ANN ARBOR — About 1,500 University of Michigan students were startled this week after waking up on Tuesday morning with eviction notices under their doors at six dormitories across campus.

“If you do not vacate the premises by 13 DECEMBER 6 PM, we reserve the right to demolish your premises without delay. We cannot be held responsible for property or persons remaining inside. Charges for demolition will be applied to your student account,” the eviction notice stated.

Fortunately for them, the notice was nothing more than a mock eviction. The stunt was pulled off by the on-campus organization Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE). The organization, which promotes human rights, social justice and self-determination, pulled off the feat in an attempt to enlighten fellow students and university administrators about the struggles of the Palestinian people. 

For months now, SAFE has been leading a movement on campus, calling for the university to divest from companies that support Israel. Some of the companies include Caterpillar, Inc, Northrup Grumman, Corp. and Hewlett-Packard.

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Committee members of SAFE says they created the mock eviction notices in an attempt to highlight the continued illegal and immoral eviction of Palestinians by Israeli officials. Thousands of families in the region are subjected to the demolition of their homes on a yearly basis, often leaving them misplaced and struggling with poverty. 

SAFE’s mock eviction certainly seemed to have grabbed the attention of many. Several civil rights and minority organizations on campus, including the Black Student Union,  backed SAFE’s efforts following their actions on Tuesday. The hashtag #UMMockEviction became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter that same evening. 

The group has been cautious about using their names individually in the media, due to fears of being penalized for the stunt in the future by the university, job employers or even Israeli officials. One Palestinian American member of SAFE, tells The Arab American News that UM dollars continue to be allocated to Israeli military operations. 

A copy of the mock eviction notice.

“Our university is implicated through the occupation of Palestine, based on the last time we saw the investment portfolio in 2011. The ultimate goal was to mobolize action for the boycott divestment movement.” 

But despite the positive feedback, there still appeared to be several students who were left disgruntled by the stunt. UM’s on-campus group, Hillel, a chapter of the largest pro-Israeli Jewish organization in the world, immediately sent out emails to its members following Tuesday’s events, urging students to contact campus administration if they felt unsafe.

That evening, Hillel held an emergency meeting on campus, where about 40 students attended to express their concerns over the mock eviction. Some students claimed they felt powerless and unsafe after the notices circulated in their dorms. Others said they were taken off guard because of the timing of the incident, as many students had been focused on final exams. 

Hillel Executive Director Tilly Shames told the school’s newspaper, the Michigan Daily, that the stunt may have caused a divide with students on campus. 

“The collective values of community and civil discourse were shattered by this incident,” Shames said. 

However, SAFE members are claiming that its their very own safety and freedom of speech that continues to be targeted on campus. They claim offensive remarks are frequently made against them because of their public support for Palestine. Along with verbal confrontations, some students claim they have even been spat on. 

“There has never been a call to action asking how do Arabs, Muslims or Palestinians feel who have been targeted by people because of their public feelings against Israel. There has always been a lot of hate incidents against Palestinian activists on campus,” the SAFE member adds.  

SAFE continues to defend their mock eviction stunt, claiming that it was nothing more than a creative way to shed light on an ongoing issue. They say the mock eviction notices did not target any groups in particular and were distributed to six different dormitories across campus. 

“All that happened was that fliers, filled with education resources and facts were placed under people’s doors and now a national organization is trying to call it a hate crime against Jewish students. It just shows how strong the Zionist movement on this campus is,” the SAFE member added.  “Human rights should never be a dividing factor. If anything, our work is showing that events like this can unify the student body. We are building a coalition that is very central to University of Michigan students.”

So far, the organization says they have yet to hear back from the university regarding their mock eviction notices, however, a director of a residence hall sent the group a warning stating that their activity was in violation of the school’s dormitory fliering policy.

It should come as no surprise that the university has not issued a response regarding SAFE’s efforts. The divestment movement at UM, while a growing presence, still routinely faces setbacks. In previous years, the initiative was shot down by university administrators, including two incidents in 2000 and 2006, when the Board of Regents voted against divestment resolutions.   

This semester, SAFE introduced a “Divesting Against Israel” resolution in Student Government. Members of SAFE are now drafting a final resolution, expected to go up for a vote during the winter semester in Student Government. 

But despite the ongoing battle at UM, the divestment movement continues to gain massive momentum nationally. 

Earlier this month, the American Studies Association (ASA) National Council made a unanimous decision in favor of an academic boycott against Israel. The ASA is the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture. Over 5,000 individual members are affiliated to the organization, along with 2,200 library and institutional subscribers.

A handful of universities have also managed to pass Israeli divestment resolutions in the last two years, including UC-Berkeley and Arizona State University.