Empire State Today

The City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law 2023 graduation on May 12 was met with criticism from public officials over alleged antisemitic statements and comments on the “fascist” New York Police Department from student commencement speaker Fatima Mousa Mohammed.

"Raging antisemitism has fully consumed the City University of New York," former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) tweeted on May 28. "Until the administration is overhauled and all Jewish students and faculty are welcome again, taxpayer funding must be immediately halted."

The CUNY School of Law  is the only publicly funded law school in New York City. It claims to be the No. 1 public interest law school in the country and is “built on a tradition of radical lawyering: Movements for social change are built with leadership and collaboration from the people and communities who have experienced injustice.”                      

The graduating class of 2023 chose two speakers to deliver an address at their graduation, and the first to speak was Fatima Mousa Mohammed. Mohammed introduced herself as “coming to you from the rich soil of Yemen, raised by the humble streets of Queens.”

She added, “It is my honor and I am humbled to be standing before you all as a selected class speaker.”     

After thanking all the families, friends and supporters of the graduating class and acknowledging the struggles students faced by entering law school during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mohammed said she chose CUNY Law because of its “mission to be law in the service of human needs. One of very few legal institutions created to recognize that the law is a manifestation of white supremacy that continues to suppress people of this nation and around the world.”

Mohammed continued, “I want to celebrate CUNY Law as one of the few, if not the only law school to make a public statement defending the rights of its students to organize and speak out against Israeli settler colonialism.” 

Those comments were met with a cheer and round of applause from many in the audience. She commended CUNY and its staff and students for recognizing “as Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old, the young, attacking even funerals and graveyards, as it encourages lynch mobs to target Palestinian homes and businesses as it imprisons its children... that our silence is no longer acceptable.”     

New York officials and organizations were outraged by these comments and the appearance that they were well-received. New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov took to Twitter on May 28 to condemn the school.

“If anyone had doubts on what’s going on at CUNY, and if (a) hearing we held did not convince you, here it is: Vile, unabashed hatred for America, Israel, NYPD and democracy. I can’t imagine sitting in the audience as a graduate," Vernikov tweeted. "These are NYC’s future lawyers. CUNY, any comment?”

Vernikov has been publicly fighting reports of antisemitism from this campus for several months.  

This is not the first time the law school has been accused of antisemitism, with several cases and reports of staff actions in anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian movements, according to Fox News.

With the start of the backlash, CUNY initially did not post video of the speech and ceremony online, although it reversed course later and gave comments to Fox News, saying student speeches “offered congratulatory remarks and their own individual perspectives on advocating for social justice. As with all such commencement remarks, they reflect the voices of those individuals,” CUNY Law said in a statement.

The Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey tweeted about the issue on May 12. “Graduations should be a place for all -- not a time to denigrate students’ identities... This is yet another example of the harm Jewish students experience on campus.”