissel said in reference to a speakout he held last week response to student protests. “One of the things that’s important to me is that we attract a broad community of students, not just students of color...perhaps this time [students] weren’t called out by race or religion but nonetheless if we allow this kind of bigotry to happen, one day it’ll affect everybody.”
The University has committed to investing $85 million total into DEI over the next five years, in part in response to student concerns over resources allocated to diversity. The source of that money, Schlissel said Tuesday, will range — the effort includes several pilot programs, especially for initiatives around diverse enrollment such as the HAIL scholar program, which are dependent on private donors and philanthropic efforts. Schlissel emphasized the flexibility of the newer initiatives like those.
“Our hope is a significant portion of the $85 million will come from philanthropy.” he said. “We’ll look at the data after three years and see if (HAIL and Wolverine Pathways) succeeded increasing the socioeconomic diversity of students. If it has, I think it would be a great thing to continue and expand. If it hasn’t, we’ll look for other smart ideas for how to achieve the same goals ”
SAFE demonstration
Last week, a demonstration on the Diag by Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, a student group that advocates for Palestinian rights, faced pushback from some Jewish students because it occurred on a Jewish holiday. The demonstration featured a mock wall on the Diag, which SAFE members intended to represent the Israeli wall and checkpoints that separate the West Bank and Israel.
A large group of Jewish students circulated a petition asking for a response from Schlissel over the past week, charging that because the demonstration occurred on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, when many Jewish students are off campus, they were excluded from the conversation.
In response to the petition, Schlissel said Tuesday that because the demonstration was a political criticism of the state of Israel and not mocking Jewish students in particular, he did not feel it warranted a response in the same vein as the anti-Black and anti-LGBT posters.
“(SAFE) did what we want advocacy groups to do, and to me, they were advocating a political point of view,” he said. “I’m Jewish and this wasn’t an insult to me personally...although I learned it was offensive to a fraction of Jewish students, not 100 percent, but a significant fraction. I’m empathetic to that.”
However, Schlissel said he has personally replied to the petition addressed to him, and will also meet with Jewish student groups later this month.
Preferred pronouns
The University recently announced a new option on Wolverine Access which allows students to state their preferred pronoun to instructors. Some students, though, have taken issues with the preferred pronoun option as a constraint on free speech. Earlier this month, LSA sophomore Grant Strobl, chairman of the national Young Americans for Freedom organizations, launched a campaign calling on students to use the option to put in titles like “His Majesty” as a protest, which has drawn significant pushback online and on social media.
Schlissel said he heard about Strobl’s public opposition to the preferred pronoun option, but noted faculty are not forced to call anyone by the pronoun they state on Wolverine Access. He said the option was designed to allow non-gender conforming students ease in telling professors what they wish to be called, but is not binding.
“I can’t tell a professor what to say in front of a classroom,” he said. “I would guess most of our faculty are the kinds of folks that would like to be respectful of others in their classroom...we’ll see what happens over the course of the semester.”
University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel sat down Tuesday with The Michigan Daily to respond to a series of incidents around campus climate that have occurred this month, stressing the importance of listening to student voices.
Over the past few weeks, a wide range of incidents have sparked discussions about climate — including anti-Black, anti-Muslim and anti LGBTQ fliers discovered on campus, outcry over a pro-Palestinian demonstration on the Diag during a Jewish holiday and controversy over a new preferred pronoun option for students on Wolverine Access. Multiple protests in response have also occurred, with students consistently calling on the administration, and Schlissel specifically, to respond to each incident.
These incidents have also happened amid the lead up to the release of the University’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion plan, launched Thursday, which aims to create an inclusive and equitable campus climate, develop a diverse community, and support inclusive scholarship and teaching. The plan, crafted over a year of town halls, feedback forums and other community planning efforts, comprises 49 unit-specific initiatives developed by colleges and administrative, athletic or other departments within the University. It is intended to unfold over the next five years.
In the interview, Schlissel told The Michigan Daily that overall, he plans to respond to student activism directed at him as he deems necessary. He said he hopes to build a more “enveloping” campus community.
“As much as I’d like to be omnipresent, there’s only one of me,” he said. “I do feel an obligation when major things happen on campus to be present as a leader to speak for our values.”
Fliers and criticism over DEI plan
On Sept. 26, multiple anti-Black fliers were discovered across campus, prompting large student protests. A planned debate over the merits of the Black Lives Matter movement later that week also sparked outcry. More fliers — which were anti-Black, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ — were found last Monday. Protests over the incidents drew over 600, a notably larger number than individuals who attended University-sponsored events earlier in the month around campus climate. The University released a statement condemning the first set of fliers early on the same day they were discovered, Schlissel also hosted a speakout for students a week later to discuss the incidents.
