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University of Michigan Student Government Impeaches Anti-Zionist President
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 University of Michigan’s Central Student Government (CSG) has impeached President Alifa Chowdury, the anti-Zionist leader of the extremist Shut It Down (SID) Party that has, since taking office during the summer, attempted to withhold funding for campus clubs to pressure administrators into boycotting Israel.
Chowdury’s behavior has worsened in recent weeks, according to articles of impeachment filed by Rep. Margaret Peterman and passed overwhelmingly by legislators via secret ballot. Among the charges enumerated in the documents are “incitement of violence, cyber theft, and dereliction of duty,” The Michigan Daily reported on Wednesday.
“In all this, President Chowdury gravely endangered the security of students and the functioning of the Central Student Government,” a motion outlining the case for removing Chowdury from office says. “They threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful consideration of legislation, and imperiled a coequal branch of government. They thereby betrayed their trust as president, to the manifest injury of the students of the University of Michigan.”
The Daily added that the cyber theft charge is based on Chowdury’s changing, allegedly, the login credentials for CSG’s Instagram account in retaliation for losing a vote on a bill which aimed to hold hostage hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for distribution to student clubs unless the administration agreed to condemn Israel, sever institutional partnerships with its universities, and divest its holdings of Israeli companies and companies which do business with Israel. Chowdury has also allegedly 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.
CSG representatives have fought tooth and nail to resist the president’s agenda and have had help from student club leaders, who insisted that Chowdury and SID were subordinating their interests to partisan politics. The fate of her term is now in the hands of the body’s Central Student Judiciary, which will soon rule on the merits of Peterman’s case against her.
SID’s capturing of the CSG has 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 Chowdury and SID’s objections, effectively stripping the new government of the power of the purse. Explaining the intervention to The Algemeiner on Tuesday, university spokesperson Colleen Mastony said it was prompted by Chowdury’s “senior” colleagues in the CSG Assembly.
SID’s rise to power on the University of Michigan’s campus has coincided with a surge of alleged anti-Black racism in the pro-Hamas community. Recently, the Black Student Union (BSU) resigned from the SID-collaborator Tahrir Coalition, citing “pervasive” anti-Black discrimination fostered by its mostly Arab and Middle Eastern leadership.
“Black identities, voices, and bodies are not valued in this coalition, and thus we must remove ourselves,” BSU said in a statement posted on Instagram. “The anti-Blackness within the coalition has been too pervasive to overcome, and we refuse to endure it.”
The university moved earlier this month to discipline another SID-affiliated group, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) — which endorsed SID and helped promote its campaign — for repeated violations of school rules. It may suspend the group for up to four years.
“The complaint was initiated through the Office of Student Organization Advancement and Recognition (SOAR), which is under the Center for Campus Involvement,” SAFE said in a statement published on Instagram. “Similarly to the academic disciplinary charges initiated through [the Office of Student Conflict Resolution] against protesters from the November 17th sit-in, the university acts as the judge, jury, and executioner in these disciplinary proceedings.”
SAFE has long been a source of anti-Israel activity on campus. In January, its members led an anti-government protest against the outgoing presidential administration, represented by US Vice President Kamala Harris, who appeared at the school to discuss climate change. They chanted “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, you’re committing genocide” and called for mass casualty events inspired by Islamist terrorism, screaming “There is only one solution: Intifada revolution” while waving Palestinian flags.
Opposed by the student body and the administration, SID, which has accused the university of owning “blood money,” vowed on Tuesday not to surrender its power.
