Lavine denounces CUNY Law ‘hate-filled’ speech

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“The conduct did not occur in a vacuum,” Lavine said in the letter.

“It was enabled by CUNY refusing to take meaningful action when the Law School Government Association and the law school faculty endorsed the BDS movement against Israel, setting the stage for the hateflled diatribe.”

The letter also said that the speech paints America as a “colonial imperialistic nation imprisoning innocent people.”

Lavine demanded in his letter that the chancellor, CUNY Board of Trustees and the dean of the law school denounce the speech. He also requested the university to establish a Jewish advisory council to develop a written policy to address the issue.

A May 30 statement from CUNY and its chancellor acknowledged Mohammed’s speech as hatespeech, condemning it.

“This speech is particularly unacceptable at a ceremony celebrating the achievements of a wide diversity of graduates, and hurtful to the entire CUNY community, which was founded on the principle of equal access and opportunity,” the university stated. “CUNY’s commit- ment to protecting and supporting our students has not wavered throughout our 175-year existence and we cannot and will not condone hateful rhetoric on our campuses.”

Dozens of CUNY School of Law faculty have since expressed support for Mohammed and asked for the university to retract its statement denouncing her speech, who has since received threats and ha- rassment, as reported by The Gothamist.

“The implication that an elected-student speaker at an institution devoted to social justice and human rights was applauded by her peers, faculty, and attendees for engaging in ‘hate speech’ is an afront to both the student speaker and our entire community,” the faculty letter states, as reported by The Gothamist.