Anti-Semitism at CUNY Law

The City College of New York is legendary. For decades it offered an excellent education to the children of poor New York immigrants, in particular, to those who were Jewish.

No more. 

At a time when the Biden administration has declared war against anti-Semitism, the CUNY Law School commencement shone the light of day on a simple fact. Whereas we understand that the Biden war is directed at white supremacist MAGA Republicans, the anti-Semitic CUNY Law commencement speaker, one Fatima Mousa Mohammed was neither white nor Republican. 

She was a Palestinian activist and chose to use her moment in the spotlight to  advance the Palestinian cause and to denounce Zionism. It was flagrantly anti-Semitic and has elicited calls to defund the publicly funded law school.

Many people might not have noticed but what Mohammed called the global struggle against colonialism and white supremacy included a global struggle against Zionism. You see, the Jews are behind it all.

National Review reported:

“Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old, the young, attacking the funerals and graveyards as it encourages lynch mobs,” the law student argued.

During another part, Mohammed condemned the treatment of “Palestinian political prisoners like HLF [Holy Land Foundation] in U.S. prisons.”

The Texas-based group, which the State Department designated as a terrorist organization for aiding the Palestinian militant group Hamas, had sought to pass itself off as a Muslim charity.

“May we rejoice in the corners of our New York City bedroom apartments and dining tables, may it be fuel for the fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism, and Zionism around the world,” Mohammed said near the end of her speech.

Terrorism, anyone?

We ought to mention that the commencement speaker was chosen by her fellow law students. They knew very well what she was going to say and they chose her anyway. This tells us that anti-Semitism is legitimate in certain corners of the American academic establishment.

Of course,  the speech elicited the usual round of pro forma denunciations. And nothing will happen. One might suggest that law firms rescind any job offers to graduates of this year’s class at CUNY law and that judges rescind any clerkships offered to the group. That will get their attention.

But, that was not all. Last year’s commencement speaker was just as bad, just as anti-Semitic, but was ignored at the time.

Mohammed’s speech comes the year after the law school hosted Nerdeen Kiswani, then the president of the law school’s Students for Justice in Palestine, to give the 2022 commencement address.

Kiswani had previously made several statements calling for violence and the destruction of the state of Israel.

“I’m banned from my homeland for as long as this Zionist settler entity, this organization called Israel, masquerading as a country, continues to exist,” the activist said during one interview on YouTube in 2021. “We had peace before Israel was created, so abolishing Israel is the key to peace.”

Following the murder of three Israelis, Kiswani liked an Instagram post showing the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem with the caption: “Glory to the axe of resistance.”

Kiswani was also a leader of Within Our Lifetime, a pro-Palestinian organization, that had a member imprisoned on federal charges for assaulting a Jewish man in  New York City in 2022. The group openly calls to “globalize the Intifada.”

No one said a word about this at the time. This suggests that anti-Semitic hatred has become normalized in certain communities and in certain academic institutions. Do I need to tell you that Nerdeen Kiswani was not a white supremacist MAGA Republican.