According to the [New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/23/nyregion/pro-palestinian-walkout-cuny-law-ceremony.html?searchResultPosition=2 so administrators) for two years in a row the commencement speeches at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law have focussed on the need for justice in Palestine. (Even Mayor Eric Adams felt compelled to complain about the “divisiveness” of the commencement speech at last year’s ceremony which dealt with “Israeli settler colonialism.") So this year the CUNY law school administrators canceled all speeches at the graduation ceremony on May 23 which took place at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
But the plan backfired. The students were chanting for justice, displayed banners and many signs, and eventually staged a walk-out, joined by many professors. One banner read, “Free them all, from Riker’s to Rafah.” One of the chants was, “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!” Almost all of the students’ seats were empty and guests were cheering each of the activists. The law school released a statement that they were, “proud of all 201 members of the Class of 2024.”