A City University of New York Law graduate, Fatima Mohammed, whose commencement speech ignited a firestorm of criticism over what some critics called her “antisemitic” and “incendiary anti-Israel propaganda,” is breaking her silence since the speech.

Ms. Mohammed spoke with Jewish Currents concerning her speech at the CUNY Law commencement ceremony and the fallout that ensued. “I would not change a single word of my speech — and I would say it louder,” Ms. Mohammed told the publication.

In her speech, Ms. Mohammed accused Israel of “indiscriminately rain[ing] bullets and bombs on worshippers, murdering the old [and] the young,” and encouraging “lynch mobs to target Palestinian homes and businesses.”

Ms. Mohammed also commented on New York politics in accusing the New York Police Department of being “fascist” and praising the school for recognizing “that the law is a manifestation of white supremacy.” 

The speech sparked immediate backlash from the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, which called the speech “incendiary anti-Israel propaganda” and accused Ms. Mohammed of “trading in antisemitic tropes.”

The speech also attracted criticism from local politicians like Congressman Ritchie Torres, who accused Ms. Mohammed of being “crazed by hatred for Israel,” and Mayor Adams.

“We cannot allow words of negativity and divisiveness to be the only ones our students hear,” Mr. Adams said in a statement. Her speech also landed her on the front of the New York Post, which called Ms. Mohammed a “Stark Raving Grad.”

In her Jewish Currents interview, Ms. Mohammed said that some of the attacks against her became personal, recounting one message she received over LinkedIn where users messaged her, “I would pay to see you get killed” and “I can’t wait until we’re at your funeral.”

Ms. Mohammed also claimed that she had been the victim of a “smear campaign” and as part “of a coordinated effort to stifle Palestine organizing on campus.”

One of her most prominent critics was the former congressman and gubernatorial candidate, Lee Zeldin, who said, “raging antisemitism has fully consumed the City University of New York. Until the administration is overhauled and all Jewish students and faculty are welcome again, taxpayer funding must be immediately halted.”

Ms. Mohammed responded to these calls for defunding, saying that CUNY students had been “vocal in resisting racism, protesting the role of the military-industrial complex, protesting the privatization of higher education, and supporting global movements of liberation from South Africa to Puerto Rico to Palestine.”