ANN ARBOR, MI — Fewer than 400 yards separated two University of Michigan student groups with opposing viewpoints on the anniversary of the event that sparked the war in Gaza.
Over 100 people gathered Tuesday, Oct. 7, for a vigil at the Diag to honor the lives lost when Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250 others, two years ago.
Israeli flags outlining the Star of David sat on the Diag grass and several attendees wore yellow ribbons to remember the hostages taken by Hamas. Forty-eight of them remain in Gaza, according to the Associated Press.
“Not only are we mourning our dead but we are mourning our sense of safety in the broader world,” said prospective undergraduate student Eli Revzen, 19, who identifies as Israeli-American and grew up in Ann Arbor. “Even when we’ve been safe for a few generations, the only place we’re ever safe is under Jewish sovereignty.”
About the same time, over 100 people protested at Regents Plaza, 503 Thompson St., against the war while alleging UM’s has financial ties to Israel.
Protesters wore red, black and white keffiyehs covering their faces and held signs that read “Freedom & peace” and “From the river to the sea.” The latter slogan comes with controversy, as some pro-Palestinian activists see it as a call to end Israeli occupation of Gaza. More militant pro-Palestinian groups, as well as pro-Israel activists, see the phrase as a call to destroy Israel.
At approximately 5:58 p.m., organizers at the pro-Palestine rally began marching down State Street and around Central Campus, drawing attention from onlookers.
Demonstrators at the front of the crowd held a banner reading, “For Gaza we rise: 2 years of genocide, 2 years of resistance.”
March chants could be heard from the Diag during the vigil, but the two student events did not collide.
The march ended at approximately 6:56 p.m. Ann Arbor police cars remained at the front and back of the crowd throughout the march, but no arrests were made Tuesday.
The protest was organized by Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, a pro-Palestinian student group.
“We owe it to every student and work being charged and surveilled right now,” Nia Hall, a doctoral student in higher education at UM, said at the rally. “If our work is being used to uphold apartheid, then our struggle is to dismantle it together.”
The Oct. 7 attack sparked the ongoing war. As of September 2025, more than 64,000 Palestinians have died, according to the Associated Press.
Since the start of the war, pro-Palestinian groups demanded the university divest from companies that support Israel. The university board has said it will shield its endowment from political pressures and the percentage of investments in the U.S. military or war-involved Israeli companies is small.
Eleven students and alumni who participated in pro-Palestine protests in 2024 are facing disciplinary charges from the UM Office of Student Conflict Resolution.
Kay Jarvis, director of public affairs at UM, previously wrote the university welcomes protests as long as they do not impact “the rights of others,” disrupt operations or threaten community safety.
“The university has been clear that we will enforce our policies related to protests and expressive activity, and that we will hold individuals accountable for their actions in order to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for all,” Jarvis wrote.
Rebekah Spencer, an elected representative on the UM College of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts student government, said she attended the rally to uplift student voices.
“We have a lot of students on campus who really do not feel safe, supported or represented and they have been going through the agony and loss of the elimination of family members and friends, and they have been targeted and not protected by the administration here,” said Spencer, who grew up in the Northeast United States.
“It’s the role and responsibility of anyone who’s been elected to represent students at universities to hear them,” Spencer added, “and they have a right to assemble and voice their pain and their anger and demands for justice.”
She criticized the university for allegedly not taking enough steps to support student organizers.
Steven Ward, a professor of Afroamerican and African studies at UM, said at the rally many “corners” of the university are not interested in open inquiry and free ideas.
“As we do what we do today and tomorrow and the days that come, let’s remind ourselves that there are traditions of resistance which we are building from and contributing to,” Ward said.
Yards away, the UM chapter of Students Supporting Israel organized the vigil.
Elijah Wiseman, 21, a senior at UM College of Literature, Science and the Arts and a vigil organizer, said student organizers have a right to protest but their chants are “very wrong” and there are “better ways” to speak out. He said “it might have been hard” for attendees who heard the chants during the vigil’s moment of silence.
Wiseman, of White Plains, New York, shared the Oct. 7 attack impacted Jewish people at-large and the vigil allowed families to commemorate the lives lost in the attack.
“Jews are here on campus and there is a strong, proud Jewish community,” he said.
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