Members of the Black Student Union (BSU) at the University of Michigan have left TAHRIR, a coalition of pro-Hamas student groups, and allege its members were being “erased, belittled, and berated.”
The group also suggested there is a pervasive atmosphere of “anti-Blackness” within the coalition that is made up of over 90 student groups.
BSU shared a statement on Instagram explaining the decision.
“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.”
“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.”
Despite their admission of rampant “anti-Blackness’ within the pro-Hamas movement, the group affirmed their own willingness to stand with terrorists and reiterated its support for “Palestinian liberation.”
“Our support and allyship with the people of Palestine, and our advocacy for a free Palestine remains unshakeable.”
According to its website, TAHRIR is a coalition of University of Michigan student organizations that seek to “decolonize the university” and advocate for “divestment from and boycott of settler colonialism, occupation, mass incarceration, apartheid, and genocide.”
TAHRIR claims to fight against U-M’s material complicity in systems of oppression and demands the follwing:
1) Divesting from “Israeli apartheid and genocide,”
2) Establishing a “people’s audit” of the university’s financial operations,
3) Severing all ties with Israeli academic institutions, and
4) Abolishing campus policing.
“We act in solidarity with freedom fighters in Palestine and revolutionaries everywhere working to dismantle global imperialism, capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy.”
BSU’s public distancing from the pro-Hamas crowd highlights a growing rift as pro-Hamas activists criticize Black Americans for voting for Kamala Harris.
In August, pro-Hamas activists launched a barrage of racist attacks against Blacks on social media with a flurry of insults and arguments, including dissecting the Arab world’s role in enslaving Black Africans.
Author Cirien Saadeh wrote an article in 2021 detailing examples of anti-Blackness in the Arab community. Saadeh wrote that in Detroit, Michigan, Arbas often call Black men in their communities “abeed,” which means “slave.”
In April, The Algemeiner reported that anti-Zionist students at George Washington University (GWU) hurled racist remarks at US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Protestors chanted “Zionist imperial puppet” and “imperial blackface.”
They also distributed pamphlets which accused her of being a “puppet,” suggesting that her race precluded the possibility of her being an agent of her own destiny. Later, according to the university’s official student newspaper, the group encircled Dean of Student Affairs Colette Coleman, an African American woman, outside the building. One member of the group began “clapping in her face” while others screamed at her.
