The decision of the USC administration to refuse Asna Tabassum, a senior selected from nearly 200 candidates to give the valedictory speech at the main graduation ceremony this spring, quite clearly owed to the fact that she is a Muslim and supporter of justice for Palestinians. And from all the evidence, it resulted from Zionist pressure inside and outside the University. As this report by The Times of Israel acknowledges, “The unprecedented move came after Jewish pro-Israel groups on campus and beyond, including the campus Chabad, the USC student club Trojans for Israel and national pro-Israel activist groups, including the tens of thousands of members of the Mothers Against College Antisemitism Facebook group, put pressure on the school to disinvite Tabassum.”

USC Shoah foundation distances itself from canceled pro-Palestinian valedictorian

Asna Tabassum, whose commencement speech was called off over ‘security concerns’ after Jewish backlash, cited Spielberg-founded center as part of her minor in ‘resistance to genocide’

By ANDREW LAPIN17 April 2024, 1:42 pm

JTA – A Holocaust research center founded by Steven Spielberg has gotten embroiled in a drama over Israel-related campus speech that is dividing the University of Southern California, where the center is housed.

The USC Shoah Foundation is downplaying its role in the school’s academics after the university’s valedictorian, a pro-Palestinian student who earned a minor in “resistance to genocide,” touted her ties to the center.

After USC announced last week that Asna Tabassum would be the valedictorian, pro-Israel groups mounted a campaign against her, citing content on her Instagram page harshly criticizing Israel and Zionism. On Monday, USC’s provost barred Tabassum from delivering a commencement address, a move the campus head of security said was related to specific threats that people would attempt to disrupt the event if she spoke.

In a statement decrying the decision, Tabassum, who majored in biomedical engineering, highlighted one specific aspect of her academic career.

“I am a student of history who chose to minor in resistance to genocide, anchored by the Shoah Foundation, and have learned that ordinary people are capable of unspeakable acts of violence when they are taught hate fueled by fear,” she wrote. “And due to widespread fear, I was hoping to use my commencement speech to inspire my classmates with a message of hope. By canceling my speech, USC is only caving to fear and rewarding hatred.”

The foundation says that it wasn’t involved in her minor.

USC student Asna Tabassum speaks to ABC News, April 16, 2024 (Video screenshot)

“Despite suggestions to the contrary, our Institute is not an academic unit within the university and we do not play a formal role in the degree path of any student,” a representative for the USC Shoah Foundation told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a statement Tuesday. “Recent claims of association with the USC Shoah Foundation are inaccurate and have led to confusion about our role, values, and mission.”

The uproar at USC is the latest in a series of lightning-rod campus controversies related to the Israel-Hamas war that broke out October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and take over 250 hostages of all ages.

North America’s biggest and most prominent universities have struggled to respond to inflamed tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students and faculty. Critics have claimed that campus administrations have frequently buckled to pressure to silence speech on the topic. The president of Columbia University, whose responses to pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests have frequently made headlines, will testify before Congress on Wednesday.

Illustrative: Pro-Palestinian college students participate in a protest at Columbia University campus in New York City on November 14, 2023. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP)

Now, with graduation season nearing and student honors events already serving as venues for disruptive pro-Palestinian protests, commencements are promising to be one final frontier for Israel debates as this contentious school year draws to a close.

USC seemingly hoped to blunt this confrontation when announcing it would not allow Tabassum to speak during the May 10 ceremony, owing to what its provost said were safety concerns. The unprecedented move came after Jewish pro-Israel groups on campus and beyond, including the campus Chabad, the USC student club Trojans for Israel and national pro-Israel activist groups, including the tens of thousands of members of the Mothers Against College Antisemitism Facebook group, put pressure on the school to disinvite Tabassum.

Some cited links to posts Tabassum shared — but did not compose — on her Instagram profile that called Zionism a “racist settler-colonial ideology,” advocated for a single, binational Israeli-Palestinian state and said that “antisemitism is weaponized against Palestinians and allies … by Zionists as a way to shut down criticism of Israel.”

Responding to the posts, We Are Tov, an activist group that promotes Zionist social media content for college students, declared on Instagram that Tabassum “promotes antisemitic views” and mused, “What will she say at the podium?”

Illustrative: An Israel supporter holds up a placard saying ‘End Jew Hatred’ during a rally at Trafalgar Square, London, on October 22, 2023, amid the Gaza war. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

Some of these groups celebrated USC’s decision to cancel Tabassum’s speech. “Jew-hatred has consequences,” End Jew Hatred, a pro-Israel activist group, declared. The student’s speech, the group claimed without evidence, “was anticipated to be harmful to Jewish students and even potentially agitate anti-Jewish activists.”

Trojans for Israel had petitioned for USC to “reconsider” their selection of valedictorian, claiming the student “openly traffics in antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric” that would turn commencement into an “unwelcoming and intolerant environment for Jewish graduates and their families.”

But there was also a fierce, growing national backlash to the decision, which according to its critics amounted to silencing of pro-Palestinian speech and Muslim voices (Tabassum is a South Asian Muslim). The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, called USC’s move “cowardly”; Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar called it “shameful”; and Pulitzer Prize- and MacArthur-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, who is on the faculty at USC, also eviscerated the decision.

“I am disgusted and angered by this failure of courage and commitment on the part of the administration,” Nguyen, whose own Israel speech-related controversy led to tumult last fall at the historically Jewish cultural center 92NY, wrote on Facebook. Citing the pro-Israel groups that had targeted Tabassum, Nguyen added, “I have a hard time believing that if a Jewish student was [sic] receiving similar threats, that the university would back down.”

He concluded by questioning why any USC faculty would attend the commencement.