JULY 24, 2026 REPRESSION MICHIGAN 8 from page 7 monitoring (for which they have to cover the costs) and confined to the state district in which they live. Some defendants were also given “home detention,” meaning they cannot leave their place of residence except for court-approved purposes, or to attend school or work, and are under a curfew of 8 a.m.–8 p.m. Defendants also had to consent to have their DNA samples collected if asked by the court. A distraction from the real sources of violence The presentation of the Michigan Eight as terrorists is intended to distract from the great violence U-M and state agencies have used against the Palestine solidarity movement. U-M police have beaten, pepper sprayed, and groped Palestine solidarity protesters on campus. When U-M police violently disbanded the Gaza solidarity encampment in May 2024, at least two protesters had to be hospitalized due to pepper spray exposure. U-M has infamously hired private undercover investigators to surveil and harass student activists (and is now facing a lawsuit as a result). There were several instances of U-M police investigators making home visits to student activists in order to intimidate them and get information about other individuals in the movement. Public spaces on campus have also been increasingly surveilled and restricted, monitored by police and private security firms. The University also brought in heavier state power to try to criminalize the campus movement. U-M Board of Regents members Jordan Acker and Mark Bernstein — both major supporters of Israel — recruited their close ally, Michigan State Attorney General Dana Nessel, to pursue felony charges against some encampment participants. Nessel eventually had to drop the charges because they could not be substantiated, at which point U-M used internal disciplinary procedures to punish the students. U-M police also issued campus bans to tens of individuals who had attended protests. The case against the Michigan Eight is an escalation of this longstanding program of repression. The case against the Michigan Eight is ultimately about crushing solidarity in all its forms. The U.S. government seeks to criminalize any speech that is supportive of the Palestinian resistance, while trying to break the bonds of solidarity that people in the movement here have created with each other. The Justice Department also wants to send a message: if you damage property to disrupt genocide, you may face decades in prison. This crackdown is not limited to the U.S. On the day of the hearing for the Michigan Eight, June 12, 2026, a London judge sentenced Palestine Action activists to several years in prison under “terrorism” charges for destroying equipment in a factory that services Elbit, Israel’s largest weapons developer. We must resist this growing wave of criminalization and keep our solidarities strong. Ways to Support the Michigan Eight Donate to the Michigan Eight legal fund. For University of Michigan affiliates, sign the open letter of solidarity. Originally published June 19, 2026 by Mondoweiss. GROUNDCOVER NEWS We won’t go quietly AENEA KANAAN Groundcover contributor silly for the occupier to believe the occupied would ever get used to their oppression that we’d lay down and die, defanged and docile, obedient dogs at your feet instead we laugh, while you scream and cry the fools always underestimate love oh so delusional thinking we’d settle for lies because our liberation is unavoidable, inevitable is our rise We have justice on our side. we teach resistance in the space we occupy, through the love we embody, and the truth we carry with us like a lit torch the memory of those we hold dear will never die, ancestors our trusty guides love lives on until the end of time, it will always survive. 15
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