What’s been impossible to ignore about so many of the campus demonstrations we’ve seen over the past many months is how they seem less like Martin Luther King Jr.’s peaceful marches than like KKK cross-burnings.
Much of the “pro-Palestinian” (read: anti-Israel—and, more often than not, anti-Jew) activism has been angry, crass, disruptive and destructive.
And counterproductive, at least in one recent case.
The president and vice president of the University of Michigan’s student assembly, who campaigned on a promise to block financing for campus groups until the college agreed to divest from companies connected to Israel, were shown the door—and by the student group itself.
When Alifa Chowdhury and Elias Atkinson ran for their positions in March, they made their goal clear—going so far as, for the benefit of any students who might have been pharmaceutically impaired during the campaign, labeling their effort the Shut It Down Party.
A low voter turnout for the election and a good showing of like-minded leftists helped the contentious couple handily win.
They kept their campaign promise, too, and withheld the $1.3 million of annual funding the student group receives for the purpose of funding scores of student activities.
The pugnacious pair vowed to not relent until the university bowed to their divestment demand. To its credit, the school did nothing of the sort. And the intended beneficiaries of the funds were not amused.
And so, on October 8, the student government, reflecting the larger student body’s deep displeasure over the embargoed activity funds, voted to reinstate the funding. And then it was Ms. Chowdhury’s and Mr. Atkinson’s turn to be unamused.
Adding insult to insult, the student representatives also voted at the meeting to reject a petition that would have sent its remaining budget of $440,000 to an initiative of Birzeit University, an institution in Shomron that lauded the Hamas attack of last year and has been accused of discriminating against Jews and of having ties to terrorists.
Informed about what was about to happen at the meeting and outraged by the chutzpah of students daring to take issue with their attempted extortion and denying their plans for the $440,000, Ms. Chowdhury and Mr. Atkinson reportedly encouraged protesters to shout down the assembly speaker. They tried, spit on an intern and followed assembly members to their cars while insulting them, according to the news publication Michigan Review. Par for the Palestine protest playbook.
Ms. Chowdhury then took control of the student government’s Instagram account, locking out other members and changing the password. That didn’t win her any friends or influence any people.
As a result, in November, the two embattled undergrads were impeached by the student assembly—the vote was a laudably lopsided 30 to 7 (with one abstention)—on charges that they had incited violence against members of the student government. Ms. Chowdhury was also accused of cyber access violations. Although the evidence for those charges was strong, the distasteful duo was found guilty only of dereliction of duty: for either missing council meetings or failing to, as required, organize them. But that was enough to send them packing.
The impeachment was “abhorrent,” fumed Kaitlin Karmen, a member of the Shut It Down Party who resigned from the student assembly after the vote.
“Asking constituents to show up to a meeting to advocate for a cause they believe in is not inciting violence,” Ms. Karmen huffed, disingenuously playing down what had actually happened.
The upshot of the affair is the bad taste left in the mouths of the university’s students, even some who are sympathetic to the “Palestinian cause.”
The actions of the activists have “set the social image of the movement backwards, at least on campus,” said Tiya Berry, an Arab-American member student.
The blocking of funding for campus groups, she said, made the erstwhile leaders “look like extremists.” Look like? Never mind.
Liam Reaser, the Impeachment Manager (now there’s an interesting addition to a résumé), said that the removal of the bad actors “sent a strong message that actions have consequences.”
May that message spread to all who seek to disrupt and intimidate in the cause of defending terrorists.
And inspire college administrators to share the same message with the students in their institutions.
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