TAHRIR Newsletter - June 9, 2025
The Freedom Flotilla crew abducted, 2,000 National Guardsmen deployed to L.A., and the Witkoff massacre—among the many reasons why the people of Palestine need us now more than ever.
This Week…
Upcoming events and things you can do right now—keep reading to learn more.
June 14, North Hydro Park at 12pm | Attend the "All Out Against the Data Center" Community Meeting ahead of the Board of Trustees Meeting on June 17th!
June 19, Parkridge Community Center (591 Armstrong Dr, Ypsilanti from 12–3PM | GEO Juneteenth Teach-In & Celebration in Ypsilanti | Our celebration will honor the long Black freedom struggle and recognize the ongoing fight for liberation for all oppressed peoples across the globe. RSVP here!
🇵🇸 Palestinians need direct material support urgently. Please donate to Palestinian families fighting to survive the genocide in Gaza.
📝 Sign Michigan Divest’s petition demanding that the Michigan Treasury divest from a $10 million “israeli” bond! More info here.
📝 Sign the petition to reinstate Logan Rozos’ diploma and contact NYU admin!
📞 Contact MIT admin to condemn their attack on pro-Palestine speech!
SPOTLIGHT: City-Shield Revealed
In an exposé published by The Guardian on Friday, it was revealed that the University of Michigan used private, undercover investigators from the company City Shield to harass and surveil pro-Palestine activists, including U-M students, on campus. One organizer counted at least 30 different people following him over the past year, including one undercover investigator who faked disability after being confronted. Public spending records from the U-M board of regents show the university paid at least $800,000 between June 2023 and September 2024 to City Shield’s parent company, Ameri-Shield. Overall, U-M has spent over 3 million in 2024 alone to repress pro Palestine divestment efforts in Michigan. According to an expert on campus speech interviewed in the article, "the use of undercover private security may be unprecedented" on American university campuses.
In Palestine:
June 8, 2025 | Netanyahu admits to use of war mercenaries in Gaza. In a new low, the israeli occupation allies with armed gangs linked to ISIS in Gaza to loot food warehouses and prevent the distribution of aid. The armed gang is led by Yasser Abu Shabab, who, as per Hamas officials, is wanted for "collaborating with the occupation against his people". This comes after attacks by israeli forces on shopowners and local Gaza security teams, attempting to protect shops from looting and chaos.
June 2, 2025 I israel continues to stall ceasefire negotiation. "After weeks of serious responsible negotiations with the American envoy, we reached an acceptable formula that aligns with the minimum national goals and the requirements for protecting our people. However, the occupation rejected the paper and asked the Americans to present [their latest proposal] to us as a final, non-negotiable proposal." Mahmoud Mardawi, Hamas.
June 1, 2025 | The Witkoff Massacre. A CNN investigation published last Thursday concluded that the Israeli military was behind a deadly shooting of civilians seeking aid near Rafah in southern Gaza over the weekend, which killed more than 30 people.
June 1, 2025 I Occupation forces destroyed Noura al-Kaabi Dialysis Center, pushing Nasser Hospital beyond capacity as they launched multiple drone and sniper attacks hit aid cues, leaving the hospital in urgent need of generators.
May 31, 2025 I Occupation forces repeatedly rammed a bus carrying pilgrims in Jenin, on the 131st consecutive day of zionist offensives on the city and its refugee camp. Their campaign has led the total demolition of 600 homes in Jenin Camp, 22,000 displaced residents, and 43 martyred civilians.
In the World:
June 8, 2025 | Attack on the Freedom Flotilla, Madleen. Israeli occupation forces seize the Madleen, unlawfully boarding the ship and abducting the unarmed civilian crew, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney and Freedom Flotilla organizer condemned the attack, stating “This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the ICJ’s binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza." The ship was carrying critical aid, such as flour (now costing over 500$ for a 25kg bag in Gaza) and baby formula.
June 6, 2025 | French dock workers of Confédération Générale du Travail, General Confederation of Labor (CGT) take a strong stance against the genocide in Gaza by refusing to load munitions bound for Israel. Similar efforts are forming in Italy, sparking hope for direct action to disarm Israel through international solidarity in light of political leaders failing to do so.
June 6, 2025 | Trump levied sanctions against four ICC justices, escalating the United States' longstanding position of denigrating international institutions. Two of the justices, Bossa of Uganda and Ibanez Carranza of Peru were targeted for their participation in 2020 ICC appeals chamber which allowed investigation into crimes committed in Afghanistan since 2003. The other two justices, Alapini-Gansou of Benin and Hohler of Slovenia, have been involved in the ICC case against Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense minister Yoav Gallant.
