TAHRIR Newsletter - July 7, 2025
New disciplinary proceedings announced against TAHRIR organizers, full-time security for Regents, Stop Cop City RICO trial begins
This Week…
Ongoing events and things you can do right now—keep reading to learn more.
Stay tuned for email zaps this week as the Office for Student Conflict Resolution (OSCR) at U-M continues to force sham disciplinary proceedings onto pro-Palestine activists.
🎧 Tune into CounterPunch podcast to hear pro-Palestine organizers at UM, Kathleen Brown and Michael Mueller, discuss the fight against Dana Nessel's repression of anti-Zionist activists!
💵 Donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund for the RICO case brought against Stop Cop City protesters at atlsolidarity.org/d.
🇵🇸 Palestinians need direct material support urgently. Please donate to Palestinian families fighting to survive the genocide in Gaza.
Spotlight: 24-Hour Security Granted to U-M Regents
The Guardian revealed that the University of Michigan contracted private security to surveil pro-Palestine students. Following backlash that led to the termination of their City Shield contract, the Regents and other executive officers have acquired full-time personal security. Citing vandalism and alleged threats, U-M leadership declines to disclose how much this new 24/7 security will cost or how long it will last, adding to the already-shocking $3 million dollar price tag spent on private security, including Liberty Security hired to patrol the U-M Diag full-time to assuage the Regents' fears of a second encampment. TAHRIR organizers maintain that they are still under heavy surveillance.
The irony—that the same Regents who have opted to run a mini-police state on campus, equipped with a mini-secret police contingent with a documented tendency to harass and intimidate students, want you to believe that they are victims—certainly hasn't escaped our notice. The campus climate the Regents are elected to steward has become increasingly hostile due to their own administration and has even drawn criticism from U-M Interim President Domenico Grasso, who labeled the behavior of some security contractors "disturbing, unacceptable, and unethical."
Had the Regents engaged in good faith with organizers demanding divestment from israel’s apartheid and genocidal campaign in Gaza, this crisis of trust and repression could have been avoided. Their refusal to meet with students or faculty, and their continued (and increased!) investment in israeli bonds, makes it clear that their primary concern is to shield themselves from accountability, not serve constituents or keep the community safe.
In Palestine:
July 1, 2025 | At Nasser Hospital in Gaza, dozens of Palestinian babies suffer and die from meningitis, the excruciating inflammation of cerebrospinal fluid. These deaths from meningitis would have been prevented if not for israel’s blockade on medical supplies and attacks on healthcare infrastructure.
July 2, 2025 | Palestinians in Masafer Yatta (West Bank) are bracing for what may be their final displacement, as Israeli forces escalate demolitions and expulsions in the area. Israel has prepared to ethnically cleanse the 36 square kilometers for at least 45 years.
July 3, 2025 | A new poll reveals that the vast majority of Jewish israelis believe there are no innocent people in Gaza. These results echo the justifications of Otto Ohlendorf, an SS Officer and architect of the Holocaust, who "argued that the killing of Jewish children was necessary because, knowing how their parents died, they would grow up to hate Germany," and was subsequently hung for his crimes against humanity in 1951.
In the World:
July 4, 2025 | The United States begins brokering a deal between the Zionist entity and Syria, with Syria demanding return of a third of the Golan territory ethnically cleansed by Israel prior to the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Syria is reported to approve of a scenario where an additional third of the territory is "leased" to it by Israel. This novel era of Syrian collaboration with Israel is emerging alongside massacres of ethnic minorities (Alawites, Christians, and Druze), ongoing israeli offensives in the south, and virulent sex-trafficking.
July 6, 2025 | A new UN report exposes dozens of companies profiting from Israel’s occupation and genocide in Palestine, including tech, construction, and arms firms directly involved in settlement expansion and military operations.
In Michigan:
At the time of writing, about 20+ organizers from the TAHRIR Coalition have been summoned for disciplinary proceedings through the U-M Office for Student Conflict Resolution (OSCR) for alleged violations of university policy at various points in time, going as far back as the encampment in May 2024. Stay tuned for more messaging from TAHRIR socials, particularly for an email zap and any other ways you can help.
June 30, 2025 | Many protesters against the genocide in Gaza being funded with U.S. tax dollars marched over 75 miles from Grand Rapids to the state capitol in Lansing from June 26th to the 30th. The organizers of the march, Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids, did so to raise funds for HEAL Palestine and Playgrounds for Palestine, two non-profits dedicated to providing aid to Palestinian children and families. As of July 6th, they have exceeded their $10,000 goal by raising $14,600.
July 1, 2025 | 260,000 Michiganders are expected to lose medical insurance following the passage of the "Big Beautiful Bill." Counting at more than a fifth of the state population, 2.6 million Michigan residents are assisted through Medicaid. In addition to enforcing expanding work requirements, the bill forbids Medicaid support to undocumented immigrants, including an estimated 100,000 Michiganders.
In the U.S.:
July 2, 2025 | The Trump administration is constructing a massive immigrant detention center in Florida’s Big Cypress swamp, which he and his supporters have termed “Alligator Alcatraz”.
July 2, 2025 | The "Big Beautiful Bill" triples the annual ICE budget, triggering amnesia in American liberals who refuse to acknowledge the complicity of the Democratic party in developing the reactionary assault on America's immigrant underclass.
July 6, 2025 | Deadly floods in Texas have left multiple children missing, with officials blaming the National Weather Service for underestimating rainfall. This comes shortly after Trump’s budget cuts to and mass layoffs at NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), raising concerns about disaster preparedness amid climate change.
July 7th | Trial begins for Ayla King, the first of 61 defendants in the RICO case brought against Stop Cop City protesters by Georgia AG Chris Carr. "The verdict will set the stage for all Cop City defendants, and for the rights of protesters everywhere going forward." - Atlanta Solidarity Fund
Update: As of approximately 11 AM July 7th, the judge presiding King's case declared it to be a mistrial, further delaying their trial.
Donate at atlsolidarity.org/d.
Relevant Readings:
Israel is trying to expel us from Masafer Yatta. We refuse to leave our homes. by Mohammad Hesham Huraini
In this powerful firsthand piece, Palestinian journalist and activist Mohammad Hesham Huraini from Masafer Yatta in the West Bank describes the unrelenting israeli efforts to forcibly displace his community from Masafer Yatta—from demolitions and arrests to road closures and settler violence. Huraini situates this campaign within a long history of israeli ethnic cleansing and land theft, while centering the steadfastness of Palestinian resistance in the face of it.