Editor: I am so proud of young people today who stand up for the people of a foreign country. When I was their age, I can’t say that I knew anyone that was willing to risk arrest to speak out about something happening across the world. They’re brave to hold a pro-Palestinian protest at the Michigan Capitol after everything that has been going on recently.
It makes me happy to see them stand up for their rights as well. However, I’m concerned about the Michigan Attorney General filing federal charges against the students who engaged in campus protests over the Summer. Does she not remember what it was like to be a college student “fighting against the man?”
The hold that Prime Minister Netanyahu has over President Trump and Congress is insane. It gives him too much power inside the United State. It makes me so angry! That man is evil. I’ll say it once again: I hate Benjamin Netanyahu and the war crimes he commits in Gaza. I do NOT have anything against the people of Israel or Jewish-Americans.
People are getting kicked out of the country because they fought for peace and dignity for the Palestinian people. It’s not antisemitic to criticize the government of Israel! Don’t let our government gaslight you into believing it is. Hundreds of international students have been arrested and are at risk of being deported. They aren’t being accused of any crimes. The only thing they did was criticize the way Israel is prosecuting the war in Gaza through speech or in writing.
Mahmoud Khalil was the first to be arrested and held in an immigration detention center in Louisiana. He has spoken to reporters in the past about his desire to achieve peace and prosperity for the people of Israel and Palestine.
A judge ruled on Friday that he could be deported. He has an American wife who is 8 months pregnant and he was a green card holder. Anyone who thinks they aren’t going to come after American citizens next hasn’t been paying attention.
Please stop equating the citizens of Gaza with Hamas. Please stop referring to Pro-Palestinian protests as Pro-Hamas or Anti-Israel. The gaslighting and propaganda is out of control. I can’t believe we’re allowing the government to do this to our young people. They’re tired of seeing dead babies and watching children burn alive after refugee camps are bombed by the IDF.
Our government is frustrated because they no longer have control over what the American people see and hear. Mitt Romney said as much when he admitted the real reason for the TikTok ban. Young people were being exposed to the truth.
It used to be that the entire country got their news from a handful of cable news networks. Now we have access to podcasts and social media. Young people inside Gaza are sharing what’s happening on the ground with the rest of the world.
Journalists were doing that in the beginning, but the IDF has killed almost every journalist in Gaza to prevent its war crimes, snipers shooting kids in the head, soldiers raping young women and putting them in cages, the murder of a 6-year-old-girl who had just watched her entire family die, and the food blockade that has already starved children to death from being exposed.
Finally, Israel’s far-right government recently said it’s going to start forcing people off their land so Netanyahu and his cronies can steal it. Then President Trump can go in and build Trump resorts on top of the thousands of bodies still buried under rubble there.
That’s enough ranting from me, here are photographs of the Michigan protest from Michigan Advance photographer, Erick Díaz Veliz.
On Friday afternoon, approximately 60 people, including university students and community members,protested and marched inside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing against what they say is the harassment of international students for supporting the Palestinian cause and demanded state officials divest from Israel.
The peaceful march inside the Capitol took place after a rally organized by pro-Palestinian student organizations from Wayne State University, the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, the University of Detroit Mercy, and Michigan State University.
Omar Anasara, 19, a philosophy student and member of Students for Justice in Palestine at MSU, expressed their demands during his speech.
“We demand not only that the state imposes a large-scale arms embargo on Israel and divests from Israeli bonds, investment firms, and weapons manufacturers that profit off of and enable the genocide in Gaza, but also that the State Attorney General drops the charges against pro-Palestinian activists, and that university administrations across Michigan provide assurances for the protection of international students,”said Anasara.
On September 12, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed felony charges against 11 pro-Palestinian protesters from the University of Michigan in connection with the encampment that took place at the Diag in April of last year.
Additionally, the student activists sought to highlight the pressure they are receiving from the Trump administration because of their beliefs, claiming that it is an attack on freedom of speech.
“The monitoring of social media for pro-Palestinian content, or the silent and unannounced deportations of folks for exercising their rights to protest, we are seeing the consequences of unfettered fascism from the top-down level,” highlighted Anasara.
The rally came a day after 19 pro-Palestinian activists were arrested at the Michigan State University administration building when they refused to leave the premises.
For about an hour, Friday’s rally continued without major incidents amidst speeches and chants.. The protesters momentarily occupied W. Ottawa Street, marching toward Heritage Hall located on the north side of the Capitol, where they entered the building and took a brief break.
Several minutes later, the protesters reached the first floor Capitol Rotunda, where they continued chanting in support of the Palestinian cause for about 15 minutes before leaving the building and marking the end of the protest. There was no police intervention beyond a few questions.
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