CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Inside The Case Against the ‘Michigan 8’: Palestine Activism Recast as Antisemitic Terror

Property damage to a Rolls-Royce facility in Novi, Michigan, which had phrases such as “MTU ARMS GENOCIDE” and “FREE PALESTINE” painted on its exterior. Rolls-Royce produces parts for Israeli army vehicles. MTU is Rolls-Royce’s German subsidiary, which makes the engines for the Israeli army’s Merkava tanks. (Photo via US DOJ) Property damage to a Rolls-Royce facility in Novi, Michigan, which had phrases such as “MTU ARMS GENOCIDE” and “FREE PALESTINE” painted on its exterior. Rolls-Royce produces parts for Israeli army vehicles. MTU is Rolls-Royce’s German subsidiary, which makes the engines for the Israeli army’s Merkava tanks. (Photo via US DOJ)

In the early morning hours of June 10, 2026, the FBI conducted raids against individuals involved in Palestine solidarity activism at the University of Michigan. With help from local and state police departments, including the University of Michigan Police, the raids unfolded simultaneously in Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. In Ypsilanti, MI, agents in military gear rolled into a neighborhood in an armored vehicle, with guns drawn, terrorizing families and neighbors. A similar home raid took place in Chicago. In total, seven of the eight accused individuals were arrested (one was out of the country). The case is now known as the Michigan Eight.

The Justice Department indicted the eight defendants – five of whom are current or former students at the University of Michigan, and one of whom was a University employee – on multiple counts of severe charges, including “Conspiracy to Transmit Threats in Interstate and Foreign Commerce.” The defendants, all in their twenties, now potentially face decades in prison.

The main actions described in the indictment boil down to property damage, directed against the offices or homes of University of Michigan officials, the facilities of Rolls-Royce (which makes parts for Israeli army tanks) and Maersk (which ships military equipment to Israel), and the building of the Jewish Federation of Detroit (a major pro-Israel organization, as we will see). No person has been physically harmed by these actions.

Yet the indictment paints these actions as a form of antisemitic terrorism, drawing on the FBI’s extensive digital surveillance of the defendants. This narrative was crafted by the masters of deception – Trump’s Justice Department – and it does not stand up to scrutiny. While we do not know who was behind the actions (the defendants have pleaded not guilty), it is clear the actions have nothing to do with anti-Jewish racism or terrorism.

The goal of the wildly exaggerated indictment is to repress Palestine solidarity activism. The U.S. government plans to make an example of the Michigan Eight in order to deter attempts to disrupt institutions complicit in the genocide. It is part of a wider push to severely punish property damage and reframe the Palestine solidarity movement as “terrorism.” We must resist this criminalization and stand with the Michigan Eight.

FBI raid on the home of some of the Michigan Eight defendants in Ypsilanti, MI, June 10, 2026. Michigan State Police and University of Michigan Police participated in the raid. The same house had been previously raided by the FBI in April 2025, as part of the crackdown on the campus Palestine solidarity movement, where agents tore the door open with a battering ram.

Spinning a tale of antisemitic terrorism

The Justice Department presents the defendants as a terrorist group with an antisemitic agenda. Both characterizations are unfounded. Indeed, the defendants were not formally charged with terrorism, since the evidence for that is nonexistent. The Justice Department instead tried to create the appearance of terrorism by linking the defendants to Hamas (which the U.S. government considers a “terrorist organization,” not a legitimate resistance movement). Likewise, the DOJ’s narrative performs a slight of hand in........

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