Pro-Palestinian protesters camp outside Michigan official's residence

MICHIGAN: Wearing masks, pro-Palestinian protesters pitched tents and placed fake bloody corpses outside the home of a University of Michigan board member IN Okemos, Michigan on Wednesday. This has raised tension with the school.

Sarah Hubbard, chair of the university’s governing board, said the 6 a.m. demonstration at her home in Okemos involved 30 people.

“They approached my home, taped a letter to my front door and proceeded to erect the tents. A variety of other things were left in the front yard,” Hubbard said. “They started chanting with their bullhorn and pounding on a drum in my otherwise quiet neighbourhood.”

She and her husband stayed inside.

Okemos is 60 miles (100 kilometres) from the Ann Arbor campus.

The protesters departed, leaving behind the three tents and fake corpses wrapped in red-stained sheets, after 30 to 45 minutes when Meridian Township police arrived. No arrests were made.

Jordan Acker, another member of the Board of Regents, said someone with a face covering left a list of demands at his home at 4:40 a.m.

Protesters at the Ann Arbor campus have an encampment on the Diag, a prominent public space.

The group demands the university’s termination of investing in companies tied to Israel.

But the university insists it makes no direct investments and only less than $15 million placed with funds might include companies in Israel which is less than 0.1% of the total endowment.

“There’s nothing to talk about. That issue is settled,” Hubbard said.

In social media posts, a coalition calling for divestment acknowledged the protest and said it would “remain relentless in the struggle for a free Palestine.”

“Please stop complaining on Twitter and come to the encampment to actually negotiate,” the group said, referring to Hubbard.

The university said the protest at her home was not free speech.

“The tactics used today represent a significant and dangerous escalation,” spokesperson Kim Broekhuizen said.

School officials have not disclosed any plans to break up the encampment on campus, which was created in April and prefers the group to leave on its own.