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Columbia University student's mic ‘cut-off’ during anti-Israel rant at commencement ceremony
Columbia University grad was slamming college's silence over the ongoing Gaza war as her mic suddenly cut out.
During the commencement ceremony at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, a student named Saham David Ahmed Ali began delivering a speech critical of Israel. However, just moments into her address, her microphone was reportedly cut off, interrupting her remarks.
Video footage captures the instance when Ali's mic started glitching as she was discussing Columbia's response to the conflict in Gaza. Despite attempts to continue, the microphone cut off several times, leading some audience members to chant, "Let her speak."
While the audience isn’t visible, you can hear her peers cheering her on and asking for the mic to be restored. Coincidently the mic malfunctioned when she was questioning the university's stand on Isarel and police action on its premises.
The incident comes days after a Columbia University student torn apart her diploma handed at the graduation ceremony on the renowned college's New York City campus.
Saham's speech is drawing staunch criticism from netizens. “The speaker spent her entire speech providing false statistics and narratives, demanding divestment from Israeli institutions, and asking for amnesty for students who vandalized buildings and harasses Jewish students,” an Instagram user commented.
Another commented, “She has a degree in “public health”. But what is her goal other than spreading propaganda and libel? How is framing her speech around Columbia University being on “stolen land” gonna help anyone’s health?” Questioning Columbia she added, “And why on earth is Columbia University tolerating this drivel? What a waste of an education!!”
A couple of weeks back students at campuses across the U.S. were up in arms against the Gaza war by setting up encampments and calling for their schools to cut ties with Israel and businesses that support it. Several protesters were arrested after horrific visuals of police brutality inside the campuses went viral online. Police wearing riot gear arrested 19 protesters who had occupied the president's office at the college with about 1,700 undergraduates.
In a Reuters report, academics who study protest movements and the history of civil disobedience say it's difficult to maintain the people-power energy on campus if most of the people are gone. They feel these demonstrations are just one tactic in the wider pro-Palestinian movement that has existed for decades, and that this summer will provide many opportunities for the energy that started on campuses to migrate to the streets.
