On the morning of April 23, the FBI and state and local police in Michigan raided the homes of pro-Palestinian activists in at least three cities: Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Canton. These activists, including at least four people in Ypsilanti and at least one graduate student, are reported to have attended or supported protests in support of Palestine and condemning the genocide in Gaza.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization heartily condemns these FBI raids and attacks on the solidarity movement for Palestine, on and off college campuses. We see this as a direct attack on our freedom of speech and our First Amendment rights, in particular the right to speak out against the Israeli occupation and genocide of the people of Palestine.
This is the latest in a volley of attacks by Michigan state law enforcement and the Trump administration on pro-Palestine activists. In this case, all those raided are U.S. citizens, according to the Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. At Columbia University, Tufts, Brown, Harvard, and more, dozens of pro-Palestine students and teachers, including permanent legal residents and actively enrolled international students, have been detained or had their visas revoked, and several, such as Mahmoud Khalil and Leqaa Kordia, are facing deportation.
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration has opened investigations on 60 universities to root out pro-Palestine student activity and formed the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism for this purpose. Out of this investigation so far, he has cut federal funding to Columbia University, Harvard University and Princeton University. Even the Office of Civil Rights has been enlisted and is being used for this purpose.
Trump campaigned on a promise to suppress the movement for a free Palestine on all college campuses. Here he is trying to make good on that promise and to extend this repression to anyone who will support that movement. But it will not work.
This repression means that the supporters of Israel are afraid. They are afraid because Israel, which exists to serve the interests of the U.S. and other Western powers in the Middle East, exists on stolen land and lives on borrowed time. They think they can use fear and repression to silence a powerful international solidarity movement, one that unites the peoples of the world against Israeli apartheid. The millions of Arabs, Muslims and others who live in the Middle East will never give up on their fight to eject Israel and to free Palestine. The enemy is afraid because they know that one day, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, and one day, the people will win.
Freedom Road Socialist Organization will mobilize everyone we can to defeat all attacks on our right to free speech and our right to speak out about Palestine. We will come to the defense of any pro-Palestine student in our movements and under our watch, and we will not stop until Palestine is free.
Hands off pro-Palestine students!
Defend free speech! Long live international solidarity!
Stand with Palestine!
