Amir Makled is running for a seat on the University of Michigan Board of Regents in 2026. Democratic delegates will decide whether to endorse him at the party’s April convention. Before that vote happens, they’d be smart to look at what he was sharing on social media not long ago.
Makled built his legal reputation defending pro-Palestinian students at U-M, students who faced disciplinary proceedings after participating in anti-genocide and divestment protests in 2024. He’s pitching himself as a progressive Democrat, someone who stands for free expression, affordability, and institutional accountability. That’s a coherent platform. What doesn’t hold together is his own posting history.
The Michigan Advance obtained archived posts through the Internet Archive showing that Makled reposted content from Marjorie Taylor Greene and Candace Owens. The posts themselves have since been deleted. Archives don’t disappear that cleanly, though.
What He Shared
The Greene reposts were pointed but relatively contained. She was making the argument that U.S. support for Israel ran against President Donald Trump’s America First priorities. People can debate that framing. It’s a political position, even if it’s hers.
The Owens reposts are a separate matter entirely. Some of the content Makled amplified from Owens described Israelis, the overwhelming majority of whom are Jewish, as “demons” who “lie, cheat, murder and blackmail.” That’s not policy criticism. That’s a recycling of antisemitic tropes with roots going back centuries. Makled shared it anyway, during a period when Owens was directing her commentary at Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
Michigan Advance contacted Makled for comment. He agreed to sit down for an interview on Thursday, pushed it to Friday morning, then didn’t show. “He confirmed the interview, then went silent,” Michigan Advance said of his response. That’s not a minor scheduling conflict. It’s a dodge from someone who’s running explicitly on accountability.
The Larger Picture
The war in Gaza started October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out coordinated attacks on southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seizing more than 200 hostages. Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response. That campaign has since been characterized as a genocide by Amnesty International and by a United Nations independent commission. The U.S. hasn’t sent ground troops to Gaza but has struck Iran, the primary financial backer of Hamas, and is now operating in a joint military posture alongside Israel against that government.
This is genuinely complicated terrain. It’s not a stretch to say that people can disagree sharply about proportionality, Palestinian rights, and what real accountability looks like when a nuclear-armed regional power conducts a military campaign in a densely populated civilian zone. That’s a real argument worth having.
What isn’t a real argument is treating antisemitic content as political commentary. There’s a meaningful line between criticizing Israeli government policy and amplifying voices that describe Jewish people as demonic, murderous liars. The first is legitimate. The second isn’t solidarity with anyone. Makled, based on the archived record, didn’t maintain that line.
The Regents Seat and What It Means
The University of Michigan Board of Regents oversees one of the largest public university systems in the country. It’s not a ceremonial post. Regents set policy, influence budget priorities, and shape the institutional culture of a campus that’s been at the center of the national debate over campus speech and protest since at least 2024. Whoever holds that seat carries real weight.
U-M saw at least 10 students and staff face disciplinary action tied to protest activity in 2024. That’s the environment Makled says he wants to help govern. His legal work defending students in those proceedings is part of his pitch. That work is real. It doesn’t erase what the archives show.
Seven days out from the April convention, Democratic delegates have a clean factual record in front of them. The deleted posts are documented. The rescheduled interview that never happened is documented. What they decide to do with that information is on them.
