ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Sweatshirts reading “Globalize the Intifada” are the latest flashpoint on the University of Michigan campus, where a coalition of pro-Palestinian student groups has been selling the controversial apparel. The phrase – often associated with violent uprisings – has sparked backlash from critics who say it glorifies armed resistance rather than promoting peace.
According to TheJ.Ca, a Canadian-based, Zionist international media platform and news website focused on Jewish and pro-Israel topics, the selling of this merchandise, which has been promoted on social media platforms, has prompted concern among Jewish students who see what they are doing as intimidation.
TAHRIR takes its message to the merch table.
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The group behind the sales calls itself TAHRIR, an acronym for Transparency, Accountability, Humanity, Reparations, Investment, and Resistance. While TAHRIR’s members describe their cause as a fight for global justice, opponents see something more radical – a student-led movement hostile to Israel.
The organization openly calls for the university to divest from and boycott what it terms “settler colonialism, occupation, mass incarceration, apartheid, and genocide – in Palestine and beyond.” The group has also participated in multiple campus encampments and organized pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus.
Details on where or how the sweatshirts are being sold remain unclear, as neither TAHRIR nor the university has responded to inquiries. However, given the group’s student-led nature and campus-based activities, sales are most likely occurring online or informally on campus, such as at events or through direct student-to-student distribution.
Understanding Intifada and campus concerns.
The Intifada is an Arabic word meaning “uprising” or rebellion. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of the word is “an armed uprising of Palestinians against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” The term has been used more broadly to describe Palestinian resistance movements or protests.
Political messaging or coded threat?
TAHRIR’s website insists their work is all about solidarity, institutional reforms, and “resistance” in a political sense. However, the imagery on the sweatshirts shows a figure appearing to be wielding a weapon.
Michigan News Source reached out to TAHRIR for comment on the purpose behind the shirts and whether additional prints were planned, but the group did not respond.
