'Race Traitor': UMich undergrads threatened, endured ethnic slurs as they thwarted anti-Israel student orgs budget: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO
'I know your name and where to find you,' a protester yelled at a member of the University of Michigan's Central Student Government, according to an anonymous source.
Anti-Israel protesters do not just threaten Jewish students but anyone on campus who does not completely agree with them, according to student government officials.
Imagine sitting in a room right next to a group of enraged jeering protesters, being called a “colonialist Mexican” in addition to a “Zionist piece of s**t” for supporting a student government budget that funds campus organizations and opposing one that would give nearly $500,000 to a controversial university in the West Bank.
That’s what happened Tuesday night to one male junior during the University of Michigan’s Central Student Government’s (CSG) budget vote.
“You don’t even speak Spanish,” the student remembers yelling back to the protester.
The student, who is of Mexican-Hungarian ancestry and a former representative of the university’s Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) student government, spoke to Campus Reform on the condition of anonymity as he recalled those events.
Obtained videos show the yelling and physical confrontations that took place after the votes, which resulted in police escorts and student government members reportedly having to run to their cars. That’s when the “mob got more confrontational,” third-year University of Michigan Law School student Tyler Watt told Campus Reform.
Watt is student general counsel for the CSG. He characterized the evening as another example of the “powder keg [getting] more and more pressurized” on campus following a string of anti-Semitic incidents including three attacks on Jewish students, a rabbi being held at gunpoint on Rosh Hashanah, and the university’s president’s house being vandalized.
Watt said he had to drive a few people home who were targeted by the protesters because them walking or taking public transportation did not feel safe.
“It was scary,” he said.
Hostilities broke out because the CSG’s votes were the culmination of a months-long effort by the Shut it Down movement to freeze all student government funds until the University of Michigan divests itself from Israel.
As Campus Reform reported in August, Shut it Down is affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and used its 24 representatives on the 45-member CSG body to stonewall any budget from passing.
But those tactics did not succeed forever and ultimately backfired according to Alex Richmond, a member of the LSA student government who wrote the petition that resulted in the passage of a resolution (Wolverines’ Budget Act) and budget by the CSG.
Richmond, who is also an intern on the CSG Rules Committee, told Campus Reform that multiple Shut it Down members refused to attend student government meetings, which resulted in some getting recalled for excessive absences.
Those lost seats tipped the balance of power in the CSG and allowed the body to pass Wolverines’ Budget Act in a 21-15 vote before rejecting Shut it Down’s “Rebuilding Education in Gaza Act” – a response to Richmond’s petition – by a 17-22 vote in secret ballots. Richmond was not permitted to vote on his petition.
Campus Reform obtained copies of both budgets. Whereas Wolverines’ Budget allocates $385,000 for student organization purposes, Rebuilding Education in Gaza would have diverted $440,000 to Birzeit University’s Rebuilding Hope Initiative and left only “an amount of at least $1” to go for University of Michigan campus groups.
Located in the West Bank, Birzeit partners with numerous American universities even as the institution is a subject of controversy for its ties to terrorism. In July, Campus Reform reported that five Birzeit student council members were arrested for attempting to execute a Hamas-planned terrorist attack.
Shut it Down’s Instagram posts show a list of planned activities for its “Week of Action” between Oct. 7-11, which coincides with Students for Justice in Palestine’s “Week of Rage.” Events include “Student Power: From Bangladesh to Palestine” and the “War on Gaza: Debunking Zionist Myths.” One post also featured a “CALL TO ACTION!” to “PACK CSG” during the meeting.
It was in the wake of defeat that the pro-BDS students hurled verbal insults and ethnic slurs against student government members who appeared to support Wolverines’ Budget. Richmond and the anonymous male student confirmed to Campus Reform that many of the ethnic slurs were targeted at Arab American student government members who did not support Rebuilding Education in Gaza.
Richmond was spat on and the anonymous male student recounts a Lebanese-American female being called a “Zionist whore” in Arabic after she voted against Rebuilding Education in Gaza over fears of where the Birzeit-allocated money would go.
Watt recalls protesters yelling “race traitor” at Arab students who opposed Shut it Down’s proposed budget.
“I know you’re name and where to find you,” one protester yelled at another Ford School of Public Policy student in government, which prompted Campus Reform’s anonymous source to reach out to Ford Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes’ office over the “unacceptable” behavior and intimidation that occurred Tuesday night.
Campus Reform reached out to Watkins-Hayes to confirm what action the Ford deans have taken or plan to take in response to these incidents, but has not received a response to its request for comment.
Anti-Israel protesters do not just threaten Jewish students, the anonymous junior said, but anyone on campus who does not completely agree with them.
“You’re either 100% with them,” he said, “or they will hate you for” disagreeing with them even “10 percent” about the conflict in the Middle East.
Watt echoed similar feelings, saying that, “If you don’t support the one ideology [of sending money to Gaza], you’re a traitor” in the eyes of anti-Israel protesters.
The University of Michigan campus is “no longer a safe environment for the average student” according to Watt.
Campus Reform also reached out to the University of Michigan. The school did not respond to the request for comment.
