DEMANDS

As alumni, we pledge to withhold our donations to the University and sever ties with the University (including volunteer, networking and recruitment efforts) until the following demands are met:

• DROP all penalties —legal, academic, or otherwise—against students arrested for protesting for Palestinian human rights. End militarized and violent policing against students on campus. 

• REAFFIRM the First Amendment rights of students, faculty, and staff. The University of Michigan must abide by its principles of academic-freedom and free expression on campus. The University must cease its repression of political dissent in support of the human rights of Palestinians.  We echo the Michigan Jewish community’s call to resist the harmful conflation of critique of Israel with anti-semitism.

• PROTECT Palestinian students and their allies from anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, and anti-Jewish hostility. We echo the demands of the multicultural coalition of 55+ student organizations calling on the University to conduct a formal inquiry into the racism and harassment they have experienced. 

• DIVEST from companies that profit from Israel’s occupation and human rights abuses. We note that both former and current University presidents and Regents unilaterally and anti-democratically ignored the student body referendum to divest in 2017.

• DISCONTINUE exchange programs and strategic partnerships with Israeli universities,  as Israel’s apartheid policies restrict access to such programs for Palestinian students, staff, and faculty of the University, making such partnerships stand in violation of the University’s own anti-discrimination policy.