Hamas is oppressing the Palestinian people, not the Israeli Government

By Bryan Leib

On May 12, City University of New York (CUNY) Law School student Fatima Mohammed stepped up to the podium to deliver what was supposed to be a commencement address. Instead, she delivered 10 minutes of unadulterated Jew hatred to loud and sustained applause.

Her vulgar remarks received well-earned condemnation from Jewish and non-Jewish groups, federal, state, and local lawmakers from both the left and the right, celebrities and average Americans.

But in a July 27th op-ed in the Nation, Ms. Mohammed expressed no regrets, only grievances.

Let’s get one thing straight, Fatima has a long track record of making anti-Israel comments. Over the years, she has routinely called for Zionist free zones on her college campus. Did she also advocate for Palestinian terrorist free zones who murder innocent Israelis? I hardly doubt it.

Furthermore, no one has attacked Fatima. She was not physically harmed or in her words “targeted”. Not at all but she was most certainly called out for spreading lies about the Jewish community, Zionism, and Israel.

Democrats and Republicans at the local, state, and federal levels spoke out regarding what any American would call a hate filled speech.

Fatima said in her piece “I will not apologize for fulfilling my moral obligation to call out oppressive institutions and regimes wherever they exist. Rather than targeting people like me who shine a light on that reality, perhaps Israel’s defenders should instead choose to stand on the right side of history and work to end Israeli apartheid.”

Regarding the first part of this statement; I’m willing to bet she has never once called out the Islamic Republic of Iran for their brutal treatment of women, gays and lesbians and the innocent Iranian citizen who tries to speak out against the oppressive regime in Tehran. Fatima has likely remained silent as well as the Regime in Tehran has executed over 600 of their citizens this year.

Regarding the second part of her statement, I think it’s fascinating that Fatima uses the word “targeting” because when we look at who targets who in Israel, the facts are this; Israel targets Palestinian terrorists, Palestinian terrorists target Israeli civilians.

As I read on, I see Fatima using the same talking points that Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar use on a weekly basis with Fatima saying “While some members of Congress and the mayor express outrage at my words, they have nothing to say about Israel’s brutal and racist oppression of Palestinians, something that all major human rights organizations have described as a form of apartheid.”

Perhaps Members of Congress haven’t said anything about this alleged “brutal and racist oppression” of Palestinians because there isn’t any oppression from Israel’s government.

Actually, the truth is the governments that the Palestinian people elected in Gaza are the ones responsible for this oppression. Many Palestinians in the Gaza strip live well below the poverty line without basic human rights.

Women are second class citizens.

Gays and lesbians have to live their lives in secret.

Is that human rights?

We saw this play out over the weekend as several thousand people took to the streets across the Gaza Strip on Sunday to protest chronic power outages and difficult living conditions, providing a rare public show of discontent with the territory’s Hamas government.

In closing, I was one of the individuals who spoke out and condemned Fatima’s speech and track record of spreading lies and inciting violence against the Jewish community.

I will not retract my statements. Shame on Fatima Mohammed for knowingly spreading lies, just like her heroes in Congress do all the time.

Bryan E. Leib is the Executive Director of CASEPAC, the nation’s only Federal PAC dedicated to combating Antisemitism. He can be reached at [email protected]