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Pro-Palestinian protest disrupts University of Michigan graduation ceremony as schools prepare for graduation ceremonies
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Pro-Palestinian protest disrupts University of Michigan graduation ceremony as schools prepare for graduation ceremonies

Pro-Palestinian protesters marched to the University of Michigan’s graduation stage on Saturday as ongoing campus protests over Israel’s Gaza conflict spill into graduation season.

In videos taken by eyewitnesses at Michigan Stadium, dozens of protesters can be seen walking through the aisles with Palestinian flags. Protesters can be heard chanting slogans such as “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” and “Israel is bombing, the University of Michigan is paying, how many children have you killed today?”

The protest took place at the start of Saturday’s ceremony, which passed without incident. The school’s campus police prevented protesters from fully reaching the stage and herded them to the back of the stadium. The New York Times Reports. No arrests were made at the graduation ceremony, but video from the previous evening shows Michigan State Police cracking down on protesting students outside the University of Michigan Museum of Art, leading to at least one arrest, according to nonprofit news outlet Bridge Michigan.

Michigan State Police did not return immediately Rolling StonePlease leave a comment.

Fears of pro-Palestinian protesters disrupting graduation ceremonies have plagued universities for weeks before the ceremonies are scheduled to take place. The University of Southern California canceled its main graduation ceremony last week as the fallout from banning the school’s valedictorian from giving a commencement speech grows.

In another case, the University of Vermont canceled its commencement speaker, UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, on Friday after she vetoed resolutions calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, sparking student protests against her appearance.

Although student protests against the Gaza war have been taking place since the conflict began on October 7, the movement gained significant attention after Columbia University students set up their Gaza Solidarity Camp on April 17 and demanded that the university remove its funding from Israel or it would continue to occupy the campus.

In the weeks that followed, dozens of Gaza solidarity camps sprung up on campuses across the country. Some universities, such as Brown University and Pomona College, heeded student calls to stop further protests, while other universities, such as Columbia University and UCLA, called the police, further escalating the already tense situation on campus. More than 2,000 protesting students were arrested last month, according to the Related Press.

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