University of Michigan PhD student, center, carries a sign that says ‘Free Speech! Free Palestine!’ at U-M’s Diag in Ann Arbor on April 4, 2024. Photo: Junfu Huan via Reuters Connect

The Central Student Government (CSG) of the University of Michigan has removed from office president Alifa Chowdhury — the controversial leader of the Anti-Zionist “Shut It Down” (SID) party who led a failed and unpopular effort to freeze funding for student clubs until school officials enacted a boycott of Israel — following her conviction on an impeachment charge.

Chowdhury faced three charges in total: incitement to violence, defamation, and dereliction of duty, the last of which she was found guilty on Dec. 23, according to a statement issued by the Central Student Judiciary (CSJ). Her vice president, Elias Atkinson, was convicted of the same offense.

“Today’s decision means that President Chowdhury and Vice President Atkinsonare removed from office with immediate effect, and that they are barred from holding CSG office in the future,” CSJ said, noting that its ruling marked the first ever expulsion of a CSG president. “It is not lost on us that today marks the culmination of the first impeachment proceeding in the Central Student Government’s history. Neither are we blind to the major political clashes — both within the Assembly and between the legislative and executive branches … But our decision today, and this court’s role, is beyond politics.”

It continued, “Impeachment is a constitutional process, an important element of CSG’s system of checks and balances. Although the Assembly’ role in triggering the impeachment process is essentially political, it is this court’s unflagging duty to resolve any impeachment process neutrally and impartially once the starter pistol has gone off. This court must be a steady ship in a sea tossed by raucous political winds.”

As The Algemeiner has previously reported, Chowdhury’s anti-Zionist zealotry led her to allegedly commit several disqualifying acts which blighted her office and shocked her CSG representatives. In the articles of impeachment filed by Rep. Margaret Peterman, the now-former president was described as having “gravely endangered” students — for example, by participating in a protest of CSG which led to threats and an assault by spitting — as well as the “integrity of the democratic system.” She also failed to perform key functions of the presidency, including submitting reports, preparing committee members for their roles, and convening meetings with CSG’s executive council — a pattern of neglect which led to her conviction for dereliction of duty.

The takeover of CSG by Chowdhury’s party, SID, in March led to a historically dysfunctional administration, prompting the involvement of school officials at key moments when its brinksmanship threatened to derail core functions of the university. In August, the administration resolved to fund student clubs over Chowdhury and SID’s objections, effectively stripping the new government of the power of the purse. Explaining the intervention to The Algemeiner at the time, university spokesperson Colleen Mastony said it was prompted by Chowdhury’s “senior” colleagues in the CSG Assembly.

Founded in the months after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, SID allegedly committed multiple election code infractions to amass its unprecedented power. According to The Michigan Daily, students banded together to contest its election victory, citing multiple instances in which its members campaigned in proscribed areas and violated other rules regulating the use of posters and email communications. SID ultimately overcame the challenge following a controversial hearing which the student government, breaking precedent, conducted in secret.

After assuming power, Chowdury defunded the school’s 1,700 student clubs by vetoing the summer term budget, which had been “unanimously” supported by the CSG Assembly, and vowed to block any spending bill that would fund them in the fall term. The measure was, in SID’s view, strategic. It argued during the campaign that crippling university operations would inexorably lead to a boycott of Israel, a notion the university dispelled when it appropriated the funds anyway.

“CSG merely serves as an extension of an institution that has perpetuated systems of oppression by maintaining the current status quo of neocolonial capitalism,” the party said in a manifesto issued in March. “Every dollar coming out of this university is blood money. Student government cannot operate as usual as we witness the systematic murder of Palestinians. Student life cannot continue as normal when our tuition and labor are being used to fund a genocide.”

Those ideals manifested in the misconduct which have now disqualified Chowdhury and her vice president from ever holding a CSG position again.

