UMass Boston's Commencement Speech Was a Great Disappointment.

Where is the talk of genocide? Where is the mass walkout?

Ever since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict re-erupted in October 2023, we at The Flickering Beacon knew one thing for certain: graduation season was going to be a goldmine. And lo! The hordes of Hamas-loving commencement crusaders did not disappoint.

It started even before October 7, 2023. We all remember greatest hits like CUNY Law’s Yemeni-American Fatima Mousa Mohammed, who used her moment in the spotlight back in May 2023 to denounce the U.S. as “an empire with a ravenous appetite for destruction and violence” - unlike, say, Yemen, that internationally acclaimed beacon of liberal democracy and women’s rights. Prescient. She later blamed Israel for the LA fires. You can’t make this one up.

After October 7 all hell broke loose. There were the Harvard students who boycotted their own graduation (real power move there), and the now-legendary walkouts during Commencement speeches, most famously Jerry Seinfeld’s speech at Duke University, because nothing screams “Free Palestine” like grinning Keffiyeh-clad activists waving at the camera and giving the world famous Jewish, pro-Israel comedian even more publicity. Well done, team.

2025 did not disappoint either. MIT’s own Megha Vemuri ascended the stage in a pre-commencement event, red keffiyeh around her neck, and bravely condemned her university for ties to Israel. MIT later claimed she went “off-script” - shocking! Who could’ve seen that coming? She even managed to get herself banned from her own ceremony. Hope it was worth it. By the way - Megha, sweety, the red keffiyeh is mostly associated with Jordan, who some claim is the real Palestinian state. Just saying.

Next up: Harvard Divinity’s Zehra Imam, who went for a bold fashion choice with a keffiyeh as a headdress and praised a classmate accused of assaulting an Israeli student. “Our liberations are intertwined,” she declared - unless, of course, you’re Jewish. Again, Harvard was shocked that someone they knowingly picked to speak might go off script veer into anti-Israel territory. Who could've imagined?

Needless to say, our hopes for our own institution’s Commencement Speech were sky-high. We at UMass Boston finally got our R1 classification - allegedly a serious university now - so it was time to act like the big guys and put on a real commencement show, keffiyeh, free Palestine and all.

Enter Basim Naeem: the 2025 JFK Award winner and Commencement speaker, Co-founder of the Pakistani Student Association, Secretary of the Muslim Student Association - such a promising résumé! So much potential! We grabbed our popcorn.

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And then… disappointment.

Basim took the stage without a keffiyeh. Not even a Palestinian flag pin. We were devastated. Sure, he opened with “Asalaam Alaikum” - a flicker of hope - but it went downhill fast. He thanked his family. He talked about research. He urged optimism. He joked about his beard and Kanye West. He even quoted Winnie the Pooh.

Excuse us, what??!!

Where was the mention of Israeli settler-colonialism? Where were the denunciations of the EVIL, IMPERIALIST USA? The calls to boycott, Divest and sanction? The flaming denunciations of the Zionist entity?

Toward the end, our hearts leapt when he mentioned the “atrocities in Gaza”. The audience cheered, and so did we (for different reasons). But then? He had the audacity to mention Haiti, Kashmir, Syria, Somalia, and Sudan in the same breath.

How dare he dilute the sacred singularity of Israel’s villainy? Doesn’t he know the first commandment of campus discourse?
Thou shalt not mention any other global conflict in the same sentence as Israel, except maybe the U.S., if you're feeling spicy.

See for example here:

So to the JFK selection committee: do better. We’re R1 now. Start acting like it.

And to the Class of 2025: congratulations! And also… we expected more rage.