Officials from both major political parties in the United States have been criticised for their condemnation of a speech made by a Yemeni-American graduate of The City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, in which she criticised Israel. Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres called the speaker “crazed”, while former Republican candidate for governor Lee Zeldin described the speech as “raging antisemitism”. Republican Senator Ted Cruz also criticised the speaker. However, many Palestinian rights advocates have defended the speech, stating that it contained no hate speech. Advocates argue that the vilification of the speaker is part of a wider pattern of attacks on critics of Israel in an attempt to deter criticism of the country’s policies.