The Black Student Union at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor cut ties with a pro-Palestinian coalition on campus Friday over “rampant anti-Blackness” and the group’s “deeply questionable” integrity.

“As part of our advocacy for Palestinian liberation, the BSU has been collaborating with the TAHRIR Coalition to advance the Palestinian cause, and to demand that the university divest from companies invested in genocide,” the union wrote in a post to Instagram.

“This relationship has been maintained on the part of BSU because of a perceived understanding that our collaboration would further both Black and Palestinian liberation, and that our community would be welcomed and respected,” the post read. “However, it has become increasingly apparent that Black identities, voices, and bodies are not valued in this coalition, and thus, we must remove ourselves.”

 

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The TAHRIR Coalition, which aims to “decolonize the university” through boycotts and social activism, led dozens of student groups in protest of UM’s ties to Israel this spring. The effort involved an encampment on campus that was shut down by university officials in May, as well as targeted protests involving fake bloody body bags and loudspeakers outside of homes of UM regents.

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BSU strongly supported the coalition during the protests, and through sponsored events with titles like “Fund Our Education, Not Incarceration: A Conversation about Policing, Prisons, and (University of Michigan) Endowment,” “Anti-Colonial Resistance: Our Shared Histories with Palestine,” and “Generational Wisdoms: Conversations with our Elders, from Detroit to Palestine,” National Review reported.

The coalition’s list of demands include divestment from “Israeli apartheid and genocide,” a “people’s audit” of UM’s finances, severing ties with Israeli academic institutions, and the end of campus police, according to the news site.

“Members of our organization and our community have dedicated their time, energy, and well-being to the continued existence and strength of the coalition despite repeated instances of being erased, belittled, and berated,” the BSU wrote Friday. “These community members did so with the belief that the work of the coalition would be furthered by their sacrifice — that it would be worth the vitriol they received. However, as Black people, we are not obligated to sacrifice ourselves for any organization that does not value or understand us. The anti-Blackness within the coalition has been too pervasive to overcome, and we refuse to endure it.”

The BSU did not detail specific instances that led to the decision, but said the group’s “advocacy for a free Palestine remains unshakeable,” The Michigan Daily reported.

“The historical ties between Black and Palestinian peoples are inextricably linked, and should always be respected and upheld. Our struggles have much in common, and we know that we are stronger when we stand together,” the BSU statement read.

“The BSU’s solidarity with the Palestinian people is unwavering, but the integrity of the TAHRIR Coalition is deeply questionable,” it continued. “We refuse to subject ourselves and our community to the rampant anti-Blackness that festers within it. For this reason, we will no longer be a part of the TAHRIR Coalition.”

UM officials shut down TAHRIR’s encampment in Ann Arbor on May 21 after activists refused to remove erected barriers, unplug overloaded power sources, and extinguish open flames cited in a fire inspection days earlier.

UM President Santa Ono also cited violence against law enforcement officers, and the protest at regents’ homes, in her decision to clear the protesters.

“Marching and chanting in the middle of the night outside private homes, posting demands on private property, and placing a burnt cradle and fake bloody body bags on the lawn of one regent amounted to vandalism and trespass, not protected expression,” Ono said.

Students aligned with the TAHRIR Coalition formed a Shut It Down party this spring that won the presidency and vice presidency, along with 22 of 45 seats on UM’s Central Student Government in March.

Those students are now holding about $1.3 million in student fees hostage to continue their campaign to pressure UM officials into divestment.