“Over the past three weeks, we’ve heard critiques about our work within CSG,” the party said in a statement. “We wanted to take the opportunity to clarify that Shut It Down was never intended to uphold ‘business as usual.’ The assumption that our party would operate like precious CSG administrations is simply ironic. CSG members calling for our resignations are weaponizing a manufactured narrative to paint Shut It Down as divisive … We see through these tactics and we stand with our comrades who feel forgotten and betrayed by a university that would rather protect its investments in violence than listen to the calls for divestment.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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John Fetterman Says His US Senate Votes Will ‘Follow Israel’ During Trump Presidency
US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) gives an interview in his office in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 18, 2024. Photo: Rod Lamkey / CNP/Sipa USA for NY Post via Reuters Connect
US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on Thursday defended President Joe Biden’s record on Israel and stated that he plans on maintaining his support for pro-Israel efforts advanced by President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
During an appearance on the ABC talk show “The View,” Fetterman said that he would remain an “unapologetic” supporter of Israel during the Trump presidency and that he will continue to support legislation and initiatives that benefit the Jewish state.
“I’m a really strong, unapologetic supporter of Israel and it’s really not going to change for me when Trump becomes [president]. My vote and voice is going to follow Israel,” Fetterman said.
Fetterman also vouched for Biden’s record on Israel, although he conceded that he has disagreed with some of Biden’s policy positions regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
“I do think that the president has been a strong supporter of Israel, although there were times when I disagreed with some of the choices he made,” Fetterman said.
In the year following Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7, Fetterman has emerged as a surprisingly stalwart ally of the Jewish state. He has regularly criticized other Democrats, including Biden, over their perceived fragile and unreliable support of Israel.
The lawmaker openly criticized Biden after the president threatened to withhold arms from Israel if the Jewish state greenlighted military operations in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. Fetterman repudiated Biden’s ultimatum, saying that the US should “stand with our key ally throughout all of this.” He has also rebuffed pressure by progressives to adopt a more adversarial posture against Israel, saying that he does “not support any conditions” on American military aid to the Jewish sate.
Fetterman on Thursday also lauded Israel for its progress in deteriorating the Hamas terrorist group’s military capabilities. The senator asserted that Hamas needs to be completely eradicated and removed from the Gaza Strip.
“We cannot allow Hamas to function at all. They can’t be a part of any rebuilding Gaza or anything. Hamas has to surrender. It’ll be completely destroyed, and I think right now that largely that’s already happened now,” Fetterman said, adding that he wants to “salute what Israel has accomplished.”
The senator applauded the Jewish state, claiming “they destroyed Hamas, they’ve destroyed Hezbollah and, [they] exposed Iran as absolutely a paper tiger.” The Pennsylvania lawmaker added that Israel’s defensive military actions against Iran revealed that the regime is unable to hold the Middle East “in check.”
“Israel did the hard things and confronted these kinds of organizations and these proxies. And that’s why I’m proud to stand with Israel through it all, until absolutely through to the last hostages are brought back home,” Fetterman said.
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Democrats’ Support for Israel ‘Absolutely’ Contributed to US Presidential Election Loss, NC Party Chair Claims
Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, speaks after Democrat Josh Stein won the North Carolina governor’s race, in Raleigh, North Carolina, US, Nov. 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Drake
Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said in a new interview that Democrats’ general support for Israel’s defensive military operations against Hamas in Gaza contributed to their poor performance in last month’s elections.
Clayton made the remarks while appearing on the media outlet Zeteo this week to explain why she believes her party lost big across the US, most notably in the presidential election. Speaking with Mehdi Hasan, a journalist and outspoken critic of Israel, Clayton argued that the Democratic Party “abandoned” wide swaths of its voter base, adding that the party’s support for Israel likely alienated many younger voters.
When asked by Hasan whether the Israel-Hamas war resonated with the electorate in North Carolina, Clayton argued that the ongoing military conflict in Gaza “absolutely” eroded the Democrats’ standing with young voters.
As The Algemeiner reported, a survey of swing voters by Blueprint, a Democrat-leaning research firm, found the issue of Israel and the Palestinians barely registered as motivation for choosing Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential race. Voters were more worried about inflation, immigration, and certain cultural issues. Among those voters for whom it was a factor, the survey found more people concerned that Harris was too “pro-Palestine” than those upset she was too “pro-Israel.”
