University of Michigan MLK award recipients return honor, demand school divest from Israel
People who received the University of Michigan Martin Luther King, Jr. Spirit Award have given it back and urged the school to divest from Israel and weapons manufacturers.
People who received the University of Michigan Martin Luther King, Jr. Spirit Award have given it back and urged the school to divest from Israel and weapons manufacturers.
In an op-ed for the Michigan Daily, 65 award recipients, dating back to 2006, have returned it to the university.
The individuals who returned the award back to the university cited a recent action by Provost Laurie McCauley, who revoked the Martin Luther King, Jr. Spirit Award from recent alum Salma Hamamy in May after an Instagram story post, where she wrote “utter death to every single individual who supports the Zionist state. Death and more,” according to the Detroit News.
Hamamy claimed that the social media post was taken out of context.
A spokesperson for the institution told the outlet that “The University of Michigan decided to revoke the Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award given to Salma Hamamy based on two statements she made endorsing violence and murder.”
The 56 award recipients wrote in the op-ed that “We do not see Hamamy’s condemnation of Zionism as supporting violence.”
”Instead, it is a call for an end to a political ideology that denies Palestinians their rights to land, self-determination and their very livelihood. Surely we can understand how in this moment, when grave atrocities are being committed against Palestinians month after month, that a member of that community would feel immense anguish, anger and grief — a mix of emotions that those of us who are not Palestinian cannot fully understand. Can Palestinians not rebuke those that kill their families?,” the individuals wrote.
”We unequivocally affirm the growing alumni call for the University to immediately divest from any and all companies profiting off Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. We fully support and uplift Hamamy’s conscientious hopes for ‘a world where colonial, racist and violent ideologies are abolished,’” they added.
