The Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, calls upon all to participate in the campaign of support for the new law graduate, Fatima Mohammed, whose revolutionary words for justice in Palestine and the world at her graduation ceremony at the City University of New York (CUNY) ignited the wrath of Zionist forces, members of Congress and opportunistic politicians. Fatima has faced a torrent of racist abuse for her clear position and commitment to liberation. In her speech — which she was elected to give by her fellow graduating students — she called to “fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism and Zionism around the world.”
Fatima, who had played a leading role in the campaign to adopt a boycott resolution against the Israeli occupation on campus, which was successfully adopted by both the student body and the faculty, stated in her speech, discussing Palestine: “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…” and emphasizing that “silence is no longer acceptable.”
Her words were greeted with warm applause and cheers from her fellow students, affirming the broad support for Palestine as an anti-racist and anti-colonial cause among the student body, reflecting a general and growing sentiment among younger generations in the U.S. and throughout the imperial core. At the same time, that very support sparked panic from an array of politicians, Zionist organizations and even the university administration, which has repeatedly attempted to suppress activism for Palestine on campus, cancelling Palestinian events, participating in junkets to colonized Palestine sponsored by Zionist groups, and even attempting to ban CUNY Law graduate and Within Our Lifetime chair Nerdeen Kiswani from speaking on campus.
The alignment of the CUNY administration with Zionist politicians, going so far as to label Fatima’s proudly anti-racist presentation “hate speech,” goes hand in hand with its partnerships with Zionist organizations, anti-worker policies, and welcoming of U.S. war criminals like Colin Powell and David Petraeus to campus.
The attacks on Fatima, on Nerdeen, on Within Our Lifetime, and on the broader movement for Palestine at CUNY come hand in hand with the growing repression targeting Palestinians and Arabs in exile and diaspora and the Palestine solidarity movement in Europe, such as in Germany, where Berlin police have banned the commemoration of the Nakba for two years, and in France, which has tried to ban the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and other Palestine organizations. This growing repression is a desperate attempt to suppress the growing resistance and powerful voice of the Palestinian liberation movement, inside and outside Palestine, confronting imperialism, Zionism and reaction.
We are inspired by Fatima’s words: “The revolution lives so loudly despite not being televised. No longer are we going to capitulate to oppressors. No longer are we going to put our hope in their depraved consciousness…We will protect the fight that brings us all closer to the fall of all oppressive institutions, a reality that is only myopic and unrealistic to the oppressors, but is the inevitable future for the oppressed people everywhere. For greater empires of destruction have fallen before, and so will these.”
We in the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement affirm our full support for the political and moral positions carried by Fatima in her graduation speech at CUNY. We call upon all Palestinian and Arab institutions and Palestine solidarity organizations to support Fatima, not only in confronting the racist and Zionist attacks by the media, politicians and even the university, but also in affirming and acting upon these revolutionary principles — confronting racism, imperialism, Zionism and capitalism — which she so clearly expressed.
Sign on to the support campaign organized by Within Our Lifetime