‘Base Selfishness’: Anti-Zionist Student Government Majorities Enact Spending Freezes to Impose BDS

Anti-Zionist students have moved to cripple university operations at the University of Michigan and The New School in New York City, leveraging recently gained majorities in student government to freeze funding to campus groups until administrators agree to boycott Israel.

A slew of anti-Zionist candidates at the University of Michigan 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 to Israel, both financial and academic, according to The Detroit News.

The paper said that “nearly two dozen” of its members, including candidates for president and vice president, won office, “effectively taking control of student government.” Since assuming power, it continued, they have shredded the budget for summer term approved by the previous administration and refused to fund student clubs during the upcoming fall semester.

“The Shut It Down movement ran on a completely transparent platform,” Alifa Chowdhury, the government’s new president told The Detroit News. “This is really to send a message to regents that you can’t just give us, student government leaders, a lump sum on money and expect us to stay silent with that. The point of student government is to make our voices heard.”

Founded in the months after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, Shut It Down (SID) allegedly committed multiple election code infractions to amass its newfound and unprecedented power. According to The Michigan Daily, students banded together to contest their election victory, citing multiple instances in which they 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.

SID announced its plans to defund student clubs in July, with its chair, Shubh Agrawal, saying in remarks quoted by the Daily, “The university of Michigan is one of those institutions [whose] $6 billion of the endowment are implicated in the genocide or occupation of people of Palestine. And the University of Michigan does not deserve to function as normal while it continues to do those things.”

The Algemeiner has asked the University of Michigan to comment on this story. According to The Detroit News, the school’s Board of Regents has vowed not to divest from or boycott Israel.

“The board has been clear it is not changing its decision related to investments,” Regent Sarah Hubbard told the paper. “And we are not taking them up on their offer to change our approach related to their recommendation.”

Anti-Zionists are making similar moves at The New School, according to a recent announcement by the University Student Senate (USS).

“On Friday August 23rd, the USS voted to halt all external funding operations until the IC votes in favor of divestment,” the body said in a statement. “We understand this leaves students with many questions and will provide more information soon. We urge you to leave comments with any questions, or thoughts and we will do our best to answer.”

Following the decision, The New School’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter declared an “academic intifada” and circulated a petition imploring the school’s clubs to pledge their support for the freeze. So far, only seven of the university’s 154 clubs have signed it.

“The pro-Palestine majority in the University Student Senate — unanimous except for one vote — is of utmost significance at this critical moment,” the petition says. “There can be no normal student life here at TNS or anywhere else while the genocidal US-Israeli war persists against the people of Gaza. It would be base selfishness to expect otherwise.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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