Rutgers Cancels Graduation Speaker Over 'Inflammatory' Comment About Israel

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — The Rutgers school of engineering just canceled its graduation speaker because of a comment he made on X where he said Israel "train(s) dogs to sexually assault prisoners."

Rami Elghandour was scheduled to speak May 15 at the Rutgers engineering school graduation. He is CEO of biotech company Arcellx and a Rutgers grad, having received his master's degree from the Rutgers School of Engineering in 2001. This is his alumni spotlight: soe.rutgers.edu/news/alumni-spotlight-rami-elghandour-eng01

The cancellation happened after graduating students told the school they would not be attending Elghandour's speech, said Rutgers spokeswoman Dory Devlin.

Devlin pointed to this comment in particular that Elghandour made on X (formerly Twitter), where he said of Israel: "They’ve committed genocide. They’re running dungeons where they train dogs to sexually assault prisoners."

After the university spoke with Elghandour about that remark, Rutgers decided to rescind its invitation for him to speak, said the school spokeswoman.

The university called the comment "inflammatory."

For years now, Elghandour has frequently criticized Israel for its actions in the Israel-Hamas war, and in the past has accused Israel of committing war crimes.

He was one of the executive producers of “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a documentary about a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli Defense Forces. The documentary is now nominated for an Oscar. Elghandour said when Rutgers first invited him to speak at graduation, it cited his funding for that film as one of the reasons why they invited him.

“Rutgers chose me in part because of my humanitarian work,” he said, according to the New Jersey Globe. “They put my role as an executive producer for the Oscar-nominated The Voice of Hind Rajab front and center. They led with my social justice advocacy. Until it was inconvenient. That’s the difference between virtue signaling and principles. One withstands challenge. The other wilts in the slightest breeze.”

Devlin said Rutgers made this decision "to keep the focus on our engineering students."

"(It) honors the celebratory spirit of the event to ensure that no graduate feels forced to choose between their personal convictions and a convocation ceremony," she said. "Convocation is a hard-earned milestone intended to celebrate the academic excellence of our graduates in a ceremony that can be enjoyed by all students and families."