A Brave Young Man

I sometimes wonder, had social media existed in its present form when I was teaching, would I have posted as I do today? Would I have been willing to risk my career in order to address issues of importance and controversy? While it's true I used to be a prolific letter-to-the-editor devotee and had many articles published, receiving the imprimatur of a newspaper, with its specific guidelines and restrictions, is far different from publishing one's thoughts in a blog or any other social media forum.

Would you jeopardize your career and your future to stay true to your principles? One young man, Logan Rozos, has made that brave, principled and dangerous choice. Please watch the following video of his valedictory address at his NYU graduation ceremony. Listen carefully to his words. I will discuss the immediate consequences afterward.

We live in a time when any criticism of Israel is conflated with raging anti-semitism. We live in an age when groupthink demands that the carnage, the eradication of innocent Palestinian lives, be interpreted simply as acts of self-defence. However, to deviate from the official narrative, to address the monstrously malignant actions of Israel today, can only be seen by fair-minded people as a singular act of courage.

But there are consequences for rectitude. The backlash from the university was almost immediate.

New York University said it is withholding the diploma of a student who used his commencement speech to condemn Israel’s war in Gaza and what he referred to as the United States’ “complicity in this genocide.”

 Pro-Israeli groups demanded that NYU take action after footage of the speech was shared online. The university issued an apology the same day and announced it would withhold the student’s diploma while it pursues disciplinary action against him.

NYU spokesman John Beckman said in a Wednesday statement that the student “lied about the speech he was going to deliver” and misused his role “to express his personal and one-sided political views.”

“NYU is deeply sorry that the audience was subjected to these remarks and that this moment was stolen by someone who abused a privilege that was conferred upon him,” Beckman said. 

Perhaps that craven response is to be expected. After all, universities are under assault from the Trump regime, and many seem willing to abandon their traditional positions as bastions of free thought and expression.

When it comes to facts that portray the truth about Israel's genocide in Gaza, it would seem that American First Amendment rights protecting free speech are quickly jettisoned.

The New York and New Jersey branch of the Anti Defamation League wrote on X that it was “appalled” by the speech, adding: “We are thankful to the NYU administration for their strong condemnation and their pursuit of disciplinary action.”

Another group, #EndJewHatred, suggested the speech would violate the university’s student-conduct guidelines, which were updated last year in response to a lawsuit over three Jewish students’ allegations of antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Criticism now must be very qualified and limited.

In April, the former head of medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) alleged that there was a “climate of fear” among major universities after NYU canceled a lecture she was due to give. Officials at the NYU’s medical center told her references to the Trump administration’s cuts to foreign aid in her planned presentation could be seen as “anti-government” and “antisemitic,” she said.

I don't want to end this post leaving you with the impression that Rozos has no support.

In a statement Thursday, Afaf Nasher, the executive director of the New York branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations praised the student “for using this opportunity to demand an end to the bloodshed in Gaza” and demanded NYU end its disciplinary process against him.

In closing, there is a line from King Lear that I have been thinking a lot about in recent weeks.  Albany rebukes his wicked wife Goneril for her terrible mistreatment of her father, the king:

Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile. 

That's all I have to say.