Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
ZOA is horrified that UCLA is giving the keynote commencement speech honor tomorrow to antisemitic Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors – who calls for destroying the Jewish State of Israel.
At a Harvard Law School panel in 2015, entitled “Globalizing Ferguson: Racialized Policing and International Resistance,” Cullors called for students to “step up boldly and courageously to end the imperialist project that’s called Israel”; absurdly described the Palestinian Arab cause as “our generation’s South Africa”; and declared that “we’re doomed” if Israel is not brought to an “end.” (See “BLM Co-Founder Called in 2015 to ‘End Imperialist Project’ of Israel,” by Samuel Chamberlain, New York Post, May 30, 2021.)
It is an utter antisemitic racist disgrace to have a keynote speaker at a university commencement who calls for the annihilation of the Jewish state.
And while Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas was launching 4,340 rockets to massacre innocent Israeli civilians, the Black Lives Matter organization that Cullors co-founded sided with Hamas. BLM tweeted:
Black Lives Matter
@Blklivesmatter
Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Palestinians. We are a movement committed to ending settler colonialism in all forms and will continue to advocate for Palestinian liberation. (always have. And always will be). #freepalestine
9:52 AM · May 17, 2021
“Ending settler colonialism” is yet another defamatory phrase used by Cullors and BLM to demand Israel’s annihilation.
Cullors also took an anti-Israel trip to Israel (which Cullors called “occupied Palestine”), sponsored by the PFLP-terror-group-affiliated “Dream Defenders.” (See “American NGOs are Intertwined with PFLP Terrot Group,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.) Cullors then declared in an Ebony Magazine article: “This is an apartheid state. We can’t deny that, and if we do deny it we are a part of the Zionist violence. There are two different systems here in occupied Palestine. Two completely different systems. Folks are unable to go to parts of their own country. Folks are barred from their own country.”
Cullors’ defamatory accusations of “apartheid” and “Zionist violence” against the human rights-loving-and-observing state of Israel should disqualify Cullors from giving a keynote speech.
What sort of message does UCLA’s choice of Cullors send to young people? Does UCLA want to inspire its graduates to be haters and antisemites? How in the world could UCLA Luskin Dean Gary Segura say that Jew-hating, Israel-hating, Marxist, America-hating, blood libel-spreader Cullors “is the ideal person to deliver a message of mission to our 2021 graduates”? Sick!!
Notably, UCLA has a large population of Jewish students—2,500 Jewish undergraduates and 600 graduate students. UCLA’s selection of an antisemite such as Cullors to give the keynote speech is insensitive, cruel, and insulting to Jewish students who are already under attack at UCLA and other universities.
And what about the Black community that Cullors has been profiting off of? Cullors used her BLM-gotten gains to go on a $3.2 million dollar real estate buying spree. Meanwhile, grief-stricken Black mothers condemned Cullors for profiting from the deaths of their sons. (See “Mothers Criticize BLM Activists for Profiting Off Their Dead Sons,” by Isabel Vincent, New York Post, May 29, 2021.) Does UCLA want its graduates to aspire to become race-hustlers like Patrisse Cullors?
Shame on UCLA. A major public apology from UCLA, its president, and its Board is in order.