“Today’s ruling is compelled by the All-Campus Constitution and the evidence,” the Central Student Judiciary said in explaining the convictions. “Our conclusions are a result of dozens of pages of briefing, the various evidentiary exhibits, and all the testimony and argument we heard over the course of a twenty two and a half hour hearing. Whatever political consequences might flow from our decision, we can only do our jobs.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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An Israeli flag being burned outside the Gran Canaria Arena located in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain, ahead of a basketball game with Hapoel Tel Aviv. Photo: YouTube screenshot

Anti-Israel demonstrators set fire to an Israeli flag outside a sports arena in Spain’s Canary Islands, leading up to a basketball game featuring the Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv that is set to take place at the arena on Thursday.

Activists from the pro-Palestinian group Canarias Insumisa set the Israeli flag on fire outside the Gran Canaria Arena in Las Palmas, the local news outlet Canraia Ahora reported on Tuesday. The move was in protest of Israel’s military actions during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and also in objection to the EuroCup basketball game taking place on Thursday at the Gran Canaria Arena between Hapoel Tel Aviv and the local team Gran Canaria.

The pro-Palestinian group claimed that the upcoming basketball game whitewashes the “genocide” that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people. The group also falsely accused Israel of murdering “47,000 girls, boys, women and men in one year” during its war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza who orchestrated the deadly terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Canrais Ahora called on local fans not to attend the basketball game on Thursday, claiming that Israeli fans of Hapoel Tel Aviv may try to provoke them. The group described Hapoel Tel Aviv fans as “aggressive Nazi-Zionist hooligan fanatics who will try to provoke, create conflicts and attack the followers of the Canarian team,” according to the news outlet Canraia Ahora. The group also criticized the owner of Gran Canaria, claiming he had the chance to prevent the local Spanish team from competing against Hapoel Tel Aviv, but refused to do so.

The flag burning took place almost two months after fans of the Israeli soccer team Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv were attacked in Amsterdam on Nov. 7 and into the early hours of Nov. 8. Five men behind the premeditated and coordinated attack were sentenced in Dutch court late last month to community service and up to six months in jail.



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Ford vehicles are displayed at the New York International Auto Show Press Preview, in Manhattan, New York City, US, March 27, 2024. Photo: Reuters/David Dee Delgado/

The Ford Motor Company said on Monday that its official account on X was “briefly compromised” by hackers who posted a series of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian messages, including one that called Israel a “terrorist state.”

“Our X account was briefly compromised and three posts were made that were not authorized or posted by Ford,” the company said in a statement shared on its X account. The American automobile manufacturer added that the posts “do not represent the views of [the] Ford Motor Company” and that together with X, the company is investigating the breach of its social media account.

The posts, which have since been deleted, included messages that said, “Israel is a terrorist state,” “Free Palestine” and “ALL EYES ON GAZA.” Hundreds of users on X reposted the messages and thousands “liked” them before they were removed. Many users on X noticed that Ford’s account had been hacked and took screenshots of the posts before they were deleted, including US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who said Ford’s account “must have been hacked by the Free Palestine movement.”

Ford Motor Company must have been hacked by the Free Palestine movement. pic.twitter.com/4VOk1nPy0n

— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) December 30, 2024

Several users on X replied to Ford Motor’s statement by expressing frustration at the company’s lack of apology. Rabbi Samuel Stern, who co-chairs the Kansas State Holocaust Commemoration, asked, “I wonder if the unauthorized posts targeted anyone else if you would have apologized?”

“Companies founded by a notorious Antisemite and headquartered in Dearborn Michigan should really come up with a better apology to the Jewish community than this one,” said Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District in Orange County, New York.

In 2023, Dearborn, Michigan, was the largest city in the US with an Arab-American majority, according to the University of Michigan.

The company’s founder, the late Henry Ford, publicly expressed antisemitic views and promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories. A close friend once recalled Ford attributing “all evil to Jews or to the Jewish capitalists,” and said he told others: “The Jews caused the war, the Jews caused the outbreak of thieving and robbery all over the country, the Jews caused the inefficiency of the navy.”

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