Dozens of students walked out of Duke University’s commencement ceremony on Sunday as some chanted “free Palestine” to protest against its guest speaker, the comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who has supported Israel throughout the war in Gaza.
Figures in robes and caps, some waving Palestinian flags, filed out of crowds of graduates assembled on the grass in the North Carolina university’s football stadium.
Several attendees also left the viewing stands, including a person wearing a keffiyeh, which can be an emblem of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Others shouted “Jerry! Jerry!” as the actor received an honorary degree, and Seinfeld delivered his speech without major interruptions.
“A lot of you are thinking, ‘I can’t believe they invited this guy.’ Too late,” he said, after vowing to “defend” the concept of privilege.
“I say, use your privilege. I grew up a Jewish boy from New York. That is a privilege if you want to be a comedian,” he added.
“We understand the depth of feeling in our community, and as we have all year, we respect the right of everyone at Duke to express their views peacefully, without preventing graduates and their families from celebrating their achievement,” said a Duke spokesperson, Frank Tramble, in a statement.
Seinfeld visited Israel and has vocally supported it since 7 October, when the militant group Hamas killed 1,200 people and abducted 252 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Meanwhile, Israel’s military operations have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.
The White House said on Tuesday that Joe Biden welcomed peaceful protests at college commencement ceremonies where he and other administration officials will speak.
The walkout at Duke’s graduation was the latest manifestation of protests that have roiled US campuses as students call for universities to divest from arms suppliers and other companies profiting from the war, and amnesty for students and faculty who have been disciplined or fired for protesting.
At Emerson College in Boston, chants interrupted remarks by the school’s president during its commencement ceremony on Sunday. Some students could be seen on a recording of the event walking across the stage to receive their degrees carrying signs of their support for Palestinians, including one woman who unfurled a Palestinian flag.
Police escorted graduates’ families past a few dozen pro-Palestinian protesters who tried to block access to Sunday evening’s commencement for southern California’s Pomona College.
After demonstrators set up an encampment last week on the campus’s ceremony stage, the school had moved the celebrations to the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles.
At the University of California, Berkeley, on Saturday, a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators waved flags and chanted during commencement and were escorted to the back of the stadium, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The protests have prompted US universities such as Columbia in New York and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles to cancel their main graduation ceremonies this month. Other colleges and universities have relocated or modified commencement ceremonies.
