ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — "I will not be intimidated by these provocative tactics, nor will my colleagues on this board, nor will this institution," University of Michigan Regent Mark Bernstein said Thursday during a board meeting that took place online instead of in person when word spread that the protesters who targeted his home, and the homes of other regents, were planning to target the meeting.
"This conduct is where our failure to address antisemitism leads, literally: to the front door of my home," said Bernstein, who was one of several regents whose homes were targeted by some of the same pro-Palestinian protesters who have set up an encampment in the Diag, the center of the university's Ann Arbor campus.
Regent Sarah Hubbard's home was also targeted as protesters placed fake bloody corpses on her lawn and a list of demands on her door and the doors of other regents. Those demands include a number of items including the university divesting from all companies with ties to Israel and abolishing campus police.
"Coming to regents' private homes and escalating this as they are doing right now is crossing the line," said Hubbard, who added her hope to get back to a balance of free speech and accountability.
Video below shoes protesters outside Regent Jordan B. Acker's home:
"There is no plan by the Board of Regents to divest because of this political pressure. This is the kind of pressure that is not going to be effective," Hubbard said.
The university called the protests at the homes of some regents "dangerous and unacceptable."
Hubbard discusses the protest outside her home in the video below:
Some of the organizations involved in the protest are the Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) and the Transparency, Accountability, Humanity, Reparations, Investment, Resistance Coalition (TAHRIR Coalition).
In a statement to 7 News Detroit, the TAHRIR coalition called the administration's portrayal of their actions "alarming."
"Our non-violent home visits of the publicly elected Regents aimed to deliver our demands for divestment directly to the Regents, to level with the University's continued complicity in the genocide," the statement continued.
Protesters also said they have no plans to leave the encampment.
"We are still here 24/7 at the encampment on the Diag, if the regents are at all interested in discussing divesting the +6 billion dollars implicated in Israeli apartheid and genocide," TAHRIR wrote.
University officials have said that, according to their endowment managers, there is "no direct investment in any Israeli company. What we do have are funds that one of those companies may be part of a fund."
They went on to say that "less than 1/10 of one percent of the endowment is invested indirectly in such companies."
Click on the video to watch more of the latest developments in 7 News Detroit reporter Kimberly Craig's report.
