Asna Tabassum, the USC valedictorian who had her commencement speech canceled due to her support for Palestinian equality, received a heavy round of applause during her graduation today from the engineering school.

Asna Tabassum, the USC valedictorian who had her commencement speech canceled due to her support for Palestinian equality, received a heavy round of applause during her graduation today from the engineering school.

2024 USC canceled Asna Tabassum's valedictorian speech after receiving a wave of hate online for supporting Palestine.... please read Asna's statement in full ... https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/2024/04/2024-usc-canceled-asna-tabassums.html

There are enough weapons of war and destruction already on planet earth.

 

Dear Biden, Harris...etc... my elected leaders,

Stop funding weapon sales to foreign countries. FULL STOP!   

We must stop escalating war worldwide.   Start by sending the clear message to Russia that land grabs are wrong by firmly condemning all Israeli land grabs, illegal settlements, and bombing campaigns.

Israel has spent the past 6 months pulverizing Palestinians in Gaza with American made bombs, mainly killing women and children.  Israel's war has already killed at least 34,049 Palestinians and wounded another 76,901

Protesters worldwide loudly chant End Apartheid, Free Palestine, Stop the Genocide!

And what do American officials do- our elected leaders force American taxpayers to hand Israel more weapons and more excuses to pulverize more Palestinian homes and families.

Zionists demand that Americans "protect Jews".  What they really want is for America to arm and protect Israeli Apartheid.

Columbia U. does what it can to "protect Jews" by trying to silence Human Rights protesters who object to Israel's ongoing war on the indigenous non-Jewish people of historic Palestine.

USC cancels all graduation speakers because their best & brightest student, valedictorian Asna Tabassum, supports Palestinians on her social media accounts. Tabassum in turn urges everyone "to see past our deepest fears and recognize the need to support justice for all people, including the Palestinian people."

There are enough weapons of war and destruction already on planet earth.  The only way to build a just and lasting peace (and to protect Jews plus every one else) is to invest all energies into full respect for Human Rights for ALL human beings, regardless of supposed race or religion.  That means one state or two to end the Israel/Palestine conflict, start with FULL RESPECT for every refugee's inalienable legal and moral right to return to original homes and lands.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES  https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

"Art is the language of peace, love and life. Drawing and playing with children are the only tools of resistance I have to improve living conditions" Basel Elmaqosui of Palestine

AP News: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza city of Rafah kill 18, mostly children, as US advances aid package

In the vibrant tapestry of Palestine, Christians and Muslims intertwine as friends –each Christian cherishing a Muslim companion, and every Muslim embracing a Christian confidant. (NABLUS TAMREYAH recipe) in This Week in Palesitne

Handala- the Palestinian Refugee Child

Dismantling the culture of silence... "On Remembrance: When Words Become Our Strength"

Palestine Museum US: Today we mark the opening of the exhibition "Foreigners in Their Homeland: Occupation | Apartheid | Genocide"

"What was the crime of the Palestinian child?" a poem on Palestine by Ahmad Ibsais

Time: Imagining a Free Palestine by Ahmad Ibsais, a first-generation Palestinian American who writes the newsletter State of Siege.

Palestinian-American Poet Fady Joudah Wins $100,000 Jackson Poetry Prize 2024 “Distinguished by his courage to speak in the face of the unspeakable, in poems of lyric concision and intensity.”

Shhhh.... that's ANTI- SEMITIC

Years from now students will study the Palestinian GENOCIDE and wonder HOW DID NO ONE STOP THIS??

UN experts deeply concerned over 'scholasticide’ in Gaza 18 April 2024 “When schools are destroyed, so too are hopes and dreams.” Even UN schools sheltering forcibly displaced civilians are being bombed, including in Israeli military-designated “safe zones.” “These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society,” the experts said.

In northern Gaza, famine sets in: ‘We will eat anything’... [CSM] Reports indicate that the amount of flour entering Gaza may be ticking up slightly, but the need is urgent. Palestinian families are becoming increasingly desperate.

"I fear we are forgetting lessons from that terrible history" Eva Ladipo... My family’s past, and Germany’s, weighs heavily upon me. And it’s why I feel so strongly about Gaza

The Guardian view on the catastrophe in Gaza: it must not be overshadowed by the Iran crisis Editorial

UNRWA: A man-made famine is "tightening its grip" across Gaza

Israeli forces have killed over 33,900 Palestinians and injured over 76,000 since 7 October... Of the total killed, 13,900 of them were children.

Reuters photographer Mohammad Salem's haunting image of a grieving Palestinian woman embracing her little niece, killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, has just won the 2024 World Press Photo of the Year Award.

No Tech for Apartheid campaign ... Google fires 28 employees for protesting Israel cloud deal

Time Magazine's The 100 Most Influential People of 2024: Palestinian Photo-Journalist Motaz Azaiza "We need to stop this war.”

