[IsraelTimes] Claire Shipman acknowledges detained anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil, says democratic norms ‘cannot be taken for granted,’ as some boo and anti-Israel protesters gather outside campus Columbia University’s acting president, Claire Shipman, backed international students’ rights amid anti-Israel protests and a crackdown by the Trump administration during the university’s commencement ceremony on Wednesday.
"We firmly believe that our international students have the same right to freedom of speech as everyone else, and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising that right," Shipman said to the 16,000 in attendance.
"I know many in our community today are mourning the absence of our graduate Mahmoud Khalil," she said, referring to an anti-Israel protest leader who was arrested by immigration enforcement in March and remains detained.
Cheers and boos were audible as Shipman delivered her speech in the drizzling rain. Some students and faculty wore keffiyehs to the ceremony, video showed, while at least one man waved an Israeli flag.
"Democracy is not inevitable," Shipman said, recounting her experience as a journalist reporting in the repressive Soviet Union.
"Our norms and our systems cannot be taken for granted," she said.
As Shipman spoke, dozens of anti-Israel protesters gathered across the street from the university’s gates. The demonstrators chanted, "Intifada people’s war," "Paleostine is Arab," and "Columbia you’re a liar, you set Paleostine on fire."
There was a heavy police presence in the area and officers manned metal barricades preventing the protesters from reaching the university’s entrance. The campus is closed to the public and security personnel checked bags as graduates and their families filed in for the ceremony.
At least one person was arrested at the protest.
A group of about 10 alumni said at the protest that they were burning their diplomas to protest Columbia’s cooperation with the Trump administration and actions against the anti-Israel protesters. They were unable to light the diplomas on fire due to the rain and tore the documents to pieces instead."We will keep fighting alongside students in solidarity with Paleostine until Columbia divests, until Paleostine is free, from the river to the sea," one of the alumni said.
A Columbia spokesperson said, "The university planned and prepared for commencement for months to ensure a safe and celebratory event for the tens of thousands of attendees who joined us on campus, and we are pleased that thousands of our graduates and their families and guests were able to enjoy the events."
"The NYPD managed the small group of protesters outside the gates while the commencement festivities carried on successfully on campus," the spokesperson said.
At a smaller commencement ceremony for Columbia College on Tuesday, students booed and shouted at Shipman as she spoke, saying, "You arrested us." Shipman called the police onto campus earlier this month after anti-Israel activists invaded a campus library and refused to leave, disrupting other students’ studies ahead of final exams. Dozens of students were suspended after the protest.
The university’s swift reaction marked a stark contrast to last year, when administrators held drawn-out negotiations with protesters occupying the campus lawn. Pro-Israel students and faculty praised Shipman’s response to the library protest.
Ahead of Wednesday’s university-wide commencement, an announcement warned against interrupting the event and said disruptive attendees would be asked to leave the ceremony.
The university’s coalition of anti-Israel protest groups, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, sent a message to its followers ahead of the ceremony urging them to protest at the event.
"We have a duty to rise. We have a duty to disrupt," the message said. "Glory to the Martyrs! Victory to the Resistance®!"
In the past, the group, with Khalil among its leaders, has voiced open support for violence and terror groups.
Last year, the university canceled its commencement due to raucous anti-Israel protests on the campus.
Jewish and Israeli students have reported ostracization and discrimination on campus since the anti-Israel protests erupted immediately after Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...’s October 2023 invasion.
An independent task force established by the university reported "crushing" discrimination against the students in a lengthy report issued last year.
The Trump administration has put heavy pressure on the university in recent months, citing campus antisemitism, including by halting hundreds of millions in government funding and demanding administrative reforms.
Last week, New York University said it would deny a diploma to a student who used a graduation speech at NYU’s Gallatin School to condemn Israel. An NYU spokesperson apologized for the speech, accused the student of misusing his platform "to express his personal and one-sided political views," and lying to event organizers about the speech. At NYU’s campus-wide commencement ceremony last week, a small number of pro-Paleostinian students booed and heckled the university president, Linda Mills, without causing any significant disruptions.