Rami Elghandour — a Rutgers School of Engineering graduate, biotech executive, and executive producer of the Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab — was invited to deliver the commencement address at his alma mater's engineering graduation next week. Then, after "a few" students complained about his pro-Palestinian social media posts, the dean quietly disinvited him.
The entire graduating class lost their commencement speaker because of a handful of complaints about one alumnus's political opinions expressed on social media.
Elghandour had written on X that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza — a characterization shared by leading human rights organizations and Holocaust scholars — and referenced allegations of abuse in Israeli detention facilities that have been documented by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and CAIR. A Quinnipiac poll last August found that 60 percent of American voters across all parties support suspending U.S. military aid to Israel.
These are not fringe views. They are contested, deeply felt positions on one of the most debated foreign policy questions of our time.
A journalism professor at Rutgers who is Jewish called the university's decision "the definition of viewpoint censorship." Faculty members have publicly called on Rutgers to reverse course. Elghandour himself said the message being sent is stark: "Don't dare stand for anything. Don't dare speak up."
Rutgers chose Elghandour precisely because of his humanitarian work and social justice advocacy. Withdrawing that invitation the moment it became uncomfortable is not principled leadership — it is exactly the kind of institutional cowardice that a commencement address should challenge graduates to rise above.
Sign this petition to demand that Rutgers University restore Rami Elghandour's invitation and let him speak to the graduating class.