Rutgers Rescinds Graduation Speech Invitation Over Speaker’s Social Media Posts on Palestine

Rutgers University rescinded its invitation to Rami Elghandour to deliver a graduation address scheduled for 15 May at its New Brunswick, New Jersey campus. The decision followed complaints from some graduating students about social media posts he had published about Palestine.

Elghandour, a graduate of Rutgers’ School of Engineering, is a tech entrepreneur, chair and CEO of the biotechnology company Arcellx, and executive producer of the Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab. He told the Guardian in an interview that the school’s dean, Alberto Cuitiño, called him last week to inform him of the cancellation.

Cuitiño described the posts as “opposed to their beliefs” but declined to specify how many students complained or which posts were at issue, according to Elghandour. ” A spokesperson for Rutgers confirmed the university had rescinded the invitation after the engineering school was informed that some graduating students would not attend their graduation ceremony due to concerns about the invited speaker’s social media posts.

The spokesperson noted that the event is one of many planned as part of graduation at the public university, which has more than 70,000 students. “This decision keeps the focus on our engineering students and honors the celebratory spirit of the event to ensure that no graduate feels forced to choose between their personal convictions and a convocation ceremony,” the spokesperson said.

Elghandour said he was puzzled by the cancellation because the university had previously celebrated him as an “impassioned champion” of gender fairness, social mobility, and “principled leadership,” including noting his work on two films about Gaza.

He added that he had spoken at an on-campus fireside chat with Cuitiño earlier this year during which the topic of Palestine came up repeatedly without complaints. He said he had not planned to discuss Palestine in the speech but instead intended to speak about “kindness being a superpower” and how to succeed “without compromising your beliefs,” a subject students had often asked him about.

Elghandour stated that he had previously brought in a law firm to review his social media history, which found no hate speech, violence or violations of his company’s code of conduct. “I think [Palestine] is the moral issue of our time and I believe it’s been used to undermine democratic institutions in the US,” Elghandour said.

New York University has banned some live speeches at this year’s ceremonies, while the City University of New York’s Law School has banned student speeches altogether and the College of Staten Island is pre-recording student speeches. In recent years, dozens of students have protested or walked out of ceremonies, and some graduates have used their speeches to express support for Palestinians’ rights.

Universities have denounced some of those statements and, in at least one case, withheld a diploma. Last month, a George Washington University alumna sued the school after being barred from campus for criticizing its ties to Israel during a graduation speech.

Last week at the University of Michigan, a history professor’s remarks paying tribute to pro-Palestinian student activists drew backlash, an apology from the university president, and a faculty response defending academic freedom.