This past week, WashU’s Student Union (SU) conducted the elections for various of its seats, including for President and Executive Vice-President of SU. Running for the latter of these two positions, WashU student Sonal Churiwal generated a great degree of discord over a voluminous number of inflammatory anti-Israel social media posts on her Instagram account.
Churiwal’s posts include outlandish accusations against the Jewish state, accusing it of deliberately targeting civilians, of being guilty of “genocide” and “apartheid,” and she also included defenses of the antisemitic chant “from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea,” a chant which calls for the destruction of Israel.
Most absurdly, Churiwal also posted an accusation alleging that the diplomatic relationship between India and Israel is “based on a mutual disregard for human rights, international law, and a profuse use of militaristic force against civilian populations.” This claim is outlandish, but also dangerous, as it falsely accuses the Jewish state of engaging in diplomacy solely with the intent of inflicting harm on people. Furthermore, it neglects how the enemies of Israel, such as Hamas or Iran, have allied themselves with countries such as China or North Korea, both of which are totalitarian regimes and the former is actively committing genocide against the Muslim Uyghur people.
Ironically, Churiwal’s post might have caused her loss to Andy Mun in the race for Executive Vice-President of SU, as her posts caught the attention of many students, such as Tim Mellman, whose endorsement of Andy Mun refers to her posts, and helped drive turnout against her. Her loss, as well as the loss of Saish Satyal, a candidate for President who ran on a similarly activist platform,