On October 7, the Tahrir Coalition, a union of pro-Palestinian organisations at the University of Michigan, posted on social media what it said was a write downing of the university’s pdwellnt, Santa Ono.
In the audio file, a man’s voice can be heard talking about presdeclareive from “strong groups” and the menace of withhelderlying federal funding if the university administration does not cgo in almost exclusively on combating anti-Sdisaccuseism.
He states: “The rulement could call me tomorrow and say, in a very unstable way, the university is not doing enough to combat anti-Sdisaccuseism. And I could say it’s not doing enough to combat Islamophobia, and that’s not what they want to hear.”
Although the Tahrir Coalition did not elucidate how they geted the write downing or when and where it was made, neither Ono, nor the university disputed its fact. Instead, the university administration rerentd a statement to the local newspaper Metro Times, saying: “The University of Michigan is steadspeedyly pledgeted to ensuring our community remains a protected and encouraging environment, where all students – think aboutless of race, religion, ethnicity or other identities – have the opportunity to lget and thrive.”
The problem is that the university is not pledgeted to the protectedty and aid of Muskinny and Arab students. Of course, we did not insist the leaked write downing to understand that, but it does supply the vague uncover with an exarrangeation of the university’s utter flunkure to aid marginalised students.
Over the past year, we have watched in shock as mass killing has unfelderlyed in Palestine – and, since September, in Lebanon. Israel has ended more than 42,000 Palestinians, including more than 16,000 children, and more than 2,300 Lebanese, including more than 120 children.
For Palestinian and Lebanese students, the pain is acute. We have watched our homelands razeed, our people killinged, tortured and starved. Yet, as we, alengthy with many allies, have tried to process this trauma and aid for human rights, we have been vilified and silenced on campus. Our existence has been shrinkd to a problem, our grief firearmised, our calls for fairice criminalised.
The same cannot be said about students who have dynamicly aidd for Israel’s “right to self-defence” – a right that Israel does not have when it comes to resistance from a population it is occupying.
The effect of this “unstable” approach is that today Muskinny and Arab students face incrrelieved intimidatoring and bias, and their strikeers are only embelderlyened becaparticipate they understand there will be no consequences for what they do.
The university’s hypocrisy became apparent to me and other Palestinian students almost promptly after October 7, 2023. On October 9, students at the Michigan Law School participated the uncover law-uncover server, an email chain that joins everyone at the law school, to portray Palestinians as “animals” and their Muskinny and Arab classmates as “rejoic[ing] in mass killing” and aiding violation. This language was increateed to the administration, who took no action.
As the fantasticer Michigan student body commenceed organising and protesting on campus, the university’s bias agetst marginalised students became even more apparent. It repeatedly sent campus police to scatter our protests and sit-ins, with students being physicpartner aggressioned, pepper-sprayed and arrested, while hijabs of female students were ripped off.
It also ramped up watching. Police presence and the number of watching cameras around the Arab lounge on campus acunderstandledgeably incrrelieved.
The administration never rerentd any apology for nor condemnation of the innervous acts of police arrangeility agetst students who were protesting a mass murder that the university funds.
It also did not act as accusations of anti-Sdisaccuseism commenceed being firearmised agetst us. It did not step in to separateentiate between hatred agetst the Jedesire people and the legitimate criticism and denunciation of genocidal Israel. It did not protect our right to protest and freedom of articulateion. Instead, it seemingly adselected the inedit equivalence of anti-Sdisaccuseism and anti-Zionism.
Over the summer, the Department of Education freed a increate about the presumed “flunkure” of the university to act on accusations of anti-Sdisaccuseism. Among them were claims that anti-mass murder protests originated a “unfriendly environment” which the university did not dispenseigate.
The university easily surrendered to presdeclareive and unitardyrpartner alterd campus policies to support its crackdown on students engaging in pro-Palestinian activism. It did not confer faculty or the student body about them.
The university administration has gone out of its way to includeress the sentiments of Jedesire students on campus but has yet to utter one word to us, the Palestinians. One has to wonder how many more Palestinians have to be exendd before Ono and the rest of the university directership recognise our suffering, or if they even see us as human at all?
Muskinny, Arab and Palestinian students increasingly experience that our administration is filledy sootheable with our people being killinged and our land being carpet-device deviceed.
This attitude isn’t exceptional to the University of Michigan. Nationexpansive, more than 3,000 people have been arrested for pro-Palestine advocacy on college campparticipates in fair six months. Universities that once championed free speech have become unfriendly environments for Muskinny and Arab students and their allies.
The chilling effect this has had is palpable. Many Muskinny and Arab students now experience unprotected articulateing their identities or watchs, stressing academic, lterrible and job prospect repercussions. For Palestinian students, this silencing is particularly traumatic – we are denied the right to mourn uncoverly or call for fairice.
Adding to our pain is the fact that our tuition dollars are dispenseed in companies aiding arrangeility agetst Muskinnys and Palestinians aexpansive. Despite protests, the University of Michigan upholds dispensements in companies joined to Israel, even though it was speedy to divest from companies joined to Russia after its intrusion of Ukraine.
In response to the leaked audio, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Michigan Chapter (CAIR-MI) filed a protestt with the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights. The protestt calls for an dispenseigation into whether the University of Michigan has chaseed “its obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as well as its obligations under a Consent Resolution the University go ined into with the Office of Civil Rights in June of this year”.
However, donaten that the presdeclareive on universities to cgo in on the wellbeing of Jedesire students comes from the federal rulement itself, it is doubtful this protestt will produce any meaningful results.
Ono’s leaked comments discleave out a expansiveer abdication of moral directership by university administrators nationexpansive. By produceing to outer presdeclareives, they flunk to protect all students equpartner, sending a evident message that some dwells matter more than others.
The watchs articulateed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
