CUNY Law commencement speaker Fatima Mohammed. Photo: Screenshot

Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NY) on Monday called on the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to investigate City University of New York (CUNY) Law School to determine whether a student commencement speech alleging that Jewish money manipulates school policy on Israel violated the Civil Rights Act.

Fatima Mohammed, a CUNY Law student, gave the speech on May 12, saying, “our morality will not be purchased by investors.” She also accused Israel of “settler colonialism,” charging that it “continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers” and murder children and the elderly. Her claims, animated by a demagogic fervor, were applauded by law school administrators and staff sitting behind the podium.

“I urge your office to investigate whether these incidents and CUNY’s administration response, or lack thereof, constitute a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Gottheimer wrote to OCR Assistant Secretary Catherine Lhamon. “The CUNY Law School administration has clearly fostered an atmosphere that allows the discrimination against and vilification of Jewish students to go unchecked. They have failed to adequately respond to repeated pleas from current students, faculty, and the community to fix this atmosphere of hatred.”

Gottheimer added that Mohammed numerously uttered “tropes” that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has classified as antisemitic in its definition of antisemitism, which is used by governmental and nongovernmental organizations around the world, as well as the Office of Civil Rights. He also placed Mohammed’s speech in a wider context, explaining that it is another indication that antisemitism, often disguised as anti-Zionism, is being normalized across the US.

“The Department must act swiftly to protect the Jewish community,” he continued. “We must not turn a blind eye to antisemitism masquerading as anti-Israel sentiment, and the situation at CUNY is but one example of pervasive anti-Israelism designed to stoke hatred.”

With his letter, Gottheimer joins a chorus of lawmakers and Jewish leaders who, in the days after Mohammed’s speech was posted online, expressed frustration with CUNY’s failure to address hostile anti-Jewish attitudes throughout its university system. Last Thursday, Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY) proposed legislation that would prohibit colleges that host antisemitic events from receiving federal loans and grants.

“I am of the mindset that people certainly have the right to say what they want to say, but you don’t have the right to hate speech,” Lawler told The Algemeiner. “This most recent incident at CUNY really just made it all the more important to get this legislation filed. Taxpayer money should not be used to support this type of rhetoric or conduct — people who support the BDS movement, which is antisemitic.”

Facing widespread criticism from Jewish groups and lawmakers, CUNY issued a statement condemning Mohammed’s remarks as hate speech, a “public expression of hate toward people and communities based on their religion, race, or political affiliation.” The statement added that CUNY that Mohammed’s speech was “particularly unacceptable at a ceremony celebrating the achievements of a wide diversity of graduates.”

City University of New York is currently under investigation by OCR for allegedly neglecting to discipline a student, Nerdeen Kiswani, who threatened to set fire to another for wearing an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) hoodie and failing to protect another Jewish student from harassment. CUNY is also the subject of a Title VI complaint, filed in July 2022 by the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), alleging that it has intentionally ignored “a sustained pattern of antisemitism.” It followed accusations of antisemitism at CUNY campuses aired during a New York City Council hearing held the previous month after the CUNY School of Law faculty endorsed a boycott of Israel.

Another investigation, launched in February 2022, is reviewing complaints that Jewish students enrolled in CUNY Brooklyn College’s Mental Health Counseling master’s program were browbeaten into denying their heritage and identifying as white. One student begrudged one of her Jewish classmates so much that she admitted in a WhatsApp group chat to fantasizing about strangling her, an anonymous student told The Algemeiner at the time.

OCR recently ruled that the University of Vermont (UVM) failed to respond to numerous complaints of antisemitism and anti-Zionist harassment and discrimination, marking the first time the Biden administration resolved a complaint of campus antisemitism and the first time ever that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act has been applied to anti-Zionist discrimination.

In Sept. 2022, CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez acknowledged that “more needs to be done” to fight antisemitism at the university’s 25 campuses.

Additionally, six CUNY professors, challenging decades of legal precedent, are suing to sever all ties to the school’s faculty union — the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) — from which they resigned over its allegedly antisemitic and anti-Zionist views.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.