Ann Arbor – Late Friday afternoon, hundreds of protesters packed the university’s administration building demanding that the University of Michigan stop investing in companies that fund military operations in Israel.
Chanting with megaphones to the beat of drums and waving banners and signs reading “Anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism,” the demonstrators marched into Ruthven Hall, home to President Santa Ono’s office and the university’s central administrative department. A small group of student protesters remained in the building, demanding a meeting with Ono, until they were escorted by police after 9 p.m. In quick succession, protesters could be heard chanting call-and-response chants: “Ono, Ono, you can,” “Don’t hide, you support genocide,” and “Fund our education, not the occupation.”
The Palestinian advocacy group Students Allied for Freedom and Equality promoted the emergency protest this week “to demand that the university divest from companies that finance and participate in the genocide of the Palestinian people.”
“President Ono, we have been trying to contact you for over 40 days. “When will you meet with the over 54 student organizations demanding humanity for Palestinians?” read a video caption posted to SAFE’s Instagram Stories during the protest.
A university spokesman said the building’s residents had safely left the premises.
“Late in the afternoon, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters forced their way into a locked Ruthven administration building,” spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said in a statement. “UM Police report that building residents have safely exited the building and officers are working to restore order to the building.”
Michigan State Police and Ann Arbor Police did not immediately respond for comment Friday.
UM police said in a statement that about 200 protesters marched into Ruthven around 4 p.m. UM police, Ann Arbor police, Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office, Eastern Michigan University police, Michigan State Police and the Pittsfield Department of Public Safety were on hand to testify.
“At around 7:30 p.m., officers began issuing several warnings, asking protesters to leave the site or face arrest. The vast majority left the premises, while some remained,” a statement from UM Police said. According to police, a total of 40 people were arrested and two officers were injured. Those arrested were processed and released at the scene, and the building was evacuated and secured around 10:30 p.m
Student strike in Ono’s office
Paige Feyock, a post-baccalaureate medical student, said student protesters had been demonstrating across campus since 2pm on Friday, starting at the Diag before marching to Ruthven Hall.
“(The police) didn’t let us in, but various people who showed up for the demonstration were able to enter the building,” Feyock said. “As time went on, they swept people out of the building.”
Feyock and another protester described the police’s use of force to force students from the building as “brutal.”
“We feel the police response was disproportionate to what we were doing — we were just peacefully protesting,” said Zaynab Elkolaly, a UM senior who was handcuffed and ticketed.
At 9 p.m., an Instagram Live feed hosted by the UM chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace showed a group of protesters sitting outside Ono’s office, still requesting a meeting with him. A member of the group said they had been there since 4 p.m. At around 9:20 p.m., after the group received a five-minute warning to leave the building or face arrest, police officers began escorting the students from the office.
Several students left the building around 10 p.m. with trespassing charges after being arrested by police and banned from the building for a year.
UM senior Zakariya Alem was among the group of about 23 students who sat on the floor outside Ono’s office, singing and chanting, waiting for the president to appear.
“We were just waiting for Ono to come and maybe talk to us like he talks to everyone else,” Alem said. “It’s his job to talk to us; We are students at the university, we pay to come here.”
Alem, who was also barred from entering the building, said the group of protesters on the third floor consisted of Muslims and Jews. Alem, who said protesters were not allowed food, water or to use the bathroom, said the view out the windows and the sight of the crowd outside cheered on the group inside and gave them “hope.”
“Unlike Ono, I felt like I was being heard by people other than Ono in his office,” Alem said. “This moment shows that Ono is more willing to arrest his students than talk to them.”
As tensions rise, protesters demand divestment
SAFE organizers were joined Friday by a coalition of 54 student organizations across the UM campus who criticized the university for not abandoning its capital in Israel in light of the District’s bombing of the Gaza Strip. Some protesters accused the Ann Arbor school of applying a “double standard” for failing to reflect its response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
In March 2022, the school announced that it would stand in solidarity with Ukraine and separate from Russia as the country’s invasion of Ukraine escalated.
UM has invested about $40 million in a group called Russia Partners, spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said. The investments occurred in 2009 and 2012 and represented less than 0.25% of UM’s total endowment.
“They withdrew from Russia within a week of Russia invading Ukraine; they have double standards. Tonight they must accept or even acknowledge that what is going on in Palestine is not good,” said UM senior Eissa Haydar.
It wasn’t the first time campus protesters gathered in Ruthven. On Oct. 25, as part of a statewide strike, students walked out of their classes and gathered on the Diag before marching to the administration building and demanding a meeting with Ono, the Michigan Daily reported.
The protest comes as tensions rise at Michigan universities over the Israel-Hamas war.
“There are many students who have family in Palestine, myself included,” Salma Hamamy, a Palestinian and president of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality at UM, recently told The Detroit News. “You can’t mentally look at your phone and watch our family members being torn to pieces and then go right back to reading for the next class.”
At the same time, some Jewish students say there is a heightened sense of fear and stress on campus and view some anti-Israel messages as anti-Semitic.
“I feel like every emotion is very heightened. Be it frustration and sadness or the kind of sense of community or … the desire to be with other students,” said Yitzi Zolty, a senior and member of the UM Jewish Resource Center. “I think there is certainly a built-in fear that has been heightened recently… on campus.”
In addition to divesting investments from companies like Lockheed Martin that make Israeli military equipment, SAFE has demanded that the UM government recognize Israel’s attacks on Gaza as genocide.
On Oct. 10, Ono sent a message to the campus community condemning Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians and saying, “Violence is never the answer.”
“Yet today, our campus communities are reeling in the face of the horrific attack by Hamas terrorists on Israeli citizens and the immense loss of civilian life.”
“This violence has caused great pain within the internationally and culturally diverse University of Michigan community. It is almost certain that more innocent civilians will lose their lives as the fighting escalates.” Ono added: “Many members of our university community are personally affected. We encourage students to be conscious, kind and compassionate towards their peers during this difficult time to be. We encourage faculty and staff to show understanding and accommodation for those affected by this violence.”
Staff members Anne Snabes and Hannah Mackay contributed.