In an exclusive interview with World Israel News, Prof. Jeffrey Lax says he hopes an outrageous commencement speech made by a radicalized antisemitic graduate strengthens his group’s case against the law school.
By Atara Beck, World Israel News
The commencement speech by City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law graduate Fatima Mousa Mohammed, delivered on May 12, alarmed not only Jews, but also patriotic Americans. They were outraged not only by her vicious lies against the State of Israel, but even more so by what seemed to be a call for the destruction of America.
Some are calling for the school to be defunded.
.@RitchieTorres is spot on here. This hater can spout her hate where she pleases but it should not be at the publicly funded @CUNY school of law. Her antisemitism destroyed this commencement and it must be roundly condemned and should not have been sanctioned with public funds. https://t.co/Hvtrzubcum
— Barry Grodenchik (@BarryGrodenchik) May 29, 2023
Mohammed’s speech was “even worse than last year’s hate spewed by Nerdeen Kiswani,” tweeted S.A.F.E. CUNY (Students and Faculty for Equality at CUNY) – a non-profit that advocates for Zionist Jews systemically discriminated against and excluded by the CUNY. Furthermore, according to the tweet, “CUNY Law, under state investigation, tried to hide this video.”
Following a complaint by S.A.F.E. CUNY against the CUNY School of Law several months ago because of its unanimous adoption of BDS as policy, the school has come under investigation.
In her address, Mohammed said she “want[s] to celebrate CUNY Law as one of the few, if not the only, law school to make a public statement defending the right of its students to organize and speak out against Israeli settler colonialism.
“This is the law school that has passed and endorsed BDS [anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] on a student and faculty level,” she affirmed, before listing vicious and false claims against the Jewish state.
Prof. Jeffrey Lax, business department chair at CUNY’s Kingsborough Community College and founder of S.A.F.E. CUNY, told World Israel News in a telephone interview that he hopes Mohammed’s speech, which is now out in the open, will help their case, stressing that the implementation of BDS, a discriminatory boycott, is a violation of New York law.
“We filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights and the New York City Commission on Human Rights,” Lax said. “We hope that this evidence will help solidify the claims against CUNY Law.”
But anti-Israel propaganda was not the most alarming part of Mohammed’s speech, which included “rage” against American institutions and values and encouraged “revolution.”
Although Mohammed acknowledged and praised the law school’s encouragement of anti-Israel activity, she nonetheless slammed CUNY Central, which “continues to fail us, continues to train and cooperate with the fascist New York Police Department, the military, that continues to train [Israeli] soldiers to carry out that same violence globally.”
The U.S. legal system, she said, is “a manifestation of white supremacy that continues to oppress and suppress people in this nation and around the world.”
“May the rage that fills this auditorium dance in the hallways of our elementary schools…may it be the fuel for the fight against capitalism and racism, imperialism and Zionism around the world…by any means necessary…
“We will protect the fight that brings us all closer to the fall of all oppressive institutions – a reality that is only myopic and unrealistic to the oppressors, but is the inevitable future for the oppressed, for oppressed people everywhere.
“Far greater empires of destruction have fallen before, and so will these. And so, to the class of 2023, the fight begins now.”
‘Calling for an insurrection’
“What I find truly incredible is not just that Mohammed’s speech is clearly evil – I’m not interested in a random evil student, even though she’s now a graduate. What I’m much more interested in is that the faculty most likely saw that speech and approved it,” Lax said in the interview.
The speech “was very close to incitement. When you call for rage against Zionists and capitalism – to me, that’s like calling for an insurrection. But the thing that stood out most is that CUNY Law livestreamed the entire graduation ceremony, and as soon as it was over, they wiped it from the internet, from their website.
“My group made a freedom of information request for the video. Of course, they wouldn’t want to give it to us; they made it public.
“To me, a big part of the story is: I think the reason they initially wiped it off the internet was to keep it away from investigators, because in that video, Mohammed gives the perfect example of how BDS policy is being actively implemented at the law school, and that is damning evidence against the law school in the state investigation against them.”
S.A.F.E. CUNY, Lax continued, “followed up with a letter to New York State, alerting them to the fact that CUNY Law tried to conceal evidence and obstruct the investigation by preventing them from seeing the video, which shows that BDS is truly being implemented there.”
WIN: How dangerous is Mohammed?
“I think that when people talk about the First Amendment – and no one believes in the First Amendment and pushes it more than I do – they have to realize that there are extreme exceptions, like incitement to violence. When she calls for rage against Zionism, against capitalism, against the police and the U.S. military – to me, that comes very close, if not actually there, to incitement to violence and an insurrection against America.”
WIN: Mohammed’s speech was interrupted several time by enthusiastic applause. There was no audible booing or challenges to her claims. What does that say about the law school and the graduates in attendance?
“What I heard was resounding applause. It says to me that the New York Bar Association should reconsider its accreditation of CUNY Law School because, again, I believe that speech was an incitement to violence. We need to find out whether the administration saw and approved that speech before it was given.”
It’s strange that the speech would be endorsed, only to be wiped off the internet immediately after being delivered. Perhaps the person who approved it was not the same person who wiped it off the internet immediately?
“Sometimes, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. I don’t want to speculate because I don’t know. And maybe she went slightly off script. We don’t know. I think we need that information. We need to see the speech that was given to the school – if it was given to them beforehand. We need to see who approved it. These are questions that demand answers.”
WIN: We know that there’s a lot of radicalism on American college campuses in general. Jews and Zionists have a hard time, they have to deal with so much anti-Israel propaganda and discrimination. But what happened now at CUNY Law School – is that above and beyond?
“I’ll put it this way. That was the worst commencement speech that I have ever heard in my entire life. It’s not even close. And that includes last year’s address by Nerdeen Kiswani. This call for defunding the American military – what does that mean?”
WIN: Could Mohammed be prevented from practicing law as a result of her speech?
“I hope that happens. One part of admission to the bar is a character interview, in which someone designated from the bar would assess whether her character is becoming for an attorney. I believe that she should be turned down. Whether or not that happens will solely depend on who that person interviewing her is.”
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