Antisemitic CUNY Law Speaker Resurfaces with LA Fire Blame on Israel

JNS.org – Fatima Mousa Mohammed, the City University of New York School of Law graduate who made headlines in May for her anti-Israel commencement speech, is now blaming the Jewish state for the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.

In posts on X, Mohammed linked Gaza bombings to global climate consequences, claiming the “flames of Gaza” would affect everyone, the New York Post reported on Saturday.

On Wednesday, a day after the catastrophic Southern California blazes were sparked, she wrote: “Dropping hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs on Gaza, turning it into a blazing inferno, has consequences that extend beyond our moral condemnation—there are climate consequences that will find us all.”

A subsequent X post from her read: “You cannot care about the quality of rain failing in one part of the world while ignoring the rain of fire you help fund in others. The climate crisis will only worsen, and our complacency will only fuel the flames.”

Mohammed also wrote: “The flames of Gaza will not stop there, they will find us all if we don’t stop them. … None of us are spared in the eye of the empire.”

The January 2025 Southern California wildfires have killed at least 16 people, scorched 36,000 acres (56 square miles) and destroyed or damaged more than 12,400 structures, including homes and businesses, with the Palisades and Eaton fires causing the most damage. Nearly 180,000 residents have been evacuated, and economic losses are estimated at $52 billion–$57 billion, making it the costliest wildfire in U.S. history.

In her 12-minute CUNY commencement speech on May 12, Mohammed said that “in this moment of celebrating who we are, I want to celebrate CUNY Law as one of the few if not the only law school to make a public statement defending the right of its students to organize and speak out against Israeli settler colonialism.

“That this is the law school that passed and endorsed BDS on a student and faculty level, recognizing that absent a critical, imperialism, settler, colonialism lens, our work and this school’s mission statement is void of value,” Mohammed said.

“That as Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshippers, murdering the old, the young, attacking even funerals and graveyards, as it encourages lynch mobs to target Palestinian homes and businesses, as it imprisons its children, as it continues its project of settler colonialism, expelling Palestinians from their homes, carrying the ongoing nakba, that our silence is no longer acceptable,” she added.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was among many to condemn the talk as antisemitic. “City University of New York class day speaker slanders Israel and enthusiastically celebrates antisemitism. Cheers on open borders and releasing violent criminals from jail. And decries the ‘fascist NYPD,’” the senator tweeted. “This is a law school. Paid for with tax dollars.”

Eric Adams, mayor of New York, also responded to Mohammed’s talk.

“I was proud to offer a different message at this year’s CUNY law commencement ceremony—one that celebrates the progress of our city and country, and one that honors those who fight to keep us safe and protect our freedoms, like my uncle Joe, who died at age 19 in Vietnam while giving his life for our country,” he tweeted. “We cannot allow words of negativity and divisiveness to be the only ones our students hear.”

Michal Cotler-Wunsh, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s special envoy for combating antisemitism and a former Knesset member, called the talk, which received a standing ovation, “Orwellian” and an issue not just for Jews, but for democracy.

CUNY has faced recent criticism for antisemitic behavior. An April 6 New York Post op-ed referred to it as “America’s most antisemitic university.”

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