How a keffiyeh-wearing keynote speaker sparked boos for Jews at my UCLA graduation

UCLA's humanities commencement speaker sparks controversy by wearing a keffiyeh and delivering a speech that led to Jewish Studies graduates being booed amid campus political tensions

Isabella Brannon recently graduated from UCLA, where she majored in Study of Religion and Public Affairs, with a minor in Digital Humanities. She was Hillel President and Editor-in-Chief of UCLA's Jewish Magazine, Ha'Am.

Fragoza’s speech was laced not with intellectual nuance, but with the rhetorical certitudes of the picket line. She introduced the issue of Palestine, without irony, by recalling an episode in which she explained a watermelon-themed art project to her five-year-old with the words "Free Palestine." She submitted the child’s understanding of the issue as proof of its moral simplicity. But what she actually revealed was that the epistemology of a kindergartner animates her schema.