During the protests, many students highlighted issues with the DEI plan, charging that it was too focused on the future, and called for administrators to be more responsive to student concerns. Activists called for action from Schlissel both at protests and on social media using the hashtag #schlisselwya, or, “Schlissel, where you at?” noting that the president was not present at early protests or University events.
In response to the criticism about the plan, Schlissel noted Tuesday that nearly 1,000 campus community members attended portions of last week’s rollout. He said administrators will attempt to reach more subsets of students and faculty.
“A couple of hundred people showed up at the community meeting, but we’ve got 43,000 students on campus,” Schlissel said in reference to a speakout he held last week response to student protests. “One of the things that’s important to me is that we attract a broad community of students, not just students of color...perhaps this time [students] weren’t called out by race or religion but nonetheless if we allow this kind of bigotry to happen, one day it’ll affect everybody.”
The University has committed to investing $85 million total into DEI over the next five years, in part in response to student concerns over resources allocated to diversity. The source of that money, Schlissel said Tuesday, will range — the effort includes several pilot programs, especially for initiatives around diverse enrollment such as the HAIL scholar program, which are dependent on private donors and philanthropic efforts. Schlissel emphasized the flexibility of the newer initiatives like those.
“Our hope is a significant portion of the $85 million will come from philanthropy.” he said. “We’ll look at the data after three years and see if (HAIL and Wolverine Pathways) succeeded increasing the socioeconomic diversity of students. If it has, I think it would be a great thing to continue and expand. If it hasn’t, we’ll look for other smart ideas for how to achieve the same goals ”
SAFE demonstration
Last week, a demonstration on the Diag by Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, a student group that advocates for Palestinian rights, faced pushback from some Jewish students because it occurred on a Jewish holiday. The demonstration featured a mock wall on the Diag, which SAFE members intended to represent the Israeli wall and checkpoints that separate the West Bank and Israel.
A large group of Jewish students circulated a petition asking for a response from Schlissel over the past week, charging that because the demonstration occurred on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, when many Jewish students are off campus, they were excluded from the conversation.
In response to the petition, Schlissel said Tuesday that because the demonstration was a political criticism of the state of Israel and not mocking Jewish students in particular, he did not feel it warranted a response in the same vein as the anti-Black and anti-LGBT posters.
“(SAFE) did what we want advocacy groups to do, and to me, they were advocating a political point of view,” he said. “I’m Jewish and this wasn’t an insult to me personally...although I learned it was offensive to a fraction of Jewish students, not 100 percent, but a significant fraction. I’m empathetic to that.”
However, Schlissel said he has personally replied to the petition addressed to him, and will also meet with Jewish student groups later this month.
Preferred pronouns
The University recently announced a new option on Wolverine Access which allows students to state their preferred pronoun to instructors. Some students, though, have taken issues with the preferred pronoun option as a constraint on free speech. Earlier this month, LSA sophomore Grant Strobl, chairman of the national Young Americans for Freedom organizations, launched a campaign calling on students to use the option to put in titles like “His Majesty” as a protest, which has drawn significant pushback online and on social media.
Schlissel said he heard about Strobl’s public opposition to the preferred pronoun option, but noted faculty are not forced to call anyone by the pronoun they state on Wolverine Access. He said the option was designed to allow non-gender conforming students ease in telling professors what they wish to be called, but is not binding.
“I can’t tell a professor what to say in front of a classroom,” he said. “I would guess most of our faculty are the kinds of folks that would like to be respectful of others in their classroom...we’ll see what happens over the course of the semester.”
STATEMENT ON APARTHEID WALL DEMONSTRATION: OCTOBER 5TH, 2016
We, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, held a demonstration on Tuesday, Oct. 5, in which we put up two mock walls in the Diag to represent the Apartheid Wall that cuts through the West Bank. We reenacted scenes of Palestinians crossing through checkpoints because we wanted to use that day as an opportunity to highlight what daily life is like for Palestinians living under occupation. It was a day on which Palestinians centered their voices in the discussion of their own oppression. In addition, our members walked around asking if they could answer questions and inform passersby of what we were doing. We had an information table with pamphlets and facts about checkpoints, occupation and the illegality of the Apartheid Wall as stated by the International Court of Justice. All of this was done to start the conversation about the oppression of Palestinians under occupation on our own terms.
As Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, we stand against all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, as well as homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism, xenophobia, colorism, etc. We stand in solidarity with all marginalized people and oppose all systems and forms of oppression. Accusations have been made that we intentionally planned this event on Rosh Hashanah to target Jewish students. This is false. We distinguish between Judaism, a religious and ethnic identity, and Zionism, a political ideology in support of a state. Criticizing a state’s policies and its institutions is never off limits and stating that criticism of oppressive state policies is an attack on an identity is misguided. In addition to it being Rosh Hashanah, it was also the Muslim New Year, the day after the commemoration of the Virgin Mary, and four days prior to the celebration of St. Thomas. Four holy days sacred to three different religions in which all of these identities are represented in our membership. Furthermore, the Diag was booked three weeks in advance and a date would not be available again until mid-November. Therefore, it is painful to see that we are being accused of anti-Semitism and astonishing that a petition has been circulated to condemn us as hateful.
Stating that we singled out Jewish students in the midst of three other religious holidays is unfair. It seeks to undermine the work we have done and wishes to utilize the climate of attacks on Black communities and people of color on our campus and twist it to shut down criticism of systematic state violence that oppresses Palestinian students. Additionally, it falls under the much larger wave of speech suppression that seeks to derail any valid criticism of Israeli state policy of oppression against Palestinians as a false claim of anti-Semitism. As Palestine Legal has noted, this policy has been heavily utilized by pro-Israel advocates to delegitimize Palestinian activists in recent years. It serves as a method to silence Palestinians for speaking against their oppression. Palestinian students on this campus should not have to pick and choose when to speak of their oppression for fear of being discounted as hateful and bigoted.
Finally, to suggest that SAFE, a pro-Palestinian advocacy organization, harbors such hatred of Jews as to intentionally host a demonstration on a Jewish holiday to attack Jewish identity is to reaffirm the racist stereotype that pro-Palestinian student activists are inherently anti-Semitic due to some irrational hatred of the Jews as a people. As the “Leaders and Best,” this type of implicit prejudice should not be tolerated at the University of Michigan. No student group or students in general should be faced with these kinds of accusations while organizing against their own oppression.
Students Allied for Freedom and Equality
#SilencingApartheid #SilencingSAFE
STATEMENT ON IDF CAMPUS VISIT WALK OUT: THURSDAY NOVEMBER 20th, 2014
As Israel’s human rights violations continue to be exposed, university divestment movements across the nation are gaining momentum. Considerable efforts have been made to contain the growing outrage that has surrounded Israel’s blatant disregard of international law and human rights. On Thursday, November, 20, 2014 the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) gave a member of the Israel Defense Forces, Izzy Ezagui, a platform to rationalize war crimes and humanize the individuals who commit them.
As students attending a university that continues to dehumanize people of color and refuses to acknowledge the silencing of students of color and other marginalized identities which permeates every campus setting, we took it upon ourselves to stage a walk out.
To begin with, after SAFE members entered and were recognized by their Palestinian kuffiyeh attire, the atmosphere in the room instantly changed. The program began with a warning about disrupting the speaker and inappropriate behavior, suggesting that pro-Palestinian students would be rowdy, aggressive, or a threat. This was validated when only a few minutes later, when campus police felt the need to show up to a room of silent and peaceful students. This attitude continued as a non-white Muslim student who arrived late to the event was denied entry, when shortly after her attempt four other white male students were allowed to enter. Unfortunately, this anti-Arab and Islamophobic sentiment is by no means atypical whenever Arab, Muslim, or pro-Palestine students are concerned.
Izzy started off by promoting birthright, claiming, “for those of you who haven’t [been], you have to go”. He continued to say they should “all try it someday”. That statement was purposely meant to erase the existence of non-jewish bodies in the room, specifically Palestinians who do not get the privilege of a free trip to their own homeland. Izzy went on to express his regret in not being able to partake in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. As he continued to spew rubbish, SAFE members and allies stood up and revealed the names and ages of murdered Palestinians. On everyone’s back was a paper with the word “SILENCED”, which marked the physical silencing of innocent Palestinian voices, and the lack of portrayal of the voice of the oppressed: the Palestinians. After allowing time for Izzy and the remaining audience to read and absorb the names, SAFE and its allies silently left the room.
To put this past summer into context, Israel launched an operation titled Operation Protective Edge, which could not be a bigger euphemism for massacre. In the short time frame of 51 days, Israel managed to murder 2104 Palestinians, of which 1462 were civilians. Of the Palestinians murdered, an astonishing 501 children were killed. This operation left over 100,000 Palestinians displaced from their homes, with power cuts from electricity lasting a minimum of 18 hours a day. All this took place on top of the continued blockade and siege on Gaza that has been taking place since 2007. This siege continues to block basic supplies like pasta, paper, and shoes from entering Gaza, and has brought the local economy to a near standstill. The siege is condemned by both the United Nations and leading international human rights organizations as illegal because it engages in collective punishment and uses starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.
