CUNY School of Law speaker Fatima Mousa Mohammed speaking at commencement on May 12, 2023. Photo by Screenshot

Re “Behind CUNY graduation speech furor, a university divided over Zionism” by Arno Rosenfeld

To the editor:

Arno Rosenfeld’s article paints the CUNY School of Law student commencement speaker as an ingénue who is surprised that her heartfelt words speaking truth to power caused an uproar. She just wants to get back to preparing for the bar exam despite death threats for speaking up for social justice. 

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It is abhorrent that anyone should be threatened for their words or beliefs. But it should not escape notice that the reason the student was selected by her classmates and lionized by the faculty is because of her passionate demonization of Israel, as in her commencement address, and her threats to its supporters in rallies and on social media. 

In her commencement address, the student said that she “came from the rich soil of Yemen,” but makes no mention of the over 300,000 killed in murderous fighting in her homeland, far more than the lives tragically lost in wars and terror flowing from efforts to eradicate Israel. Similarly, the Professional Staff Congress —the union that supports CUNY faculty and staff — has nothing to say about Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, China’s support of the North Korean regime, which terrorizes its people, or any of the other human rights catastrophes around the world. It singles out a single nation for condemnation. 

The 2021 PSC Resolution in Support of the Palestinian People “condemns the massacres of Palestinians by the Israeli state,” though it was Hamas that announced it would massacre Jews. In the same resolution, the union declares that it stands against racism and antisemitism, just as the School of Law speaker protests. But the singular demonization of Israel, and the silence on egregious violations of human rights by groups around the world, coming from an institution that claims to be the vanguard in the fight for social justice can only be understood in light of the centuries-old demonization of Jews and the denial of their humanity. 

Recognizing this reality, faculty across CUNY have joined together to fight for academic freedom and civility on campus by promoting knowledge of Israel in seminars and on the web.  The campus alliance against Israel is a retrograde crusade, one which seeks to jettison academic freedom via the academic boycott of Israel in order, effectively, to place Jews in a position from which they cannot defend themselves.

— Azriel Genack
Distinguished Professor of Physics, CUNY

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