Stop wasting America's time and resources playing word games for racist Israel

UN rights body demands Israel be held accountable for possible war crimes..."in just six months, more humanitarians have been killed in this conflict than in any war of the modern era.”

Palestine was not an empty piece of land before Israel 

 

Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?

The UN Mediator for Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, believed that the Palestinians displaced had a right to return to their homes and wrote several UN reports to that effect.

"It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine, and, indeed, at least offer the threat of permanent replacement of the Arab refugees who have been rooted in the land for centuries."

Bernadotte was assassinated on Friday 17 September 1948 by members of the group Lehi, a Zionist terrorist organization, commonly known in the West as the Stern Gang

 

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world

 PALESTINE REMEMBERED

2024 USC canceled Asna Tabassum's valedictorian speech after receiving a wave of hate online for supporting Palestine.... please read her statement in full

Asna Tabassum: "Although this should have been a time of celebration for my family, friends, professors, and classmates, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian voices have subjected me to a campaign of racist hatred because of my uncompromising belief in human rights for all,"

Statement by University of Southern California Student Asna Tabassum, Class of 2024 Valedictorian:

I am honored to have been selected as USC Class of 2024 Valedictorian. Although this should have been a time of celebration for my family, friends, professors, and classmates, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian voices have subjected me to a campaign of racist hatred because of my uncompromising belief in human rights for all.

This campaign to prevent me from addressing my peers at commencement has evidently accomplished its goal: today, USC administrators informed me that the university will no longer allow me to speak at commencement due to supposed security concerns. I am both shocked by this decision and profoundly disappointed that the University is succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice.

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.

In a meeting with the USC Provost and the Associate Senior Vice President of Safety and Risk Assurance on April 14, I asked about the alleged safety concerns and was told that the University had the resources to take appropriate safety measures for my valedictory speech, but that they would not be doing so since increased security protections is not what the University wants to “present as an image.”

Because I am not aware of any specific threats against me or the university, because my request for the details underlying the university’s threat assessment has been denied, and because I am not being provided any increased safety to be able to speak at commencement, there remain serious doubts about whether USC’s decision to revoke my invitation to speak is made solely on the basis of safety.

Instead of allowing the campaign of hatred to define who I am and what I stand for, let me therefore take this opportunity to tell you about myself.

I am a first-generation South Asian-American Muslim whose passion for service stems from the experience of my grandparents, who were unable to access lifesaving medical technology because they had been displaced by communal violence.

I am a biomedical engineer who learned the meaning of health equity through developing low- cost and accessible jaundice for babies whose darker skin color conceals the visual yellowing of their complexion.

I am a proud Trojan who loves my campus that has enabled me to go from building a walker to shipping medical gowns to Ukraine to writing about the Rwandan Genocide to taking blood pressure measurements for our neighbors in Skid Row.

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. 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.

My identities and experiences inspired me to think outside the box—a mindset I cultivated at USC, and it is this very quality that contributed to my selection as USC Valedictorian.

As your class Valedictorian, I implore my USC classmates to think outside the box—to work towards a world where cries for equality and human dignity are not manipulated to be expressions of hatred. 

I challenge us to respond to ideological discomfort with dialogue and learning, not bigotry and censorship. And I urge us to see past our deepest fears and recognize the need to support justice for all people, including the Palestinian people.

Tabassum, who is South Asian-American and Muslim, said in a statement that as a result of the backlash, she has faced "a campaign of racist hatred because of my uncompromising belief in human rights for all."  NPR NEWS  https://www.npr.org/2024/04/16/1244990599/usc-valedictorian-speech-canceled

 

USC canceled Asna Tabassum's valedictorian speech after she received a wave of hate online for supporting Palestine.

On Tuesday, April 6, the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism announced on social media that USC student Asna Tabassum was selected as valedictorian for the class of 2024. Shortly after the announcement, she began receiving harassment online from a social media account called 'We Are Tov,' which reportedly launched a dishonest and defamatory attack against Asna and created a petition calling on USC to remove her from the position of valedictorian.  

USC released a statement on Monday, April 15, stating that while Asna would retain the title of valedictorian, she would not be allowed to speak during the commencement ceremony due to the hate campaign against her "to maintain the safety of our campus and students." 

For what may be the first time in USC history, the school's commencement ceremony will not include a speech from its valedictorian. This decision to cancel Asna's speech empowers voices of hate, violates USC's obligation to protect its students, and sends a terrible message to not only Muslim students at USC but all students who dare to express support for Palestinian humanity. CAIR PETITION   https://cair-la.salsalabs.org/usc-cancels-valedictorian-speech/index.html

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages. The UDHR is widely recognized as having inspired, and paved the way for, the adoption of more than seventy human rights treaties, applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels (all containing references to it in their preambles).