Anti-Israel Columbia grads wear zip ties, rip diplomas on stage during commencement
Defiant Columbia University graduates wore zip-tie handcuffs, brandished pro-Palestinian signs and even went as far as tearing up a diploma on stage during the Ivy League’s first commencement ceremonies last week.
The protesting students were caught on camera storming across the platform on Friday to accept their degrees during ceremonies that were significantly pared after weeks of violent anti-Israel demonstrations on campus.
In one of the most belligerent displays, Tarsis Salome, a Columbia social work graduate, charged forward with her zip-tied hands above her head as those in the audience cheered her on.
She then faced the crowd and abruptly tore her diploma to shreds, a livestream of the ceremony shows.
Another social work grad, Maliha Fairooz, appeared to have the name of a Hamas leader — Mazen Jamal Al-Natsheh — scrawled across her cap as she accepted her degree with her zip-tied hands.
Meanwhile, a keffiyeh-clad Veda Kamra and Hilary Margaret Elizabeth Ludlow received particularly raucous applause while showing off a “Free Palestine” sign and handcuffed hands.
Others, too, followed suit as they paraded in the front of the audience as apparent prisoners.
The defiant displays came after Columbia last week axed its university-wide commencement in favor of school-based ceremonies due to heightened security fears after a tent encampment erected there descended into chaos.
NYPD cops stormed the campus twice last month to clear out disruptive demonstrators and then oust a pro-terror mob that illegally took over the university’s iconic Hamilton Hall building as the protests drastically escalated.
More than 200 protesters were cuffed and hauled away during both ordeals.
The decision to nix the traditional ceremony — which more than 50,000 typically attend — was made after consulting with graduating students, university officials said
“Holding a large commencement ceremony on our campus presented security concerns that unfortunately proved insurmountable,” school spokesman Ben Chang said last week.
“Like our students, we are deeply disappointed with this outcome.”
As a result, none of the school’s smaller ceremonies will be held on its iconic South Lawn, where such events are usually staged.
The majority of the ceremonies are taking place about 5 miles away at Columbia’s sports complex.
