Top officials at the City University of New York denounced a student speaker at its law school commencement for “hate speech” for calling the NYPD “fascist” and accusing Israel of indiscriminately murdering Palestinians.
CUNY Law school 2023 graduate Fatima Mousa Mohammed’s speech on May 12 went unanswered at the time.
“Free speech is precious, but often messy, and is vital to the foundation of higher education,” the statement released by CUNY board of trustees chairman Bill Thompson, vice chair Sandra Wilkin and Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez said.
“Hate speech, however, should not be confused with free speech and has no place on our campuses or in our city, our state or our nation,” said the CUNY executives.
“The remarks by a student-selected speaker at the CUNY Law School graduation, unfortunately, fall into the category of hate speech as they were a public expression of hate toward people and communities based on their religion, race or political affiliation. The Board of Trustees of the City University of New York condemns such hate speech.”
The CUNY brass continued, “This speech is particularly unacceptable at a ceremony celebrating the achievements of a wide diversity of graduates, and hurtful to the entire CUNY community, which was founded on the principle of equal access and opportunity. CUNY’s commitment to protecting and supporting our students has not wavered throughout our 175-year existence and we cannot and will not condone hateful rhetoric on our campuses.”
The statement does not say what action, if any, CUNY leadership would take to address the problem of hate speech that has been permitted at its law school commencement.
Meanwhile Governor Kathy Hochul, who appoints members to the CUNY governing board, when asked about the controversy, said through a spokesman that she “has always been a steadfast supporter of Israel and condemns antisemitism in all forms.”
CUNY Law’s graduating class of 2023 asked Mousa Mohammed to give one of the commencement speeches.
It’s the second year in a row that CUNY law school’s graduation ceremony has been marred in controversy.
Last year, The CUNY Law School faculty council approved an anti-Israel resolution supporting the pro-Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions movement just ahead of the 2022 graduation ceremony that was previously approved by the student government association.
It’s also the second controversy to engulf CUNY within a week.
A CUNY-Hunter College arts professor was arrested on harassment and menacing charges last week for threatening a Post reporter with a machete.
During her speech, Mousa Mohammed praised the faculty council for supporting the anti-Israel resolution.
Mousa Mohammed, a Yemeni native, accused the Jewish state of being “colonial settlers.”
“Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshippers, murdering the old, the young and even attacking funerals and graveyards, as it encourages lynch mobs to target Palestinians homes and businesses. As it imprisons its children, as it continues its project of settler colonialism, expelling Palestinians from their homes. Silence is no longer acceptable,” she said to cheers.
Even before the latest commencement controversy, the state Division of Human Rights opened a bombshell probe into whether CUNY’s School of Law discriminated against Jews when its faculty council passed a resolution last year supporting the BDS movement targeting Israel.
Jeffey Lax, a Kingsborough Community College professor who is co-founder of Students and Faculty for Equality at CUNY (S.A.F.E. CUNY) and who filed the complaint against the law school, said Mousa Mohammed’s hate-filled speech bolsters his case that the school is biased against devout Jewish and Zionist students.
“BDS is actively being implemented at the law school,” Lax said.
He also said the speech called for “destruction” of the United States.
“The language she used was a call to insurrection and the end of capitalism,” added Lax, referring to Mousa Mohammed’s references to the NYPD and the military as “fascist.”
Jewish leaders said the atmosphere at the CUNY law school is unwelcoming to devout and Zionist Jews who believe Israel is their ancestral homeland.
“Jewish students are not welcome at the CUNY Law school. That has to change,” said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, vice chairman of the New York Board of Rabbis.
Potasnik said there’s constant bashing of the Jewish state at CUNY Law while other countries such as Iran and China that deny democratic rights get a pass.
“It’s Israel all the time. That smacks antisemitism,” he said.
“Free speech is a two-way street,” added Potasnik.
The law school’s student government makes clear that it is pro-Palestinian and stands strongly behind the BDS movement against Israel.
One of the first items posted on its Instagram page is a statement that touts its passage of the BDS resolution, which it claims is also supported by its Jewish students.
“Through the resolution, CUNY’s vibrant community of anti-Zionist Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and Jewish students, faculty, staff and allies demonstrated a historic commitment to stand against all forms of colonial dispossession and exploitation,” the student government statement said.
The student government also posted a notice for an “emergency protest for Palestine that was held at the CUNY Graduate Center on April 29, which said, “Demand an end to CUNY’s complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people! Demand an end to CUNY’s endorsement of Zionism.”
CUNY Chancellor Matos-Rodriguez drew a firestorm of criticism last year for blowing off a City Council hearing that focused of Jewish students claims of antisemitism at its campuses. A Jewish watchdog group called StopAntisemism also issued a report card flunking CUNY for failing to adequately confront Jew-hatred.
But the chancellor has emphasized efforts from the top to combat antisemitism at its 25 campuses, including forming a partnership with the international Jewish students’ group Hillel and creating a new portal to report discrimination.
