Yesterday in “For what it’s worth” I took the case of the eight indicted “pro-Palestinian” defendants associated with the University of Michigan as illustrative. A reader kindly wrote to remind me:
Those are (some of) the students that Professor Derek Peterson praised at the University of Michigan’s commencement this year. “Sing for the pro-Palestinian student activists, who have over these past two years opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel’s war in Gaza.” As you say, one does wonder how long this can go on. And how far.
Here is a video clip.
At today’s University of Michigan graduation, Professor Derek Peterson thanked anti-Israel protesters for 2 years of campus chaos.
Turning a commencement speech into a political rant like this is grounds for termination.
Sickening. pic.twitter.com/EcXqm4uU9r
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) May 2, 2026
Professor Peterson, by the way, spoke as the outgoing chairman of the faculty senate.
In the aftermath of Professor Peterson’s speech, University of Michigan president Domenico Grasso apologized for Peterson’s “inappropriate” political remarks at the graduation ceremony, calling them “hurtful and insensitive to many members of our community.” Grasso said the comments violated the school’s policy of “institutional neutrality on political or social issues.”
Peterson responded that the text of his speech had been “conveyed to the organizers a week in advance” and altered to meet their objection to his calling Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide.” The approved text of his speech urged: “Sing for the student activists, who over these past few years have sacrificed much to open our hearts to the injustices happening in Gaza.”
Neither Grasso’s statement nor Peterson’s response was the last word. Alana Goodman reported for the Washington Free Beacon:
More than 400 professors at the University of Michigan signed an anti-Israel letter supporting a faculty leader who used his commencement speech to praise “pro-Palestinian student activists” and denounce Israel’s “war in Gaza,” calling his comments “thoughtful” and “ethically rich.”
The letter, which accused Israel of “injustice and inhumanity,” also called on the university to rescind its apology for history professor and outgoing Faculty Senate chair Derek Peterson’s controversial statements at the graduation ceremony, arguing that “nothing in Professor Peterson’s statement warrants any apology.”
“In the course of a speech celebrating students and members of the community for many efforts to make this institution better, Professor Peterson celebrated students who had, through their protests, called attention to the injustice and inhumanity with which the present government of Israel has prosecuted its war in Gaza,” the letter states. Its signatories include Reuben Kempf Professor of Economics Basit Zafar, History Department director of undergraduate studies Brian Porter-Szucs, and distinguished history professor Juan Cole, a notable anti-Israel academic who has called Israelis “genocidal psychopaths” and argued that U.S. politicians who support Israel do so to “get Jewish votes.”
President Grasso’s response is posted here. The letter of the Michigan 400 is posted here. Alana Goodman’s Free Beacon story is here. As I say, the criminal case is illustrative of the deep meaning of “pro-Palestinian.”