The primary motive of this event was to conceal war crimes by humanizing the soldiers that committed them as well as garner support for the state of Israel and it’s so called “defenders”. As students who are well aware of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, we could not let them ignore the innocent lives that were taken at the hands of these brutal soldiers. Zakariya Ahed Subhi Baker. Ahed Atef Ahed Baker. Ismail Mohammad Subhi Baker. Mohammad Ramez Ezzat Baker. The names of only a few of the children murdered by the IDF. We will not sit back idly as this University continues to give war criminals, in accordance with international law, platforms to speak on.
During our walk out on Thursday, the silence spoke clearly: the justification of atrocities will not be welcomed at our University. Similarly, the international community’s continued outrage with Israel’s government signifies the approach of a day when the audience willing to listen to its self-exonerations will also disappear. We, the members of SAFE and its allies, will not allow the discourse of the oppressor to continue to be the dominant narrative on our campus.
In Solidarity,
Students Allied for Freedom and Equality
As Israel’s human rights violations continue to be exposed, university divestment movements across the nation are gaining momentum. Considerable efforts have been made to contain the growing outrage that has surrounded Israel’s blatant disregard of international law and human rights. On Thursday, November, 20, 2014 the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) gave a member of the Israel Defense Forces, Izzy Ezagui, a platform to rationalize war crimes and humanize the individuals who commit them.
As students attending a university that continues to dehumanize people of color and refuses to acknowledge the silencing of students of color and other marginalized identities which permeates every campus setting, we took it upon ourselves to stage a walk out.
To begin with, after SAFE members entered and were recognized by their Palestinian kuffiyeh attire, the atmosphere in the room instantly changed. The program began with a warning about disrupting the speaker and inappropriate behavior, suggesting that pro-Palestinian students would be rowdy, aggressive, or a threat. This was validated when only a few minutes later, when campus police felt the need to show up to a room of silent and peaceful students. This attitude continued as a non-white Muslim student who arrived late to the event was denied entry, when shortly after her attempt four other white male students were allowed to enter. Unfortunately, this anti-Arab and Islamophobic sentiment is by no means atypical whenever Arab, Muslim, or pro-Palestine students are concerned.
Izzy started off by promoting birthright, claiming, “for those of you who haven’t [been], you have to go”. He continued to say they should “all try it someday”. That statement was purposely meant to erase the existence of non-jewish bodies in the room, specifically Palestinians who do not get the privilege of a free trip to their own homeland. Izzy went on to express his regret in not being able to partake in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. As he continued to spew rubbish, SAFE members and allies stood up and revealed the names and ages of murdered Palestinians. On everyone’s back was a paper with the word “SILENCED”, which marked the physical silencing of innocent Palestinian voices, and the lack of portrayal of the voice of the oppressed: the Palestinians. After allowing time for Izzy and the remaining audience to read and absorb the names, SAFE and its allies silently left the room.
To put this past summer into context, Israel launched an operation titled Operation Protective Edge, which could not be a bigger euphemism for massacre. In the short time frame of 51 days, Israel managed to murder 2104 Palestinians, of which 1462 were civilians. Of the Palestinians murdered, an astonishing 501 children were killed. This operation left over 100,000 Palestinians displaced from their homes, with power cuts from electricity lasting a minimum of 18 hours a day. All this took place on top of the continued blockade and siege on Gaza that has been taking place since 2007. This siege continues to block basic supplies like pasta, paper, and shoes from entering Gaza, and has brought the local economy to a near standstill. The siege is condemned by both the United Nations and leading international human rights organizations as illegal because it engages in collective punishment and uses starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.
The primary motive of this event was to conceal war crimes by humanizing the soldiers that committed them as well as garner support for the state of Israel and it’s so called “defenders”. As students who are well aware of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, we could not let them ignore the innocent lives that were taken at the hands of these brutal soldiers. Zakariya Ahed Subhi Baker. Ahed Atef Ahed Baker. Ismail Mohammad Subhi Baker. Mohammad Ramez Ezzat Baker. The names of only a few of the children murdered by the IDF. We will not sit back idly as this University continues to give war criminals, in accordance with international law, platforms to speak on.
During our walk out on Thursday, the silence spoke clearly: the justification of atrocities will not be welcomed at our University. Similarly, the international community’s continued outrage with Israel’s government signifies the approach of a day when the audience willing to listen to its self-exonerations will also disappear. We, the members of SAFE and its allies, will not allow the discourse of the oppressor to continue to be the dominant narrative on our campus.
In Solidarity,
Students Allied for Freedom and Equality