2024-05-04 18:24:44
A graduation ceremony at the University of Michigan was briefly interrupted by dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters on Saturday as higher education institutions across the country that held commencements braced for more protests.
As the commencement ceremony began at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, protesters in kaffeyeh and graduation ceremonies unfurled Palestinian flags and placards as they walked through the aisles. They marched to the stage and chanted: “Regents, regents, you can’t hide! You’re funding genocide!” the New York Times reported.
One protest banner read: “No more universities in Gaza.” Others were seen waving Israeli flags.
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Campus police prevented the protesters from reaching the stage.
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Above, a plane was spotted flying over the ceremony with a banner saying: “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine”.
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Another plane had a different message: “We stand with Israel. Jewish lives matter.”
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US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro paused several times during his remarks, at one point saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, if you could please return your attention to the podium.”
No arrests have been reported.
Ahead of its commencement ceremony, the University of Michigan increased security measures – including screening and removing banners and flags. Tickets will be required for most events, CBS Detroit reports.
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Laurie McCauley, Michigan’s chief academic officer, told students and staff that the school respects free expression, but “no one has the right to disrupt university activities.”
The university allowed protesters to set up on campus, but police helped break up a large gathering on Friday night, and one person was arrested.
CBS News has reached out to the university for comment.
The ongoing Israel-Hamas war widely unleashed – at times violent – demonstrations at colleges and universities across the country the past few weeks.
In an effort to stave off potential disruptions to final exams and graduation ceremonies, a small number of universities held agreements with protesters. The agreements at schools including Brown, Northwestern and Rutgers stand amid chaotic scenes and more than 2,400 arrests on 46 campuses nationwide since April 17. Tent camps and building takeovers have disrupted classes at some schools, including Columbia and UCLA.
Acts included commitments by universities to review their investments in Israel or hear calls to stop doing business with the longtime American ally. Many protesters’ demands focused on links with the Israeli army as the war continues in Gaza.
The agreements to even discuss divestment are a major shift on an issue that has been contentious for years, with opponents of a long-running campaign to boycott Israel saying it turns into antisemitism. But while the colleges made concessions on amnesty for protesters and funding for Middle Eastern studies, they made no promises about changing their investments.
“I think for some universities it might just be a delay tactic to diffuse the protests,” said Ralph Young, a history professor who studies American dissent at Temple University in Philadelphia. “The end of the semester is happening now. And maybe by the time the next semester starts, there will be a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, the arrests of protesters continued elsewhere.
About a dozen protesters who refused police orders to camp at The New York University was arrested early Friday, and about 30 more left voluntarily, NYU spokesman John Beckman said. The school asked the city police to intervene, he added.
NYPD officers also cleared an encampment at The New School in Greenwich Village at the request of school administrators. No arrests have been announced.
Another 132 protesters were arrested when police broke up an encampment at the State University of New York at New Paltz early Thursday, authorities said.
And nine were arrested at the University of Tennessee, including seven students who Chancellor Donde Plowman said would also be sanctioned under the school’s code of conduct.
The movement began at Columbia on April 17, where student protesters built a camp to call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict in the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry there. Israel launched its offensive after October 7, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel.
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