We are a democratic, multiracial, and interfaith collective of staff, lecturers, tenure-stream faculty, clinical faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and researchers across all three University of Michigan campuses.

Inspired by global protest movements demanding Palestinian liberation, a ceasefire in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, and the end of the settler colonial apartheid regime, we formed this collective in 2023 to protect academic freedom at UM and to support those, both on our own campuses and elsewhere, who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement. We are united in our opposition to racism, colonialism, war capitalism, and all other forms of hate and oppression.

Higher education in the United States has long been complicit in the racist projects of settler-colonialism, dispossession, and warmaking. The University of Michigan has failed to uphold its promises in the coerced 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs with the Anishinaabeg — including Odawa, Ojibwe, and Bodewadami —and today holds investments that further the acceleration of climate change and violence across the world. We draw inspiration from divestment activists who have seen the University’s endowment as the rightful site of political struggle, such as divestment campaigns against Apartheid South Africa in the second half of the 20th century and against fossil fuels today.

We believe in the necessity of Palestinian liberation. We demand an end to apartheid and support the fundamental right of all Palestinians to self-determination, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. 

We affirm the right of our members and others to support the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions solidarity movement as a non-violent path to dismantle apartheid in historic Palestine, modeled after similar campaigns that played an important role in the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa. This includes those who have called for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel and Israeli educational institutions for their complicity in colonialism and occupation.

We reject the conflation of support for Palestinian liberation and antisemitism. Similarly we refuse the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism. We condemn and fight against racism in all its forms including anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism.

We assert the fundamental importance of academic freedom and freedom of expression at UM. We believe these freedoms extend to all community members, including students and staff, to speak about, advocate for, conduct research on, teach on, and protest with regards to Palestine without fear of censorship or reprisal.

We strongly condemn the ongoing US-backed ethnic cleansing being conducted against Palestinians and object to the use of our tax dollars to fund these horrors. We call for an immediate end to the current violence and assert that a political solution is required to secure lasting peace.

We stand in solidarity with the growing student movement for Palestinian liberation, especially groups on our campuses like Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), Jewish Voice for Peace UMich (JVP UMich), and the other members of the TAHRIR Coalition, and seek to support their work.

Disclaimer: This organization is independent and does not represent the views of the University.