June 5, 2025 | The Madleen responded to a distress call in the Mediterrannean Sea, rescuing four Sudanese Refugees. Rima Hassan, a Member of the European Parliament aboard the Madleen critiqued the EU for obstructing asylum seekers, which has "led to the deaths of tens of thousands and turned the Mediterranean into a graveyard.”
June 5, 2025 | israeli weapon sales boom. While Europe doubled arms purchases from israel in 2024, despite growing calls to end Gaza genocide, the tide might be shifting as Spain cancels a $325 million contract with an Israeli arms company and France considers steps to follow suit.
May 30th, 2025 | A year and nine months into the genocide in Gaza, Germany only considers restrictions on arms exports to Israel, citing humanitarian concerns in the Gaza strip. As per Foreign Minister Wadephul, the German government is examining potential violations of international humanitarian law by Israel, and will condition arms exports based on the outcome of that review.
In the U.S.:
June 8, 2025 | The Trump administration is deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops following protests against the militaristic ICE raids in Los Angeles. In the days prior, ICE conducted several sweeps across the LA area, arresting over 100 immigrants. In response, the LA community mobilized around raid locations and the city’s ICE detention center, where LAPD, ICE, and federal agents deployed rubber bullets, tear gas, and flash bangs at protestors.
June 5, 2025 | Puget Sound Prisoner Support (Seattle, WA) released a statement on Thursday that a local activist was visited at home by FBI agents seeking information about SUPER UW, a campus-based Palestinian solidarity organization. The agents attempted to convince the activist to infiltrate the group's meetings and inform upon "non students and outside 'bad actors'." The activist refused to talk to the agents and directed them to their lawyer. This case is a reminder that home visits by police fishing for information are not uncommon in left movements. Anyone who is outspoken about Palestine should remember that one does not need to allow the FBI or any police into their home without a valid warrant, and one never needs to speak to them. The linked statement provides more helpful tips for activists on handling these home visits.
June 4, 2025 | New documents have come to light from the Department of Justice's failed effort to acquire search warrants for the Instagram account of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) this spring. In May, the New York Times reported that a high-ranking official, Emil Bove, ordered the DOJ's civil rights devision to produce a list of CUAD's members. This week, the Intercept reported that the FBI and the DoJ had attempted to obtain search warrants for every single user who had interacted with the Instagram account since January 2024, arguing that a post constituted “interstate communication of a threat to injure" the university's then-interim president Katrina Armstrong. The post constituted a photo of graffiti with the message "Free Them All" and an inverted triangle along with a caption that (in part) stated "Katrina Armstrong you will not be allowed peace." The warrant request was repeatedly denied by judges and appealed by the government -- both are unusual moves. This story demonstrates the federal government's continued commitment to criminalizing pro-Palestine speech.
In Michigan:
Michigan Divest demands that the state divest the State of Michigan Retirement System (SMRS) from israeli bonds. The State of MI Investment Board (SMIB) is currently investing $10 million dollars of israeli bonds into the retirement funds of public employees in the SMRS, a majority of which are in the state's public school systems.
TAKE ACTION! Attend the June 25th State of MI Investment Board Meeting to demand divestment!
June 4, 2025 | Michigan Rep. Noah Arbiter, D-West Bloomfield, introduced House Bill 4548, which would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism into the state's civil rights law. The IHRA, of which "israel" is currently the president member country, enshrines zionist principles into this definition. HB 4548 condemns "demanding a behavior of the State of Israel that is not expected or demanded of other democratic nations" as antisemitism - language which hides the illegitimate, settler colonial nature of the occupation. The bill serves to weaponize antisemitism in order to codify zionist ideology into Michigan law.
Relevant Readings:
This week we conclude with the last two pieces from Michigan Quarterly Review’s series, Encampment Diaries.
Lessons from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment: A pedagogy of Solidarity by Ira Anjali
With photographs, Anjali reminds us of the liberatory possibilities created by the Encampment, recounting several memories from their time there. "You see, the chaos was not accidental but a symptom of hunger- a yearning to learn something real about our world beyond empire. This hunger transformed the encampment into a pedagogical experiment- a space to develop a collective, political consciousness that took seriously the realities and struggles of a world rendered dispensable by American imperialism. "
Occupy, Attack, and Expand by Goda Halkaab
Goda Halkaab takes us through three lessons gleaned from the Encampment, with the Liberation Library as a lens of analysis. "The camp is now gone, and one could draw many reasons for its demise. But there certainly wasn’t a lack of will in defending it, and the library had a role in that. For a brief moment, we had a commune that everyone was invested in, and that gave us something worth fighting for."