FEBRUARY 2 • 2023 | 19

record for escalating tensions on campus 
for Jewish and pro-Israel students. This 
year, just as it has done in the past, it has 
endorsed passing a resolution within the 
University of Michigan Central Student 
Government (U-M CSG) calling for the 
university to boycott, divest and sanction 
(BDS) any ties to Israel as well as businesses 
that do business in Israel.
The U-M CSG passed this resolution in 
2017 in Ann Arbor, and BDS resolutions 
passed on all U-M campuses in 2018. 
However, the university has long main-
tained that it rejects any call to boycott 
Israel, continues to hold academic and 
research ties to the Jewish state, and still 
invests in companies doing business in 
Israel. 
In 2015, SAFE brought up ethics charges 
against Jewish Central Student Government 
member Jesse Arm who expressed his sup-
port for Israel by voicing his displeasure of 
the presence of an apartheid wall installed 
on campus by the organization immedi-
ately following a terror attack that killed an 
American Jewish student in the West Bank. 
In 2018, SAFE wrote an open letter in 
the Michigan Daily newspaper standing in 
solidarity with John Cheney-Lippold, the 
professor who refused to give a student a 
letter of recommendation because she chose 
a study abroad program in Israel and he 
supported the BDS movement. 
In 2020, SAFE sponsored and hosted 
a clandestine Palestine Youth Movement 
Conference. The conference was held in an 
undisclosed location on campus and did 
not list keynote speakers or details of any 
lectures or workshops. Those who wished 
to attend had to first be vetted by a member 
of SAFE and had to swear their allegiance 

to Palestine in a Google form. 
In 2021, at the height of Hamas’ escala-
tion with Israel, SAFE, in collaboration with 
the U-M CSG, issued a statement that came 
squarely down on the side of Palestinians. 
It claimed that Israel was complicit in geno-
cide and ethnic cleansing while ignoring the 
thousands of rockets Hamas fired from the 
Gaza strip that terrorized Israelis for nearly 
10 days. 
The JN contacted SAFE and the univer-
sity administration several times for com-
ment for this story. Neither responded. 

JEWISH UNEASE
Ethan Friedman, 22, a senior from White 
Plains, New York, studying International 
Relations with a minor focus on Middle 
East Security Issues, said there has been a 
feeling of unease among his Jewish friends. 
 Friedman said if Jewish students marched 
on campus with Israeli flags crying for the 
end to Hamas, there would be an outpour-
ing of disapproval. But somehow, he said 
pro-Palestinian activists waving national 
flags and calling for intifada and holding 
signs calling for “one solution” has been 
normalized and accepted on campus. 
“What is most troubling to the Jewish 
students I know and myself is this ‘one solu-
tion’ sentiment, which is growing in popu-
larity on campus,
” Friedman said. “The ‘one 
solution’ language evokes the final solution 
and ethnic cleansing of Israelis. Like, really. 
What solution are they calling for when 
they call for an intifada?” 
Friedman said while he has felt com-
fortable carrying an Israeli flag on campus 
to pro-Israel events, he and other Jewish 
students feel they must keep their heads 
down and their pro-Israel leanings silent in 

the classroom, especially in Middle Eastern 
studies classes within the university’s 
College of Literature, Science and Arts. 
“Outside the classroom, we know there 
is no point in starting a dialogue with stu-
dents like this when they spread their mis-
information because we know nothing will 
come of it,
” Friedman explained. “Inside the 
classroom, if a professor presents skewed 
information about the Middle East and the 
origins of the State of Israel, Jewish students 
like me feel, though we know the informa-
tion is skewed, we do not want to counter 
that information and annoy a professor 
who will determine what our academic 
standing will be.
” 

HILLEL AND STUDENT
GROUP TAKE ACTION
In a Jan. 18 email signed by Michigan Hillel 
Executive Director Tilly Shemer and its 
board of Trustees, Michigan Hillel respond-
ed to concerned students, parents, alumni 
and community members following the 
march. 
“During this rally, the organizers chanted 
‘Long Live the Intifada,
’ which for many 
members of our Jewish community recalls 
images of violent uprisings and terrorist 
attacks against Israeli civilians. We share 
your concerns regarding this language and 
want to let you know how our Hillel has 
responded and is moving forward. … We 
are also in communication with the cam-
pus administration to convey the harmful 
impact of the language used during the 
protest. For many in our community, calls 
for ‘intifada’ invoke memories of violence in 
Israel during the Second Intifada, including 
terror attacks, suicide bombings, and thou-
sands of civilian deaths and injuries. Words 

continued on page 20

“THE ONE SOLUTION LANGUAGE EVOKES 
THE FINAL SOLUTION, AND ETHNIC 
CLEANSING OF ISRAELIS. LIKE, REALLY. 
WHAT SOLUTION ARE THEY CALLING FOR 
WHEN THEY CALL FOR AN INTIFADA?”

— U-M STUDENT ETHAN FRIEDMAN

