Protesters chanted anti-war messages and waved Palestinian flags during the University of Michigan’s graduation on Saturday, as student demonstrations against Israel-Hamas clashed with the annual pomp and circumstance of graduation season at American universities.
The protest occurred at the start of the event at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. About 75 people, many of them dressed in the traditional Arabic kaffiyeh along with their graduation caps, marched down the main aisle toward the graduation stage.
They chanted “Regents, regents, you can’t hide! You are financing the genocide!” as he held signs, including one that read: “There are no universities left in Gaza.”
Overhead, the planes launched opposing messages. One said: “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!” The other said: “We stand with Israel. Jewish lives matter.”
Authorities said no one was arrested and the protest did not seriously disrupt the nearly two-hour event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people, some of them waving Israeli flags.
State police prevented protesters from reaching the stage, and university spokeswoman Colleen Mastony said public safety personnel escorted protesters to the rear of the stadium, where they remained until the end of the event.
“Peaceful protests like this have occurred at UM graduation ceremonies for decades,” he added.
United States Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro paused several times during his remarks and at one point said, “Ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention to the podium.”
Before swearing in the military graduates, Del Toro said they would “protect the freedoms we hold dear,” including the “right to peacefully protest.”
The university allowed protesters to set up camp on campus, but police helped break up a large gathering at a graduation-related event Friday night and one person was arrested.
Michigan was among schools that prepared for protests during their graduation ceremonies this weekend, including Indiana University, Ohio State University and Northeastern University in Boston. Many more are scheduled for the coming weeks.
At Indiana University, protesters urged supporters to wear their keffiyehs and leave during President Pamela Whitten’s remarks Saturday night. The Bloomington, Indiana, campus has designated a protest zone outside of Memorial Stadium, where the ceremony will take place.
Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses across the country in recent weeks in a student movement. like no other in this century. Some schools have reached agreements with protesters to end demonstrations and reduce the possibility of disrupting final exams and graduations.
Many camps have been dismantled and protesters arrested during the police crackdown.
The Associated Press has recorded at least 61 incidents since April 18 in which arrests were made at university protests across the United States. More than 2,400 people have been arrested on 47 university campuses. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.
In Princeton, New Jersey, 18 students began a hunger strike in an effort to pressure the university to divest from companies linked to Israel.
David Chmielewski, a senior hunger striker, said in an email Saturday that the latest protest began Friday morning and participants only consumed water.
He said the hunger strike will continue until university administrators meet with students about their demands, which include amnesty from criminal and disciplinary charges for protesters.
Other protesters participate in “solidarity fasts” that last 24 hours, he said.
Princeton students set up a protest camp and some staged a sit-in at an administration building this week, leading to about 15 arrests.
Students at other universities, including Brown and Yale, launched similar hunger strikes earlier this year, before the most recent wave of protest encampments.
In other developments on Saturday, police broke up a demonstration at the University of Virginia. Campus police called it an “unlawful assembly” in a post on social platform X.
Footage from WVAW-TV showed police in tactical gear removing protesters from an encampment on the Charlottesville campus. Authorities have not said how many people were arrested.
Meanwhile, near Boston, Tufts University students peacefully dismantled their protest encampment without police intervention Friday night.
School officials in Medford, Massachusetts, said they were pleased with the development, which was not the result of any agreement with protesters. Protest organizers said in a statement that they were “deeply angry and disappointed” that negotiations with the university had failed.
The protests stem from the conflict between Israel and Hamas that began on October 1. On September 7, when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, they killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took approximately 250 hostages.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s Health Ministry. Israeli attacks have devastated the enclave and displaced most of Gaza’s residents.
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Marcelo reported from New York. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Nick Perry in Boston; and Adrian Sainz in Memphis contributed to this story.