The student assembly at the University of Michigan has impeached and removed from office two pro-Palestinian student leaders who vowed to block campus group financing unless the university divested from companies they said profited from the war between Israel and Hamas. 

Student government President Alifa Chowdhury and Vice-President Elias Atkinson were removed from office Monday night after a student judicial hearing spanning seven days, according to The New York Times, Tuesday. 

They were found guilty of a single charge of dereliction of duty. They had been accused in an impeachment proceeding in November of allegedly inciting violence against members of the student government, among other charges.

Margaret Peterson, the student assembly member who started the impeachment push, said the officers were engaged in "inexcusable" conduct in office, as well as refusing to aid the student body. 

The charges alleged that the leaders had encouraged demonstrators to attend an Oct. 8 student government meeting called to reinstate funding for student groups.

Chowdhury joined the protesters in a move that Peterson said encouraged the use of threatening language and verbal attacks. Further, she said that a protester spit on one of the student assembly members. 

The meeting was called after the university adopted a policy of institutional neutrality and said it would not take stances on social or political issues not connected directly with the school. At that time it opted to restore funding for campus groups. 

The student assembly voted to reinstate funding, but Chowdhury vetoed the entire student budget two times, based on what she called the university's failure to take action on divestment. 

The pro-Palestinian activists won control of the Michigan school's student government last spring. 

Many students, however, said that their activities both went too far while doing little to help the cause of the Palestinians and blocked money needed to help needy students.

Tiya Berry, an Arab American member of the student assembly who grew up in Lebanon, said their actions "set the social image" of the pro-Palestinian movement backward, and made the leaders "look like extremists."

Kaitlin Karmen, a member of the Shut It Down Party who resigned from the student assembly, called the impeachment vote "abhorrent."

"Asking constituents to show up to a meeting to advocate for a cause they believe in is not inciting violence," she said. "Being uncomfortable doesn’t mean you’re experiencing violence."

Peterson, though, said the impeachment set a precedent for the student government in determining what constitutes free speech. 

"There is a line between free speech and hate speech, between engaging in your rights as a student and as an American to disagree as vehemently as you might want to, and crossing that line into threatening someone," she said.

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