Condemning Dana Nessel’s Hypocrisy

Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel, a self-styled progressive who has attempted to build a reputation opposing Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, now exposes her own hypocrisy by weaponizing the legal system to suppress pro-Palestine protesters. Her refusal to drop the politically motivated charges against students and activists at the University of Michigan—despite mass demands to Drop the Charges—reveals a glaring contradiction: She claims to fight tyranny while enabling it. Nessel’s actions align her not with the communities she purports to defend, but with the same carceral systems and imperial logic she once condemned.  

Nessel’s prosecution of pro-Palestine dissent is a betrayal of the principles she claims to uphold. Where was this zeal for “accountability” when white supremacists plotted to kidnap Michigan’s governor? Where is her outrage over “israel’s” US-funded genocide in Gaza, which has slaughtered over 40,000 Palestinians? Her selective application of justice exposes a dangerous truth: For Nessel, opposing Trump is a political brand, not a commitment to dismantling oppression. When the victims of state violence are Palestinians and their allies, she sides with the powerful. 

This is not about evidence. It is about punishing those who refuse to stay silent as the University of Michigan, UMPD, and the state collaborate to suppress solidarity with Palestine. Nessel’s insistence on prosecuting activists—many of whom are Black, Brown, queer, and marginalized—mirrors the tactics of the Trump-era regimes she condemns. She criminalizes protest, conflates dissent with violence, and gaslights the public by framing repression as ‘rule of law.’ But we see through the facade. The same systems that cage migrants, bomb Gaza, and incarcerate Black and Indigenous communities are the systems Nessel now upholds by targeting Palestine solidarity.  

Dana Nessel’s pursuit of power has never been clearer. As she eyes a potential ascent to the Michigan Supreme Court, her decision to target pro-Palestine protesters reeks of political opportunism—a spineless bid to attain favor with zionist power-brokers who equate criticism of “israel” with terrorism. Nessel knows that aligning with the bipartisan establishment’s unwavering support for apartheid “israel” is a proven ladder for career advancement, particularly in a system where judicial candidates often trade moral clarity for institutional approval. By prosecuting students and activists, she signals to donors, “pro-israel” lobby groups, and corporate elites that she will weaponize the law to protect their interests, even as “israel’s” genocide in Gaza unfolds. 

This is not about justice; it is about auditioning for a higher bench by scapegoating a movement that threatens the status quo. Her charges against protesters—a transparent attempt to position herself as a ‘law-and-order’ candidate palatable to conservatives and liberals alike—expose how far she will stray from her professed progressive values to secure power. Yet in betraying Palestine, Nessel betrays us all: She reinforces the lie that Palestinian lives are bargaining chips for political ambition, and she fuels the machinery of repression that criminalizes dissent from Michigan to the Middle East. We see her game and we reject it. No judgeship is worth complicity in genocide.

To charge protesters fighting for a free Palestine is to side with apartheid. It is to endorse the university’s investments in genocide and the US war machine. It is to spit on the legacy of movements that forced Nessel’s own party to rhetorically oppose Trump—movements that know liberation is not won in courtrooms but in the streets. Nessel’s actions prove that ‘progressive’ politicians will abandon their values when confronted with the discomfort of true justice.  

“For Nessel, opposing Trump is a political brand, not a commitment to dismantling oppression.”

We refuse to let her hypocrisy erase Palestine. Our encampments and protests are acts of radical solidarity, rooted in the understanding that Palestinian liberation is tied to every struggle against state violence. From the water protectors at Standing Rock to the uprisings for Black lives, history honors those who disrupt complicity, not those who punish them. Nessel, the university, and UMPD are on the wrong side of that history.  

We are innocent. We will not beg for mercy from a system designed to break us. Instead, we demand that Nessel confront her own complicity: You cannot claim to oppose fascism while prosecuting those who resist it globally. You cannot posture as a defender of democracy while silencing the young, the marginalized, and the courageous who embody its truest form—people power.  

To the public: Watch where Nessel directs her power. She will prosecute students for tents and slogans, but not the university for investing in genocide. She will jail activists, but not politicians who arm “israel”. This is not justice. It is cowardice. She lacks the courage to even face those she prosecutes. Nessel refuses to appear in court herself to defend the charges against pro-Palestine protesters, delegating her underlings to do the dirty work of justifying political repression. This is the act of a politician who knows her actions cannot withstand scrutiny—a leader who hides behind bureaucracy because she cannot stomach the moral bankruptcy of her own decisions.  

Nessel’s cowardice does not end in the courtroom. When confronted by protesters at public events—when directly challenged by the voices of those demanding she Drop the Charges—she flees. She stammers. She scowls. She ducks out of sight, shielded by security, rather than engaging with the human consequences of her choices. These are not the actions of a principled public servant. They are the reflexes of someone who knows she is betraying the values she once claimed to hold. How can Nessel call herself a “resistor” to Trump’s fascism when she mimics his contempt for dissent? How can she pose as a defender of the vulnerable while prosecuting students, activists, and community members for the ‘crime’ of demanding an end to genocide?  

Let us be clear: Nessel’s absence in court and her evasion of protesters are admissions of guilt. They prove she understands that these charges are indefensible—that they exist not to serve justice, but to punish solidarity with Palestine and shield the University of Michigan’s complicity in apartheid. While she hides, her office escalates a campaign of intimidation against a movement that has done nothing but expose the truth: The university invests in genocide. The US funds it. And Nessel, by criminalizing dissent, becomes an accomplice. 

We stand unapologetically for Palestine—for its martyrs, its refugees, its children digging through rubble for their parents’ bodies. We stand for the abolition of police and prisons, because we know safety will never come from handcuffs and cages. And we stand against Dana Nessel’s empty progressivism, which elevates performative resistance over material solidarity.  

Drop the charges. End all ties to “israeli” apartheid. Free Palestine—from the river to the sea. In relentless solidarity with Gaza and all peoples fighting annihilation.