Students in dorms at the University of Michigan were awakened to eviction notices on their doors, which said that they needed to vacate their rooms by December 13th, at which point the rooms would be demolished.The notices also said that the charge for the demolition would be applied to their student accounts. Fortunately for the students, the notices turned out to be a hoax, posted on their doors by members of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, or SAFE.
The action was meant to bring attention to the plight of Palestinians, who regularly face demolition of their homes by Israeli military authorities. The Palestinians whose homes are demolished are then charged for the cost of demolition.
The students who received the eviction notices say they were shaken up by the experience, and relieved to find out that it was a hoax.
However, the student organizers with the SAFE coalition say they hope actions like this will help bring attention to the plight of the Palestinian people.
They say that, in the past month alone, 15,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem received eviction notices.
The homes of those who received the notices are set to be destroyed by Israeli authorities to make way for new housing units owned by the Israeli government.
The Palestinians evicted from their homes are not allowed to live in the new properties, and many remain homeless after the demolition of their homes.
