ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FOUR YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Ann Arbor, Michigan
NEWS BRIEF
michigandaily.com
DPSS pepper sprays protesters, arrests 1 at pro-Palestine walkout
The arrested individual has been released, and DPSS is investigating the incident Michigan Division of Public Safety & Security outside the Kinesiology Building. DPSS officers arrested an individual and moved through the Diag, pushing aside U-M community members to make room for the DPSS vehicle transporting the arrested individual. Some individuals moved out of the way of the vehicle, which was driving away from the Diag toward State Street, while others remained in front of the car to prevent its passage. DPSS officers pushed aside and pepper sprayed U-M community members who did not move out of the vehicle’s path. Melissa Overton, deputy chief of police for DPSS, confirmed the individual’s arrest in a written statement to The Michigan Daily. “During this protest, an individual was arrested, which
THE MICHIGAN DAILY NEWS STAFF UPDATE 10/7: This story has been updated to include a statement from the U-M Division of Public Safety and Security confirming the arrest of an individual. UPDATE 10/7: This story has been updated to clarify the order of events related to the arrest and altercation with DPSS officers. The TAHRIR Coalition, a group of more than 90 pro-Palestine organizations, organized a walkout outside Rackham Auditorium Monday afternoon to recognize the one-year mark of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack last year. At approximately 5:08 p.m., an altercation broke out between protesters and the University of
led to a large group of protesters surrounding police officers and their corresponding patrol car, obstructing movement,” Overton wrote. “This is an active investigation with details still being confirmed, however, it’s important to note that in some circumstances, officers may employ crowd control measures if deemed necessary to manage the situation, make arrests, or ensure the safety of individuals involved.” Following the arrest, a group of more than 150 students began marching to the DPSS station in protest. At approximately 6:21 p.m., DPSS released the U-M community member. “The individual who was arrested has since been released, and the incident will be submitted to the prosecutor’s office for review,” Overton wrote.
CAMPUS LIFE
‘One Year Since’ exhibition and memorial service honors lives lost in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel LYRA WILDER
Daily Staff Reporter
Michigan Hillel hosted a daylong exhibition and memorial service on the Diag Monday to mark the one year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The exhibition aimed to memorialize those killed by Hamas since the Oct. 7 attack and call attention to the 101 hostages still being held in Gaza. Throughout the day, the exhibition displayed photographs taken of Israel before and after the attack, posters of missing and dead Israeli and American citizens on large cardboard boxes made to look like milk cartons and Israeli flags in the shape of the star of David on the Ingalls Mall knoll. More than 400 U-M students and community members gathered for the memorial service following the exhibition, which featured speeches from U-M students, rabbis, Israeli visitors Noa Reuveni and Shay Raz and Jewish community members. The memorial was opened by Marla Linderman Richelew, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor. She welcomed the crowd to the service and called for remembrance and compassion. “We gather together this evening — students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, local citizens, people of all faiths and ethnicities — to remember, to comfort, to bear witness and to pray for healing and peace and to hope for a better future,” Richelew said. “Commemorating the significant and tragic event calls us together for consolation, unity and strength.”
Richelew was followed by LSA senior Ryan Silberfein, Michigan Hillel president, who emphasized the importance of honoring those killed throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, not just on Oct. 7. “While we’re here to mark the unprovoked terror attack (on) Oct. 7 against Israel and that is the primary focus of this gathering, we hold in our hearts all of the innocent civilians in Gaza and now Lebanon who have been killed or injured in these past 12 months,” Silberfein said. “In the coming year, may our communities learn to hold space for and embrace one another.” After the two opening speakers, speeches were interspersed with other forms of remembrance such as videos of Israel and Israeli citizens, poems, Hebrew music and prayers. One such prayer was led by Rabbi Nadav Caine from the Beth Israel Congregation, who read a prayer for the state of Israel. Caine explained the significance of the prayer in the context of the day. “We pray for the state of Israel in this devastating time of war, of shock and of deep grief,” Caine said. “Our hearts are breaking. We pray for the lives of the hostages captured by Hamas, the civilians and the soldiers. Watch over them, shelter them, bring them home. We pray for the souls of the innocent victims who were brutally murdered. … We pray for our family in Israel in this time of crisis and tragedy.” LSA junior Ryan Finlay told The Michigan Daily that, as a Jewish student, he felt attending Monday’s event was an important way to commemorate the events of Oct. 7,
2023. “I had to come out today in order to remember Oct. 7 because this truly is a monumental day for the Jewish people in the worst way,” Finlay said. “Today, there’s no place I would rather be than outside on the Diag, helping to remember the atrocity that happened one year ago and to help unite the Jewish people on campus.” Finlay said that since Oct. 7, 2023, he has been increasingly aware of his identity as a Jewish student, describing a shared sense of loss experienced by the Jewish community, as well as changes in his interactions with his peers. “I had never really thought much of being a Jewish student on campus before Oct. 7 last year, and then everything changed after Oct. 7, because first of all, the Jewish community came together like never before,” Finlay said. “We felt this shared sense of loss, and then we felt this shared sense that we were being opposed by so many people who didn’t care about our suffering. … The people that we used to know, people we used to have as friends, people that we’ve been going to class with, look at us in a totally different way.” The final speaker, LSA senior Evan Cohen, president of Wolverine for Israel, called for hope despite the tragedy of the circumstances. “In the darkness, we find glimpses of light,” Cohen said. “We see joy when hostages are rescued through seemingly impossible missions, we see strength as Israelis come together to support each other and we see unity at home, as the Jewish community and our allies fight for what’s right.”
