The Justice Department has indicted eight pro-Palestinian activists who it says were responsible for orchestrating a harassment campaign against top University of Michigan officials, the Jewish Federation of Detroit and others in an effort to push the university to divest from Israel.
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The defendants, all in their 20s, are accused in court documents in the Eastern District of Michigan of targeting the university president, provost, chief information officer and members of the Board of Regents, vandalizing their homes and businesses and making threats against them.
The defendants face different sets of charges, but the indictment includes counts of conspiracy to transmit a threat; conspiracy to tamper with a witness; and destruction of property to prevent seizure. Possible sentences include high fines and prison time.
The activists, upset at the U.S. role in supporting Israel in the war with Gaza, are accused of placing dismembered and bloodied baby dolls, as well as sheets folded to look like dead bodies, on the front porch of one unidentified Board of Regents member. In another incident, prosecutors say, members of the group threw paint-filled balloons at the law firm of another regent.
The group also allegedly tossed noxious chemicals through the windows of the university officials’ private homes. The indictment says that two of the protesters exchanged messages discussing how an individual whose description matches the university’s then-president, Santa Ono, “gotta die” and that his “entire family is now on my hit list,” although there is no evidence they followed through or that anyone was physically harmed.
Attempts to contact the defendants, who live in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois, were unsuccessful.
A staff attorney for the Michigan office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the organization is not representing any of the defendants and does not condone vandalism or violence — but it does take issue with the indictment’s broad references to Hamas, the Middle East and lawful protests.
“Criminal allegations should focus on alleged criminal acts, not sweep protected advocacy into a prosecutorial narrative,” said Amy V. Doukoure, a staff attorney in the office. “When lawful speech, unpopular viewpoints and peaceful protest are framed alongside criminal allegations, it risks chilling constitutionally protected activism far beyond this case.”
Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) — which one of the defendants led, according to the indictment — responded to the charges by calling for a rally at the courthouse.
A University of Michigan spokesperson declined to comment, referring questions to the FBI.
“In America, we rule by law not by fear,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said in a statement. “These alleged threats and attempts to terrorize government officials, businesses, and the Jewish Federation are anti-American. We will counter intimidation with justice.”
The indictments came amid a heated political debate over U.S. support for Israel, especially in Michigan, which is home to one of America’s largest Arab and Muslim communities.
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On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants surged over the Israel-Gaza border and killed some 1,200 people in Israel, taking about 250 hostage. Israel responded with a blistering military attack on the enclave that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has taken a hard line against pro-Palestinian protesters on campuses, as well as against schools the administration says have been lax in disciplining them. Wednesday’s federal charges amounted to an escalation of that campaign.
The University of Michigan, located in Ann Arbor, was among a wave of college campuses swept up in prolonged protests after Israel attacked Gaza. At some of the nation’s most elite schools, including Columbia University, students took over campus grounds with teach-ins, encampments and demands for divestment from Israel.
While many demonstrations were largely peaceful, some turned violent as colleges tried to clear students off the grounds, leading to thousands of arrests.
In Ann Arbor, students walked out of class in protest of the war, disrupted graduation ceremonies and formed an encampment that was later dismantled by police. Some students reported a rise in antisemitic comments in classes, at protests and online, and accused the university of doing little to combat the harassment.
The indictment unsealed Wednesday contends that after the Michigan encampment was shut down, the defendants began to focus on going after individuals and businesses. “The defendants aspired to achieve the acclaim of the 1960s domestic terrorist organization ‘Weather Underground,’” the document says.
In fall 2024, vandals spray-painted the homes of Ono and Erik Lundberg, the school’s chief investment officer. Months later, vandals also smashed a window and spray-painted anti-Israel slogans at the home of Jordan Acker, a member of the Board of Regents who rejected calls for the university to divest its endowment holdings in companies linked to Israel.
The indictment alleges that the defendants — or some of them — were behind each of those actions. The spray-painted slogans included such phrases as “Intifada,” “Free Palestine” and “Divest Now.”
Prosecutors quoted messages allegedly exchanged between the defendants about their suspicions that a peer — unnamed in the indictment — had gone “full fed mode” and become a “snitch.” Two defendants met with the unnamed peer to ensure they didn’t talk to police, according to the indictment.
The indictment also alleged that the activists spray-painted over the surveillance cameras of the Jewish Federation of Detroit and tagged an adjacent sidewalk with anti-Israel messages; smashed the front window of a Maersk Shipping Company building; and padlocked the doors of a Rolls-Royce establishment. The latter two companies have offices in Israel, the indictment says.
The named defendants in the indictment are Zainab Aliasgar Hakim, 23; Amatullah Aliasgar Hakim, 21; Paige Elizabeth Feyock, 26; Ahmet Kerem Korkaya, 28; Jonathan Hongru Zou, 22; Alexander Matthew Sepulveda, 23; Mariam Muhammed Odeh, 24; Colin Hunter Weger, 24.
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Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
