#EndJewHatred at CUNY
STAND UP FOR THE JEWISH COMMUNITY!
The City University of New York (CUNY) continues to be a hotbed of antisemitism, and the administration has done nothing to address it. Instead, this is what it has done, this summer alone:
The Chancellor excused Law School Dean Setty’s “polite applause” for Fatima Mohammed’s outrageous Jew-hating commencement speech, calling her “thoughtful for trying to manage some of these things.”
It launched an investigation of 4 Jewish professors who did nothing more than stand up for their rights.
It hired notorious Jew-hater Marc Lamont Hill.
CUNY is clearly doubling-down on Jew-hatred, not doing anything to address it.
Join this important rally on September 12 to stand up for the Jewish students and faculty at CUNY, and to stand up for the civil rights of our people. We are stronger together, and when our voices join as one, our message will be clearly heard. We cannot afford to be silent when our rights and our community are under attack!
We are all painfully aware that for the second year in a row, CUNY Law School has empowered commencement speakers to engage in hate-filled rants targeting the Jewish people. We are also very aware that Jew-hatred is not limited to the Law School, but rather has become systemic within the CUNY system. We are therefore declaring a State of Emergency at CUNY and proposing immediate action in the tangible steps listed below. We call on the public to help with a campaign to ensure social justice for Jews and #EndJewHatred at CUNY, starting with CUNY Law School.
The Background
CUNY Law School holds the distinction of being perhaps the CUNY school most notorious for its Jew-hatred.
In this year’s commencement speech, Fatima Mousa Mohammed engaged in a delusional rant that included some of the more salient tropes of modern antisemitism. Her hate-filled commencement speech falsely accused Israel of “indiscriminately” murdering Palestinians and attacked “Israeli settler colonialism” – which is not just a distortion of history but an outright denial of Jewish self-sovereignty and the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in our indigenous homeland.
In a display of delusional thinking at its finest, Mohammed spoke out about the perceived injustice of “Palestinian political prisoners like HLF [the Holy Land Foundation] in U.S. prisons” – nevermind that the Department of Justice convicted members of HLF on material support of terrorism charges after determining that HLF provided millions of dollars in support to designated terror group Hamas.
Last year, it was Nerdeen Kiswani who delivered a commencement speech full of antisemitic tropes and a fiery condemnation of a Jewish community-led trip to Israel. That speech was the crowning achievement of Jew-hatred in an academic career that included opposing the IHRA definition of antisemitism, threatening to set fire to a man’s IDF sweatshirt (while he was wearing it), and defense of the “right” of Palestinians to “resist by any means necessary.”
Kiswani’s notoriety includes founding WOL Palestine, a group that frequently took to the streets of New York City with calls to “globalize the intifada” (violence against Jews), and some of whose members and followers were involved in violent antisemitic hate crime attacks against several Jews.
Mohammed and Kiswani are products of a school that passed and endorsed Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) – illegal discrimination against Jews and Israelis based upon their national origin – on both the student and faculty level. Mohammed and Kiswani are both the products of, and contributors to, the systemic Jew-hatred that has infected CUNY Law School and the CUNY system.
The Consequences
At CUNY Law School, Jewish students have been traumatized to the point that they have become conditioned to accept oppression. These students have allowed their identities to be colonized. No different than hostages, they have had to adapt to survive, and have accepted indoctrination to the point that they say and do anything it takes to virtue signal to their captors that they will never resist.
This trauma has become systemic. Jew-hatred at CUNY is systemic. The Law School, two years in a row, allows commencement speakers to openly target Jews with what has even been condemned by the Chancellor and Trustees as hate speech. Students at the school voted with impunity to engage in illegal discrimination by adopting BDS. Even the faculty has voted to endorse this student resolution openly calling for illegal discrimination against Jews and Israelis.
What chance do Jewish students have when this is the environment they’re faced with?
What chance do Jewish students have when CUNY continually fails to protect them?
What chance do the Jewish people have to flourish and thrive and enjoy equal protection under the law if our civil rights are ignored and repeatedly violated, especially on university campuses that normalize bigotry?
Systemic Jew-hatred requires systemic change. Let’s start with the law school.
Our Action Plan
To address the systemic Jew-hatred at CUNY Law School, this is what CUNY must do:
Dean Sudha Setty must go. She not only pre-approved Fatima Mohammed’s disgusting Jew-hating “speech” (even CAIR acknowledged this!) targeting a protected minority, but actually applauded it. Setty, who has focused on social justice, cannot remain Dean of a school that denies social justice to the Jewish people.
Suspend, pending disciplinary action, any professor who endorsed or approved of Fatima Mohammed’s “speech” - which the CUNY Chancellor and Trustees admitted was hate speech. Faculty members who reject the civil rights protections of Jews and Israelis by endorsing hate speech have no business teaching law.
Implement antisemitism training. Make it mandatory for every student, staff, and faculty member. Every semester. This should be provided by groups currently unaffiliated with CUNY, because a broken system cannot be entrusted to repair itself.
Apply and enforce the IHRA definition of antisemitism, recognizing that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. When the Department of Education looks at Title VI complaints, this is the definition they look to. CUNY should do no less.
Impose consequences for students and faculty who engage in Jew-hatred. It must be understood that a Jew-hater has no better ability to peddle hate than any other racist or bigot.
Discontinue the practice of allowing students to select a commencement speaker. Until the state of emergency is lifted, each commencement must have an outside speaker who advocates for social justice for the Jewish people.
Advise the Character and Fitness Committee of any state to which students apply for a license to practice law if the student has endorsed discrimination, such as through the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement or through hate-fests like those embarked upon by Mohammed and Kiswani.
If the Chancellor and Board of Trustees fail to enact these remedies by the start of the next term:
The Chancellor and Trustees must resign (or be terminated) and be replaced.
The Department of Education must investigate the numerous civil rights violations that have been highlighted over the years affecting Jewish students and faculty.
Congress, the State of New York, and the City of New York must enact legislation cutting funding to any school that authorizes, enables, or allows antisemitic events on campus - including CUNY.
The IRS must investigate whether public funds are improperly used for political purposes at CUNY, and revoke tax-exempt status if they are.
CUNY is well aware of the systemic Jew-hatred in its colleges. CUNY is especially aware of the horrific Jew-hatred at CUNY Law, whose students have even taken to the streets of New York City, in the guise of WOL Palestine, in “protests” targeting Jews. Some of these so-called “protestors” have even been criminally charged for hate crime violence targeting Jews.
There is no excuse for inaction on a well-known problem that has been widely reported and condemned. Indeed, the Chancellor and Trustees themselves acknowledged that Fatima Mohammed’s commencement speech was nothing more than hate speech.
We’ve waited enough. We deserve a future free of Jew-hatred. We must act now to #EndJewHatred at CUNY.
