(The Center Square) – Calling the atmosphere surrounding seven pro-Palestinian protestors at the University of Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Monday she is dropping the charges.
The announcement came as about 100 protestors gathered outside the courthouse in Washtenaw County, where a pretrial hearing was taking place.
The seven faced charges of trespassing and resisting and obstructing a police officer.
“These distractions and ongoing delays have created a circus-like atmosphere to these proceedings,” Nessel said in a statement Monday. “While I stand by my charging decisions and believe, based on the evidence, a reasonable jury would find the defendants guilty of the crimes alleged, I no longer believe these cases to be a prudent use of my department’s resources, and, as such, I have decided to dismiss the cases.”
Nessel, who is Jewish, faced calls of bias for continuing to move ahead with the charges stemming from pro-Palestine protests in April 2024 when groups and students demonstrated and established an encampment on campus.
After nearly a month, university officials cleared the camp early one morning.
Palestinian support groups claimed Nessel’s faith was behind the charges and the ongoing push to move forward. At one point, the defendants filed a motion to rescue Nessel and her office from the process.
“Baseless and absurd allegations of bias have only furthered this divide. The motion for recusal has been a diversionary tactic which has only served to further delay the proceedings,” Nessel said. “And now, we have learned that a public statement in support of my office from a local nonprofit has been directly communicated to the court. The impropriety of this action has led us to the difficult decision to drop these charges.”
Nessel did not name the local organization that support her efforts to charge the seven.
The University of Michigan has come under fire for not addressing antisemitism on campus in the wake of pro-Palestine protests.
Those protests included flyers appearing on campus that read “Zionists f*** off” in Oct. 2023, an anti-Israeli encampment on campus grounds in April 2024, and protests interrupting classes in November 2024.
As recently as December, the home of Jordan Acker, a Jewish member of the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents, was vandalized in what the University described as “a clear act of antisemitic intimidation.”
