ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The University of Michigan has decided not to deal with two resolutions from the student government related to the violence in Gaza. According to an online statement from U-M President Santa Ono, the school will not be permitting votes on the two “controversial” and “divisive” student government resolutions regarding the Israel-Hamas war.

In a statement to the university, Ono said, “After great thought and input, one significant step we are taking is to disallow any future votes on two controversial and divisive Central Student Government resolutions – AR 13-025 and AR 13-026 – related to ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza. The proposed resolutions have done more to stoke fear, anger and animosity on our campus than they would ever accomplish as recommendations to the university.”

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Signing on in support of Ono’s statement were seven of the eight members of the university’s governing board including Regents Jordan B. Acker, Michael J. Behm, Mark J. Bernstein, Paul W. Brown, Sarah Hubbard, Denise Ilitch and Ron Weiser.

Before the statement was made, U-M had cancelled a school-wide student vote which led to protests last Friday. U-M had said it was cancelled because of an “unauthorized” email that was sent to the entire undergraduate student body in support of the pro-Palestine resolutions, each of which obtained more than 1,000 signatures on their petitions.

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is not happy at all with how U-M has responded to students at the university and is accusing the University of Michigan of suppressing free speech. In their own statement, CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid says, “We are extremely concerned about the University of Michigan stifling the voices of its students in what appears to be a tacit endorsement of the ongoing war crimes currently taking place in Gaza. Unfortunately, the university which is supposed to be an environment for debating competing ideas, is undermining freedom of speech and conscience of its own student body and unduly favoring the feelings of some students over the concerns of many others.”

The resolution AR 13-025, the most controversial of the two resolutions, wants the university to look into divestment from companies that support and supply Israel’s military and asks the university and its Regents to “act on its claims to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion for its students by not erasing the pain and existence of the Palestinian community at the university.” The resolution specifically calls for the university to recognize Israel’s attack on Gaza as “genocide” and wants the university to “acknowledge that 75+ years of Palestinian-Israeli tensions have been created through systems of settler colonialism.”

The other resolution, AR 13-026, is titled “A Resolution Regarding the Preservation of the University Community and the Support of Those Impacted by the Current War in Israel and Gaza” and is a more balanced approach regarding the ongoing conflict and describes how the students want their school community to be treated.

In the summary of the resolution, the group calls on the university to “uphold its responsibility to support the Michigan community in mind and body as a leading educational institution home to a diverse population of students. Given recent developments in Israel and Gaza, it is imperative that the University understands the personal impact these events are having on students across campus. As such, the University needs to seek out opportunities to bridge students together in this time of increased division and tension.”

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The resolution acknowledges that Hamas brutally attacked, raped and tortured Israeli civilians, murdering over 1,400 and kidnapping over 222 people. It also points out that the Hamas founding charter says they exist to kill the Jews. The resolution also states that “the University of Michigan community mourns for the suffering and deaths of all civilians, Israeli and Palestinian” while condemning the rise in Islamophobia, Antisemitism and other forms of hate speech that has gone on since the Hamas attack.

The resolution requests that the university and its Regents “continue to lend support to all students impacted by ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza and throughout the region” and calls upon them to share broadly their short-term and long-term plans to keep all students safe in their homes, in their classes, and on the broader campus. They also request additional mental health resources for the communities most closely impacted.

U-M President Ono seems to understand that the problems in the Middle East have a huge effect on those in Ann Abor and the university and appears dismayed about how some of the students are responding to what is going on. He said in his statement, “The issues raised by the ongoing violence in the Middle East are ripping our community apart, pitting one group against another and engendering very real fears about safety and security on our campus.”

Because of that, Ono might be ignoring the resolutions but he’s not ignoring the students. He said that in the coming weeks he and his leadership team will be scheduling meetings with student leaders on varying sides of the issue to discuss “real and tangible ways for our university to address the concerns.” He added, “This is a commitment and a promise…Each of us hopes for peace. Each of us desires justice. In the tradition of my own faith, I ask that each of us also considers how we can best love our neighbors as ourselves as we close out the remainder of the semester and move forward as a campus community.”

In addition to that, the university has also launched a new effort to fight antisemitism and promote religious inclusion as the rise in hate speech and hate-inspired attacks continue globally. President Ono said on Thursday that the university is establishing the Raoul Wallenberg Institute on its Ann Arbor campus. Ono told his Board of Regents the institute will be housed in the College of Literature Science and the Arts and use research and scholarship on antisemitism in order to find was to fight it, saying, “Today we are bringing together leading U-M expertise and diverse perspectives toward a safer and more inclusive world, and even more, a brighter world of peace.”

According to CBS News, the institute is named after the Michigan alumnus and Swedish diplomat credited with saving tens of thousands of Jewish lives during the Holocaust by issuing passports and sheltering Jews in buildings that he marked as Swedish territory.

The U-M university community is home to about 6,500 Jewish students.