The University of Michigan (UM) and The New School in New York City have restored funding to student clubs, following a spending freeze enacted by anti-Zionist factions who seized control of their student governments and vowed to cripple school operations until their demands for a boycott of Israel are met.

As The Algemeiner previously reported, a slew of anti-Zionist candidates at UM secured their election to Central Student Government (CSG) last semester by running as the Shut It Down (SID) party, whose platform promised to sever the university’s ties, both financial and academic, to Israel, according to The Detroit News. Since assuming power, its members have shredded the budget for the summer term approved by the previous administration and vowed to block funding for student clubs during the upcoming fall semester.

Anti-Zionists holding office in The New School’s University Student Senate made similar moves, voting to “halt all external funding until the IC votes in favor of divestment.” The move jeopardized the plans of over 150 registered student clubs.

Both schools have effectively vetoed the decisions and taken charge of financial appropriations, temporarily stripping the student governments of the power of the purse.

“The University of Michigan will make funding available to registered student organizations who apply for funding for the fall semester,” Colleen Mastony, University of Michigan assistant vice president of public affairs, told The Algemeiner on Tuesday. “UM’s vice president for student life and dean of students notified the Central Student Government on August 19 of the decision to immediately institute a temporary funding process. This step was taken at the request of senior leaders within the CSG assembly, after the CSG president in June vetoed a budget resolution that had been passed unanimously by the assembly. The veto impacted the summer budget only. University funding will remain in place until a budget is passed.”

On Monday, The New School announced that it was taking a similar measure.

“To ensure continued access and support for all students on campus, we will temporarily transfer the responsibility of managing this university fee to the Division of Student Success,” a letter to the campus community signed by three high-level officials said. “This decision was made with careful consideration …While we respect any student or student organizations that choose to stand in solidarity with the Student Senate’s decision, it is essential for the university to be able to distribute these resources to our students so that we may enhance campus life and the student experience.”

Anti-Zionist activists on college campuses are already testing university administrations, pushing the boundaries of their conduct and daring a response.

On Monday, anti-Zionists at Cornell University vandalized an administrative building, a provocation which marked an early test of the resolve of its interim president, Michael Kotlikoff, who announced new policies on “institutional neutrality,” discipline, and encampments around the time of incident.

According to the Cornell Daily Sun, the anti-Zionist agitators graffitied “Israel Bombs, Cornell pays” and “Blood is on your hands” on Day Hall. They also shattered the glazing of its front doors.

“We had to accept that the only way to make ourselves heard is by targeting the only thing the university administration really cares about: property,” the students told the Cornell Daily Sun, which agreed to conceal their identities. “With the start of this new academic year, the Cornell administration is trying desperately to upkeep a facade of normalcy knowing that, since last semester, they have been working tirelessly to uphold Cornell’s function as a fascist, classist, imperial machine.”

Kotlikoff’s administration, which said it is “appalled” by the crime, has pledged to hold the culprits responsible.

Earlier this month, two US congressional committees asked 10 of America’s most prestigious universities to disclose their plans for preventing the kind of incident that just occurred at Cornell. Coming amid a congressional investigation of how elite colleges responded to an explosion of antisemitism on college campuses after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, the inquiry demanded an accounting of any new policies that schools such as Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley have enacted to preclude the possibility that students will, as they did last academic year across the country, illegally occupy or destroy school property and flout rules which proscribe hate speech and racial abuse.

“Last year, many colleges and universities appeared caught off-guard by the protests, disruptions, threats, and encampments that flooded campus, often to the detriment of Jewish students,” Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), as well as House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), wrote to the schools in a letter. “While that is no excuse for the failures we saw last year, colleges and universities are now acutely aware of the consequences across their campuses that stem from insufficient leadership. Refusals to impose basic discipline, hold bad actors accountable, and restore order on campus in the face of disruptions, violence, and hate will make life worse for all students, including Jewish students.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has drawn criticism for his decision to travel to Ireland, amid growing controversy over the country’s treatment of Israel and Jewish people. 

Florida state Rep. Randy Fine (R) blasted DeSantis’ Ireland trip, arguing that the nation has become an “antisemitic country.” DeSantis traveled to Ireland to attend the Florida State-Georgia Tech football game, which took place last Saturday. While there, he also engaged in a series of business development meetings. 