Georgia McKay/DAILY
ADMINISTRATION
TAHRIR Coalition organizes walkout calling attention to oneyear mark of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza
ALYSSA TISCH & AUDREY SHABELSKI Daily Staff Reporters
About 250 University of Michigan students walked out of their classes at 3:30 p.m. Monday and gathered outside Rackham Graduate School to prepare for a march on campus organized by the TAHRIR Coalition, a group of more than 90 pro-Palestine organizations. At approximately 5:08 p.m. outside the Kinesiology Building, an altercation broke out, leading U-M Division of Public Safety & Security officers to arrest one individual. Students preventing the passage of the vehicle transporting the arrested individual were pushed aside and some were pepper sprayed by DPSS officers. Engineering senior Jenin Alameddin, SAFE member, spoke to the crowd outside Rackham and said that Monday’s demonstration was held to recognize the last year of Palestinian resistance and pay tribute to the Palestinians killed by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. “We do not just stand here to mourn the dead,” Alameddin said. “We stand here to honor the resistance. On Oct. 7, 2023, Palestinian resistance fighters launched a powerful attack on Israeli military positions, the fighters broke through the heavily fortified barriers surrounding Gaza, showing that no wall, no matter how high or how strong, can suppress the will of a people
fighting for their homeland.” LSA senior Alifa Chowdhury, Central Student Government president, spoke at the walkout and said she believes it is important for U-M students to take action to help Palestinians. “We must recognize our own immense privilege without drones or bombs over our heads,” Chowdhury said. “We must learn from the people of Palestine what it means for education to be a responsibility. Our responsibility is clear. Our university is complicit in sending billions of dollars to a genocide. We are complicit through our silence and privilege.” Chowdhury and members of the SHUT IT DOWN party recently proposed a CSG budget plan that would only allocate funds toward essential support resources for low-income students and contribute the remaining budget to rebuilding schools in Gaza that have been destroyed by the Israeli military campaign. Art & Design senior Eaman Ali, a member of the TAHRIR Coalition, told the crowd about the encampment raid that took place on May 21, during which police forcibly removed the encampment, arresting four protesters and pepper spraying others. “The UMich Gaza solidarity encampment stood for a month this past spring when on May 21 it was violently raided by police in riot gear at the request of administration,” Ali said. As the speeches concluded,
the students took to the streets and began their march. After the arrest, they rerouted the march to the DPSS station to demand the individual’s release. U-M alum Salma Hamamy, former Students Allied for Freedom and Equality president, told The Michigan Daily the arrest was sudden and confusing to many individuals. “Once we crossed in front of the Kinesiology Building, we began to notice that police officers handcuffed and arrested one of our comrades in the moment, and everybody was pretty confused as to why,” Hamamy said. “Nobody could really understand as to why the police arrested this individual. It was very sudden, this person was just chanting just as much as anybody else.” Hamamy said the protesters began demanding the release of the individual when the police pepper sprayed students and pushed them around. “Protesters jumped in and demanded his immediate release, and the police continued to push through, brutalizing students using pepper spray, pepper spraying dozens of students in the process and community members, leaving many people quite traumatized — however, not in fear to come and continue protesting,” Hamamy said. “Everybody marched over immediately to the DPSS police station, and upon arrival, our friend was released.” Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Sam Adler/DAILY
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INDEX
Vol. CXXXVII No. 31 ©2024 The Michigan Daily
N E W S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 ARTS........................4 MIC.........................6
OPINION................7 S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 SPORTS..................11