NEW YORK – Fatima Mousa Mohammed, a City University of New York (CUNY) graduate from Queens of Yemeni origin, created ripples after she gave a speech on “confronting the systems of oppression… created to feed an empire with a ravenous appetite for destruction and violence” at her graduation ceremony, pointing her finger straight toward “Israel.”

Mohammed commended her university for first and foremost defending students’ right, publicly, to “organize and speak out against Israeli settler colonialism.”

During her speech, primarily addressed to an audience of graduating lawyers, faculty members and friends and family of graduating colleagues, Mohammed urged that her words be used as “fuel for the fight against capitalism, racism and Zionism around the world.”

“Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old and the young, attacking funerals and graveyards as it encourages lynch mobs to target Palestinian homes and businesses; as it imprisons its children and as it continues its project of settler colonialism expelling Palestinians from their homes,” she said.

The Arab American graduate drew parallels between the U.S. and “Israel”, highlighting illegal practices and underscoring that “there are Palestinian political prisoners like HLF in U.S. prisons; that there are refugees at the southern borders still locked up; that yesterday marked one year since the murder of U.S. journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and that the murder of Black men like Jordan Neely by a White man on the MTA was dignified by politicians, like [Mayor] Eric Adams and Senator Chuck Schumer.”

Adams, who was present at the ceremony, wrote in a tweet responding to Mohammed’s speech that he was “proud to offer a different message at this year’s CUNY law commencement ceremony”, claiming that his uncle gave “his life for our [U.S.] country” when he fought as a member of the U.S. troops during one of the most notorious wars: Vietnam.

Adams dismissed Mohammed’s message of justice for the oppressed as “words of negativity and divisiveness” and defended U.S. troops and their actions in Vietnam and since. However, while the audience did not remain silent, they did not clap either. Adams was met with booing, turned backs and signs of protest while Mohammed was met with loud cheers and a standing ovation.

The video of Mohammed went viral and gathered a multitude of reactions, with many supporting her position and commending her for standing up for the oppressed while others criticized her and went on to defend settler colonialism by going to the defense of “Israel”, using their ultimate weapon of choice “anti-Semitism.”

CUNY chancellor denounces anti-Israel law school graduation speech as “hate speech”

The chancellor and board of trustees of the City University of New York have denounced a May 12 graduation speech at CUNY School of Law in which a student harshly criticized Israel.

Fatima Mousa Mohammed’s speech, in which she praised the law school as, in her view, a rare place where students could “speak out against Israeli settler colonialism” was “hate speech,” according to a statement released Tuesday by Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez and the board of the public university system.

While the system cherishes free speech, the statement said, Mohammed’s remarks “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 statement went on, “The Board of Trustees of the City University of New York condemns such hate speech.”

The statement comes more than two weeks after the law school graduation ceremony where Mohammed was selected by her classmates to offer a commencement address.

After the initial criticism, CUNY removed a video of the speech from public view. It made it available again late last week after Mohammed’s critics and defenders both called for its release, leading to renewed criticism.

On Monday, the New York Post, a right-wing tabloid, put Mohammed on the cover, identifying her as “stark raving grad.”

CUNY’s law school has been a target of pro-Israel advocates for some time because of student activism against Israel. In December 2021 and May 2022, respectively, student and faculty associations each voted in favor of a resolution to support the Palestinian-led movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel, known as BDS.

The law school’s Jewish students’ association has been a vocal supporter of pro-Palestinian advocacy on campus, saying in a May 21 statement backing Mohammed that criticism of her speech had come from “external Zionist organizations” that were spreading lies about her.

“The organizations currently attacking Fatima and the rest of CUNY Law’s student body, with absurd and false claims of anti-Semitism, are doing so against the wishes of the majority of CUNY Law’s Jewish students, who wholeheartedly stand with Fatima and have been grateful to have her as our classmate throughout law school,” the group said in the statement, which was also signed by 18 other student groups.