After the Central Student Government at the University of Michigan voted against a resolution to set up a committee to investigate international corporations that do business with the Israeli military in order to divest from them, there was a sense of both disappointment and pride among the students.

UMDivest, a group of students who support the resolution, got the CSG to vote on the proposal, even though they expectedly did not get the result they wanted. Last week, the student government’s assembly did not even bother to take a stand on the issue, which directly affects Palestinian students. It did not give the opportunity for people to speak. It cut the debate short and dismissed the matter.

But UMDivest did not take “we will not hear you” for an answer. The students took over the Chambers Room, where CSG meets. They engaged in productive, peaceful civil disobedience and forced the assembly to repeal the decision to indefinitely postpone the resolution and vote on it again. They also received an apology from the CSG president. 

While it may appear that the UMDivest supporters have lost a battle by failing to pass the divestment resolution through CSG, the truth is that they staged an unprecedented victory for the Palestinian cause in Michigan.

On Tuesday, more than 2,000 people online and 700 people in the stands heard the heartbreaking accounts of courageous Palestinians, mostly young women. The world became more aware of the suffering of the Palestinian masses because of these students. 

The #UMDivest hashtag on Twitter was receiving a tweet every 10 seconds for seven hours, proving that the media monopolies are no longer the sole providers of information. For decades, media corporations, which are complicit in their support to Israeli oppression, have kept the Palestinian narrative away from the ears of the American people.

Despite the deliberate decision of many local mainstream media outlets to ignore them, the UMDivest students took advantage of the changing terrain of American journalism and told their stories through their own channels: Twitter and Facebook.

The stories of the girl whose cousin could not receive cancer treatment because of an Israeli checkpoint, or the student whose aunt’s home was demolished, or the young man who cannot visit his forefathers’ land, all told a side of the conflict that CNN does not recount. They showed the human pain of an often-dehumanized population.

The broad range of support for the movement, which rallied people of all ethnic backgrounds, showed that the suffering of Palestinians is not a tribal conflict between Arab and Jews. Rather, it is a human rights issue.

Even Zionist students who oppose the divestment resolution had to admit to the human rights violations committed by Israel. Many of them voiced opposition to the colonization and military occupation of the West Bank. They acknowledged that both sides commit atrocities.

However, our government hands billions of dollars in military support only to one side. It vetoes the UN resolutions criticizing one side. Congress for the past 60 years has voted unequivocally in support of one side. The University of Michigan is invested in companies that assist the human rights violations of one side. UMDivest exposed this hyprocrisy.

The peaceful dissent of UMDivest and the debate it triggered have garnered success for the Palestinian cause over a week more than many organizations have done over decades.

We salute these young women and men for their bravery and passion. #GoBlue #WeAreProudOfYou.