US feds charge anti-Zionist network with criminal campaign against U of Michigan

Suspects allegedly targeted Jewish federation, intimidated a witness and sprayed pro-Hamas graffiti on private homes

US federal authorities on Wednesday announced indictments against eight anti-Israel activists for allegedly threatening Jews, University of Michigan leaders and law enforcement after the start of the war in Gaza.

The suspects “orchestrated detailed plans to threaten University of Michigan leaders, law enforcement and businesses with coordinated criminal acts” due to the targets’ perceived support for Israel, the indictment said.

The campaign began on October 20, 2023 — two weeks after the Hamas onslaught in southern Israel that slaughtered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, but before Israel’s counter-offensive on the ground in Gaza began.

The defendants posted demands for the University of Michigan leadership calling for divestment from Israel and any businesses connected to Israel. They also demanded “investigations” and that the university issue a statement calling Israel’s counter-offensive a “genocidal ethnic cleansing.”

The suspects were all associated with the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, either as students, former students, or employees.

When the university did not adhere to the demands, the suspects prepared “autonomous actions,” such as occupying campus buildings, vandalism, disrupting university events and posting threats online.

The defendants joined a “Gaza solidarity encampment” at the university, and, from the encampment, issued a statement saying, “We look to our martyrs and freedom fighters for guidance… the student intifada will never be silenced.”

After the university shut down the encampment, the defendants turned to individual targets.

The suspects held meetings to identify targets and searched online for information on those targets, such as personal addresses, photos, social connections, business ownership and other personal details, prosecutors said.

The defendants allegedly surveilled their targets, carried out counter-surveillance against police, discussed how to evade law enforcement, bought and distributed supplies, mapped out attack routes and coordinated on encrypted platforms.

The defendants discussed using poison, bombs and “psychological torture” against the targets and their families.

In one message, in May 2024, two of the defendants agreed to “kill,” “torment,” and “terrorize” their opponents and their families.

One of the suspects said a target’s “entire family” was on his “hit list,” that people “gotta die,” and another said the alleged conspirators should “get” the children of two targets.

A defendant who was a medical student, Ahmet Korkaya, said, “I’m gonna be the dirtiest fucking doctor ever. I’m gonna be [the victim’s] doctor. Poison her ass slowly.” Korkaya also said he would “drive my car into” one person’s homes.

“We need people following [the victim]. Get into that house, then burn it down,” said another suspect, Paige Feyock.

The prosecutors said that those charged had vandalized homes and businesses on the first anniversary of the Hamas attack. The vandalism included red inverted triangles, a symbol Hamas uses to mark its targets in propaganda videos, red handprints that are associated with the lynching of two Israelis in Ramallah in 2000, the word “intifada,” and “Free Palestine.”

During the vandalism spree, the defendants left notes with demands and threats, glued doors shut, broke windows and hurled glass jars filled with butyric acid, used as a “stink bomb,” into homes.

After the attacks, the defendants allegedly took photographs of their work and posted the images online with warnings and threats, such as “You cannot hide.”

One of the online accounts used to spread the demands and share images of vandalism belonged to the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace branch at the university, along with other anti-Zionist student groups and the extremist outfit Unity of Fields. Some of the online campaign was coordinated with University of Michigan student groups.

Two of the suspects — Zainab Hakim, 23, and Feyock, 26, were charged with witness intimidation. The pair planned to confront a University of Michigan student who they believed was providing information to investigators.

Feyock said the student “has to be neutralized” and vowed to “strip search” the student for a recording device. One of the messages said the victim “is going to get you fucked up. We have to do something about it.”

Feyock and Hakim confronted the student at a coffee shop in August 2024, later saying the victim “knows not to talk.”

Two other defendants, Matthew Sepulveda, 23, and Hongru Zou, 22, allegedly threw two glass jars with a “blue substance” and compost through the window of a University of Michigan provost, and sprayed graffiti on the home.

In March 2024, Sepulveda and other unnamed suspects trespassed at the Jewish Federation of Detroit, confronted staff members about the federation’s “shameful” connections to a university regent, and told the staff, “I’ll be back… we’re going to come back with lots of people.”

Several of the defendants discussed or researched security for Jews or houses of worship.

On October 7, 2024, four of the defendants vandalized the Jewish Federation of Detroit with inverted red triangles, painted over its surveillance cameras, and wrote in graffiti, “Fuck Israel,” “Free Palestine” and “Intifada.”

Other targets included the university’s president, chief investment officer, and members of its board of regents and their businesses, and a police officer.

The other defendants were Amatullah Aliasgar Hakim, 21, Mariam Muhammed Odeh, 24, and Colin Hunter Weger, 24.

Six of the defendants are from Michigan, one is from Wisconsin, and another is from Illinois.

Court filings showed that the defendants were indicted in May but that the indictment was kept under seal due to concerns the suspects would flee, destroy evidence, or intimidate witnesses before they were arrested.

The court unsealed the indictment on Wednesday, after all the defendants were arrested.

The charges included conspiracy to transmit a threat, conspiracy to tamper with a witness and destruction of property to prevent seizure.

After the indictment was announced, anti-Zionist groups, including the campus branch of Jewish Voice for Peace, issued statements of support for the defendants, including a call for a rally at the federal court building.