“I was certainly disappointed to see not only folks go to what is clearly an antisemitic country that supports Muslim terror, but I was also disappointed that the game wasn’t cancelled, which it should have been,” Fine told USA Today. 

Ireland has come under fire over its decision in May to recognize the Palestinian territories as an official state. The decision incensed many supporters of the Jewish state, arguing that it rewarded the Hamas terrorist group’s slaughter of 1200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7. 

Fine retaliated by promising to submit legislation to place Ireland on Florida’s list of “scrutinized companies.” If passed, the legislation would practically prohibit the state from striking business deals with Ireland. 

“Next session, I will introduce legislation that adds any country that recognizes ‘Palestine’ to Florida’s list of scrutinized countries, with severe limitations on entities from those countries doing business with and in Florida,” Fine posted on X/Twitter, “Spain, Ireland, and Norway will join Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Syria, among others, on that list. Govern yourselves accordingly.”

DeSantis swiped at Fine, arguing that he is not the only person connected to Florida’s government to visit Ireland for the football game. 

“I think just about every lobbyist in Tallahassee made that trip, so is Rep. Fine going to stop taking the money from all the lobbyists like he’s been doing?” DeSantis questioned. “I’d like to see his answer to that.”

Ireland, along with Spain and Norway, decided to officially recognize Palestine as a country in May. Though the decision sparked outrage in Israel, officials in Spain, Norway, and Ireland argued such a move would help foster a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and lead to lasting peace in the region, explaining that the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza accelerated their plans.

Dublin said it plans to upgrade its representative office in the West Bank to a full embassy and the Palestinian mission in Ireland will also be offered full embassy status.

“The government recognizes Palestine as a sovereign and independent state and agreed to establish full diplomatic relations between Dublin and Ramallah,” Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said in a statement. “We had wanted to recognize Palestine at the end of a peace process. However, we have made this move alongside Spain and Norway to keep the miracle of peace alive.”

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The author of a book on Jewish American identity enjoyed a sellout crowd at a rescheduled event after the original discussion was canceled over the presence of a Zionist panelist. 

Joshua Leifer, author of Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, spoke alongside Rabbi Andy Bachman at the Center for New Jewish Culture in Brooklyn on Monday. The original discussion, which was scheduled at Powerhouse Books in Brooklyn last Tuesday, was canceled at the last minute by an employee who did not want the bookstore to platform a “Zionist” rabbi. 

During Monday’s discussion, Leifer lambasted the store’s decision as both “wrong and antisemitic” as well as “the dumbest strategic thing you can do.”

The bookstore’s owner, Daniel Power, later clarified in an interview that Powerhouse Books does not maintain an official ban on Zionist authors and that the employee acted on her own. He revealed that the employee responsible for canceling the event quit on her own accord before he could fire her. 

The bookstore issued an apology soon after the incident, writing, “litmus tests as a precondition for participation in public life are wrong. Rejections of dialogue, debate, and nuance are wrong.”

Despite the inconvenience, the backlash over the viral incident seems to have benefited Leifer. Roughly 300 people attended the rescheduled discussion, as opposed to the estimated two dozen that showed up for the original event. Leifer’s book currently holds the number one spot in the “History of Judaism” section on Amazon.

“In large part, this sanctuary is filled because of what happened,” Bachman stated at the event. 

Leifer, a political progressive and writer, has issued blistering criticisms of Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. He has called for a change in the “status quo” of Israeli policy and has encouraged the American Jewish community to reexamine its relationship with Israel. 

In an essay published in The Atlantic, Leifer reflected on the bookstore’s decision to snub Bachman for being a Zionist, saying that it “exemplified the bind that many progressive American Jews face.”

“We are caught between parts of an activist left demanding that we disavow our communities, even our families, as an entrance ticket, and a mainstream Jewish institutional world that has long marginalized critics of Israeli policy. Indeed, Jews who are committed to the flourishing of Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora, and who are also outraged by Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, feel like we have little room to maneuver,” Leifer wrote.

“My experience last week was so demoralizing in part because such episodes make moving the mainstream Jewish community much harder,” Leifer added. Every time a left-wing activist insists that the only way to truly participate in the fight for peace and justice is to support the dissolution of Israel, it reinforces the zero-sum (and morally repulsive) idea that opposing the status quo requires Israel’s destruction.” 

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