Uni of Michigan revokes Palestinian's award. 65 past winners return theirs

In January this year, the University of Michigan conferred the prestigious Martin Luther King, Jr Award on Palestinian student Salma Hamamy for her activism “promoting Indigenous sovereignty, Palestinian liberation” and her calls for the university to divest from weapons manufacturers.

The award – given annually to individuals and groups for their commitment to "social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion" – was also conferred on the group Hamamy led, the Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) group.

But five months after giving away the award, the university administration revoked her award over a pro-Palestine post on her personal social media account, which highlighted the brutal and inhuman tactics adopted by Israel against civilians in Gaza.

This week, 65 alumni of the university and past winners of the MLK Spirit Award announced their decision to return their awards in a powerful show of solidarity with Hamamy and the Palestinian cause.

In an open letter to the university administration, the signatories renounced their respective awards "effective immediately" and also withdrew their consent for the university to use their names, images, or work in its promotional materials.

They also refused to participate in any university events "until Hamamy's award is rightfully reinstated and an apology is issued to her".

Hamamy has lost several family members during Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, which has killed over 40,000 people, most of them women and children.

She later released a statement, saying that the revocation of an activism award by those contributing to the death of her family members in Gaza “holds no merit. It only holds the weight of hypocrisy”.

“My activism is not legitimised nor is it in need of legitimisation through university recognition,” she said.

“To the Board of Regents, President (Santa) Ono, and Provost (Laurie) McCauley, the blood of my killed Gazan family members is on your hands.”

Suppressing anti-war movement on campus

In its letter to Hamamy, the university said the reason for the revocation of the award was an Instagram post Hamamy shared, which was allegedly "inconsistent with the University’s values," and that she endorsed “violence and murder” by posting it.

The post in question was a video from leaked footage showing Israeli drones tracking unarmed civilians in Gaza and shooting at them deliberately.

Hamamy re-shared that footage and added, "Until my last breath, I will utter death to every single individual who supports the Zionist state. Death and more. Death and worse."

In her statement, the young activist explained that her remarks were directed against the Israeli state, which is "upheld by a violent ideology known as Zionism that has caused the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people and the death of several of my family members in recent months."

She also noted the irony that the university administration seemed more concerned with condemning her words than with the tragic content of the video itself – the arbitrary killing of unarmed civilians.

The 65 recipients of previous years' awards also noted in their open letter that Hamamy was informed of the revocation of her award on May 21, 2024—the same day police violently dismantled the student encampment for Gaza on campus.

“It planted the decision firmly within the context of a broader attempt to suppress the burgeoning anti-war student movement,” they said.

Double standards, financial pressure

The university claims that violence and murder contradict its values, yet it simultaneously funds "the mass maiming and killing of Palestinians," according to the young alum’s statement.

A central focus of Hamamy and her team’s advocacy was urging the university to divest from companies that profit from Israel’s human rights violations and "apartheid" system.

While student movements have successfully prompted the university to divest from other entities in the past—such as Russia following its offensive in Ukraine and South Africa during its apartheid regime—the administration has stated that divesting from Israel due to the Gaza war would violate its policy of "shielding the endowment from political pressures".

Over recent months, the University of Michigan administration has been accused by its members of transforming the campus into an unsafe space for many students, particularly following the anti-war student encampments on campus.

In March, the vice president of the University of Michigan issued a statement targeting a Palestinian student who had lost 14 family members in Israeli bombardments in Gaza, based on a post she made on her personal social media account.

Following that, the student was being doxxed by third-party hate platforms with millions of followers.

Revoking the decision of the Central Campus MLK Spirit Award Selection Committee, a 13-member body that is not controlled by the administration, was an “authoritarian, unjust and calculated decision to capitulate and rescind the award,” said the previous awardees.

It was likely due to “unchecked external political and financial pressure,” according to them.

As Salma Hamamy faced baseless accusations from her own university of endorsing violence due to condemning the deliberate killing of her people, those who showed solidarity with her asked in their letter:

“Can Palestinians not rebuke those that kill their families? Must they observe the ongoing and grotesque mass murder of their people with decorum? Are they not human, too?”

“We were awarded the MLK Spirit Award precisely because of our work to advance social, racial and economic justice in the spirit of the esteemed Dr. King and his explicit struggle against militarism, white supremacy and economic oppression. Palestinian liberation activism is no exception to that. What standing does a university that defames and silences its students engaged in the righteous struggle for Palestinian self-determination have in arbitrating which students deserve social justice awards?”