Police have shut down a tent encampment protesting Israel at Wayne State University and arrested several demonstrators, an official with the university said.
The move was applauded by supporters of Israel and slammed by the country's opponents, reflecting deep divisions in metro Detroit over the Israel-Hamas conflict. It was the latest tense moment in Michigan as protests and other events have increasingly made the region a hotspot for activity related to the nearly 8-month conflict.
Just before 5:30 a.m., university police, with Detroit police as backup, moved in to break up the encampment that was set up a week ago on May 23. The day after it was set up, a controversial three-day conference, People's Conference for Palestine, drew left-wing activists from across the country, some of whom came to the encampment to show their support.
"Occupants of the encampment are gone," Matt Lockwood, a spokesman for Wayne State, told the Free Press this morning. "And the cleanup crew is here, removing the leftover things that people didn't take with them. The encampment is over."
Lockwood said the protesters were given warnings by police before they moved in.
"The police got here a little before 5:30," Lockwood said. "They told the occupants that it was time to go. They made an announcement over a PA system so that there could be no denying that people heard it at 5:33, at 5:43. And at 5:47, they were given a last warning. And then whoever was left at that point, Wayne State University police moved in and kind of ushered everybody off campus."
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Lockwood said there were 12 arrests made by Wayne State police. The detained protesters were released Thursday afternoon after being held in the Detroit Detention Center, greeted by demonstrators who were advocating for their release.
In a statement Thursday morning, Wayne State University President Kimberly Andrews Espy said the encampment was causing safety problems and intruding on the rights of others. The university had expressed concern the protesters were swiping campus items such as traffic cones to use for their encampment.
"Since the encampment was established on May 23, it presented legal, health and safety, and operational challenges for our community," Espy said. "University leadership repeatedly engaged with occupants of the encampment. ... In each conversation, we reiterated that the occupants were trespassing on university property, and we asked that the encampment be removed. No individual or group is permitted to claim campus property for their own use and deny others access to that property. ... The encampment also created an environment of exclusion — one in which some members of our campus community felt unwelcome and unable to fully participate in campus life."
Espy added that Wayne State police "made repeated amplified announcements to allow everyone time to gather their belongings and leave. Many people left."
After the police action, demonstrators marched around the campus with police guarding some entrances behind yellow tape. They allege that police were being abusive during the arrests earlier in the morning.
At about 8:45 a.m., U.S. House Rep. Rashida Tlaib and others gathered outside an entrance off Anthony Wayne Drive that was blocked by a wall of police behind yellow tape.
Tlaib and some family members of a student allege that police had pulled off the hijab, an Islamic headscarf, of a 19-year-old student, Nazimia Abdrabah, of Dearborn, during the police actions Thursday morning. A man who said he was the uncle of Abdrabah, Luay Abuelenain, 55, of Dearborn, said he saw video of the incident. Lockwood did not immediately comment on the allegation.
"You took her Islamic headscarf off," Tlaib, her voice breaking up with emotion, told a police officer guarding the entrance. "Do you care anything about them?"
Abuelenain then started talking to the officer in a loud voice, mocking the tall officer as a "tough big guy" compared to a woman "half of your size." It's unclear if the officer Tlaib and the uncle were yelling at was the officer involved in the alleged incident with Abdrabah.
Speaking to reporters who then gathered around him, the uncle said he's even more upset over the thousands killed in Gaza in recent months.
"We want America to tell us how many kids should we sacrifice before it's enough for the world to be satisfied?" he said to a scrum of reporters around him.
A video that appears to show the incident involving Abdrabah was posted Thursday afternoon by a former reporter with CBS Detroit, Ibrahim Samra, that was shared on the Instagram page of one of the groups that organized the tent encampment, Students for Justice in Palestine at Wayne State University. The edited video shows a woman on the ground with an officer who appears to be patting her head as the hijab slips backward, partially revealing some of her hair in the front. The hijab does not appear to be entirely removed from her head.
Protesters and attorney Fatina Abdrabboh later gathered outside another entrance that was also blocked off by police restricting access to the site of the former encampment. Late Thursday afternoon, protesters demonstrated outside the Detroit Detention Center asking for arrested protesters to be released.
“Your hands are red, 45 thousand dead and you’re arresting us instead?” they chanted.
Detroit Will Breathe, an activist group that often demonstrates against police abuse, issued a statement on Instagram calling for police to release the protesters who were arrested. Other activist and Arab American groups based in metro Detroit released statements condemning the actions of police, saying it's part of a pattern of attacks on pro-Palestinian protests.
"The forceful removal of anti-genocide protestors and the arrests of twelve students at Wayne State University are a blatant attack on free speech by a country determined to silence dissent," Branden Snyder, executive director of Detroit Action, a liberal group advocating for workers and minorities, said in a statement. "Furthermore, the use of excessive force on students by police in riot gear are indefensible."
Imad Hamad, a Palestinian-American activist who is executive director of the Dearborn-based American Human Rights Council, said “universities should deal with student protests as legitimate exercises of basic rights” and "reject outside pressure to be heavy handed."
In contrast, some Jewish groups have expressed concern the tent encampments made them feel unwelcome.
"It is a scary time to be a Jewish university student," Miriam Starkman, executive director of Hillel of metro Detroit, a Jewish campus group, told the Free Press in a statement. "This encampment was another example of the antisemitism that has permeated the protest culture."
Starkman said there was a sign at the encampment that read: "Zionists are not welcome in Detroit.” That sign "is an example of how exclusive and hateful this movement is."
Starkman added: "We are grateful to President Espy and the Wayne State University leadership for taking action. She and her administration have been actively listening and thoughtful in their communications. Further, (Wayne State University Police Chief (Anthony) Holt is a tremendous asset. He and his team keep our campus community safe, and we are lucky to have him."
The police action came after a week of growing tensions.
"The perimeter has been reinforced with pallets, tarps and other materials," said Espy in a statement Sunday. "While we have never seen open flame at the encampment, nevertheless the aggregation of large amounts of combustible material poses a danger to the occupants and the campus."
Lockwood said the encampment was also an "ongoing strain on university resources."
"The police department is having to constantly monitor the situation," Lockwood said. "It's also a situation where the encampment made other people unwelcome on campus."
Wayne State:Pro-Palestinian encampment group refuses closed meeting with WSU leadership
Over the past week, the encampment featured a mix of left-wing activists with Socialist groups and Muslim leaders with various organizations, including the Council on American Islamic Relations, Miftaah Institute in Warren, and the religious leader of the Islamic Center of Detroit, Imam Imran Salha, according to posts from the Students for Justice in Palestine at Wayne State University and other groups. Islamic prayers were held throughout the night, including early this morning, the group's schedule said.
A message was sent Thursday morning to Students for Justice in Palestine at Wayne State University seeking comment.
It also featured appearances by Tlaib and Majority Floor Leader State Rep. Abraham Aiyash, D-Hamtramck. The university is not in their districts. Both have been outspoken against Israel in recent months.
The protesters at the tent encampment had been calling for divestment from Israel or companies tied to Israel, and ending police training in Israel. Divestment from Israel in Michigan may be a challenge because of a 2017 law in Michigan that prohibits the state from having contracts with anyone who supports divestment from or boycotting strategic partners of the U.S. such as Israel.
Tlaib had called upon Espy to meet with the protesters in a video she posted on Instagram earlier this week.
The encampment is one of several set up at universities across the U.S. after protesters at Columbia University in New York City set one up. That camp was cleared and shut down by police. Police shut down a similar camp last week at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Free Press reporter Andrea Sahouri contributed to this report.
Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or X @nwarikoo
