Police officers removed anti-Israel protesters who disrupted the University of Michigan's commencement ceremony this weekend.
Many graduates at Michigan Stadium walked out to protest the Israel-Hamas war while others chanted “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” and flew Palestinian flags.
Other frustrated students who could be heard chanting in response: “Shut the f*** up.”
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A plane pulling a banner could be seen over the university with the message: “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!”
During the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre & Dance commencement ceremony on Friday, protesters displayed signs with messages like “UM funds genocide” and “ACAB,” an acronym for all cops are bastards.
Police arrived within a few minutes.
Despite the interruption, the speeches continued.
The Detroit News reports:
The protesters assembled while U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro was addressing ROTC graduates.“It is indeed these young men and women who will protect the freedoms that we so cherish as Americans in our Constitution of the United States, which includes the right to protest peacefully,” Del Toro said of the ROTC graduates as the protesters remained gathered at the center aisle.Administrators and Michigan State Police officers stood around the protesters, moving quickly toward those that stood up from their seats bearing Palestinian flags.
The protest drew a mix of boos and cheers. The students then moved to the back of the stadium and remained there through the ceremony.
Hundreds of graduates wore keffiyehs or keffiyeh stoles with their graduation regalia. Some graduates said they chose to wear the traditional scarf associated with Palestinian heritage as an act of personal protest.“This seems like the smallest act of resistance that we can participate in right now,” said Andrea Márquez, a 24-year-old graduating with a master's degree in educational studies.
Celebrating her graduation is very meaningful for Márquez's family, as she is a first-generation, low-income student, she said.Watching university administrators largely ignore student calls for divestment, as the International Court of Justice weighs allegations of genocide against Israel, has been immensely disappointing, Márquez said.That disappointment partially eclipsed the day's festivities for some students, said Alana Hurd, a 24-year-old graduate in the same program.“It doesn't feel good,” she said. “It doesn't feel the way you'd want a graduation to feel. But that is a small, small inconvenience for us. It's more about feeling the heaviness of the incomprehensible amount of lives that have been lost.”
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