Two days after a synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, the University of Michigan hosted an anti-Israel event put on by one of its departments.

The university’s Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies held what it dubbed a “Teach-In Town Hall” Oct. 29. The event was part of a national campaign calling against Israel, called boycott, divestment and sanctions, or BDS.

The Alegmeiner Journal, a New York-based newspaper that covers Jewish issues, reported that the center’s director, Samer Mahdy Ali, sent an email on Oct. 26 that described the teach-in event as “decidedly pro BDS.” The event transpired just two days after suspect Robert Bowers was accused of killing 11 people and injuring seven others in a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

The leader of the B’nai B’rith International said the U-M event wasn’t only about criticism of Israel.

"I question the motivations of those pursuing this,” said Daniel Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International. “Their interest is in delegitimizing Israel. It’s a movement meant to demean, delegitimize and demonize the state of Israel."

University of Michigan spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said U-M officially opposes a boycott of Israel.

The University of Michigan earlier made news when in October John Cheney-Lippold, an associate professor, changed his mind and refused to write a student a recommendation letter required by a student to study abroad. This happened after Cheney-Lippold learned the student’s program would be in Israel. Cheney-Lippold then cited a boycott in favor of the Palestinians as the reason for his refusal to make the recommendation, according to The Detroit News.

Neither of these at these actions at the university would trigger a state law enacted in December 2016 prohibiting the state from giving a construction contract to a person, company or organization that refuses to affirm that it will not participate in a boycott of Israel. What’s notable about that law is that it was supported by lopsided bipartisan majorities in the Michigan Legislature.

Just one month after the election of Donald Trump as president, only 10 of 108 members of the Michigan House did not vote for the anti-boycott bill, and only three opposed it in the 38-member Senate.

The law was sponsored by Rep. Robert Wittenberg, a Democrat from Oak Park. “I’m not really sure if it can be triggered by an employee acting on his/her own behalf,” Wittenberg said in an email. “I would assume it would have to be based on a decision made by the University Board, President or someone in leadership. I’ll have to do some research and get back to you.”

In June, the Michigan Legislature voted to appropriate $370.2 million for operations at U-M's Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn campuses in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2018.

Michigan farm owners and businesses received $305 million in federal subsidies in 2017, even though official statistics show agriculture accounts for less than 1 percent of the state economy. Critics say the generous taxpayer support contrasts with other industries that get fewer or no federal handouts but contribute far more to the economy.

The $305 million in subsidies was released in a report by the Environmental Working Group, which gets its data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

When asked about the subsidies, the Michigan Farm Bureau declined to comment, but a representative provided a link to a recent paper by a Michigan State University economist on the economic impact of the state’s food and agriculture system. It suggests that when indirect jobs are included, agriculture accounts for more than one out of every six Michigan jobs.

A different impression comes from James Hohman, a fiscal policy analyst at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He points to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which show that in 2017, there were 64,860 Michigan residents classified as farmers or farm workers. That amounts to less than 1.1 percent of all Michigan jobs.

Hohman said that several industries play a much larger role in this state’s economy. In contrast to farming, he said, 680,278 people are employed in the health care industry, 613,291 work for governments, 408,621 people have professional and business service jobs and 255,639 work in finance.

The farming industry, he added, directly added about $3.1 billion to Michigan’s economy – a mere 0.6 percent of the total state GDP. Each of the other industries mentioned accounted for far more of the state’s economy: $89.3 billion for finance, $66.2 billion for professional and business services, $53.9 billion for government and $41.1 billion for health care.

“Every industry is connected to each other and some are more connected to others,” Hohman said. “And if you work in agriculture, it is the most important industry to you. But it’s a small part of the total state economy and nowhere close to Michigan’s second largest industry.”

His conclusion on the farm subsidies was, “We should look at how to secure our food system without them.”

Chris Edwards, the director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., told Michigan Capitol Confidential that there is no justification for massive subsidies to U.S farmers.

“There’s nothing unique about farming, really,” Edwards said.

Subsidies do nothing to keep food prices down, Edwards continued. The arguments in favor of subsidies tend to be based on the lack of stability and the fluctuation of prices and uncertainty of the products, he said. But, he said, this is not substantially different from a lot of other industries, such as energy and mining, which don’t get massive subsidies each year.

“I don’t see any reason for any [government] involvement,” he said.

The Michigan State University working paper that the Michigan Farm Bureau pointed to was written by William Knudson, a product-marketing economist at the MSU Product Center. He estimated that the farming industry contributed some $104.7 billion annually to Michigan’s economy from 2014 to 2016 and accounted for 805,000 jobs, of which 256,000 were from what he called “indirect or induced effects.” The larger jobs figure would mean that agriculture accounts, at least in part, for more than 17 percent of the 4.698 million Michigan jobs reported by the state in September 2018.