City University of New York Cancels Palestinian Speaker on Nakba Day (Updated)

The West Building of City University of New York's Hunter College. SOURCE: Wikimedia Commons

Updated 5/18/2023: The Nakba Day event proceeded as planned. Hunter College alumna Nerdeen Kiswani spoke on the significance of Nakba Day for Palestinians, in particular the ongoing nature of the Nakba. The Palestine Solidarity Alliance reported 100 people attended the event.

Palestine Legal wrote to the City University of New York (CUNY) Hunter College Friday informing the college that its cancellation of Palestinian CUNY alumna, Nerdeen Kiswani, from an event commemorating the Nakba violates federal and state discrimination laws, in addition to the Constitution.

Hunter College’s Assistant Director of Student Activities informed event organizers in an email on Friday that Nerdeen Kiswani is “prohibited from participating as a featured guest, performer or speaker for your event - 1000 Nights of Resistance: Palestinian Culture Night 2023 on May 15. Nerdeen [Kiswani] may not be advertised as a speaker for your event. Failure to comply with or circumvent this directive is a violation of our code of conduct . . .” 

The event, organized by Hunter College Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA), commemorates the 75th anniversary of the massacres and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that took place surrounding the establishment of Israeli settler colonial rule in 1948, known as “Nakba Day.” On May 15 every year, Palestinians around the world mark the Nakba, or “catastrophe.”

The Hunter administrator went on to say that Nerdeen is “prohibited from speaking at Hunter,” and noted that her office had received “reports” that Nerdeen was slated to speak, implying that the censorship was due to complaints.

“Hunter has outrageously prohibited Nerdeen, a Palestinian, from speaking at an event commemorating the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, on Nakba Day. This is outright racist and unlawful,” said Amal Thabateh, Palestine Legal’s Michael Ratner Justice Fellow. “The administration cannot bar Palestinians from attending and speaking at a public university simply because Zionists complain.”

The Supreme Court has long established that public universities are bound by the First Amendment. This means that public universities may not impede campus expression because it is controversial, and may not discriminate against speech activities on the basis of viewpoint.

In a meeting earlier this month, Hunter College verbally informed PSA students that Nerdeen could not speak, as she was later added as a guest speaker after the initial event application was submitted and approved. After a PSA member followed up and asked if there was a policy barring the addition of speakers, she was told that “[w]e do not have a policy preventing clubs from adding speakers,” but that “Nerdeen cannot be added as a speaker after the fact because [the Director of Student Life] has stated that she is prohibited from speaking at Hunter.” 

See Palestine Legal’s email here.