The University of Southern California has cancelled a scheduled commencement speech by Asna Tabassum, citing unnamed security concerns after her selection as valedictorian was met with a wave of online attacks directed at her pro-Palestinian views.
“I am not surprised by those who attempt to propagate hatred. I am surprised that my own university - my home for four years - has abandoned me,” Tabassum said in a statement shared online.
On 6 April, USC announced that Tabassum was selected as valedictorian, a student with the highest academic achievements in her year, for the graduating class of 2024.
After the announcement was published on social media, Tabassum began receiving online attacks from an account named, “We Are Tov”, a group that describes itself as “dedicated to combating antisemitism”.
The university released a statement on Monday, saying that Tabassum would retain her position as valedictorian, but would not be allowed to give her commencement speech. The school said that the move was made to maintain safety on campus.
Isn’t this just human rights? The language that’s used in this conflict is a bit confusing, for example one does not have to particularly like Palestinians as a group to be against the ethnic cleansing of Palestine or the violations of human rights and international law perpetrated by Israel on a daily basis, yet they are called “pro-Palestinian”. Of course some accusations of antisemitism are intentionally deceptive to silence opposition to Israel’s regime (or labelling opposition as “pro-Hamas”), but even the conflict overall is labelled as Israel vs. Palestine when in reality it’s Israel vs. international law. Maybe this is a hasbara narrative, idk.
The kicker here is that by equating opposition to genocide with antisemitism it means that perpetrating genocide is a trait inherent in Jews, which is hella racist.
Anyway your “Palestinian human rights” phrase made me want to ask what you and others think, not trying to bash you or anything. For example, when the U.S. invaded Vietnam, those opposed to the war were called “anti-war protesters”, not “pro-Vietnam protesters”.