CUNY Law commencement speaker Fatima Mohammed. Photo: Screenshot

In June, the US State Department quietly reversed a Trump administration policy, and will cut off support for Israeli academic institutions and for technical/scientific projects located over the “Green Line,” notably Ariel University. A State Department spokesman stated, “The State Department recently circulated foreign policy guidance to relevant agencies in the United States government, advising that engaging in bilateral scientific and technological cooperation with Israel in geographic areas which came under the administration of Israel after 1967 and which remain subject to final-status negotiations is inconsistent with U.S. foreign policy.”

The State Department later clarified that the decision did not mean the US would again regard settlements as illegal. Another report noted that outgoing US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides approved a large grant to human rights organizations to document Israeli abuses in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip.

On campus, the fallout over City University of New York (CUNY) Law School commencement, in which a BDS supporter gave a talk vilifying Israel, expanded. Fatima Mohammed’s speech included condemnations of “capitalism, racism, imperialism and Zionism around the world,” and called for “revolution” against “all oppressive institutions.”

Mohammad’s speech was quickly condemned by Jewish groups, who pointed to the case as an early test of the Biden administration’s new antisemitism strategy. The CUNY Board of Trustees condemned Mohammad’s “hate speech as they were a public expression of hate toward people and communities based on their religion, race or political affiliation.” Several but not all trustees also issued individual statements denouncing Mohammad’s speech. CUNY BDS supporters responded by disrupting a Board of Trustees meeting, while BDS supporters cast her as a brave victim of a right wing smear campaign.

Local media and politicians also belatedly condemned the speech. After an early comment that mildly rebuked “words of negativity and divisiveness,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated “If I was on that stage, when those comments were made, I would have stood up and denounced them immediately.” For her part, New York Governor Kathy Hochul described Mohammad’s remarks as “heartbreaking,” but did not respond to calls to remove the CUNY chancellor or to defund or otherwise discipline CUNY.

In response to criticism, Mohammad and CAIR claimed that her speech had been approved by CUNY. They also claimed Mohammad had been “relentlessly harassed by far-right media, Mayor Eric Adams, and multiple members of Congress and City Council. As an institution of higher education, CUNY has a responsibility to protect its students, even in the face of disagreement or discomfort.” The university then denied that it had approved the speech.

Predictably, the CUNY faculty union — which has formally endorsed BDS — condemned the trustees’ statement, claiming the “overbroad description of hate speech undermines CUNY’s character as a university where free speech and open dialogue can flourish.” The union later endorsed City Councilman Charles Barron (D) — who is well known for a variety of antisemitic statements and intense Israel antipathy — for reelection. The union also endorsed another City Council candidate, Wai Yee Chan, who called Mohammad’s speech “a very individual case” of antisemitism, while denying that CUNY Law has a broader problem with antisemitism. Both Barron and Chan lost their races.

The New York Times coverage more predictably dismissed complaints against Mohammad, and cast her as the victim. Reports later indicated that the 2022 and 2023 commencement speakers, Nerdeen Kiswani and Fatima Mohammed, were also leaders of a 2022 New York City march at which a Jewish individual was assaulted.

The incident served to further sully academia’s reputation in the US Congress, where legislation was introduced “to rescind federal funding for colleges that promote antisemitism on their campuses.” Responding to the CUNY Law faculty’s unanimous support of a BDS resolution, several Jewish groups also called on the Internal Revenue Service to rescind CUNY’s tax exempt status.

In a parallel case, another commencement speaker, Jana Abulaban, at El Camino College excoriated Israel, stating “I gift my graduation to all Palestinians who have lost their life and those who continue to lose their lives every day due to the oppressive apartheid state of Israel killing and torturing Palestinians as we speak.”

Responding to criticism, the school’s superintendent claimed the speaker was “not authorized to speak other than to introduce another speaker,” and that she “took it upon herself” to make an anti-Israel statement. Abulaban, however, claimed that her advisor had approved her speech. The local CAIR branch also condemned the school, saying it was “immoral for an institution of higher learning to misrepresent her position and join the bandwagon of unfair attacks against her.”

In another development that reflects the diminishing status of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, the Department of Education issued a “Dear Colleague” letter on discrimination against Jewish students, in which neither IHRA nor Israel were mentioned. The Department of Education did, however, open an investigation of SUNY New Paltz regarding an incident last year, where pro-Israel Jewish students were forced to leave a student sexual assault survivor group. The students alleged that the university had not offered support when they were bullied and then expelled from the group for being “Zionists.”

In the philanthropy sphere, the most significant development was the news that George Soros would turn control of the Soros Fund Management and chair of the Open Society Foundation to his son, Alexander Soros. The Soros family was an early funder of J Street and more recently its Super PAC, and the elder Soros made a $100 million gift to the leading BDS group Human Rights Watch.

The younger Soros founded the progressive Jewish group Bend the Arc, which casts far left Democratic policies as Jewish concerns. While praising the Biden administration’s recent antisemitism strategy, the younger Soros also expressed opposition to the IHRA definition, stating it had been “hijacked” by some pro-Israeli groups to shield the government from accountability for its human rights policies.”

In the international sphere, British officials introduced legislation that would make it illegal for local councils to engage in Israel boycotts. Several dozen civil society organizations protested the move, stating, “If passed, this law will stifle a wide range of campaigns concerned with the arms trade, climate justice, human rights, international law, and international solidarity with oppressed peoples struggling for justice.”

At the same time, the British government’s newly confirmed “free speech czar,” Cambridge philosophy professor Arif Ahmed, stated, “The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition is an important tool for understanding how antisemitism manifests itself in the 21st century. Adopting it sends a strong signal to students and staff facing antisemitism.” but added, “it must not restrict legitimate political speech and protest.” Ahmed’s appointment had been strongly opposed by Jewish and far left critics.

The proposed legislation and Ahmed’s appointment come in the context of rising antisemitism and continued BDS efforts by various British trade union groups. These include Unison, Britain’s largest public service union, whose annual meeting adopted a resolution in support of “Amnesty International’s call on the International Criminal Court to consider the crime of apartheid,” and a BDS resolution calling for “for local government pension funds to engage with the companies they invest in and to demand they end their involvement in the occupied Palestinian territory and in the violation of Palestinian human rights.”

The continued role of trade unions in promoting BDS and antisemitism, as well as Holocaust revisionism and anti-Americanism, was highlighted in late May as the university and College Union voted in favor of another BDS resolution that framed Israel boycotts within the “honourable tradition” of Nazi boycotts. Other resolutions blamed Israel, along with other countries, for the crisis in Sudan, and accused Ukrainian President Zelenskyy of wanting that country to become an “armed, illiberal outpost of US imperialism.”

Responding to criticism of its stances, the union stated, “The University and College Union is a proudly inclusive union with a long history of fighting antisemitism and is a welcoming place for Jewish members.” Elsewhere, the National Assembly of Kosovo adopted the IHRA definition, as did the Supreme Court of Buenos Aires and the Latin American parliament.

The author is a contributor to SPME, where a version of this article was first published.