University of Michigan student gov impeaches anti-Israel leaders

Anti-Israel protesters at the University of Michigan’s spring commencement at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., May 4, 2024. Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images.

by Izzy Salant

(JNS) — The University of Michigan Central Student Government voted 30-7 on Nov. 12 to impeach Alifa Chowdhury and Elias Atkinson, its president and vice president respectively, on five combined charges, the Michigan Daily, a student paper, reported.

Chowdhury was impeached for incitement of violence against the student government, cybertheft of student government property and dereliction of duty, while Atkinson was impeached for inciting violence and dereliction of duty, per the paper.

The Central Student Government voted that Chowdhury’s Oct. 6 Instagram post, which called for students to “pack” the upcoming Oct. 8 student government meeting, incited violence at that meeting.

The Michigan Daily reported that the speaker of the student assembly referred at that meeting to multiple members facing “harassment, intimidation, assault (spitting and touching people) by people associated with” Chowdhury and Atkinson. “Members were followed home and had to be escorted out by police for their safety,” the assembly speaker said.

Chowdhury ran on a platform earlier this year which promised to withhold some $1.3 million in student-government funding for campus activities unless the university agreed to divest from Israel.

The other two impeachment charges center on Chowdhury changing the password to the official student government Instagram account on Oct. 9 and posting “expressing her frustration about the results of the Oct. 8 CSG budget vote, which the motion said constitutes a misuse of CSG resources,” per the Michigan Daily.

During the Oct. 8 meeting, the student government voted against a “petition that would have sent its remaining budget of $440,000 to the Birzeit University’s ‘Rebuilding Hope’ campaign in Gaza.”

JNS has reported on allegations that Birzeit discriminates against Jews and has Hamas terror ties.

Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, told JNS that the impeachment is a “very positive development.”

“The outcome at the University of Michigan’s student government shows that while most students are very willing to have respectful, open debates about Israel and its counter-terror operations, they’re no longer going to tolerate lawlessness, harassment or blatant violations of policies and procedures,” she said. “Even those who are deeply supportive of the Palestinian cause are no longer going to condone these divisive tactics on their campuses.”

Students are trying “to take back their campuses for academic integrity,” she said, “but we’re not out of the woods yet.”

“Across the country, many faculty are organizing into Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapters, with missions that are inimical to open inquiry and whose participating professors and instructors may continue to sow divisions that isolate Jewish and openly Zionist students,” she said. “Those committed to improving the campus climate will need to speak out against such efforts and take appropriate action when necessary.”