Columbia University has faced intense backlash from students and alumni after acquiescing President Donald Trump’s demands.
Protesters gathered outside the graduation ceremony on Wednesday to chant “Free Palestine” and raised a Palestinian flag with the words “Free Mahmoud Khalil.”
Halil, a Columbia University alumnus and Palestinian activist who helped organize the campus protests against the Israeli war of massacre held in Gaza last year, was arrested in New York on March 8th.
“Free and free Palestine,” and “You’re committed to genocide,” protesters cried out at the sound of drums in the rain.
Images from the demonstration show students burning their diplomas in protest, while others rebelliously scattered their own, leaving them covered in a daze and rag.
Police moved to extinguish the flames and arrested them, according to the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
Various American universities have witnessed such protests condemning the war on genocide in US military and political support against Gaza and the Israeli regime.
Two weeks ago, student protesters occupied the Columbia Library and urged mass arrests as administrators vowed to stricter enforcement of campus protests.
President Trump began following on the threat of deporting all non-civil university activists who have ties to the Palestinian protests that rocked the United States last spring.
Trump officials accused the students of being “hospitable to the foreign policy and national security interests” of the US over the condemnation of Israel’s months of war on genocide against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
MNA