Nonetheless, Hasan, citing anti-Israel protests at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, suggested that Democrats’ support for Israel disillusioned and enraged many young voters.
Clayton defended the “Uncommitted Movement” — an effort launched by anti-Israel activists to persuade the Democratic Party to officially endorse an arms embargo against the Jewish state and not support outgoing US President Joe Biden — as “using political power in the right way.”
She added that Democrats should be “embracing” anti-Israel efforts like the Uncommitted Movement, saying “that is something that we want so see more of in our party.”
The North Carolina Democratic Party has been plagued with accusations of antisemitism in the year following Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7. Members of the state party refused to support a resolution condemning the terrorist attacks in Israel, sparking outrage among Jews within the state.
North Carolina Democrats also originally voted against the creation of an official Jewish caucus, despite already having similar groups for black and LGBT party members. Clayton was notably among 16 North Carolina Democrats who refused to vote on the creation of the caucus. After facing backlash, the party eventually voted to officially recognize the Jewish Caucus in December 2023.
Ryan Jenkins, the president of the Progressive Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party, attacked Jewish members of his party while defending the initial decision to block the recognition of a Jewish caucus.
“They have done nothing but whine and play the victim and attack people, and we are sick of it,” Jenkins said in reference to Jewish Democrats. “Every single abstention was a no vote that didn’t want to get targeted.”
“If the Democratic Party caves to it, that’s the end of the Democratic Party. We’re not Democrats; we’re the Jewish Caucus. We’re a Zionist group. Because they control everything,” Jenkins added. “We’re telling them very clearly they are allowed to threaten and bully us and they will get their way every single time and that our rules don’t apply.”
Leaders within the North Carolina Democratic Party have also accused Israelis of being “child killers” and have publicly participated in protests condemning the Jewish state. In 2022, the party infuriated North Carolina Jews when it passed a resolution accusing Israel of being an “apartheid state” that discriminates against Palestinians.
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US Sen. Tom Cotton Introduces Bill to Mandate Federal Usage of ‘Judea and Samaria’ Instead of ‘West Bank’
US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson
US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) has introduced legislation that would ban the federal government from using the term “West Bank” and instead use the terminology “Judea and Samaria.”
On Thursday, Cotton introduced the “Retiring the Egregious Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel’s Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government-use of Judea and Samaria (RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria) Act.” The senator argued that the legislation would “align US policy language with the geographical and cultural significance of the region.”
“The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years. The US should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel,” Cotton said in a statement.
US Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) — a stalwart ally of Israel, like Cotton — issued a statement in support of the bill, arguing that the official usage of Judea and Samaria is necessary in “defending the integrity of the Jewish state.”
“The Israeli people have an undeniable and indisputable historical and legal claim over Judea and Samaria, and at this critical moment in history, the United States must reaffirm this,” Tenney said. “This bill reaffirms Israel’s rightful claim to its territory. I remain committed to defending the integrity of the Jewish state and fully supporting Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”
US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has vowed to use the words Judea and Samaria in lieu of the West Bank.
“I can’t say something I don’t believe. As you well know, I’ve never been willing to use the term ‘West Bank.’ There is no such thing. I speak of Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee told Israeli media outlet Arutz Sheva in an interview. “I tell people there is no ‘occupation.’ It is a land that is ‘occupied’ by the people who have had a rightful deed to the place for 3,500 years, since the time of Abraham.”
If the US federal government were to adopt the official usage of Judea and Samaria instead of the West Bank, it would be aligning itself with the terminology preferred by Israel. Such a move could signal a shift in US policy closer to the Jewish state and in favor of further expansion of Jewish communities in the territory.
Critics have argued that such a shift in language could inflame tensions in the Middle East, complicating the possibility of reaching a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, in which the Jewish state secured its independence, the Kingdom of Jordan promulgated the term “West Bank” to describe the territory it controlled west of the Jordan River. Since Israel captured the area in the Six-Day War in 1967, it has governed them as Judea and Samaria.
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